Atmospheric carbon dioxide currently stands at about 387 parts per million. Scientists, including the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and James Hansen of NASA, have called on world leaders to reduce that level to 350 parts per million. Doing so will require the United States to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent or more below 1990 levels by 2020.
Studies have concluded that 35 percent of species could be committed to extinction by 2050 if current emissions trajectories continue. But many of these extinctions can be prevented if greenhouse gas emissions are cut.
In celebration of the International Day of Climate Action on October 24, we need you to help us take action to save these species and the thousands of others at risk from runaway climate change. With President Barack Obama preparing for international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, the time to act is now.
Please sign our petition urging President Obama to follow the science and support a 350 ppm goal for any legislation or negotiated international agreement.
In May, the last known U.S. jaguar -- Macho B -- was unnecessarily, tragically killed by government agencies. This heartbreaking loss to the species, and to us, demands swift action to preserve habitat for Macho B’s majestic relatives.
If jaguars are to rebound, as wolves and grizzlies have, they need a federal recovery plan, reintroduction from Mexico into the United States, and protection for their essential living space.
The Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit to stop the killing of jaguars has entered a critical phase. Earlier this year, the Center won a court case requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a recovery plan and designate critical habitat for jaguars. But instead of complying with the law, the agency is delaying by appealing the ruling.
Jaguars don't have time to wait. Sign the petition urging the Service to comply with Endangered Species Act requirements to save and recover the American jaguar.
The Clean Air Act is under attack from powerful Big Oil and Big Coal interests.
Recently the EPA sent a draft greenhouse gas rule to the White House, that if approved, will use the Clean Air Act to crack down on greenhouse gas pollution from coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, and other major industrial polluters.
This is a watershed moment in the battle to stop runaway global warming while we still can -- and we need your help.
The oil and coal industries are paying lobbyists to wait in line at hearings and are waging a massive campaign to weaken new global warming laws. They've spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying in Washington. They know that the White House has backed down on other environmental initiatives and they’re betting Obama will back down on this one too.
We must stand strong on this issue and show the Obama administration that we support its efforts to regulate carbon in the atmosphere. The Clean Air Act has successfully stopped air pollution for thirty year saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars.
Contact Obama today and urge him to show bold leadership in the climate crisis and move quickly to reduce greenhouse gases and protect our health and welfare using the Clean Air Act.
Senator Dianne Feinstein has boldly supported creating a new national monument in the California desert that would connect Joshua Tree National Park with the Mojave National Preserve, protecting some of the most pristine, ecologically important, and beautiful desert in the world.
Much of the proposed monument consists of lands donated to the federal government by The Wildlands Conservancy with the understanding that the lands would be permanently protected. The new monument would uphold the government's original promise to protect these lands and affirm the principle that lands donated for conservation must truly be conserved.
Unfortunately, the Interior Department is currently considering allowing industrial-scale energy development on many of these lands. Some energy companies and their investors are opposing the proposed monument, arguing that it will interfere with meeting our renewable-energy goals. While a rapid transition to renewable energy is essential to address global warming, we must not destroy pristine public lands and endangered species habitat in the rush. Hundreds of thousands of acres of already-degraded lands are available outside the proposed monument that are far better suited for energy development.
In a positive move in the much-contested debate about solar energy projects in the proposed monument, BrightSource Energy, Inc. -- one of the companies involved -- just canceled its plans to develop a 5,000 acre solar thermal facility in a remote wildland area of the Mojave Desert. The Center for Biological Diversity applauds this wise decision and calls on other companies contemplating similar projects in the proposed monument to cancel them immediately. Passage of Senator Feinstein's proposed monument bill will ensure that threats to our lands from the remaining projects are kept at bay. Please take a moment now to let Senator Feinstein know that you strongly support her proposed monument.
Some members of Congress are attempting to gut the Clean Air Act by removing the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases -- particularly from huge sources such as coal-fired power plants. This moves us in precisely the wrong direction on global warming.
The Clean Air Act is directly responsible for saving lives, improving health, and decreasing hospitalizations and lost school and work days. According to the EPA, in 2010, the Clean Air Act will save 23,000 lives and prevent 1.7 million asthma attacks, 4.1 million lost work days, and more than 68,000 hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Yet the Clean Air is under attack.
In its first two decades alone, the Act provided benefits 42 times greater than the estimated costs of regulation, including decreased healthcare costs and reduced lost work time worth $22.2 trillion.
The Act already provides many of the necessary tools to reduce greenhouse pollutants. Under the Act, new coal-fired power plants must be built, if at all, with meaningful greenhouse emissions-reduction requirements.
Rather than preventing the EPA from fulfilling its duties under the Clean Air Act, we should be moving swiftly to use the Act to curb global warming -- before it's too late.
If you have a U.S. address, please take one minute today to send a letter to your senators letting them know we need to curb global warming, we need the Clean Air Act to do so, and we need to oppose all moves to gut the Act.
With your help, we are working to ensure that the Senate sets science based emissions reduction targets and retains the safety net of the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse emissions.
We must reduce the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million (ppm) or below. Leading climate scientists call for reductions of approximately 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Yet the Senate climate bill aims to deliver only a 20-percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020.
Consequences of a mere 2-degree Celsius temperature increase include the displacement of millions of coastal residents due to sea-level rise, irreversible loss of entire ecosystems, loss of agricultural yields, increased water stress for billions of people, and the triggering of multiple climate "tipping points" such as complete loss of summer Arctic sea ice and the irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
350 ppm is an ambitious goal, but failure to reach it will mean catastrophe. Please take one minute today to ask the senate to work to strengthen the bill's emissions reduction targets and to oppose all future efforts to roll back the Clean Air Act.
Please help the Center for Biological Diversity preserve the pristine beauty and rich biodiversity of Thatch Cay, one of the last undeveloped swaths of land in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This 230-acre, uninhabited island is found in a tranquil body of water a half-mile off the northeast coast of St. Thomas. The cay's unspoiled beauty and ruggedly vegetated appearance make it a Virgin Islands gem. And there's more than just scenic beauty here: From leatherback sea turtles and brown pelicans to elkhorn and staghorn corals, Thatch Cay and its waters are home to critically endangered and threatened species.
Those species are at risk now as developers plan to build a luxury resort complex on the island for the exclusive use of an elite few. Both the community and local natural-resource managers recognize this development is not in the public's interest and have come out in force against it.
We need your help to preserve Thatch Cay, one of the few remaining areas of pristine and ecologically important flora and fauna in the island Caribbean.
Please, take a few minutes today to send a message opposing the development. Tell the Army Corps of Engineers that Thatch Cay is not a viable location for a high-end resort and should not be developed.
This fall the Environmental Protection Agency announced its intention to cancel a permit for the largest mountaintop-removal coal mine in Appalachia. The Spruce Mine would have buried more than seven miles of streams and annihilated 2,300 acres of hardwood forest. At the same time, however, the agency stated that it did not expect to veto other permits. And the very day before halting the Spruce Mine, the agency reached an agreement with a coal company to allow the expansion of another one of the largest mines in Appalachia.
The Environmental Protection Agency is under tremendous political pressure from politicians in the deep pockets of Big Coal who are already demanding the Spruce Mine be allowed to move forward. Earlier this year, the agency caved to these same politicians and revoked an announcement that all pending mountaintop removal permits would be put on hold just 24 hours after the hold was issued.
Please take a minute now to let the Environmental Protection Agency know it's on the right track to protect our lands and water. Send a message thanking Administrator Lisa Jackson for halting the Spruce Mine permit, and ask her to revoke all mountaintop-removal permits.
Ask any visitor to California's North Coast who has driven the Redwood Highway north from San Francisco, and they'll be able to tell you exactly where they passed through the fabled “Redwood Curtain.” At Richardson Grove State Park, just north of the Humboldt County line, Highway 101 narrows to a two-lane road winding through a dim, lush grove of ancient redwoods. These huge trees provide crucial habitat for endangered birds like the marbled murrelet; threatened salmon and steelhead still return each year to spawn in the creeks running through the park.
This iconic gateway to the redwoods is now gravely threatened by an ill-advised and unnecessary highway project. Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration are on the brink of approving a proposal to widen and realign the portion of Highway 101 passing through Richardson Grove. Construction of the new road would cut through the vital root systems of the ancient redwoods, threatening the integrity of the grove and further jeopardizing the imperiled species that rely on old-growth redwood forests for their survival.
The point of the project is to make it possible for larger trucks to access this portion of Highway 101. Powerful business interests itching to bring big-box stores and runaway urban development to Humboldt County desperately want those larger trucks on the highway. This just adds insult to injury: The project will not only blow an even bigger hole through Richardson Grove, but could also spur new development that will forever alter the character of the North Coast.
Behind the future Redwood Curtain, travelers might find just one more big subdivision and one more big-box strip mall.
Please take a moment to tell Caltrans and the highway administration not to approve the Richardson Grove Improvement Project. Thus far, these agencies have ignored the project's threats to endangered wildlife and ancient redwoods, failed to look at other alternatives, and downplayed the growth-inducing effects of opening Highway 101 to oversized-truck traffic. This cathedral grove is far too important to both vanishing forest species and human visitors to be sacrificed for the short-term gains of a few powerful commercial interests in Humboldt County.
Help save the only intact mountain left in Coal River Valley, West Virginia. Two weeks ago, coal-industry giant Massey Energy began blasting away at Coal River Mountain -- shattering the hopes of citizens who had been fighting for years to save it, and making it the tallest peak ever blasted apart for mountaintop-removal coal mining. This radical form of mining -- in which the tops of mountains are blown off to expose coal seams and then all the wastes are dumped directly into streams -- annihilates forests, completely buries streams, and kills all wildlife in its path.
To make matters even worse, the blasting is only 200 yards from a coal slurry dam -- the only thing preventing 8 billion gallons of toxic sludge from flooding the community below. Studies predict that if the dam is breached, residents will have only minutes to evacuate before a 50-foot wall of potentially lethal mining waste washes over their community.
Every other peak in this devastated watershed has been blown apart by the coal industry. Coal River Valley can't afford to lose its last remaining peak.
Please use the form below to email the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency today. Ask them to intervene and save Coal River Mountain.
Big Cypress National Preserve was created in 1974 to stave off a proposed airport in the heart of the western Everglades. Now Miami-Dade County, whose land surrounds the preserve, finds itself with a cash shortfall and a proposal has been made to squeeze the money it lacks for airport expansion out of the very nature preserve that was set aside to prevent new airport construction -- Big Cypress.
Under the proposal, Miami-Dade County would lease out the land for oil drilling -- a cynical, grasping move that would undermine decades of preservation and be certain to hurt Florida panthers. Already one of the most endangered species on the planet, panthers depend on Big Cypress for living space.
For now, the proposal has been shelved at the last minute by Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez due to public outcry. But though it won’t be discussed at the very next county commission meeting, this destructive plan could still be brought to life again. And we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.
So please, send a letter asking Miami's mayor to make sure this absurd and destructive idea to allow new oil operations in the Big Cypress National Preserve remains completely off the table.
Thanks to public pressure, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a Sharp Park restoration-planning ordinance earlier this year directing the Park Department to develop a plan, schedule, and budget for restoring endangered species habitat at the park.
Nine prominent scientists -- biologists, herpetologists, ecologists, and hydrologists with collective expertise regarding wetlands habitats, the endangered species at the site, and amphibians and reptiles -- weighed in with a letter to the Park Department noting that many of the golf-course management activities are incompatible with restoring healthy populations of the garter snake and red-legged frog and that restoring wetlands and uplands habitats and connecting them with protected adjacent open space is the best option to ensure the long term survival of the species in the area.
Last week the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department issued a report that was supposed to explore alternatives for restoring endangered species habitat at Sharp Park. However, the Park Department’s report ignores science and promotes an all-golf alternative for Sharp Park -- even though the no-golf option was shown to be best for the environment, the city's budget, and outdoor recreation.Click here to read our press release about the report, which actually suggests picnicking, not the golf course, is the greatest threat to endangered species at the site.
Incredibly, a local congressional representative has also suggested using federal money to bail out the golf course. If federal monies are to be spent at Sharp Park, we deserve to gain an asset everyone can use, not just golfers: a park with recreational facilities everyone can enjoy and a preserve that supports San Francisco's namesake endangered species.
Use the form below and scroll to the bottom of the page to send a letter to decision-makers telling them it's time for them to be true environmental stewards by fully restoring Sharp Park. Then, please call Congresswoman Jackie Speier at (650) 342-0300 and State Assemblymember Jerry Hill at (650) 349-1900 and tell their offices you support full restoration and the no-golf alternative, and that the park should be added to the adjacent Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
In addition, please come to the Recreation and Parks Commission hearing this Thursday, November 19 at 2 p.m. at San Francisco City Hall Room 416 and speak in favor of full restoration.
What's the solution to world hunger, biodiversity loss, and shrinking resources? According to Obama's nominee for Chief Agriculture Negotiator at the U.S Trade Representative's Office, it's pesticides, genetically modified crops, and fossil-fuel intensive agriculture.
If Islam Siddiqui, Obama's nominee, is confirmed by the Senate, the self-proclaimed "voice of the industry" will be able to push America's industrial agriculture practices onto the rest of the world.
Siddiqui is a former pesticide lobbyist and is the vice-president of science and regulatory affairs at CropLife America, formerly known as the National Agricultural Chemicals Association. This industry trade group represents Monsanto, DuPont, and other companies that "produce, sell and distribute virtually all the crop protection and biotechnology products used by American farmers" -- or in simpler words, they promote toxic pesticides.
Here's a sampling of what Siddiqui and CropLife America have been up to:
- weakening the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act;
- lobbying to allow pesticides to be tested on children;
- fighting to keep ozone-depleting chemicals and persistent pollutants like DDT in use;
- resisting the labeling of genetically-modified foods;
- targeting Michelle Obama for planting an organic White House garden; and
- promoting toxic-sludge grown, genetically modified, and irradiated food as "organic."
We can't allow Siddiqui to force Big Agriculture's pesticide-laden, fossil-fuel heavy industrial farming methods onto the rest of the world. Use the form below to send an email to your senators asking them to vote against the confirmation of Islam Siddiqui as Chief Agricultural Negotiator. Urgent action is needed -- the vote to confirm Siddiqui is likely to happen soon.
Okinawa is home to ecologically significant coral reefs that support more than 1,000 species of reef fish, marine mammals, and sea turtles. Creatures like the highly imperiled dugong, a critically endangered and culturally treasured animal, rely on these reefs for their survival.
But the U.S. government is planning to build a new American military base atop a healthy coral reef that will likely destroy the diverse array of animal life the reef supports, including at least nine species threatened with extinction. Okinawa's coral reefs are already threatened by global warming and pollution: More than half have disappeared over the past decade. We must protect the reef and its inhabitants.
American, Japanese, and international organizations have spoken out for this critical area and against the potential harm that the new military base would cause. Back in 1997, Japan's Mammalogical Society placed the mighty dugong, a distant relative of the manatee, on its "Red List of Mammals," estimating the population in Okinawa to be critically endangered. Our own Endangered Species Act lists the dugong and three sea turtles affected by the project as endangered. The U.S. government's Marine Mammals Commission is weighing in with fears that the project would be a serious threat to the dugong and other animals' survival, and the World Conservation Union's dugong specialists have expressed similar concerns.
Construction of the offshore facility will devastate the marine environment and have dramatic consequences for oceangoing birds and coastal species as well. In addition to destruction of the coral reef off the coast of Henoko village, the planned base will deplete essential freshwater supplies, increase the human population in sensitive areas, and encourage more environmentally harmful development -- causing irreversible ecological damage to one of the most diverse ecosystems on earth. The U.S. government must abandon this plan.
Environmental groups from both sides of the Pacific Ocean -- the Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network in the United States and Dugong Network Okinawa, Save the Dugong Foundation, Committee Against Heliport Construction/Save Life Society, and the Japan Environmental Lawyers Federation in Japan -- have filed a lawsuit in federal district court in San Francisco against the U.S. Department of Defense to stop the base.
We need your help to speak out. Please take a minute to send the letter below to President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Ambassador to Japan John Roos.
Imagine you own a ruggedly beautiful piece of land in the Southwest. Would you let reckless visitors on all-terrain vehicles tear up that land? Allow dirt bikes to harass the wildlife or, even worse, crush the plants and small or slow-moving animals like desert tortoises? Would you permit jeeps to drive through the stream that meanders across your land, polluting the water and scaring wildlife off the desert oasis they desperately need to survive?
Most of us would never allow such destructive activities to ruin pristine places -- yet that’s exactly what’s happening on our public lands, which are owned in common by the people to be held in trust for future generations.
Motorized off-road vehicles have become a destructive scourge on these lands. Increasingly irresponsible behavior, coupled with technological advances and poor government management, allows riders to use these machines to push their way even further and faster into remote areas, leaving few wild places out of reach. The ecological damage caused by off-roading is often devastating, and the writing on the wall is unmistakable: If we continue down the path of "anything goes," soon we'll have nothing left. We know that just as most Americans care about their own backyards, they don't support destroying our public lands, water, and shared natural heritage.
Unfortunately, major destruction is exactly what happened over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the Mojave desert -- not only on the public lands that we all own, but on private property as well. Abuse from irresponsible off-road vehicle use is trashing our public lands, ruining the habitat wildlife rely on, and spoiling enjoyment of these lands by quiet users. Please submit a letter to elected officials and other decision-makers demanding they take action to protect our public lands from off-road vehicle damage.
The United Nations climate negotiations may have ended, but we don’t have the fair, science-based, and legally binding treaty that millions of people worldwide have demanded. What we do have is a global movement of people who aren’t going to go away until our demands are met.
Please sign our petition so that together we can build an even bigger, stronger, and louder collective voice that politicians will no longer be able to ignore.
The Obama administration's recent decision to increase the number of sea turtles that can by caught by industrial fishing fleets threatens to push these highly imperiled species over the brink.
Loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles are federally endangered species in very real danger of extinction, but instead of protecting them, Obama has decided to allow more sea turtle killings. These species won't recover if Industrial fishing fleets continue to snag turtles with their deadly hooks -- now is the time to increase protection, not decrease it.
Please take a moment now to send President Obama a letter urging him to reverse his lethal decision and give sea turtles a fighting chance at survival.
Under current Environmental Protection Agency labeling requirements, pesticides producers must only disclose "active" ingredients. An active ingredient is one that will "prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest." The EPA does not currently require the listing of "inert" ingredients - by definition, those that are "not active" ingredients. An inert ingredient sounds innocent enough, but many of these inert ingredients are actually toxic, carcinogenic, flammable, or otherwise hazardous to human and environmental health. In fact many of the inert ingredients found in pesticides are chemicals that are currently regulated under other federal statutes because the EPA has determined that they are so dangerous.
For example, naphthalene is an inert ingredient. It is also a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, or PAH, and has the ability to destroy red blood cells, disrupt endocrine system functions, and can affect liver and pineal organ function. Naphthalene is just one of hundreds of already identified hazardous chemicals not subject to labeling requirements under FIFRA. The proposed rule contemplates amending the existing labeling regulations under FIFRA to require either that pesticide product labels clearly list any inert ingredients that EPA regulates as a hazardous chemical under any other statutory provisions, or that pesticide product labels simply list all inert ingredients.
Enter your information below and join the Center for Biological Diversity in wholly supporting the EPA's decision to require the disclosure and labeling of these harmful chemicals.
On January 5, the Center for Biological Diversity's longstanding efforts to protect key foraging and migratory habitat for Pacific leatherback sea turtles resulted in the first-ever proposal to designate open ocean critical habitat for sea turtles in the continental United States. Responding to a petition by the Center and our allies -- and a subsequent lawsuit -- the National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed to protect more than 70,000 square miles of open ocean habitat off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington for leatherback sea turtles. These areas represent vital foraging and migratory areas for western Pacific leatherbacks, which make a remarkable 6,000-mile journey from nesting grounds in Indonesia to feed on rich jellyfish blooms off the West Coast.
Protecting this habitat is vital to saving critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtles. Fewer than 6,000 nesting females remain in the western Pacific leatherback population. These ocean-going giants encounter a gauntlet of longlines and gillnets on their journey across the Pacific, making entanglement and drowning in commercial fishing gear one of the primary causes of the leatherback mortality. Those that survive the journey need and deserve strong protection from such threats when they reach our waters to feed.
Unfortunately, the Fisheries Service critical habitat proposal inexplicably excludes consideration of commercial fishing gear as a threat to the turtles' safe passage through migratory and feeding areas. It also excludes some areas that provide important migratory passageways and food sources.
This historic proposal is a step forward, but we need to take larger strides. Please tell the Fisheries Service to include all key areas in its critical habitat designation and ensure that leatherback habitat is protected from the main threat to adult leatherback survival -- capture in commercial fishing gear.
Please take action today to tell the Fisheries Service to strengthen its proposed critical habitat protection by addressing fishing gear as well as including all necessary migratory and feeding areas.
Endocrine disruptors are harming fish and wildlife throughout the nation, including endangered and threatened species such as the razorback sucker in Lake Mead, Nevada; the desert pupfish in Salton Trough, California; and the Santa Ana sucker in Southern California’s Santa Ana River.
A recent study of fish in the Potomac River in Maryland found that because of pollution by endocrine disruptors, more than 80 percent of fish surveyed were so-called intersex fish (with male and female reproductive parts) that cannot reproduce. The notorious endocrine disruptor atrazine, which has contaminated groundwater and drinking water over widespread areas, chemically castrates male frogs -- even at extremely low concentrations.
Help us get endocrine disruptors out of our waterways and ecosystems. The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the EPA to establish water-quality criteria for numerous endocrine-disrupting chemicals under the Clean Water Act. Send a message urging the EPA to regulate endocrine disruptors as pollutants and establish strong water quality criteria to keep them out of our drinking water and endangered species’ habitats.
President Barack Obama's first year in office has been a good news/bad news story for the environment. On endangered species, he revoked some damaging Bush-era policies but also stripped protection from gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes. On climate, he followed the Supreme Court's lead and declared carbon dioxide a threat to human health and welfare, but provided virtually no leadership in congressional and Copenhagen negotiations to develop a real solution to global warming. In our oceans, he took initial steps to address ocean acidification, but also increased the number of endangered sea turtles that can be caught and killed by industrial longline fisheries.
Overall, the Center for Biological Diversity gives the president's environmental record so far a "C."
President Obama's record, while much better than Bush's, is disappointing so far. He has not lived up to his campaign promises by a long shot. Luckily, there's still time to get him back on track: We have to show him America cares. Please personalize the letter below and send President Obama a clear message that a "C" isn’t good enough to protect our animals, plants and wild lands.
The Obama administration is poised to allow major petrochemical company Shell Oil to the drill for gas and oil off the Alaskan coast this summer. If this goes through, Shell will pump 1,800 tons of pollutants, including high levels of particulates, into the fragile Arctic ecosystem in just six months.
The particulates come from diesel exhaust -- a form of black carbon -- and are a major concern because they can affect climate change in two ways: by absorbing heat and by reducing the reflective quality of ocean ice.
Further, if Shell causes an oil spill there’s no telling how much damage will be done.
The Arctic, including the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, is one the world’s last pristine ecosystems. It is home to endangered polar bears, walruses, seals, and whales. It is no place for industrial oil rigs, pollution, noise, and oil spills.
Please sign the petition below right now asking the Obama administration to stop this and other ill-conceived plans to open up the Arctic waters to off-shore oil and gas drilling. Show President Obama that tens of thousands of Americans care more about the Arctic and its wildlife than Shell’s obscene profits.
The Obama administration is poised to allow major petrochemical company Shell Oil to the drill for gas and oil off the Alaskan coast this summer. If this goes through, Shell will pump 1,800 tons of pollutants, including high levels of particulates, into the fragile Arctic ecosystem in just six months.
The particulates come from diesel exhaust -- a form of black carbon -- and are a major concern because they can affect climate change in two ways: by absorbing heat and by reducing the reflective quality of ocean ice.
Further, if Shell causes an oil spill there’s no telling how much damage will be done.
The Arctic, including the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, is one the world’s last pristine ecosystems. It is home to endangered polar bears, walruses, seals, and whales. It is no place for industrial oil rigs, pollution, noise, and oil spills.
Please sign the petition below right now asking the Obama administration to stop this and other ill-conceived plans to open up the Arctic waters to off-shore oil and gas drilling. Show President Obama that tens of thousands of Americans care more about the Arctic and its wildlife than Shell’s obscene profits.
One of the biggest new threats to forests in the United States is a modern take on a very old idea: burning wood for energy. Dozens of large, dirty, wood-burning electricity facilities -- staggeringly inefficient -- are now being planned across the country. A single such facility would require increased logging on tens of thousands of acres of forest each year.
Based on the flawed premise that any burning of wood is carbon neutral, electricity generated by burning trees and wood wastes -- referred to as "biomass" -- is counted as renewable energy by numerous state and federal programs intended to shift our reliance away from fossil fuels. Unfortunately, biomass burning is far from carbon neutral.
Carbon dioxide released from the smokestack of a biomass facility warms the planet just like CO2 from a coal plant. And while an area logged to fuel a biomass facility may ultimately grow back, it takes decades or even centuries for a forest to recapture as much carbon as is lost when it's logged. We don't have decades to waste if we are to reduce our emissions fast enough to save the polar bear, coral reefs, and much of the world's biodiversity from global warming.
Take action today and protect our forests. The Department of Agriculture has proposed regulations that would expand a massive, misguided subsidy program that encourages the harvest and burning of trees for energy. Please act now to let federal officials know that tax dollars should not go to the timber industry and power companies to subsidize actions that pollute the air, undermine climate solutions, and contribute to deforestation.
The magnificent San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River Delta is the largest estuary on the West Coast of North America and the source of the California salmon fishery, which provides thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of income for fishermen. Tragically, one of the nation's most important ecosystems is collapsing, endangering salmon populations. According to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, California's once abundant salmon runs reached an all-time record low in 2009.
Unfortunately, water users are putting heavy pressure on Senator Feinstein to introduce legislation to waive Endangered Species Act protections to these endangered fisheries, which could have disastrous consequences for California's iconic salmon fishery and species such as the delta smelt, Sacramento splittail, and green sturgeon. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Senator Feinstein is attempting to attach language to the Senate jobs bill that would "divert Northern California water to Central Valley farmers." Ironically, such a move could potentially force the closure of the salmon fishery, causing long-term job losses and economic damage.
If you are from California, please urge your senators not to sponsor legislation restricting Endangered Species Act protections to California's Bay-Delta ecosystem and fisheries.
If we are to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we must rapidly transition away from all forms of fossil fuels. While Congress debates whether a proposed 20-percent renewable electric standard is too high, what we really need is a 100-percent renewable electric standard. It's an ambitious target, but with existing technology we can likely meet it -- we have to.
Unfortunately, some of the best sources of clean, renewable energy -- such as solar and wind -- can be extremely land-intensive, and when poorly sited can have unacceptable impacts on wildlife and habitat. While directing industrial-scale projects to already disturbed and fragmented lands can go a long way toward blunting their negative impacts, there is one place (really millions of places) where solar panels can be deployed with absolutely no negative impacts on wildlife and wild spaces: our rooftops.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has introduced legislation that would greatly aid in the expansion of rooftop solar energy in the United States. His "10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water Heating Act of 2010" would help fund the installation of solar panels on 10 million American homes and businesses as well as the installation of 200,000 solar water heaters. This would produce about 30,000 new megawatts -- the equivalent of about 30 nuclear power plants -- and help put us on the path toward a truly green energy economy.
Please take a minute and contact your senators and encourage them to join as cosponsors of the "10 Million Solar Roofs 5 and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water Heating Act of 2010" to help our country move toward green energy.
In response to scientific findings and a Supreme Court ruling, the EPA is finally enforcing one of our nation's most successful environmental laws, the Clean Air Act, in the urgent fight against global warming. But now the Clean Air Act is under attack -- and we need you to join us to fight back.
The Clean Air Act works. It has protected the air we breathe for 40 years, reaping economic benefits 42 times its cost. And today, the Act can immediately curb greenhouse gas pollution and global warming. Reversing the EPA’s historic finding that greenhouse gas pollution endangers public health would move us in precisely the wrong direction.
Rather than preventing the EPA from fulfilling its duties under the Clean Air Act, we should be moving swiftly to use the Act to curb global warming -- before it's too late. If you live in the United States, please take one minute today to send a letter to your senators letting them know we need to curb global warming, we need the Clean Air Act to do so, and we need to oppose all moves to gut the Act and to reverse the endangerment finding.
Guam is a historically unique island in the western Pacific Ocean and borders the captivating, federally protected Marianas Trench National Monument. As a U.S. territory, Guam is home to nearly 180,000 American citizens, yet is one of the world’s last remaining non-self-governing territories. Since the militarization of Guam in the 1940s, more than 30 species of native birds and numerous other animals have gone extinct. More than 30 percent of the island is currently occupied by the U.S. military.
The military recently announced plans to build up its presence on the island. Experts and locals alike anticipate that the construction and operation of the currently proposed military expansion will cause unprecedented environmental and cultural destruction on Guam. Making matters worse, a simultaneous plan calls for the construction of a massive military airbase in the coastal waters off of northeastern Okinawa, Japan. This plan would devastate some of the last habitat of the highly endangered Okinawa dugong, cousin to the charismatic manatee.
The EPA recently reviewed the military’s plans, giving them the lowest possible environmental rating and threatening to refer the matter to the Council for Environmental Quality. Some of the EPA’s chief concerns are that by 2014 there will be up to a 13-million-gallon shortfall of drinking water per day for people living off-base; that more than 2,000 residents will regularly hear gunfire from a firing range at levels as loud as a vacuum cleaner operated 10 feet away; and that the dredging of Apra Harbor will have a profound effect on more than 71 acres of Guam’s pristine coral reef.
This delicate island ecosystem can't withstand the pressure of military expansion. Please send a letter to President Obama today asking him to listen to the concerns of Guam's people and protect the island's biodiversity.
The endangered Hawaiian petrel and threatened Newell's shearwater are being killed by irresponsible and needlessly bright resort lighting. These imperiled seabirds are fatefully attracted to bright lights. During the fledging season, birds headed out to sea are drawn to glowing artificial lights -- they circle the lights as if in orbit until they collapse to the ground from exhaustion or strike a human-made object.
In the last three decades, tens of thousands of shearwaters and hundreds of petrels have been grounded by bright lights on Kauai. While there are multiple sources of artificial lights on the island, the St. Regis Princeville Resort is the one of the largest documented sources of downing seabirds from light attraction.
In the absence of a valid incidental take permit, the Endangered Species Act prohibits the "take" of any endangered or threatened species. "Take" includes harassing, harming, and killing, and by operating artificial lights that result in injury and death to listed species, the resort is engaged in ongoing and repeated take of these species.
To avoid further violation of the Endangered Species Act, the resort must secure an incidental take permit and implement a habitat conservation plan that minimizes take of the seabirds as much as possible. Please submit comments to the resort today urging it to take steps to protect seabirds.
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