Mission:
Our environment is our home, our provider
of life itself - food, air,
raw materials, fellow creatures - as well as our spiritual and physical
refuge and aesthetic inspiration. If our environment is degraded enough,
human life will end. If our environment is disregarded and weakened by constant
pollution and mindless exploitation, we and our descendants and other living
things will suffer a diminished existence plagued by needless disease and premature
death, unnecessary extinctions of animals and plants, and missed opportunities
to grow and prosper. Here the need for long-term thinking and protective policies
is very great. Other platform issues bear on the environment - see Energy
and Technology.
Short
Term
1.
Shift subsidies to environmentally sound economic enterprises.
2. Stop strip mining and open-pit, cyanide heap-leaching.
3. Protect wildlife corridors.
4. Repeal the 1872
Mining Act.
5. Include environmental impacts as part of all
planning decisions.
6. End cutting of old growth forests on federal
lands.
7. Require high water and energy efficiency standards
for all new construction.
8. Enact tough environmental regulations with enforcement,
with criminal penalties for individuals responsible for violations.
9. Promote good neighbor agreements to allow residents
to negotiate the discontinued use or safe handling of hazardous
materials and wastes generated or stored by nearby facilities
10. Protect endangered species and their habitat.
Medium
Term
1.
Protect and restore healthy local stream flows.
2. Preserve riparian areas and wetlands.
3. Promote the development and use of renewable
energy and fuel sources.
4. Government policy should use ecosystem management
in addition to endangered species protection.
Long
Term
1.
Create a non-toxic economy.
2. Long-term planning and decision-making should
include as criteria the indirect, intangible and complex environmental
and social impacts, such as impacts on biodiversity.
