Number: 1991-01
WHEREAS, EPA has failed to issue many drinking water regulations which are required pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act in order to protect public health, and has failed to implement the Act fully and effectively; and
WHEREAS, funding at levels sufficient to enable public water systems to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, and to enable the states and EPA to fully implement and enforce the Act is urgently needed; and
WHEREAS, Congress is expected to reauthorize the Safe Drinking Water Act during the 102nd Congress;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 21-24, 1991, in Memphis, Tennessee, urges Congress to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to require full implementation and enforcement the Act, to provide funds and technical assistance to needy public water systems in order to achieve compliance with the Act, and to provide adequate funds to the states and EPA for implementation and enforcement of the drinking water program.
Environmental Warfare
WHEREAS, events in the Persian Gulf have clearly demonstrated the potential role of environmental destruction as a weapon of modern warfare intended to inflict serious and indiscriminate damage to the nation at which it is directed; and
WHEREAS, an immediate effect of the oil release was wide-spread pollution, the creation of serious jeopardy to fish and wildlife resources in the area, some of which occur in no other parts of the world, and a potential for long-lasting environmental damage of as yet unknown dimensions; and
WHEREAS, the release of oil and the wide-spread air and water pollution represents a method of warfare which in these circumstances is inhumane and a specific violation of accepted rules of the conduct of war (Geneva Convention, Protocol I, Article 54.2, which precludes a warring party from interfering with the domestic water supplies relied upon by the civilian populace of another combatant nation, as well as Protocol I, Article 55, which demands care to be taken in warfare to avoid damage to the natural environment which would prejudice the health or survival of the [human] population); and
WHEREAS a worldwide and growing concern about the environment and the importance of functioning natural systems, as well as the survival of human beings and their activities, combines with an increased capability, and evident inclination, to employ environmental damage as an instrument of war to reinforce our conviction that activities intended specifically to damage or alter the natural environment as a means of conducting hostilities must be banned in their entirety, as have other methods of war-making which societies have decreed to be beyond the bounds of civilized behavior;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 21-24, 1991, in Memphis, Tennessee, calls upon the United States Government, through its treaty-making processes, to seek amendment to the Geneva Convention to make explicit the recognition of the vital importance natural systems and their inhabitants have for humankind everywhere, and thereby reinforce the concept that the use of environmental pollution, degradation or destruction must be banned as a method of warfare, and would constitute a war crime.