SeaWorld Ended Its Breeding Program, but Orcas and Dolphins Are Still Trapped in Their Tanks | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

The show must not go on: Tilikum (above), a captive orca who spent most of his 35-year-long life (1981-2017) performing at SeaWorld Orlando, was heavily featured in the 2013 documentary “Blackfish,” which galvanized both public opinion and legislation against orca captivity. In 2015, following declining attendance, SeaWorld announced it would end its orca breeding program and phase out all live performances using these highly intelligent and emotional marine mammals. But orcas are still trapped at the amusement park. (Photo credit: BrandyKregel/Flickr)

PETA: It’s been years since the release of the documentary “Blackfish”—whose “star,” Tilikum, died after 33 years in a concrete tank—but orcas at SeaWorld are still swimming in endless circles and breaking their teeth by gnawing in frustration on the concrete corners and metal bars of their cramped tanks. Other dolphins are still being impregnated, sometimes forcibly after being drugged, and 140 of them are packed into just seven tanks. Trainers use them as surfboards, riding on their backs and standing on their faces in cruel and demeaning circus-style shows. Facing mounting criticism, SeaWorld ended its sordid orca-breeding program—but this does nothing for the 20 orcas and hundreds of other dolphins, whales, and other animals who are suffering in the company’s tanks right now. SeaWorld must open its tanks and release the long-suffering animals into seaside sanctuaries—where they would live in large areas of the ocean while benefiting from human care for as long as they might need—so that they can have a life outside prison tanks.
>>>Urge SeaWorld to send orcas and other marine mammals to sea sanctuaries and end its use of animals.

Care2: There seems to be no end to the story of the Trump children using politics to get what they want in their personal lives. Now there’s a new chapter in this saga: Donald Trump Jr. killed an endangered argali sheep, a Mongolian national treasure. Once Don Jr. was back in the U.S., he was granted a permit to hunt the argali sheep retroactively. Experts think it is likely that Don Jr.’s meeting with President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, the details of which are entirely secret, had something to do with that. This is only further supported by Mongolian scientist and argali researcher Amgalanbaatar Sukh, who says the hunting permit processes in Mongolia are political and most often arranged by high-level government officials. Between 1985 and 2009, the number of argali in Mongolia plummeted from 50,000 to just 18,000.
>>>Urge the Mongolian government to make Trump Jr. the last hunter to get away with this, and to stop permitting argali hunting altogether.

Lady Freethinker: Every year, tens of thousands of birds are victimized in southeastern France by a cruel hunting method called glue-trapping, which involves attracting songbirds to branches covered in glue in order to cage the birds to sell as pets. As birds try desperately to free themselves, they become increasingly stuck, resulting in a painful, prolonged struggle that can lead to injury or death. After this initial stage of torture, hunters spray birds with toxic chemicals and separate them from the glue, often causing further injury and fatal consequences, including feather loss, which can render birds unable to fly. Birds who are deemed “undesirable” are carelessly tossed aside and left to suffer with any untreated injuries they may have. The rest are exploited for profit, sold into a lifetime of misery in captivity or used as bait in future glue-trapping hunts after spending unnatural periods of time—sometimes months—in pitch-black darkness. This causes them to sing frantically once they see daylight, unknowingly luring other birds toward the traps. A warning from the EU, which banned glue-trapping decades ago, and numerous court cases calling on French officials to outlaw the practice have fallen on deaf ears. In addition to the needless suffering glue-trapping causes to birds, the perpetuation of this government-sanctioned cruelty puts steeply-declining bird populations, including endangered species, further in jeopardy.
>>>Urge Ambassador of France to the U.S. Philippe Etienne to push for a nationwide ban on inhumane glue traps that torture and kill helpless birds.

Cause for concern…

Death down under: Millions of Australia’s native fauna, including koalas, kangaroos, dingoes, wombats, emus, flying foxes and more, have perished in the nation’s devastating, ongoing bushfires. Many of these species have already been struggling in the face of habitat loss, poaching and climate change. With bushfire season still not over—Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned that the wildfires could continue to burn for months—and with another coming next year, Professor John Woinarski of Charles Darwin University said that the horrific scenes emerging out from down under forecast “an even more bleak future ahead.” (Photo credit: NSW Koala Country)

Round of applause…

Helping pups: In 2019, several states passed laws enhancing or broadening protections for dogs in pet stores or puppy mills, commercial breeding operations in which purebred dogs are raised in large numbers in poor conditions, resulting in generations of dogs suffering from hereditary defects. (Photo credit: Crazybananas/Flickr)

Parting thought…

“Only after I became active in women’s issues did I realize that my veganism was related to those very issues. Dairy and eggs don’t just come from cows and chickens—they come from female cows and female chickens. We’re exploiting female bodies and abusing the magic of female animals to create eggs and milk.” —Natalie Portman

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Disney Is Mass-Producing Unrecyclable Plastic Toys for an Eco-Themed Film | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

Death by plastic: All the plastic waste shown in the picture above came from the stomach of a single bird. Plastic found in the stomachs of dead marine animals, like whales, dolphins, fish and seabirds, reveals the extent to which humanity has polluted the world’s oceans with trash that can take hundreds of years to decompose. Some estimates suggest that plastic pollution kills at least 100 million marine mammals each year. Add fish and birds and the numbers are staggering. So it makes no sense that Disney, which announced last year that it would eliminate all single-use plastic straws and stirrers from its facilities, is now mass-producing unrecyclable plastic toys associated with the film “Frozen 2,” which itself has a pro-environment theme. (Photo credit: Tim Zim/Flickr)

Care2: Disney’s new film “Frozen 2” has already made almost a billion dollars at the box office. These numbers should be good news to environmental activists, since the plot of Frozen’s sequel deftly combines successful children’s entertainment with an eco-friendly theme. But unfortunately that’s where Disney’s efforts stop, since they have already begun mass-producing unrecyclable plastic toys associated with the film. In the film, protagonists Elsa and Anna must battle with unstable and dangerous natural elements in order to bring peace to their world. Many have applauded the obvious connection to the fight against climate change, noting that Elsa and Anna’s stewardship of their fictional world will inform the way children interact with our own dying planet. Sadly, Disney would rather appear environmentally conscious than take any real action. It’s clear their bottom line is more pressing than saving the Earth.
>>>Urge Disney to halt the production of unrecyclable plastic toys.

Last Chance for Animals: Introduced on December 2 by Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ernie Hardeman, Bill 156 seeks to limit access to farms, slaughterhouses and tranpsort trucks, and would make it a crime to uncover and report the truth about how farm animals are treated. Undercover footage routinely shows farm animals subjected to abuse and neglect. However, instead of imposing welfare standards or ensuring the proper treatment of farm animals, the Ontario government is looking to conceal animal cruelty by preventing whistleblowers and journalists from reporting animal cruelty and neglect. It’s a moral obligation to report any crimes of cruelty and neglect. If passed, Bill 156 will severely undermine Ontario’s animal welfare laws and will allow companies and individuals to continue business as usual.
>>>Urge Ontario Premier Doug Ford to oppose Bill 156.

PETA: Investigations of angora farms show workers twisting and pulling terrified rabbits into unnatural positions in order to pluck the hair from all over their bodies, including their genitals, as they scream out in pain. They’re forced to endure this terror up to four times a year. After two to three years, the animals who survive this repeated ordeal are hung upside down and their throats are slit. As American Vintage continues to sell angora, despite knowing that rabbits are abused on angora farms, we need to ramp up the pressure on the brand to ditch the cruelly obtained fiber.
>>>Urge American Vintage to follow the lead of over 340 other retailers worldwide and ban angora.

Cause for concern…

Indefensible: Donald Trump Jr. was retroactively granted a rare permit from the Mongolian government to kill an endangered argali sheep (above, in Kazakhstan’s Karkaraly National Park) during his trip to Mongolia this past summer. “It’s obvious why the trophy hunting portion of Donald Trump Jr.’s summer trip to Mongolia wasn’t shared, and why the relevant federal agencies have no comment on it now,” said Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. “The trophy hunting of argali sheep, an animal listed under the Endangered Species Act and whose numbers are dwindling, is indefensible, and the hasty process of after-the-fact permitting is downright deceitful.” (Photo credit: S. Reznichenko/Wikimedia Commons)

Round of applause…

The kid is alright: For inspiring a generation to fight the climate crisis, 16-year-old vegan climate activist Greta Thunberg has become TIME’s youngest “Person of the Year,” taking the title held since 1927 by then-25-year-old aviator Charles Lindbergh. (Photo credit: appaloosa/Flickr)

Parting thought…

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” —Anatole France

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Protecting Montana’s Blackfoot River Watershed | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

He’d love more room to roam: A mule deer near the Webb Lake Ranger Station in Montana’s Scapegoat Wilderness. Congress designated the Scapegoat in 1972 with 240,000 acres. Now a new bill seeks to increase this and other wilderness areas in the Blackfoot River watershed. (Photo credit: U.S. Forest Service Northern Region/Flickr)

Conservation Alliance: Efforts to permanently protect the iconic Blackfoot River watershed in Montana began in 2005 when two groups who don’t traditionally see eye to eye—snowmobilers and wilderness advocates—came together to create a proposal to provide new opportunities for winter recreation and add key pieces of habitat to the existing wilderness. The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) is the result of this decades-long, multi-stakeholder collaboration. The bill offers something for everyone. The BCSA would designate 78,000 acres of wilderness with the expansions to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountain Wilderness Areas, and establish two new recreation areas: the 2,000-acre Otatsy Recreation Area, a popular snowmobiling area, and the Spread Mountain Recreation Area, preserving prized mountain biking access to Spread Mountain, Center Ridge and Camp Pass. Additionally, the bill will give the U.S. Forest Service more tools to actively manage forests on the Seeley Ranger District. Sustainable timber harvest is crucial to the local economy and the bill’s collaborative approach has resulted in coordination with and endorsement from Pyramid Lumber—one of the area’s largest employers.
>>>Urge Montana’s congressional leaders to pass the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act.

Change: Hunters in Alaska can now track and kill hibernating bears thanks to a U.S. House and Senate resolution rolling back Obama-era regulations against the practice passed over a year ago. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law in April, effectively rolling back Alaska’s ban on killing the vulnerable bears, along with, shockingly, wolf cubs in dens. It also allows for hunters to target the animals from helicopters. The Republican-sponsored legislation impacts 76.8 million acres of federally protected national preserves across Alaska. Something must be done to protect these innocent animals while they hibernate. They are causing no harm to anyone during these times and, in fact, have no need to ever be hunted.
>>>Urge Congress to protect hibernating bears from hunters.

PETA: It’s no secret that mice and rats feel pain, fear, loneliness and joy—just as humans do. These highly social animals become emotionally attached to one another, love their families, and easily bond with human guardians. Rats even express empathy when another rat or a human they know is in distress—and some will even put themselves in harm’s way rather than allowing another rat to suffer. Right now, tens of millions of mice and rats are being used in painful and ineffective experiments. Others experience excruciating deaths while stuck to deadly glue traps. In crowded breeding mills that supply small animals to big-box pet stores, they’re denied water and adequate veterinary care. These intelligent and emotional animals need more protections, and taxpayers certainly should not be paying for cruel and ineffective tests on them.
>>>Urge the National Institutes of Health to stop funding worthless sepsis experiments on mice.

Cause for concern…

Extreme living: “The past decade is almost certain to be the hottest on record, weather experts warned … painting a bleak picture of vanishing sea ice, devastating heatwaves and encroaching seas,” writes Matthew Green for Reuters, reporting on the World Meteorological Organization’s annual assessment of the Earth’s climate. In addition, atmospheric scientist Michael Mann, co-author of a disturbing new report examining the climate impacts on the polar regions, said that “the dramatic warming and melting of Arctic ice is impacting the jet stream in a way that gives us more persistent and damaging weather extremes.” (Photo credit: Tim Ellis/Flickr)

Round of applause…

No joke: Actor and animal rights activist Joaquin Phoenix, an ethical vegan since the age of three, is the producer of the “The Animal People,” a new film that opens nationwide on December 10. Fifteen years in the making, the documentary tells the story of six animal advocates—targeted as terrorists by the U.S. government—seeking to expose the largest animal-testing lab in the world, and the inhumane industry trying to stop them. (Photo credit: eLENA tUBARO/Flickr)

Parting thought…

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” —John Muir

Google Is Funding Climate Denial | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

Double-dealer: Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The tech giant has made public calls for action on the climate crisis while financially backing conservative think tanks that support climate denialism. (Photo credit: Maurizio Pesce/Flickr)

Move On: Google recently released a list of the organizations it sponsors, and it includes groups that consistently deny climate change. Google claims to be an advocate for climate change policy, but the company has made generous donations to organizations like CEI that were instrumental in pushing the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and reverse Obama-era environmental protections. In addition, Google has contributed to groups like State Policy Network, an umbrella organization including the Heartland Institute, a known anti-science think tank. Google employees upset by the company’s behavior have even criticized Google for reportedly funding 111 members of Congress who voted against climate legislation 90 percent of the time.
>>>Urge Google CEO Sundar Pichai to stop funding organizations that deny climate change.

CREDO Action: The bald eagle, beluga whale, whooping crane and American grey wolf: All could be a distant memory if the Trump administration’s heartless and greedy extinction plan remains in effect. Earlier this year, despite massive public opposition, Trump and his minions pushed through dangerous regulations to gut the Endangered Species Act, open up protected areas to fossil fuel development and line the pockets of big polluters. Progressive champion Rep. Raul Grijalva recently introduced critical legislation called the PAW and FIN Conservation Act of 2019 that would repeal these rule changes. Congress should immediately pass this bill to stop Trump’s handout to the oil and gas industry and protect and recover precious, threatened wildlife.
>>>Tell Congress to save the Endangered Species Act.

Humane Society International: Every five years, the world’s largest animal sacrifice takes place at the Gadhimai Temple in the Bara district of Nepal. On December 3, following a month-long celebration or “mela,” the festival culminates in the ritual slaughter of tens of thousands of animals, including water buffalo, goats, chickens, pigs, pigeons, ducks and rats, who are decapitated with blunt metal tools. At its height in 2009, around half a million animals were slaughtered. In 2015, animal sacrifice was banned at this festival following negotiations and campaigning by HSI, Animal Welfare Network Nepal and People for Animals. But public pressure is still needed to enforce this ban.
>>>Urge Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli to end this killing once and for all.

Cause for concern…

Grim outlook: In many regions across the world, the hottest years over the last century have occurred in the last decade. At the global level, the past four years were the hottest in the last 139 years. “Unprecedented cuts in greenhouse gas emissions offer the only hope of averting an ever-intensifying cascade of consequences,” reports Brady Dennis for the Washington Post. A majority of Americans believe that the government isn’t doing enough to protect the climate, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. (Graphic: NOAA via United Nations).

Round of applause…

Youth leader: Greta Thunberg addresses climate strikers at Civic Center Park in Denver on October 12, 2019. The 16-year-old Swedish climate activist started skipping classes in August 2018 to campaign for action on the climate crisis. Within months, her grassroots movement went global. (Photo credit: Andy Bosselman, Streetsblog Denver/Flickr)

Parting thought…

“The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.” —Greta Thunberg at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, September 23, 2019

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Trump Wants to Open Up Roadless Areas in Tongass National Forest to Logging | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

Road to extinction: The endangered marbled murrelet, a small seabird, nests on moss-covered trees in the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska, which has become a target of the Trump administration for more aggressive logging by changing the Roadless Rule. Such a move would not only permit logging activities, but would also open previously pristine wildlife habitat to mining, hydropower and recreation, imperiling the survival of several threatened species. (Photo credit: Tom Benson/Flickr)

Audubon: For nearly two decades, the federal Roadless Rule has prohibited road-building and logging on nearly 60 million acres of the country’s most pristine national forest land. The Roadless Rule currently protects more than half of the nearly 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Part of the largest remaining temperate rainforest on Earth, the Tongass hosts the Prince of Wales Spruce Grouse and the Queen Charlotte Goshawk, a subspecies of Northern Goshawk that hunts and breeds exclusively in old-growth forests. These wild areas are in jeopardy: the U.S. Forest Service has proposed a new rule that would open these old-growth woods in Alaska to clearcutting. The agency is accepting public comments on this misguided plan through December 17.
>>>Urge the U.S. Forest Service not to gut forest protections in the wild roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest.

Animal Welfare Institute: In a move that threatens to undermine a host of legal protections guaranteed to marine mammals in the United States and Canada, Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut has applied for a permit to import five captive-born beluga whales from Marineland in Canada. If the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) grants this permit, these animals would be on public display at Mystic Aquarium and likely Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and possibly other facilities throughout the United States. All five of these whales are descended from the Sakhalin Bay-Nikolaya Bay-Amur River stock of beluga whales—the same stock that NMFS designated as depleted in 2016. The U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) prohibits the import of marine mammals from depleted populations—and their descendants—for public display. In Mystic’s permit application to NMFS, it seeks to circumvent this legal prohibition by claiming that “incidental” public display is allowed when a marine mammal from a depleted population is to be imported for research. This is not so. Allowing this import would create a massive loophole in the MMPA’s prohibition against the import of depleted marine mammals for public display.
>>>Urge the NMFS to deny Mystic Aquarium’s request to import beluga whales from Canada.

Change: While all countries contribute to the oceans’ dire plastic pollution problem, Indonesia is one of the biggest culprits. After China, Indonesia is the largest contributor of plastics to our oceans. The country sends 3.22 million metric tons of the material into our oceans each year alone. That fact became even more apparent after a dead 31-foot sperm whale washed ashore at the Wakatobi National Park in Indonesia. Experts discovered that the whale was stuffed full of plastic debris. All in all, the whale had 115 drinking cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags and two flip-flops in its stomach. In recent years, Indonesia’s attempts to curtail plastic use have been relatively toothless. Their $0.02 plastic bag tax and proposed excise tax against plastic producers have both been discontinued. These policy failures make it highly unlikely the country will meet their goal of reducing plastic waste by 70 percent in less than 10 years. In reality, there is already a model that works. If Indonesia wants to get serious about dumping their plastic addiction, they need to look no further than countries like Kenya and Rwanda, which have banned single-use plastic bags completely. In those countries, breaking the ban can get the offender in real trouble. Serious fines and jail time and have worked so well, they won Kigali—Rwanda’s capital—the title of “the cleanest city in Africa.”
>>>Urge Indonesian President Joko Widodo to implement a complete and total ban on single-use plastics.

Cause for concern…

The worst is yet to come: The Pine Bend oil refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota, run by Flint Hills Resources, a subsidiary of Koch Industries. A report published on November 20 by the United Nations Environment Program has found that the emission reduction pledges made by the 188 nations that signed the 2015 Paris climate agreement are not enough to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, concluding that “exceeding the 1.5°C goal can no longer be avoided.” To make matters worse, even the current pledges will most likely not be achieved. The report’s authors blame continuing governmental support of the oil and gas industry, including ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and lack of appropriate carbon pricing schemes. (Photo credit: Tony Webster/Flickr)

Round of applause…

For the win: The Game Changers, a Netflix documentary produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Lewis Hamilton, James Cameron and Novak Djokovic (above), finds that the ideal diet for human performance and health is plant-based. The film is having a significant impact, with many viewers going vegan after watching it. Even Roger Whiteside, the chief executive of Gregg’s, a U.K. food company famous for their meat-filled pastries, went vegan after seeing it. (Photo credit: mirsasha/Flickr)

Parting thought…

“Veganism is not a sacrifice. It is a joy.” —Gary L. Francione

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Planned Bridge Will Push Borneo’s Pygmy Elephants to Extinction | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

A bridge too far: “If this construction is allowed to go ahead, I am left in no doubt that the bridge will have significant negative effects on the region’s wildlife, the Kinabatangan’s thriving tourism industry and on the image of Sabah as a whole,” wrote famed naturalist and ‘Planet Earth’ narrator Sir David Attenborough, about an infrastructure project in Borneo that will threaten several species, including endangered pygmy elephants (above). (Photo credit: Andrea Schieber/Flickr)

Rainforest Rescue: Around 350 endangered pygmy elephants live in Sabah, Borneo, near the Kinabatangan River. Until recently, their forest was so remote that poaching was all but unknown, and the elephants lived in peace. But over the last decade, criminals have discovered the region. Poachers are not only seeking ivory, but also elephant skin and other body parts for the Chinese market. In 2017, following international protest, the government backed off a plan to build a bridge across the river and roads into the forest–which would have made life much easier for poachers and illegal settlers and fragmented the elephants’ habitat. But now a new government has taken power in Sabah and the project is back in action, putting pygmy elephants and other wildlife in immediate danger.
>>>Urge Sabah Prime Minister Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad to scrap this project.

Mercy for Animals: Venezuelan actress María Gabriela de Faría narrates new video footage captured by undercover investigators that reveals—for the seventh time—the appalling treatment of animals that continues inside slaughterhouses across Mexico. Cows have been repeatedly shot, kicked, cut open and left to bleed—all while conscious and able to feel pain. One cow was shot in the head four times and ultimately hit in the head with an ax, but remained conscious and able to feel pain as she was slaughtered. Even more shocking, other cows have been killed while pregnant. Animal activists were instrumental in securing a unanimous point of agreement in Mexico’s senate that encourages the country’s Department of Agriculture to implement supervision and inspections of Mexican slaughterhouses—and shut down establishments that engage in such extreme acts of cruelty. Now it’s time for the government to take action.
>>Demand that the Mexican Department of Agriculture end this extreme cruelty immediately.

Care2: The war on destructive plastic pollution ratcheted up in 2019, and activist efforts are working. Major companies like Starbucks have ditched plastic straws. As of this year, more than 400 cities and states have banned single-use plastic bags. These steps make a difference, but for the biggest change, the biggest polluters must act. This year on World Clean Up Day—a day when tens of thousands of people clean up plastic litter—volunteers dug through the trash they picked up to figure out where it came from. Unsurprisingly, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé products made up such a huge amount of the haul that they were dubbed 2019’s top polluters. We know how bad plastic is for the environment. It leaches into our water, poisoning wildlife and people alike with dangerous chemicals. It chokes marine animals who mistake tiny pieces of plastic for food. These three companies know all of this too. Yet their core products are still packaged in non-biodegradable plastic that will continue to damage our planet for centuries to come. It’s time for these industry leaders to actually lead the industry toward a more sustainable future.
>>>Urge Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Nestlé to reduce their plastic pollution now.

Cause for concern…

Dairy’s terrible cost: The mothers of the calves shown in the video above of a “family farm” are dairy cows, whose children are taken away from them, and who are kept continually pregnant so that their milk—which is meant for their calves—can supply the dairy industry. “Yes, a dairy cow’s life ends in slaughter, just as the beef cow’s does. So in the end, the dairy cow is slaughtered too,” notes Rachel Curit on One Green Planet. “Given how much longer the dairy cow lives, and that cows raised for beef do not have their babies stolen from them every year: it would seem, in fact, there is more cruelty in a glass of milk.” (Image via @herbivore_club/Twitter)

Round of applause…

Pumping pause: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has voluntarily suspended 130 oil and gas leases after being sued by advocacy groups claiming the federal agency failed to properly assess the climate impact of oil and gas drilling and extraction as required by law. “It is potentially a BLM-wide issue,” said Jayni Hein, natural resources director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law. “It could have the effect of suspending even more leases across the West, and not just for oil and gas, for coal as well.” (Photo credit: BLM)

Parting thought…

“It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.” —Sir David Attenborough

Trump’s Latest Corporate Giveaway: Privatizing National Park Campgrounds | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

Nature for sale: “Privatizing America’s public campgrounds and jacking up national park fees to appease big business concessionaires and powerful corporate campaign donors is just the latest egregious attempt to rip public lands out of public hands,” said Jayson O’Neill, deputy director of the watchdog conservation group Western Values Project, about the Trump administration’s “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee recommendation that national park campgrounds be privatized. (Photo of the Grand Canyon by Bradley Weber/Flickr)

CREDO Action: Here’s a frightening idea: Grand Canyon, sponsored by Coca-Cola. Yosemite, brought to you by McDonald’s. Acadia, a subsidiary of Aramark. Under a scheme hatched by former disgraced Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, that could be the eventual fate of America’s national parks. Reporters recently uncovered shady plans between the Interior Department and national park profiteers, the RV and hospitality industries, and enemies of public lands to privatize national park campgrounds, allow commercialized food trucks and other services at parks, limit benefits for seniors, increase prices, and expand infrastructure that could harm wildlife habitat. This plan would be a massive giveaway to corporate interests and Trump donors who stand to profit from national park privatization. Jerry Jacobs Jr., the billionaire chairman of Delaware North, a massive food service and concessionaire with deep interests in America’s national parks, sits on the “Made in America” committee, donated at least $167,700 to Trump and stands to make massive profits if the Interior Department follows through with this scheme.
>>>Tell the Department of the Interior to stop the privatization of national parks.

Organic Consumers Association: Industrial ocean fish farms endanger both human and environmental health, yet the Trump administration is pushing for aggressive expansion of this dirty industry. Raising non-native and/or genetically modified fish in ocean water fish farms can disrupt natural ecosystems when the facilities spread disease to wild fish and release toxic, untreated fish waste and pharmaceutical drugs into the marine environment. Farmed fish also have more toxic chemicals, including pesticides and antibiotics, and contain fewer nutrients than wild-caught fish.
>>>Urge Congress to support the “Keep Fin Fish Free Act” to ban industrial ocean fish farms.

Rainforest Rescue: Indonesia’s Tapanuli orangutan was only identified as a distinct species two years ago, and it is now on the list of the 25 most endangered primates, as a Chinese hydropower project threatens to destroy the tiny habitat of the remaining 800 apes. China’s state-owned Sinohydro Group plans to build a 510 MW hydroelectric dam in Batang Toru forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The dam’s reservoir would flood the heart of the orangutans’ habitat. Power lines and access roads—and the loggers and settlers that roads inevitably attract—would fragment the surrounding area, cutting individual populations of the reclusive apes off from one another.
>>>Urge the Indonesian government to save the Tapanuli orangutan from extinction.

Cause for concern…

Point of no return? To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, humanity must keep global warming well below 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. But according to a new report by the Universal Ecological Fund, the majority of the 184 Paris Agreement pledges are not up to the task. A separate recent study suggests that temperatures could even rise up to 7° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Last year, the Earth’s global surface temperature was the fourth warmest since 1880. (Image credit: NASA)

Round of applause…

Open waters: A North Atlantic right whale mother and her calf. The species, which has been on the brink of extinction since the 1970s, has secured a major victory now that a federal judge has restored a ban on the use of gill nets in New England’s fisheries, helping to protect not only whales, but dolphins, seals, sea lions, turtles, sharks, seabirds and countless “non-target” fish from getting entangled in the dangerous fishing gear. (Photo credit: NOAA/Flickr)

Parting thought…

“The interdependence of humans, animals, and the habitats we share form a triad of compassion on this beautiful blue-green planet Earth. This is indisputable. Without engaging in acts of compassion that consider each of these three aspects, we risk losing everything.” —Sarah C. Beasley

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

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Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Food Service Giants Should Support Small Farmers, Not Big Food | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

Industrial food vs. small farmers: Staff of the McEnroe Organic Farm, located in Millerton, New York, work a stall at the New Amsterdam Market in Manhattan. Organic farming associations across the nation have been supporting the community of farmers and conscious eaters for nearly five decades, but, as EFL contributor and Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York board member Elizabeth Henderson reports, “direct sales and [the organic] label are not enough to keep family-scale farms viable.” (Photo credit: istolethetv/Flickr)

Real Meals Campaign: Recently we have witnessed some of the most dramatic impacts of Big Food: the burning of the Amazon and an ICE raid on hundreds of workers at chicken processing plants in Mississippi after a major labor abuse settlement by Koch Foods. Big Food corporations are also hiding an ugly truth: Their business model drives farmers and fishers off the land and water, perpetuates racial injustice, drives down wages, and drives up chronic disease, biodiversity loss and carbon emissions. They are a threat to our future, with communities of color hit first and worst. Yet Aramark, Sodexo and Compass Group continue to make exclusive deals with these Big Food corporations and others like them.
>>>Urge Aramark, Sodexo and Compass Group to drop their exclusive deals with Big Food corporations and instead support small-scale farmers, farmers of color, fair and humane food sources, and community-based agriculture.

World Animal Protection: Right now, there are more than 3,000 intelligent, social dolphins across the world suffering in captivity. They often look like they are smiling, but this is just the shape of their face. Captive dolphins are separated from their mothers far too young, confined in tanks hundreds of thousands of times smaller than their natural home and deprived of food so they can be trained. The multibillion-dollar captive dolphin industry wants you to think dolphins enjoy their confinement. They rely on a quirk of nature—the shape of a dolphin’s face—and years of misinformation. Captive dolphins are living miserable lives in the name of profit for dolphinariums and other venues, where every ticket sold prolongs a dolphin’s miserable existence. While many travel companies have stopped promoting this cruelty, Expedia Group is still selling tickets to these venues and profiting from this inhumane industry.
>>>Urge Expedia to stop selling, offering or promoting any dolphin shows or experiences.

PETA UK: At the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands, approximately 1,500 monkeys are used for breeding or experimentation at any one time. They’re often shaved, crudely tattooed, placed in restraint cages, and infected with debilitating diseases. Sometimes, after being sedated, these intelligent animals remain conscious during terrifying procedures, such as those in which tuberculosis bacteria are injected directly into their eyelids. Unable to escape, they’re helpless to defend themselves. Experiments on monkeys must stop now. The results of such studies aren’t even relevant to humans.
>>>Urge the Dutch government to end the use of primates in experiments and to make the transition to humane science.

Cause for concern…

Exxon knew: Student climate activists march in Washington, D.C., in November 2015, with signs admonishing ExxonMobil for its complicity in furthering the climate apocalypse. The company “says it supports a federal carbon tax and the Paris climate agreement,” reports EFL contributor Elliott Negin of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Then why, after all these years, is the company still financing advocacy groups, think tanks, and business associations that reject the reality and seriousness of the climate crisis, as well as members of Congress who deny the science and oppose efforts to rein in carbon emissions?” (Photo credit: Johnny Silvercloud/Flickr)

Round of applause…

Voice for the voiceless: More than 100 animal activists demonstrated outside City Hall in New York City on October 31, just before the city council passed a landmark package of legislation aimed at protecting animals, including a ban on foie gras, new restrictions on operating horse carriages on hot days and a ban on trafficking wild birds meant to protect the city’s pigeons from being captured and moved to Pennsylvania, the only state where cruel pigeon shoots are still legal. “To see the City Council grow in their empathy towards all animals, including ones raised on farms for food, is an incredible evolution to see,” said Allie Feldman Taylor, president of Voters for Animal Rights. (Photo credit: Reynard Loki)

Parting thought…

“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is—whether its victim is human or animal—we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature.” —Rachel Carson

Trump Sued by 20 States and New York City for Endangered Species Act Rollbacks | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

Trump’s latest gift to Big Oil: The bald eagle is an Endangered Species Act success story. But now 20 states and New York City are suing the Trump administration for rollbacks to the nation’s bedrock conservation law—even as we are losing species at a rate faster than any time since the dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago. Trump’s revised rules—which make it more difficult to protect wildlife, particularly from climate change threats—“appear very likely to clear the way for new mining, oil and gas drilling, and development in areas where protected species live,” The New York Times reports, even as a new poll shows that Americans would rather reduce oil and gas exploration than drill. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Audubon: The Endangered Species Act has a proven track record of success in providing a safety net that protects our most vulnerable wildlife. It has prevented 99 percent of the species under its care from going extinct, including America’s symbol, the bald eagle. But the White House has released new rules that weaken it. We should allow this critical law to continue to protect wildlife for future generations, not undermine it.
>>>Urge your senators and representatives to protect the Endangered Species Act.

Animal Welfare Institute: Oregon, Washington, Idaho and several Native American tribes have applied to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to kill hundreds of California and Steller sea lions in the Columbia River basin. They say it’s necessary to kill them to save endangered and threatened salmon, but in fact the primary threat to the fish is degraded spawning habitat. The Columbia River and its tributaries abound with dams and culverts and other human-caused habitat damage. Killing sea lions is a diversion from these more important threats, whose solutions—particularly the strategic removal of some dams—are less politically palatable. Federal legislation was passed last year to allow this sea lion killing program—the first indiscriminate cull allowed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) since its passage in 1972. Even under this new MMPA amendment, however, these states and tribes must meet certain criteria before a cull can take place, and these standards are not being met. This cull should not move forward; if it does, the animals will literally die for nothing.
>>>Submit a comment letter to NMFS before today’s deadline, urging NMFS to deny the application.

Rainforest Action Network: The Leuser Ecosystem in Indonesia is the only place on Earth where you can find elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans under the same forest canopy. But undercover investigations have exposed an illegal palm oil plantation responsible for destroying critical wildlife habitat in the sensitive ecosystem. This conflict palm oil has been traced to several leading food brands, including General Mills, Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Mondelēz, Mars, Hershey’s, Unilever and PepsiCo. These companies are not following their own “no deforestation” commitments and they still can’t guarantee deforestation-free palm oil in their products.
>>>Tell these brands to cut ties to illegally produced conflict palm oil and stop the deforestation in the Leuser Ecosystem.

Cause for concern…

Hot planet: The Swan Lake wildfire rages through a stand of black spruce in a boreal forest in Alaska in June, part of another record-setting summer for wildfires around the world. “As many of these fires are occurring in remote areas, they may not pose a major threat to densely populated areas, but rural populations, particularly Indigenous groups, are being affected,” reports EFL contributor Robert Walker, president of the Population Institute. “The fires do not bode well for humanity’s future.” (Photo credit: National Wildfire Coordinating Group)

Round of applause…

A better life: A rescued pig at Edgar’s Mission, a nonprofit farm sanctuary outside Melbourne, Australia, that cares for more than 300 rescued farm animals. “Public perception of animal cruelty, backed by mounting scientific evidence of the similarities between human and nonhuman animals, is helping to change hearts, minds and laws,” writes EFL contributor and animal activist Nina Jackel, founder and president of Lady Freethinker, an animal rights media nonprofit. “Just as we will evolve past racism, sexism, ageism and religious persecution, we will evolve past barbarism toward animals, too.” (Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals)

Parting thought…

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” —Charles Darwin

Trump Reverses Ban on Pesticides in Wildlife Refuges, Threatening Endangered Birds and Bees

In Trump’s crosshairs: The piping plover (Charadrius melodus), a small shorebird that nests and feeds along North American coastal beaches, is listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But now it is one of hundreds of species that face the new threat of deadly neonicotinoid pesticides, which could be unleashed on U.S. wildlife refuges following President Trump’s reversal of a ban that has been in place for the past five years. (Photo credit: Mdf/Wikimedia Commons)

Center for Biological Diversity: The United States’ 566 national wildlife refuges are the world’s largest collection of lands set aside specifically for the preservation of imperiled fish and wildlife. These forests, wetlands and waterways are vital to the survival of thousands of species, including more than 280 protected under the Endangered Species Act. But now, in a huge giveaway to the pesticide industry, the Trump administration has greenlighted genetically engineered (GE) crops and toxic pesticides on these public lands. This action reverses a 2014 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do just the opposite: ban GE crops and neonicotinoid pesticides throughout the refuge system. And so now 150 million acres of important pollinator and bird habitat will be exposed to increased pesticide use—without considering the risks to the nation’s most endangered species, as required by law.
>>>Urge the USFWS to drop this plan and protect the nation’s wildlife refuges from pesticides.

Care2: A new study has shown that nearly 60 percent of wild coffee species are under threat due to climate change, and several coffee bean species may already be extinct. While the coffee we drink usually comes from cultivated plants and not these wild varieties, the future of coffee—and the livelihoods of many people in underprivileged countries—may depend on wild coffee species. That’s because wild coffee species have traits that can help us future-proof our domestic coffee as climate change and rising disease take their toll—something that researchers say is already happening. Big coffee chains are making mega-profits off the back of coffee, and it is up to them to use some of that wealth to help safeguard wild coffee.
>>>Urge Starbucks, Dunkin’, Lavazza and other major coffee companies to publish concrete strategies that they will use to support wild coffee production and coffee farmers.

Lady Freethinker: Right now, thousands of “pet” primates in the United States are suffering. Held captive by humans, these social, intelligent and emotionally complex animals become depressed, aggressive or diseased—with no hope of a natural life. In the primate pet trade, babies are ripped away from their mothers, who may be forced to breed over and over again by unscrupulous dealers. All primate species—from tiny monkeys to larger apes, such as chimpanzees—are unsuited to life away from their own families. And when they’re no longer cute and compliant, their guardians will often confine them to tiny cages where they’re more easily controlled, or may sell them or attempt to re-home them in overcrowded sanctuaries. But the animals will never lead normal lives, and are forever psychologically damaged. While some states have primate pet bans in place, there is no federal law. The Captive Primate Safety Act aims to address this by banning the sale or purchase of nonhuman primates for the exotic pet trade, both from foreign countries and across state lines.
>>>Urge Congress to pass the Captive Primate Safety Act.

Cause for concern…

Profiting from pollution: An oil rig off the coast of Ventura, California. Just 20 fossil fuel companies, both investor- and state-owned, are directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions since 1965, according to new data from the Climate Accountability Institute. Chevron heads the list of the eight investor-owned firms, followed by Exxon, BP and Shell. Combined, these four firms are behind more than 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions in the modern era. (Photo credit: mmcothern/Flickr)

Round of applause…

Skin trade: Anti-fur protesters demonstrate outside Nordstrom in San Francisco in 2010. On October 12, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a pair of bills to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products—making the state the first in the nation to do so—and bar most animals from circus performances. (Photo credit: Steve Rhodes/Flickr)

What we’re reading…

In his new book Food Town, USA: Seven Unlikely Cities That are Changing the Way We Eat (Island Press, 2019), food writer Mark Winne takes a tour of surprising and inspiring food destinations—Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Sitka, Alaska; Alexandria, Louisiana; Boise, Idaho; Youngstown, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida; and Portland, Maine—to uncover how healthy, sustainable fare is transforming and revitalizing communities impacted by inequity, obesity and the opioid epidemic. While Winne found that most of the cities he visited “either have a food policy council, network, or coalition,” he was particularly struck by how individual action was the genesis of change. “Whether we’re talking about a for-profit entrepreneur, an elected official, a community organizer, or someone who may rise to the level of visionary … the drive and imagination of a relatively small number of people is what’s elevating the food scene.”

Sarah C. Beasley offers a guide to applying compassion and empathy in our relationships with animals in her new book Kindness for All Creatures (Shambhala 2019). Using the Six Perfections of Buddhism as a foundation, Beasley, a senior lay practitioner in the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, offers insight into how empathy can deepen our relationship to both domestic and wild animals—from pet adoption and breed-bias, to the philosophical difference between ownership vs. guardianship, to the conservation of wildlife and habitat. “On the path to compassion,” she says, “our tasks are to deepen our respect for all creatures and their unique consciousnesses and to find ways to benefit them.”

The unique art of vegan sweets takes center stage in Sweet + Salty (Da Capo Lifelong, 2019), by chef and confectioner Lagusta Yearwood, who uncovers why certain key ingredients can present ethical problems for chefs and consumers, like chocolate (“made with questionable labor practices, including human trafficking and the use of child slaves”) and sugar (“land grabs … that displace indigenous people, deforest and destroy already fragile ecosystems, and threaten habitat loss”). But as her plant-based, cruelty-free recipes for cakes, caramels, truffles, toffee and more demonstrate, desserts can be even more delectable when they’re made with sustainably sourced, fair-trade ingredients. Lagusta, a self-proclaimed “fake back-to-the-land anarcho-punk,” offers this advice: “Ask questions, contact companies. Feel good about what you’re working with so intimately in the kitchen.”

Parting thought…

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” —Rachel Carson