May, 06 2021, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael Neuwirth
Chief Communications Officer, ASBC
mneuwirth@asbcouncil.org
Linda Behnken
Executive Director, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association
alfafish@gmail.com
ASBC, Indigenous and Community-Based Business Leaders See True Conservation & Sustainable Economic Potential In Dept. Of Interior Report
Businesses for conservation and climate action launched and poised to engage.
WASHINGTON
Today the Department of the Interior (DOI) issued its highly anticipated report called for by President Biden's executive order on combating the climate crisis at home and abroad. The report outlines the stakeholder engagement approaches and principles that are to be used by the administration in achieving its broad conservation goals in the coming years.
Businesses for Conservation & Climate Action, comprised of the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) and a coalition of Indigenous and community-based business leaders, applaud the inclusive, bottom-up, and stakeholder driven approaches and principles highlighted in the DOI report. With broad application across sectors and agencies, the report establishes visionary approaches to conservation of U.S. lands, inland waters, and oceans that will provide Indigenous and resource-dependent stakeholders a long-demanded seat at the table. In turn, these business communities are ready to engage in order to achieve meaningful, durable, and inclusive natural resource conservation wins for the benefit of the environment and all Americans.
"This is an important step forward in protecting our environment, addressing the climate crisis, and helping communities and sustainable businesses thrive," said David Levine, ASBC president and co- founder. "The principles established in this report clearly define the path our members will take from their brilliant bottom-up conservation approaches to real world implementation. Resource-dependent communities mean business, and our members' meaningful participation can ensure fair, equitable, and durable conservation wins for all."
"Indigenous People of this continent have successfully managed complex societies and resource dependent economies for 10,000 years," said Natasha Hayden, elected Tribal representative and owner of a small-scale fishing business in Alaska. "When our communities and businesses are provided a genuine role in policy making, we can expect to see meaningful results that mirror this legacy for the good of all communities. The Administration's new process is a major step in the right direction for my Tribe, my business, and the perpetual health of the resources we have always depended on."
"We have reached a critical moment where the only way forward is for everyone, including small business leaders, to work together to protect the ocean, soil, forests, and every ecosystem that regulates the climate," said Rosanna Marie Neil, policy counsel at the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA). "Communities and responsible businesses must be given a leading role in ensuring that major climate initiatives are holistic, fair, and practical. If 30x30 is managed well, there's real potential for ocean conservation wins that include sustainable access and participation for America's fishermen and women."
"Achieving real conservation and climate solutions depends on our ability to rediscover our place within the global environment and on having the humility to embrace our role," said Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association. "There is still much work to do to build trust around 30x30 and establish processes that enhance community perspectives and the sustainable access of local people to natural resources. This report shows that the Biden Administration has listened to us. Now we must chart a course towards national conservation policies that recognize sustainable small businesses as compatible with healthy lands and oceans."
"Small businesses played a critical role in partnering with conservation groups in politically and legally blocking the oil industrialization of the Atlantic Coast," said Frank Knapp Jr., president & CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce and ASBC board member. "The environment and local sustainable economies were protected in our successful coalition, a model for future conservation efforts including 30x30."
The American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) advocates for policy change and informs business owners, policymakers and the public about the need and opportunities for building a vibrant, broadly prosperous, sustainable economy. Founded in 2009, its membership represents over 250,000 businesses in a wide range of industries.
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Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
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Apr 18, 2024
Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
In a 273-147 vote last week, House lawmakers passed RISAA, including an amendment critics say dramatically expands the government's unchecked surveillance authority by compelling a wide range of individuals and organizations—including businesses and the media—to cooperate in government spying operations.
This so-called "Make Everyone a Spy" clause would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to "immediately provide... all information, facilities, or assistance" the government deems necessary.
"This bill would basically allow the government to institute a spy draft," Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned Thursday. "It will lead to significant distrust between journalists and sources, not to mention everyone else."
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In addition to the "Make Everyone a Spy" provision, civil libertarians have sounded the alarm over the House lawmakers' rejection of an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the legislation.
Critics accuse Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) of trying to rush a vote on RISAA while disingenuously claiming Section 702's powers will expire with the law on Friday. That's a misleading claim, as a national security court earlier this month approved the government's request to continue a disputed surveillance program even if Section 702 lapses.
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
said earlier this week that the bill would dragoon the American people into becoming "an agent for Big Brother"—on Thursday argued that "this issue demands a debate about meaningful reforms, not a rushed vote to rubber-stamp more warrantless government surveillance powers."
In an attempt to tackle the warrantless surveillance issue, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Thursday proposed a RISAA amendment that would require the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing Americans' private communications.
However, the amendment contains exceptions to the warrant requirement in the event of unspecified emergencies and cyberattacks.
"If the government wants to spy on the private communications of Americans, they should be required to get approval from a judge—just as our Founders intended," Durbin said in a statement. "Congress has a responsibility to the American people to get this right."
The Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies vehemently oppose the Durbin-Cramer amendment. The White House called the measure "a reckless policy choice contrary to the key lessons of 9/11 and not grounded in any constitutional requirement or statute."
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On Wednesday, the House also passed the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, which would prohibit the government from buying Americans' information from data brokers if it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain the data, which includes location and internet records. The Senate will now take up FANFSA.
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Since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has said is a "plausibly" genocidal assault of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led October attack, the Biden administration has blocked three cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council. Under mounting global pressure, the U.S. finally abstained last month, allowing a cease-fire measure to pass.
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After the vote, U.N. Newsreported on remarks from Riyad Mansour, a U.N. permanent observer for the state of Palestine:
"We came to the Security Council today as an important historic moment, regionally and internationally, so that we could salvage what can be saved. We place you before a historic responsibility to establish the foundations of a just and comprehensive peace in our region."
Council members were given the opportunity "to revive the hope that has been lost among our people" and to translate their commitment towards a two-state solution into firm action "that cannot be maneuvered or retracted," and the majority of council members "have risen to the level of this historic moment, and they have stood on the side of justice and freedom and hope, in line with the ethical and humanitarian and legal principles that must govern our world and in line with simple logic."
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Even after dozens of students were arrested, hundreds "rushed to take the place of their classmates" and continued the protest.
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The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest," chanted hundreds of students as they marched around the area where organizers had set up a tent encampment early Wednesday morning.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
Pro-Palestinian students and alumni have demanded that Columbia divest from companies that profit from Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and cancel its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University.
In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
On Thursday, police and Columbia employees took down about 50 tents that had been up for more than a day and disposed of them in trash cans and alleyways—but The New York Times reported later that "demonstrators repitched a couple of tents, and ... recovered the main signage from the encampment as well," while hundreds of students were "still gathered and chanting on the south side of the grass."
The arrests came a day after Shafik testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce about antisemitism on campus.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the Barnard students who were suspended on Thursday for participating in the encampment protest, questioned Shafik about whether antisemitic protests have actually taken place at Columbia, prompting the president to say there have not.
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"Correct," replied Shafik.
On Thursday, Omar posted on social media two images of protesters at Columbia: one from the encampment this week, and one from 1968, when students protested the U.S. war in Vietnam.
New York City Council member Tiffany Cabán was among those who condemned the university's crackdown on the protests on Thursday.
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