The
Coalition
Courier
Volume 10, Issue 2 (November,
2011)
In this issue
...
Wyndham Worldwide Signs Code
Oil or Tar Sands ... For or
Against
One of the largest U.S.
Hotel Chains
Wyndham Worldwide
Signs Code
During the second week of October Wyndham Worldwide Corporation became the
latest major hotel chain to take a stand against the commercial sexual
exploitation of children by signing the Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct
(The Code).
The Code, an
industry driving responsible tourism initiative in collaboration with ECPAT (End
Child Prostitution and Trafficking) International, funded by UNICEF and
supported by The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), specifically focuses on the
protection of children from sexual exploitation in the travel and tourism
industries. While The Code has been signed by more than 1,000 travel industry
members worldwide, Wyndham, one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, is
only the fifth U.S. company to sign.
As a
subscriber to The Code, Wyndham will implement policies that condemn child
trafficking and provide training to help their employees identify and report
trafficking activities. Wyndham will also raise awareness among its business
partners and customers by including information about the issue and The Code
through its website and meetings, and by annually reporting on its progress.
According to
Carol Smolenski, Executive Directors of ECPAT-USA, a nonprofit organization that
advocates for policies to protect sexually exploited children, the purpose of
The Code is to prevent and mitigate child trafficking, as well as encourage a
socially responsible, child-wise tourism industry. “We are so happy to welcome
Wyndham to the growing community of companies that are helping in the fight
against the sex trafficking of children. All travel properties could
unwittingly be used as venues for this purpose. If they do nothing to raise
awareness of to prevent child trafficking, they risk becoming an indirect and
unintentional conduit for the abuse that takes place.”
Other U.S.
organizations that have signed The Code include Global Exchange’s Reality Tours,
Hilton Worldwide (with pilot projects in two cities), Delta Air Lines, and
Carlson Companies, whose brands include Radisson Hotels.
Suppliers of
tourism services adopting The Code commit themselves to implement the following
six criteria:
1. To
establish an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of
children.
2. To
train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations.
3. To
introduce a clause in contracts with supplies, stating a common repudiation of
commercial sexual exploitation of children.
4. To
provide information to travelers by means of catalogues, brochures, in-flight
films, ticket-slips, home pages, etc.
5. To
provide information to local “key persons’ at the destinations.
6. To
report annually.
Brand names
associated with Wyndham are: Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8, Baymont, Microtel,
Howard Johnson, Travelodge, and Knight’s Inn.
Members of
our Coalition purchased shares in Wyndham and have been involved with other
faith-based investors in the progress of the five-year dialogue. We will
continue to follow the implementation of The Code by the company in the months
to come.
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Oil or Tar Sands … For or
Against
Those
who favor this new form of energy tend to refer to it as “oil” - those against
“tar.” Earlier this month, President Obama stopped the construction of a
pipeline that would transport oil or tar sands from Canada to the U.S. Some
basic information regarding this natural source of energy is contained in the
article below from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Canada Bituminous sands,
colloquially
known as oil sands or tar sands, are a type of
unconventional petroleum deposit.
The sands contain naturally occurring mixtures of
sand,
clay,
water, and a dense and extremely
viscous
form of
petroleum
technically referred to as
bitumen
(or colloquially "tar" due to its similar appearance, odour, and colour). Oil
sands are found in large amounts in many countries throughout the world, but are
found in extremely large quantities in
Canada
and
Venezuela.[1]
The crude bitumen contained in the Canadian oil sands is described by Canadian
authorities as "petroleum that exists in the semi-solid or solid phase in
natural deposits. Bitumen is a thick, sticky form of crude oil, so heavy and
viscous (thick) that it will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter
hydrocarbons.
At room temperature, it is much like cold molasses".[2]
Venezuelan authorities often refer to similar types of crude oil as
extra-heavy oil, because Venezuelan reservoirs are warmer and the oil is
somewhat less viscous, allowing it to flow more easily.
Oil sands reserves have only recently been considered to be part of the world's
oil reserves,
as higher oil prices and new technology enable them to be profitably extracted
and upgraded to usable products. They are often referred to as
unconventional oil
or crude bitumen, in order to distinguish the bitumen extracted from oil sands
from the free-flowing hydrocarbon mixtures known as
crude oil
traditionally produced from
oil wells.
Making liquid fuels from oil sands requires energy for steam injection and
refining. This process generates two to four times the amount of
greenhouse
gases
per barrel of final product as the "production" of conventional oil.[3]
If combustion of the final products is included, the so-called "Well to Wheels"
approach, oil sands extraction, upgrade and use emits 10 to 45% more greenhouse
gases than conventional crude.[4]
For more information, refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_sands
1.
a
b
c
(PDF)
Alberta's Oil Sands: Opportunity, Balance. Government of Alberta.
March 2008.
ISBN 978-07785-7348-7.
http://www.environment.alberta.ca/documents/Oil_Sands_Opportunity_Balance.pdf.
Retrieved 2008-05-13
2.
Glossary.
Canada's Oil Sands. 2010.
http://www.canadasoilsands.ca/en/glossary.aspx.
Retrieved 2010-08-23.
3. Joseph J. Romm (2008). Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution.
New York: Harper Perrenial. pp. 181–82.
ISBN 9780061172137
4. Bob Weber (10 December 2009).
"Alberta's oilsands: well-managed necessity or ecological disaster?".
Moose Jaw Herald Times. Canadian Press.
http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/Canada---World/Business/2009-12-10/article-243834/Albertas-oilsands:-well-managed-necessity-or-ecological-disaster%3F/1.
Retrieved 29 March 2010.
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Volume 10, Issue 1 (August 2011)
In this issue ...
Understanding Conflict Minerals
Wyndham Signs the Code
Mountaintop Removal and Cancer
Are all electronic gadgets a ‘no-no’?...
Understanding Conflict
Minerals
In
our country the possession and use of electronics sometimes borders on
obsession. We have them in our cars, our homes, our schools and our offices. We
use electronics to communicate, to work and to have fun.
The
electronic components of these devices rely on a variety of minerals, but the
most popular are gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten. Engineers use thin strands of
gold to bond to wires -- these strands are highly conductive and resist
corrosion. Tin is a soldering agent. Tantalum is a component in capacitors (also
known as a condenser), which is found in many electronics. Tungsten is a strong
metal with a very high melting point.
These
minerals are mined and then processed in refining and smelting operations before
they can be used in producing electronic devices. The ore comes from various
mines around the world but one country has been in the news more than any
other—the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). And here's where the dark side of
our electronics obsession comes into play.
Over the
last several years, the DRC has experienced massive political turmoil. Some of
that comes from political issues within the country's government. But the DRC's
neighbors, particularly Uganda and Rwanda on the DRC's eastern border, have also
contributed to the instability in the DRC. The ethnic and political divisions
are too numerous and complicated to detail in this short article. What needs to
be recognized is the fact that the
Congolese, Rwandan and Ugandan forces play a large role in the lives of DRC's
citizens.
Most of the
money from the mining operations goes to the armed groups in control of the
region. Very little makes its way back to the actual people mining the ore. In
effect, these groups are employing slave labor. The militias use the money from
selling ore to purchase weapons and other supplies. The more politically
motivated groups may use the money to influence DRC officials. Corruption in the
DRC is rampant -- visitors to the country often must pay arbitrary fees and
bribes to avoid harassment.
Meanwhile,
the smelting com-panies refine the ore into the metals used in electronics. The
smelting companies sell the metals to component manufacturers. These companies
then sell components to big companies like microchip processors and electronics
companies. Ultimately, these products end up in the hands of consumers around
the world, who are unaware of the conflict behind the source of the minerals
needed to produce them.
As the
mines produce ore, the militias, rebels and other armed forces in the area must
smuggle it out of the country. Some pass through Rwanda or Uganda en route to
Africa's eastern coast. The groups sell ore to refineries. The refineries then
sell refined metals to smelting corporations, most of which are in Asia. Out of
all the metals mined in the DRC,
gold
is the most valuable.
In the
United States, one section of an addendum to the bill called the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is Section 1502 which deals with
conflict minerals.
This
section holds companies responsible for keeping track of the supply chains for
the metals they use in their products. Should the company's products use any
conflict minerals from the DRC or its neighboring countries, the company must
disclose that fact. If a company can demonstrate its supplies don't directly or
indirectly fund armed groups in the DRC, it may label its products as "DRC
conflict free."
You might
want to check your port-folio regarding conflict mineral holdings—and contact
any company you may hold where changes need to be made.
Company
rankings regarding use of conflict minerals can be found at:
http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/conflict-minerals-company-rankings
Information for this article appears on the web site:
http://money.howstuffworks.com/conflict-minerals.htm
HOME
Wyndham Signs the Code
From 2006 to 2011 members of the
Crips gang in San Diego ran a child sex trafficking ring of at least 16 girls
out of various area hotels. Two of the properties on which many instances of
child sex trafficking took place were a Howard Johnson in Escondido, California,
and a Travelodge in San Diego, California, both of which are owned by the
Wyndham group.
At the Howard Johnson hotel staff neglected to take any action to protect the
long parade of children who were being ushered in to be raped, but the
Travelodge staff actually assisted the pimps. Two members of the Travelodge
staff allowed the gang members to use the hotel computer to post online ads
advertising sex with minors. They also knowingly rented rooms for use in
prostitution, charged higher room rates for rooms to be used for child sex
trafficking and pocketed the difference, and warned the pimps if police were
nearby.
That Wyndham hotel employees are actively participating in a child sex
trafficking ring shows a desperate and immediate need for better child
protection policies at Wyndham Hotels.
Wyndham does have a child protection policy which specifically takes a stand
against commercial sexual exploitation and requires staff training, which
obviously failed at these two properties. That's likely because such a policy is
unenforceable when no outside organization is involved. Wyndham needs a real
child protection policy in place, and they need it now.
After receiving over 14,000 letters Wyndham is working with ECPAT-USA to
implement ECPAT’s Code of Conduct at their properties. Wyndham will become the
third major U.S. hotel chain to sign, joining Carlson Companies and Hilton
Worldwide.
(Information taken from
Change.org
web) site)
HOME
Mountaintop Removal and Cancer
A study
released this week in the Journal of Community Health provides yet more evidence
linking mountaintop removal mining to severe health impacts. The West Virginia
University study, "Self-Reported Cancer Rates in Two Rural Areas of West
Virginia with and without Mountaintop Coal Mining," <http://www.springerlink.com/content/3h175p782691j628/>
found that people in the Coal River Valley are twice as likely to have had
cancer as people surveyed in Pocahontas County, WV (where there is no
mountaintop removal mining). This was after controlling for age, sex, smoking,
occupation, and family cancer history. The study was based on door-to-door
interviews conducted in the Coal River Valley and in Pocahontas County earlier
this year. The authors note that many of the chemicals found in coal and used
in coal processing are carcinogenic; in addition, diesel fuel and exhaust from
mining sites, blasting, coal processing, and coal trucking also contribute to
cancer risk.
This study
contributes to a growing body of public health research showing connections
between living in an area impacted by coal mining - particularly mountaintop
removal mining - and higher risks of various health impacts, including birth
defects, lung disease and kidney disease. For community activists, these results
come as no surprise. They have long been concerned about the effects of
poisoned water, air pollution, and coal dust on local peoples' health for years.
Coal River Mountain Watch
(8-2-2011)
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Volume 9, Issue 4 (May 2011)
In
this issue
Questioning P&G's New Market Strategy
Child Labor = Human Trafficking
Massey Merger
State
governments are closely watching the results of the EPA studies. The tax
revenue that could result from natural gas drilling would certainly be a healthy
addition to their state budgets.
As shareholders who have an interest in environmental safety and health
concerns, fracking is an issue that needs to be studied and followed.
Holding oil and hydraulic fracturing companies accountable through
frequent dialogue is extremely important. The final verdict has not
been reached.
Information for this article came from several web sites—responses to a search
for ‘hydraulic fracturing.’
Map is from
Geology.com
HOME
Community
Investing
In the Spring of 2010 your
Coalition office asked for your input regarding our work for you, our members.
One of the areas sited in the evaluation was community development. Several of
you felt this was a topic that you would like to receive more information about.
In our last issue of the
Coalition Courier we presented an overview of ‘community investing’. Community
investing is both a sound investment option and an effective model for community
development. It is an investment strategy that remedies the economic disparity
in domestic and international communities by providing lower-income people
access to capital, credit, and training.
In this issue we would like to introduce you to a web site that provides you
with all you might want to know about community investing and more.
Community Investing Center
is a joint project of the Social
Investment Forum Foundation and Green America. The web site contains what you
need to add community investments to your portfolio, and helps you choose from
many high quality options in this expanding asset class.
Please set aside sometime to check out www.communityinvest.org.
The site is well organized and contains a database that will allow you to find
information about opportunities in geographic areas that match your mission and
vision.
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EPA
Vetoes
Proposed Mine
On January 13, 2011 the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) finalized a veto of permits for a new West Virginian mountaintop removal
coal mine - the Spruce Number One mine.
After years of litigation and debate, the EPA said “no.”
• No to the destruction of God’s Creation.
• No to polluted water and choked waterways.
• And No to adverse health impacts and high rates of poverty in Mountaintop
Removal communities.
The ruling saved 2,200 acres of hardwood forests and over
six miles of head water streams.
Since MTR is a priority issue with our Coalition, please
consider writing a thank you note to the EPA for saying “no” to the devastation
that Mountaintop Removal mining has on God’s creation and God’s people.
Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460
Jackson.lisap@epa.gov
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Volume 9, Issue 2 (November 2010)
In this issue:
Ten Reasons to Stay Hopeful
Investing in Communities
Ecological Examen
A Message from Green
America ...
Ten Reasons to Stay
Hopeful
No matter what your hopes were for this year’s election, one outcome that
we’re all too likely to see is political gridlock.
That makes the work we do together -- advancing social justice and environmental
responsibility through economic action -- more important than ever. Here are
just a few examples:
1. By working to
close the filthiest coal-fired power plants, we can work to
meet our climate goals -- without one new piece of legislation.
2. By creating
Clean Energy Victory Bonds, we can finance the next big wave
of solar and wind -- without one penny of taxpayer dollars.
3. By focusing on
energy efficiency,
we can help every American family save hundreds or thousands of dollars a year
-- better than a tax break, since it will happen year after year with no
Congressional vote required.
4. By accelerating the
transition to clean energy,
we ensure the next big wave of good jobs.
5. By going
local and organic with our food, and rebuilding local
food systems, we can make sure there is healthy, affordable food for all.
6. By choosing
Fair Trade,
we can help families around the world lift themselves out of poverty.
7. By switching to
community banks and credit unions, we can take support away from the
mega-banks who were at the center of the global economic crisis – and invest in
our local communities.
8. By supporting
green businesses,
we can rebuild our Main Streets and create new jobs. Recent studies confirm what
you and I have known for years: According to the Kaufman Foundation, over the
past 25 years, virtually all net new jobs in the US have been created by small,
local and independent businesses that are less than five years old. The Pew
Charitable Trust reported that green jobs in the U.S. grew more than twice as
fast as the overall job market in the past ten years, and suffered fewer
setbacks.
9. By choosing green
products and services,
people can improve their health, live better and save money when they go green.
10. By using our
consumer and investing power, we can make real, lasting change.
Steps forward include Home Depot shifting to sustainably-harvested wood and Ben
& Jerry’s committing to be 100% Fair Trade with their flavors by 2012.
Let's keep up the pressure on Hershey's to go Fair Trade!
Americans can and do
come together for clean energy and jobs, healthy food, a fair deal for all, and
financing systems that rebuild our Main Streets. As we work together on
strengthening local businesses and local communities, we're also building
alliances across political divides, reknitting the fabric of our country. We
have powerful tools at our fingertips for accelerating the shift to a just and
sustainable economy.
Thanks for all you do for
a better future for all, Alisa Gravitz, Executive Director, Green America
P.S. Please
forward this message
to everyone you know who might need a hopeful message today.
HOME
Investing in Communities
Your banking
and investments can help build the more just and sustainable society we’re all
working toward—quickly, painlessly, and in a manner that directly serves
low-income areas.
Community
investing is financing that creates resources and opportunities for economically
disadvantaged people in the U.S. and overseas who are underserved by traditional
financial institutions. Community investors make it possible for local
organizations in urban and rural areas to create jobs; provide financial
services to low-income individuals, and supply capital for small business; and
supply capital for small businesses, affordable housing, and vital community
services.
You can help
close the wealth gap between the rich and poor by becoming a community investor.
This powerful movement is responsible for billions of dollars put into
rebuilding low-income areas across the US and around the world in the past
decade.
If some of
your investments are not held by one or more community development banks or
credit unions in your area, perhaps this would be a good place for your to
start.
In future
editions of this newsletter we will feature other ways in which you could get
involved.
Taken from Investing in Communities
Fall 2002
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Ecological
Examen
Joseph Carver, SJ
All creation
reflects the beauty and blessing of God’s image? Where was I most aware of this
today?
Can I
identify and pin-point how I made a conscious effort to care for God’s creation
during this day?
What
challenges or joys do I experience as I recall my care for creation?
How can I
repair breaks in my relationship with creation, in my unspoken sense of
superiority?
As I imagine
tomorrow, I ask for the grace to see the Incarnate Christ in the dynamic
inter-connections of all Creation.
Conclude with
the prayer of Jesus
The glory
that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are
one, I in them and you in me, that they many become completely one, so that the
world may known that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved
me.
Catholic Coalition
on Climate Change
www.catholicclimatecovenant.org
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