CLIMATE
ALERT:
Bush’s NAFTA Expansion Is
Contributing to Global Warming!
Many people know that NAFTA,
the North American Free Trade Agreement, was bad for our economy—but did you
know that it was bad for our environment, too?
And now Congress and the Bush administration are making the problem
worse…
Congressional Democrats are
conspiring with the Bush administration to pass four NAFTA-style free trade
agreements -- with Peru, Panama, South
Korea, and Colombia. Endangered forests
ecosystems like the Amazon are at risk as a direct result. The Bush administration and the Democratic
leadership in Congress and claiming these trade agreements will be good for the
environment—but they are dead wrong.
Free trade
agreements contribute to global warming in a big way:
- Allow for a heavy corporate
push for the globalization of a US-style meat centered diet, increasing
livestock emissions- the single biggest source for global warming.
- Lead to increased use of “factory farm” style agriculture. Factory farms are energy intensive consume
vast quantities of fossil fuels.
- Shift global agriculture
towards industrial scale production and fossil fuel consuming farm machinery,
while driving sustainable “low-tech” farmers out of business.
- Contribute to deforestation by destroying the economy for local farmers, who
lose their lands and proceed to cut down forests for fuel and new farmland
(documented by Oxfam International and the Worldwide Fund for Nature
(WWF). 25% of global warming can be
attributed to deforestation.
- Challenge environmental
selective purchasing agreements (e.g. bills that require governments to buy
recycled products and prohibit purchasing of wood from endangered forests)
under trade agreement procurement rules.
- Provide vast investor protections for natural resources extractive
industries, increasing access and lowering costs for corporate extraction of
fossil fuels and additionally contributing to deforestation through land
clearing for mines and oil rigs and pipelines.
- Contribute to a shift towards globalization of consumption, undermining
efforts ecological friendly “buy local” campaigns and contributing to vast
consumption of fossil fuels in transportation of products to market via trucks,
airplanes, and ships.
- Contribute to deforestation through road construction for bringing
commodities to market (e.g. Plan Puebla Panama, the
“NAFTA Superhighway.”)
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Write, call, fax, and email your Senators and US
House Representatives and demand that they publicly oppose free trade agreements
with Peru, Panama, Colombia,
and South Korea.
Let them know that despite recent changes, these agreements will still
contribute to global warming and endanger the survival of life on
Earth. You can find out who
represents you and their contact information at http://tinyurl.com/fk5tm
- Volunteer or intern
with Global Justice for Animals' campaign to stop anti-environmental,anti-animal
free trade agreements, through lobbying, protest, community education, and
the mass media. To find out how you
can help, call (347) 293-2217
email info@freetradekillsanimals.org
- Make a donation to the
campaign. For details, visit at http://freetradekillsanimals.org/?page=Donation.
or by mail
at Wetlands Activism Collective, PO
Box 344, NY, NY
10108.
YOU CAN HELP END GLOBAL WARMING!
