War is Hell!
Another Open Letter to the Sierra Club

The Following is the text of an Executive Order, released on 4/13/99 by the White House:

EXECUTIVE ORDER

- - - - - - - DESIGNATION OF FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (SERBIA/MONTENEGRO), ALBANIA, THE AIRSPACE ABOVE, AND ADJACENT WATERS AS A COMBAT ZONE

Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, including section 112 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 112), I designate, for the purposes of that section, the following locations, including the airspace above such locations, as an area in which Armed Forces of the United States are and have been engaged in combat:

-- The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro); -- Albania; -- the Adriatic Sea; -- the Ionian Sea north of the 39th parallel. For the purposes of this order, I designate March 24, 1999, as the date of the commencement of combatant activities in such zone.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE, April 13, 1999.

I am utterly shocked! Being an American citizen and a person avidly concerned about the health of our planet, imagine my suprise today as I searched back across the internet looking through hundreds of articles, and was unable to come up with a single denunciation of the war in Kosovo by the Sierra Club. After all, thousands of tonnes of TNT, depleted uranium, and other environmentally devastating chemicals are being callously dumped into an area the size of Kentucky!

Where is the outrage????

Where are the protests???

Where are the lawsuits to bring an end to the madness???

The scale of devastation to the biodiversity of the region is matched in modern times, only by that of the Viet Nam conflict. Yet you sit silently, not even lifting a finger to bring this environmental holocaust to a close!

Unable to believe my eyes, I searched the web again and again via different search engines. Always the results were the same. No mention of the wanton destruction of the European ecosystem. In a last ditch effort to seek out and join you in your vehement opposition to this unbelievable situation, I went directly to your webpage at http://www.sierraclub.org. "Surely" I thought, "There will be severe condemnation of the callous and unspeakable actions perpetrated by NATO and the staunchly "Pro Environment" administration you hold so dear.

And I found......nothing! Nada, zip, zero, and zilch. Realizing that your headline info......

Protect America's Environment. For Our Families, For Our Future

• Watch Your Waste - Daily Delivery - Surf Globally, Participate Locally

And especially the.....

• 1999 Sierra Club Elections

were somehow more important, I dug a bit deeper, and followed your link to "The Global Environment" , where I discovered a link for your "International Program"

And what did I find?

Organizing People to Protect the Global Environment

• The explosive growth of a global economy to serve the material wants of a rapidly growing human population threatens to ruin the earth's major life support systems. At the same time, the spread of democratic values to new corners of the globe combines with enhanced international communications to offer some hope that citizens worldwide can organize to save their communities -- and the planet. As the world's largest and oldest grassroots environmental organization, Sierra Club is uniquely suited to use emerging democratic opportunities and new communications tools to educate and organize citizens to hold decisiomakers accountable to protect our fragile environment.

Now we were getting somewhere! Go get'em SC! The NATO airstrikes are DEFINITELY doing irreparable damage to the

• "earth's major life support systems"

in the Kosovo region. To be sure, as the so called

• "world's largest and oldest grassroots environmental organization"

You are

• "uniquely suited to use emerging democratic opportunities and new communications tools to educate and organize citizens to hold decisiomakers accountable to protect our fragile environment".

Boy I was really gearing up to watch a real donnybrook go down. The all mighty Sierra Club going heads up with Eco-crusaders like Bill Clinton and Al "Earth in the Balance" Gore, with the fate of the biosphere hanging in the balance.

Not wanting to miss out on what was sure to be a fact filled, honest, and forceful condemnation of the Clinton administration / NATO actions in that faraway and highly biodiverse land, I quickly ran to the refrigerator for a can of cold suds and a fresh can of Kodiak Chewing Tobacco. (Hey, us redneck anti-environmentalists gotta play up the stereotype to the hilt....appearance is everything)

When I returned, I cracked a cool one, sat in my dead cow skin covered chair, and proceeded to let incredible amounts of electromagnetic radiation loose into the atmosphere thanks to my 17 in. NEC monitor.

• The long-term protection of our domestic environment is directly linked to our success in protecting the global environment.
• Uncontrolled population growth, trade and development policies that encourage environmental destruction, and the lack of citizens' rights to protect their environment threaten the entire planet, and directly affect the quality of our life and our environment at home.

Wait a second....... Overpopulation? Citizen's rights to PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT??? What about citizens rights to BE CITIZENS????? You know, the right to LIVE for their own sake???? Are you saying that we must only be allowed to exist in limited numbers, and only then to serve the planet????

WHAT ABOUT SAVING THE ECOSYSTEM IN KOSOVO FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS????

• The Sierra Club?s International Program educates and organizes citizens to holdgovernments, business, and international institutionsaccountable for their environmental impacts worldwide, focusing on problems that require international solutions.

Well, when are you going to get around to holding your friends in the Clinton / Gore administration accountable for scattering uncounted tonnes of highly toxic and radioactive materials across a definitely endangered, and once pristine bioregion?

And lets not forget the millions of gallons of jet fuel being transported and then expended in the skies over Europe as we speak. The JP8 and Av-GAS used in our military planes at the rate of hundreds of thousands of gallons a day (without the benefit of oxygenating agents like the MTBE that the enviro community lobbied mercilessly for). It is extremely toxic to our environment, as you continuously point out when referring to commercial / passenger / recreational aviation.

I am utterly aghast that you have not argued with your freverent passion against the phenomenal damage that the continued low level overflights of military aircraft will cause to the indigenous animal population. After all, since flying over a wilderness area in the United States of America in an unpowered hang glider is a crime due to the utter devastation you say it causes to native wildlife, can you imagine what an F-16 putting out 130+ decibels of sound, 38,000 lbs. of thrust, and burning thousands of gallons of what is basically kerosene an hour will do to the indigenous species?

Again I ask, "Where is the outrage"?

• Please Join US
  Sierra Club's international program has made significant strides and has big plans for the future. But we need your help to achieve more. Please contact us to learn how you can get involved one or more of the International Campaigns. Thank you very much.

OHH!!! NOW I get it! I gotta send you MONEY!!!

Foolish me. See, I thought that being the "world's largest and oldest grassroots environmental organization.....uniquely suited to use emerging democratic opportunities and new communications tools to educate and organize citizens to hold decisiomakers accountable to protect our fragile environment", that you would naturally take a leadership role in the fight to save the ethnic biodiversity of the Kosovo region.

Now I got it. I gotta PAY you to do it. Hmmmm....... Well? Since I'm turning over a new leaf here (one that wasn't incinerated by a 2000 lb. bomb constructed of mined natural resource, and environmentally toxic chemicals), I'll have a look-see and find out what my money goes for......

• When you join the Sierra Club you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping to: preserve irreplaceable wildlands; save endangered and threatened wildlife; and protect this fragile environment we call home. You can be sure that your voice will be heard through congressional lobbying and grassroots action on the environmental issues that matter to you most.

But YOU AREN'T DOING THAT! You aren't even speaking up and using your self proclaimed "grass roots" influence, or much vaunted "Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund" to force NATO and the Clinton administration into compliance with the United Nations Treaty on Biodiversity!

Further, you aren't lobbying congress to make them put a stop to an out of control government, hell bent on devastating what's left of an already war torn, and environmentally "sensitive" area of our fragile planet!

• To join the Sierra Club, simply fill out the form below or use our mail-in membership application. You can also become  a Life Member or give the gift of membership.

Really? How much should I send you so that you can sit silent on substantial and possibly irreversible damage to our ecosystem?

• Please select a Membership Level:

This is Fantastic! You make it so easy for even the poor, and the children to abandon what little money they have. Naturally, going without such frivolities as food, shelter, clothing, school books, and other educational materials, in order to allow you to sit back in your multi million dollar San Francisco headquarters and collect 6 figure salaries without nary a comment on the largest threat to our planet's health, is the least the economically underprivileged, and the youth of America can do.....for the planet.

So what else can I look forward to by sending you the cash earned from the capitalistic society which you say must be eliminated? Oops, you take PLASTIC too? How environmentally callous of you. You know, I'm beginning to think that this might not be such a good idea after all. Well, Being raised in a catholic household (yea, I know, one of them evil "non-pagan" religions), I was taught to give people a chance, so here's yours. Impress me.....

Uh Oh......

• You'll be helping the planet

Well, you keep SAYING that, but have yet to give me one single example as to HOW.

• Free Sierra Club backpack with enrollment (limited time only)

Just curious, but what material is that backpack made out of, and what kind of process was used in it's manufacture?

• A one-year subscription to Sierra magazine

You mean a magazine printed on PAPER? Correct me If I'm wrong here (and of course I'm not), but isn't the Sierra Club opposed to logging? See, the reason I ask is that , well, paper comes from trees. Yes, I know that that minor detail may have somehow eluded you, so now that you know about it, please do your part to save the planet (it's one of the benefits of being in the Sierra Club you know....see above!) by ceasing all production on your magazine. Well, perhaps that's too harsh. Perhaps you will limit it's production by a like percentage that your policies, lobbying and general frivolous litigation have limited the timber industry. That would be a fair, and equitable solution, don't you agree?

• Discounts on Sierra Club merchandise, books, and calendars

Now I'm deeply concerned. Not only have you taken part in the destruction of our ever dwindling (read your own press releases - , it says "ever dwindling" in them all the time, so it must be true) forests with your magazine production, but you have compounded the problem by using even more paper on the production of books and calendars printed on non recyclable "glossy" paper!

Now I'll offer you one last bit of wisdom which could have possibly slipped by - The inks used in photorealistic calendar production are highly toxic to the environment, poisons the ground water, and contributes to the ever growing crisis faced by our planet (that's in your press releases too BTW).

• Members-only travel opportunities

Cool! So how we going to travel? I like traveling too, but you know what? Airplanes cause noise and air pollution, as do cars, trains, busses, and hot air balloons. Even bicycles have rubber tires that live forever in land fills, and toxic paint that could chip off and be eaten by indigenous wildlife. These methods of travel should be considered strictly contrary to your stated goals of "saving the planet", but what's worse, you seem to be promoting "Travel" as a form of RECREATION! This is clearly unacceptable. Recreation at the expense of the planet is considered a capitol offense by some of your contemporary Eco groups. I fail to see why you are condoning an activity that is clearly not in the best interest of the planet.

• Automatic membership in your local Club Chapter

Now why would I want that? So I can receive Sierra Club literature that is printed at the expense of our natural habitat? So I can "Travel" unnecessarily to Sierra Club meetings in my SUV just to hear others tell me what evil, polluting machines they are (despite owning one themselves)? So I can wonder aloud why despite all your claims of being a friend to the planet, you have yet to demonstrate one solid reason why I should give you my (printed on paper) money, buy into the drama that passes for science which you regularly spew across the media, or demonstrate why you have steadfastly remained silent on an issue as important to your precious "biodiversity" as the war currently ravaging the environment of Kosovo.

• Would you like to make an additional gift to the Sierra Club? $

No, I would not. You don't seem to show any ability to properly handle the $30,000,000 plus, that you receive every year to "Save The Planet" as it is.

• Please do not send me the free backpack. I prefer that all of my contribution goes towards protecting America's environment.

Or would that be I prefer that all of my contribution goes towards allowing a handful of selfish, controlling individuals to live extravagant lifestyles, while driving others of lesser scamming ability into a state of poverty"?

Sincerely,

Norm Lenhart
VP Operations , Off-Road.com

While this has doubtlessly been one of my longer articles, there's still more I'd like to leave you with before closing. Namely that it is extremely likely that the reason that you don't hear the cries of the Sierra Club against the real, actual environmental holocaust that this war has already inflicted on the lands of Kosovo, is as follows.

Their main supporters and sources of funding - namely the liberal democrats, and groups like the Ted Turner / Jane Fonda charities, Pew Trusts, and like minded associations, are squarely behind the Clinton / Al Gore agenda.

What do they hope to accomplish? While they may certainly be losing an incredible amount of ecosystem, they are making enormous strides in another arena. Population Control. After all, there's nothing like a good war to rid mother earth of a few hundred thousand of us "Useless Eaters", is there?

"It's Not Easy Being Green" - Article Index

Links to so called "Environmental Organizations"

The Sierra Club Homepage - http://www.sierraclub.org
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance - http://www.suwa.org/
Earth First! Homepage - http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/pubs/aulat.html