FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
March 7, 2002                              Zack Roth, (202)
675 6279                                        Alistair Hodgett,
(202) 544 0200

Sierra Club and Amnesty International USA Enlist MTV Ad Firm,
Linking Human Rights and the Environment

INNOVATIVE NEW AD CAMPAIGN TARGETS YOUTH

WASHINGTON -- Sierra Club and Amnesty International USA today announced the
launch of a cutting edge joint national advertizing campaign that targets
college-age youth and highlights the connection between human rights
violations and environmental degradation worldwide.

Produced by San Francisco-based ad firm Collaborate, who worked on MTV's
Rock the Vote campaign, the eye-catching ads, which will appear in 9
college newspapers coast to coast, appear to be "bulletin board" items,
with banners like "Help Wanted", or "Need Extra Cash?"  Closer inspection
reveals that they in fact spotlight citizens in nations around the world
who have been jailed, beaten, tortured, and even murdered for their efforts
to defend the environment.

"This ad campaign will connect students and local grassroots activists
already working on this campaign with individuals and groups that want to
join in holding corporations responsible for their human rights records,"
said Heidi Craig, an Amnesty International vounteer leader in Seattle and a
lead organizer on the campaign. "Whether you hear this message on your
radio or read it in your college paper, it is a challenge to take action to
defend the people who defend the earth."

The ads urge support for the International Right to Know initiative, which
would help provide long-term institutional support for environmentalists by
giving communities access to information on the environmental practices of
foreign corporations doing business locally

"International Right to Know is a major step towards reversing a vicious
cycle of environmental degradation and human rights abuse, by building
accountability and transparency in the global economy, while empowering
communities with information," said Sam Parry of the Sierra Club.  "But it
won't be achieved unless U.S. citizens, with students at the forefront,
demand that global trade be green, fair, and open."

The International Right To Know initiative is supported by more than 200
human rights, labor, environmental, and faith-based organizations around
the country. It would require U.S. companies doing business overseas to
make public the same or similar information on their foreign operations
that they currently must disclose when they operate at home.

The ads will appear in college newspapers in Boston, Portland, San
Francisco, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston,
and Madison.  In addition to newspaper ads, the campaign also includes an
interactive website, flyers, e-mail updates, and radio public service
announcements, which are being distributed nationally.  For copies of the
ads call Zack Roth at the Sierra Club (202) 675 6279.  For more information
on Sierra Club and Amnesty International USA's Human Rights and the
Environment campaign, go to www.defendtheearth.org.
                                  ####




Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]