News

Sunday is the deadline for getting signatures for stopping fracking near homes and schools. LINK to help gather petitions. The pro-oil and gas fracking companies have spent over $ 10 million dollars to stop people from protecting their health so far. They are stacking city councils with pro fracking politicians. They flood politicians with angry callers. They develop database on 3.7 million Coloradoans from polls and door to door canvassing. They know how to fashion their ads to appeal to individuals. They have bought the support of major newspapers and TV stations thru massive ad buys. They harass petition gatherers. They infiltrate grassroots citizen groups. They form coalitions to greenwash themselves and claim that fracking is good for wildlife. LINK to Joel Dyer's great story in the Boulder Weekly on 7-28. In a similar way, the Koch brothers and their corporate allies have hired over 450 organizers across the US find to groom, and elect pro-oil and anti-government -regulation politicians. They have gathered over $450 million. They put up candidates for Congress, the Senate, state legislatures, and the courts. Some of their allies even try to dominate school boards, city councils, and county commissions. Jane Mayer's book Dark Money details this. She and other activists including 350.org's Bill McKibben have been followed by hired operatives who try to intimidate them.

Please gather signatures for petitions to keep oil fracking away from schools, homes, and hospitals. Link to circulate petitions or donate. Link to a good article in the Boulder Weekly.

Monsanto is lobbying senators to pass the Monsanto Dream bill - the Dark Act ( S. 2609), which will ban states from requiring GMO labeling. Otherwise Vermont's law requiring labels on genetically engineered food goes into effect. The vote is scheduled on July 6. 90 % of voters want genetically engineered food to be labeled as such. Many European countries require GMO labels on foods. Link to send an email to your senator through Food and Water Watch: here. Monsanto hires lobbyists, donates to politicians, and has its employees and contractors appointed to high positions in government to prevent regulation and research on its genetically altered food crops.

Each year Janet Chu and her friends and relatives lead a butterfly census, sort of like an Audubon bird count. Janet Chu and Steve Jones wrote BUTTERFLIES OF THE COLORADO FRONT RANGE: A Photographic Guide to 80 Species, by Janet R. Chu and Stephen R. Jones. The guide covers the common species seen along the Colorado Front Range, their description, habitat, transformation and adaptations. Here is a collection of photos and discussions about front range butterflies.

California's only nuclear power plant will be shut down and replaced with renewable energy, energy storage, and increases in energy efficiency. This is a great victory as it will make California safer by removing the risk of a nuclear accident from rising seas, an earthquake, or terrorism. Also, it was made by organizing cooperation between environmental groups, unions, and workers. Link.