For nearly two decades, America’s largest forest has been protected from logging and development. Trump has ended that.

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute

5 min read

The Trump administration has announced plans to lift restrictions on logging and building roads in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest national forest. Called the nation’s “crown jewel” by the United States Forest Service, the Tongass is a pristine rainforest ecosystem filled with ancient trees that provides critical habitat for many species, including grizzly bears, wolves, bald eagles and all five species of Pacific salmon. Covering most of southeast Alaska, the Tongass supports a host of unique ecosystems, including ice fields, glaciers, and old-growth forests, as well as islands facing the open Pacific Ocean, the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else in America’s national forest system.

The decision was announced on October 28, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which manages the Forest Service, released a notice stating that the Tongass would now be exempt from the “roadless rule,” a federal conservation policy that prohibits timber harvest and road construction on designated roadless areas, with limited exceptions. Established in 2001, the rule has protected 58.5 million acres of roadless land—nearly one-quarter of all land administered by the Forest Service.

Spanning nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass is one of Earth’s largest remaining temperate rainforests and serves as a crucial carbon sink, storing at least 9 percent of all the carbon stored in all of the continental U.S. forests combined, according to the Washington Post, which called the move “one of the most sweeping public lands rollbacks Trump has enacted.” The policy change could impact more than half of this unspoiled wilderness: Around 9.4 million acres of the forest are designated as roadless areas.

Environmental and conservation groups criticized the move and vowed to fight the decision. “While tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet, the Tongass is the lungs of North America,” Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist with the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, told the Post. “It’s America’s last climate sanctuary.”

“The Tongass National Forest provides us with the greatest opportunity in the nation, if not the world, for protecting temperate rainforest at the ecosystem scale, in the face of climate change,” said Audubon, a nonprofit conservation organization based in New York. “It sequesters more carbon than any other type of forest on Earth, providing a much-needed opportunity for climate solutions that can simultaneously bolster regional economies.”

Industry groups welcomed the decision. “There’s a handful of small operators that are working on the Tongass, harvesting timber,” Tessa Axelson of the Alaska Forest Association, a timber industry group, told Alaska Public Media. “In order to continue to survive, those businesses are dependent on a predictable supply of timber.” Frank Bergstrom, a mining consultant in Juneau, said the rollback could attract investors to mineral exploration in the region.“There’s no roadmap to these things,” he said. “Maybe it’ll lead to a little more optimism.”

The decision flies in the face of public sentiment. As Alaska Public Media reported, an information request from the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council found that Americans overwhelmingly support protections on the Tongass, with 96 percent of public comments from within and outside Alaska favoring the maintenance of the roadless rule.

“It is the crown jewel of America’s natural forests, and conservation is very much in the interest of all Americans because it is our land and we are the stewards of that land,” said Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) during Senate deliberations of Interior Department budget appropriations in 2003. “When I was up there, I saw glaciers, mountains, growths of hemlock and cedar that grow to be over 200 feet tall. The trees can live as long as a thousand years.”

Sign the petition urging Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to maintain federal protections for the Tongass National Forest.

Letter to the editor…

An EFL reader replies to “Trump Threatens to Veto First Ever Congressional Action on ‘Forever Chemicals,’” by EFL contributor Michael Green:

“This is most important work, so please keep it coming. Not enough people are reading and listening, believing.” —Harold Treinen, Portland, Oregon

Cause for concern…

“Under Donald Trump, the government has auctioned off millions of acres of public lands to the fossil fuel industry, the Guardian can reveal, in the most comprehensive accounting to date of how much public land the administration has handed over to oil and gas drillers over the past four years,” report Emily Holden, Jimmy Tobias and Alvin Chang for the Guardian.

• Revealed: The full extent of Trump’s assault on U.S. wilderness (Emily Holden, Jimmy Tobias, and Alvin Chang, The Guardian)
• Humans wiped out two-thirds of the world’s wildlife in 50 years (Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine)​
• Fences are bad for wildlife (The Economist)
• GM, Ford knew about climate change 50 years ago (Maxine Joselow, E&E News)​
• Underwater photographer David Doubilet on seeing 50 years of coral bleaching firsthand (Charlotte Davey, Condé Nast Traveler)

“This is one of the places where we can make a positive impact,” said fashion designer Eileen Fisher in a Vogue interview. “Rather than just pollute less or do less harm, we can actually revive the Earth through the process of making clothes.”

• This design collective is helping fashion embrace regenerative agriculture (Emily Farra, Vogue)
• Wallenius Marine develops world’s largest wind-powered vessel to slash shipping emissions (Jennifer Hahn, Dezeen)
• Threatened Mexican spotted owl to get better protections from U.S. Forest Service (Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press)
• This Black entrepreneur is raising funds to bring a new vegan restaurant to Compton (Jocelyn Martinez, VegNews)
• Global vegan ice cream market to reach $805.3 million by 2027 (Allied Market Research, GlobeNewswire)

Parting thought…

“The boundary between us and the rest of the world is so fluid. So I think of myself as a song the universe is singing.” —Rebecca Henderson

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.

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute

6 min read

The steady erosion of Indigenous rights continues under Trump as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is—at the request of Oklahoma’s Republican governor J. Kevin Stitt—relinquishing its oversight of a number of environmental issues across 38 federally recognized tribes’ lands to the state, as Rebecca Beitsch reports for the Hill.

The July 22 request invoked for the first time a provision in a 2005 transportation bill sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) giving Oklahoma the oversight of environmental issues “in the areas of the state that are in Indian country, without any further demonstration of authority by the state.” In an October 1 letter to Stitt, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler listed several federal authorities mandated under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act that will now be overseen by Oklahoma.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. criticized the move as a “knee-jerk reaction to curtail tribal jurisdiction [that] is not productive.”

“After over 500 years of oppression, lies, genocide, ecocide, and broken treaties, we should have expected the EPA ruling in favor of racist Governor Stitt of Oklahoma, yet it still stings,” Casey Camp-Horinek, elder and hereditary drumkeeper of the Ponca Tribe, said in a statement. “Under the Trump administration, destroying all environmental protection has been ramped up to give the fossil fuel industry life support as it takes its last dying breath.”

The move is a gift to the fossil fuel and agriculture industries, both of which wanted to avoid having to consult tribal governments about environmental issues related to fracking, the dumping of hazardous waste and factory farm pollution runoff. Oklahoma has a cozy relationship with the dirty fuel interests, being one of only 13 states that export more energy than they import. Indigenous lands will now be a dumping ground for a long list of poisonous waste and airborne pollutants, including smog, lead, asbestos, glyphosate and nitrates, which threaten public health and natural ecosystems.

Brook Simmons, president of the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, an oil and gas industry trade group, expressed concern that the landmark 2020 Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which made the prosecution of crimes committed on tribal lands a matter for federal, not state, courts, could lead to a patchwork of tribal environmental regulations across Oklahoma. “The EPA decision was particularly welcomed by the state’s oil and gas industry,” reported Sean Murphy of the Republic.

“EPA’s letter grants Oklahoma’s request to administer the State’s EPA-approved environmental regulatory programs in certain areas of Indian country. EPA’s letter resolves ambiguity and essentially preserves the regulatory status quo in Oklahoma,” EPA spokesman James Hewitt said in a statement. “Additionally, if any tribe wants to apply for regulatory oversight of these environmental programs, then they can apply through EPA’s Treatment as a State process,” he added.

Stitt defended his request to the EPA, saying in a statement, “This approval helps to better protect public health and our environment by ensuring certainty and one consistent set of regulations for all citizens of Oklahoma, including those who are also citizens of one of Oklahoma’s federally recognized Tribes.”

“It’s disappointing the Cherokee Nation’s request that EPA consult individually with affected Oklahoma tribes was ignored,” said Hoskin. “Unfortunately, the governor’s decision to invoke a 2005 federal law ignores the longstanding relationships between state agencies and the Cherokee Nation.”

“The underlying law is a one-section provision surreptitiously inserted as a midnight rider in the massive (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act) of 2005 that treats Oklahoma tribes differently than other tribes throughout the United States,” the Muscogee (Creek) Nation said in a statement. “Like the SAFETEA Act itself, this was a swift move meant to circumvent the federal government’s trust, duty and obligation to consult with the tribal nations concerned.”

• Sign the petition to tell the EPA it must revert environmental regulatory control back to the tribes living on these lands.

Letter to the editor…

An EFL reader replies to “The Terrible True Cost of Milk, Cheese, Butter and Ice Cream,” by Reynard Loki, October 20, 2020:

“I have been a vegan for 20 plus years because of the terrible abuse towards sweet animals like cows, sheep and chickens. I thank you for getting this information out to everyone. Animals deserve nothing less. We must change our farming industry. We owe it to animals to stop the cruelty, because it is well researched that they feel pain just as we do. My heart goes out to all the dairy cows, to the female pigs who are crated and just have to keep birthing piglets, and to the many chickens who live in crowded disgusting conditions. I am 73 and was raised in the U.K. by my mom and dad who loved animals. I believe that if schools gave young children the opportunity to learn about how animals are like us, and how they have feelings, we could end a lot of the pain endured daily by not only farm animals but by all animals. Circuses have abused large animals for decades and still go on in spite of activism. Again, thanks for keeping information out there. Too many people are ignorant of facts.”

—Ann Marwick, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Cause for concern…

• With Justice Barrett, a tectonic court shift on the environment (Beth Gardiner, Yale Environment 360)
• White House releases new plan for seismic tests in Arctic Refuge (Henry Fountain, The New York Times)
• Trump rollbacks create pollution nightmare in districts and states of Congressmembers overseeing EPA (Brian Kahn, Earther)
• Natural disasters quicken an already precipitous global loss of species (The Economist)
• California ranchers, activists face off over plan to cull beloved Tule elk herd (Katelyn Weisbrod, InsideClimate News)

Round of applause…

• Humpback whales have made a remarkable recovery, giving us hope for the planet (Dr. Kirsten Thompson, TIME)
• Meet “Veggie Mijas,” the Latinx organization decolonizing veganism (Andrea Devoto, Thrillist)
• ​​​​​Deep-sea corals get new protections in the Gulf of Mexico (Tristan Baurick, The Times-Picayune)
• To stop a wind turbine from harming birds, paint it black (Jethro George Gauld, National Interest) ​​
• 11 states urge EPA to toughen planned airplane emissions rules (David Shepardson, Reuters)

Parting thought…

When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

—Cree prophecy​​​​​​​

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.

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute

6 min read

For more than two years, Erin Wing served as an undercover investigator for Animal Outlook, an animal advocacy organization nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., during which time she conducted multiple investigations, including one of a dairy factory farm in 2019, after which Nestlé dropped the farm and added more vegan options. Her final assignment before choosing to leave the field was to document the cruelty to cows happening every day behind closed doors at Dick Van Dam Dairy, a massive factory farm in San Jacinto, California. Wing recently revealed her true identity, writing earlier this month, “I’m now stepping out of the shadows to shine a light on the stomach-churning horrors I witnessed.”

Using a hidden camera, she documented shocking cruelty, from cows being violently kicked, jabbed and shocked by workers, sick cows producing blood-tinged pink milk, calves covered in flies and left to languish in the mud, and a lack of euthanasia or veterinary care, leaving sick cows to slowly die, with their dead, decomposing bodies left among living cows. In addition, Wing documented “downed” or “spent” cows—cows who are so sick, injured or weak that they are no longer able to stand—dragged by chains and painful “hip clamps,” lifted over walls using tractors. These downed cows, who are no longer useful to the dairy industry, are often killed for their meat. This tragic reality is a reason that “ethical vegetarians” who consume dairy products are actually supporting the beef industry: About a third of dairy cows are ultimately killed for their meat.

“This is where milk comes from—a profit-driven industry that treats these gentle, smart and social animals like mere milk-producing machines or unwanted by-products,” Wing writes. After reviewing the investigation, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, an animal law nonprofit based in Cotati, California, filed a lawsuit against Dick Van Dam Dairy and the individuals caught on camera for violating California animal cruelty laws and the San Jacinto Municipal Code through the neglectful treatment of cows and calves.

While animal cruelty in the industrialized food system is rampant—factory farming is the largest cause of animal abuse in history—consumer views on the treatment of farmed animals changing. Nearly half of Americans would support a ban on the factory farming of animals, according to a 2017 poll, with 70 percent having “some discomfort with the way animals are used in the food industry.”

Now prominent lawmakers in Washington are taking action. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined forces to advance federal legislation that would ban large-scale factory farming in the United States over the next two decades. The Farm System Reform Act seeks to place a moratorium on large-scale factory farming. It would also strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 to require country of origin labeling on beef, pork and dairy products. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is also co-sponsoring the effort, introducing companion legislation to the House of Representatives.

These shifting public attitudes are resulting in an increased demand for plant-based (i.e., cruelty-free) milk, which is putting the future of dairy farming into question. Last year, the U.S. saw the largest annual decline in the number of licensed dairy operations in more than 15 years. “The recent acceleration of the decline reflects how difficult it is to operate a dairy, particularly in the last several years,” reported the American Farm Bureau Federation, a lobbying group representing the U.S. agriculture industry, in February. “Since the end of 2014, dairy farmers have struggled with low prices resulting from large supplies outweighing demand, in the U.S. and around the world.”

Dick Van Dam Dairy supplies milk to Dean Foods, America’s largest milk processor, based in Dallas. In November, the company filed for bankruptcy. The majority of its assets, including the brands Alta Dena and TruMoo, are now owned by Dairy Farmers of America, the nation’s largest dairy cooperative. “Dean Foods’ business has struggled as more consumers turn to non-dairy milk,” writes Amelia Lucas of CNBC, noting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows that Americans’ milk consumption has fallen 26 percent over the past 20 years.

While the steady move away from dairy is something for animal advocates to cheer about, we are a long way from reforming our broken and inhumane food system. In the U.S. alone, nearly 10 billion land animals are raised on factory farms and killed in slaughterhouses every single year, accounting for 99 percent of farmed animals in the nation. In the U.S., there are approximately 9 million dairy cows. But these cows are far from just numbers—every one of them is an individual, with an individual personality. Dr. Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He writes on Psychology Today that cows are “highly sentient and intelligent individuals with markedly different personalities … display[ing] a full range of personalities including boldness, shyness, sociability and gregariousness.”

But confined and abused in our inhumane food system, they are treated as nothing more than capitalist objects. Betty Stoneman, who teaches philosophy at Emory University, wrote an essay applying Marx’s theory of “estranged labor” (i.e., workers’ alienation from the products of their labor) to animals on factory farms. She writes: “On factory farms animals live confined to small cages, unable to enjoy the full range of their possible movements and among their own waste. Animals undergo painful physical modifications designed to enhance their productivity and to combat the stress reactions they develop due to their living conditions. Animals are deprived of being able to live their lives as they naturally would either as individuals or as members of social groups.” This misery is generally kept hidden from the public, with the factory farm industry in several states shielded by anti-whistleblower legislation, known as “ag-gag” laws.

It is also worth remembering that a dairy cow is also a mother, with maternal instincts to care for and defend her young. Forcibly impregnated so that she is kept in a constant and painful cycle of pregnancy, birth and lactation, this poor, abused mother must also suffer the relentless theft of her babies, who are taken away from her within hours of their birth. “This forced separation often causes cows to bellow for hours or even days, pacing and searching for their calves,” writes Joe Loria of Mercy for Animals, a nonprofit that, like Animal Outlook, has been at the forefront of exposing the behind-the-scenes horrors of factory farming.

“I saw abuse and neglect every single day,” Wing said about her harrowing undercover mission. “I feel a special bond toward cows now because of it, and it will always stay with me. A part of me will always be with them as well.”

• Sign the petition urging Dairy Farmers of America to shift at least 20 percent of its supply chain (Dean Foods included) to vegan dairy alternatives, and end cruel dehorning.

Cause for concern…

“People across the country are waking up to structural racism and coping with police brutality and civil unrest while also living through the nightmare of the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Earth | Food | Life contributor Sharon Lavigne, on Truthout. “They’re mourning losses and longing for life to get back to normal. But in St. James Parish, Louisiana, where I’m from—a predominantly Black and low-income community nicknamed “Cancer Alley”—racism, brutality, loss and unrest are normal. In fact, a new plastics complex and President Trump’s decision to gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) stand to make things even worse.”

• If we don’t act now, the entire U.S. could become a “Cancer Alley” (Sharon Lavigne, Truthout)
• Court lets Exide abandon toxic site—taxpayers will fund cleanup (Tony Barboza, The Los Angeles Times)
• Trump EPA may violate courts with new rule extending life of hazardous coal ash ponds (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill)
• Wildfire smoke in U.S. exposes millions to hazardous pollution (Matthew Brown and Camille Fassett, Associated Press)
• Shark species nearly vanishes in just 40 years due to overfishing (John R. Platt, The Revelator)

Round of applause…

In a recent op-ed published by our friends at Local Futures, “big picture activist” Henry Coleman condemns the “corporate-led, techno-globalist future we are being sold,” arguing that localizing our food systems is “the single most meaningful solution to climate breakdown.”

• What to do when the world is on fire (Henry Coleman, Local Futures)
• Shippers close to global deal to cut greenhouse gas pollution (Jess Shankleman and Ewa Krukowska, Bloomberg Green)
• After horrific cases, Greece moves to make animal cruelty a felony (The National Herald)​​
• ​​​​​Kroger expands plant-based brand after exceeding $2.5 billion in sales (Liam Gilliver, Plant Based News)
• Vegan cheese from small Spanish town named one of the world’s best cheeses (Vegconomist)

Parting thought…

“The grocery store became a site for mourning: the innocuous refrigerators filled with milk, yogurt, cheese, butter, and eggs; the freezers of ice cream; the cases of meat, neatly packaged and priced—these suddenly became, to me, the products of immeasurable violence.” —Kathryn Gillespie, The Cow With Ear Tag #1389 (University of Chicago Press, 2018)

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.

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute

5 min read

JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, recently announced that it is adopting “a financing commitment that is aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement,” adding that part of this new strategy is “to help clients navigate the challenges and capitalize on the long-term economic and environmental benefits of transitioning to a low-carbon world.”

The Paris Agreement, the international climate agreement joined by 189 countries—and which Trump pulled the United States out of—sets out a global framework to avoid irreversible climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2° Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5° Celsius. At the heart of the agreement is getting the world to “climate neutrality”: net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.

But while the announcement may sound good to environmentalists, a closer inspection reveals serious concerns. Unlike the commitment made last month by Morgan Stanley, in which the nation’s sixth largest bank said it is committed to “reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050” and also to “developing the tools and methodologies needed to measure and manage its carbon-related activities,” JPMorgan’s own announcement does not clarify that the bank will reduce its own financed emissions to net zero. Additionally, while Morgan Stanley committed to measuring and disclosing its financed emissions by joining the Steering Committee of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), the global platform that other banks have adopted, JPMorgan made no similar promise.

“In recent decades JPMorgan has plowed billions of dollars into the very industries tearing down rainforests, trampling indigenous rights, and destroying the climate,” said Moira Birss, climate and finance director at Amazon Watch, a nonprofit. “While this is an improvement over its existing policies, the commitment fails to address the full impact of its investments on communities and our climate and grants the bank three more decades to change when we need action now.”

Notably, JPMorgan’s announcement mentioned nothing about reducing the bank’s enormous lending to fossil fuel companies. According to “Banking on Climate Change,” a report on fossil fuel financing published this year by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a nonprofit, JPMorgan has been the biggest financier of fossil fuels in the four years following the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016. RAN has launched a public petition urging JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to stop bankrolling environmental destruction by ending its funding of fossil fuels.

In fact, by lending $269 billion to support of dirty fuel in 2016-2019, JPMorgan became the first bank to exceed the quarter-trillion dollar mark in post-Paris Agreement fossil financing. These dangerous investments include backing controversial fossil fuel projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, which not only continues our reliance on oil, but violates Indigenous sovereignty, as the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is directly downstream of the point where the pipeline will cross the Missouri River. It also poses an immediate threat to local environments, including the drinking water of nearby communities and the natural habitats of nine threatened, endangered, and candidate species, such as the swift fox and the greater sage-grouse.

Environmentalists aren’t the only ones who want the bank to get serious about its commitment to the net-zero goal. Earlier this year, nearly 50 percent of JPMorgan’s investors voted in favor of a shareholder resolution filed by As You Sow, a nonprofit, asking the bank to measure, disclose and reduce emissions aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. As You Sow withdrew similar proposals with Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs after these banks made commitments to assess methodologies for measuring financed emissions toward alignment with the Paris goals.

“We are happy to see JPMorgan respond to investors’ resounding vote for climate action,” said Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow, in a press statement. “While this announcement is an important step in the right direction, its focus on [clients’] actions rather than its own financing decisions, is a concern. For years, JPMorgan has been the top financier of fossil fuels. Climate progress will be made only by committing to dramatically reduce financing to these high carbon companies and projects. Relying on clients to make change, without turning off the funding spigots, is not a recipe for success. We look forward to more clarity and strong interim financing reduction commitments from JPMorgan.”

Last year, 215 global companies reported nearly $1 trillion at risk from climate impacts, with many likely to happen within the next five years. While this is an alarming scenario, there is also a massive economic benefit to ramping up the fight against climate change. Limiting global warming below below 1.5 degrees versus 2 degrees will save an estimated $20 trillion globally by 2100, according to a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University in California and the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“The world’s largest lender to the fossil fuel industry has clearly signaled that the fossil fuel game is coming to an end,” said Alec Connon, co-coordinator of the Stop the Money Pipeline Coalition, about JPMorgan Chase’s announcement to align its financing with the Paris Agreement. “However, if [the bank] is serious about its climate commitments, it’ll need to quickly follow this up with policies that prohibit all lending to coal companies and companies still expanding fossil fuel production. 2050 vision is all well and good, but we need 2020 actions.”

• Sign the petition urging JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to stop funding fossil fuels.

Cause for concern…

“Animal agriculture industry groups defending factory farms engage in campaigns of surveillance, reputation destruction, and other forms of retaliation against industry critics and animal rights activists, documents obtained through a FOIA request from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal,” reports Glenn Greenwald on the Intercept. “That the USDA possesses these emails and other documents demonstrates the federal government’s knowledge of, if not participation in, these industry campaigns.”

• New documents reveal how the animal agriculture industry surveils and punishes critics (Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept)
• Florida sees signals of a climate-driven housing crisis (Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times)
• Feds continue to raise concerns about proposed mine near Georgia swamp (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• COVID-19 outbreak kills nearly 10,000 minks on Utah fur farms (Abby Haglage, Yahoo! Lifestyle)

Round of applause…

“During a long battle in a South Carolina court, several government permits that allowed seismic testing and harming marine animals slowly expired,” report Darryl Fears and Dino Grandoni for the Washington Post.

• Trump plan to allow seismic blasts in Atlantic oil search appears dead (Darryl Fears and Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post)
• Israel becomes first country to ban the fur trade (Kitty Block, Humane Society of the United States)
• Push to ban eggs from caged hens comes to New York (Joe Mahoney, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)
• Indian plant-based egg company to launch Asia’s first ‘liquid’ vegan egg (Mohsina Dodhiya, Totally Vegan Buzz)

Parting thought…

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.

Endangered species have a formidable enemy in President Trump.

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute

5 min read

It is hard to ignore the dark irony behind President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis. The Science-Denier-in-Chief, who has ignored facts and medical experts, has contracted the deadly disease that he has downplayed from the outset, and which has claimed the lives of more than 209,000 Americans and infected 7.4 million.

And there is another layer to this dark irony: Trump, who has significantly eroded protections for endangered species, has fallen victim to a disease that scientists believe originated with the pangolin, an endangered species that is so overhunted that it is known as “the world’s most trafficked mammal.” In the last two decades alone, more than a million pangolins were poached and illegally traded.

​​​“[I]t is likely for pangolin coronavirus to have originated from bat viruses as a result of illegal trapping of alive animals in East Asia and their sale in the wildlife market of Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China, with a subsequent human-to-human transmission,” according to an international team of researchers in a study published last month in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. “Animals host pathogens that in normal conditions are rarely transmitted to our species. However, the abuses perpetrated on the environment at a global scale (i.e., wildlife poaching and trade, deforestation, wildfires, climate change, overfishing, etc.) increase the likelihood of interspecies transmission.”

Trump is no friend to endangered species, with his administration steadily eroding longstanding wildlife protections in favor of hunters. In July, for example, the Trump administration proposed a death blow to endangered species by announcing a new, much narrower definition of “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which will impede conservation efforts across the nation. Instead of giving struggling species enough natural habitat so that they can recover and ultimately flourish, the new definition requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to “assign weight” to industry claims of economic impacts when designating an area as critical habitat.

“The Trump administration is re-writing the definition of critical habitat solely to make it easier to drill, frack, mine, clearcut, and otherwise exploit lands and waters that endangered wildlife rely on,” said Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation at Earthjustice, a nonprofit.. “We are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis and nothing about this new definition helps animals and plants facing extinction. The Endangered Species Act is the last safety net for imperiled wildlife. Rather than just implementing a law that we know works, the Trump administration keeps taking a buzzsaw to it.”

​​​​The ESA is the nation’s bedrock wildlife conservation law, and has received strong bipartisan support since its inception in 1973, when it was signed by Republican president Richard Nixon. But Trump—who enjoys immense support from the hunting lobby and whose sons are avid trophy hunters—has weakened protections for endangered species, destructive moves that have been lauded by powerful industry groups like the American Petroleum Institute.

“Developers and polluters could basically veto any critical habitat protections for endangered species by claiming economic impacts, even without proof,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit. “Wildlife simply can’t survive or recover if they have no place to live, but that’s exactly what will happen if the Trump administration succeeds in turning over the critical habitat designation process to industry.”

In one particularly galling move, the Trump administration in 2018 overturned an Obama-era ban on big game trophy imports. The decision ignores plummeting wildlife populations, particularly keystone species like elephants, rhinos and lions. Near the turn of the 20th century, Africa was home to between three and five million elephants. Now less than half a million remain. In the early 1900s, around 500,000 rhinos roamed across Africa and Asia. Today, only around 27,000 remain in the wild. Seventy-five percent of African lion populations are in decline, with only around 20,000 individuals left in the wild.

“When a species’ greatest value is as a dead trophy, its days will inevitably be numbered, just as they are when the value of their parts—like ivory tusks, tiger skins, or rhino horn—make protection from poachers nearly impossible,” writes Jeffrey Flocken of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a nonprofit.

The Trump administration also has critically endangered polar bears in its crosshairs. Their numbers are dwindling (there are only about 4,000 remaining in Alaska) due to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice caused by global warming. But Trump wants to open up their critical habitat—the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest remaining national wildlife refuge in the United States—to the oil and gas industry for drilling.

“This administration doesn’t care about anything but money, and wildlife will suffer,” said Greenwald.

Rhinos in Africa, an organization advocating against the trade in rhino horn, has launched a public petition—signed by more than 132,000 people—supporting the passage of H.R. 2245, the Cecil Act, which seeks to prohibit the import and export of threatened or endangered species.

• Sign the petition supporting the passage of the Cecil Act to protect endangered species.

Cause for concern…

“New Mexico’s regulators have crafted ambitious new rules to limit air pollution from oil and gas wells, but some stakeholders worry that the flexibility they offer to operators will gut them,” reports Elizabeth Miller for the Slick, new state-based reporting project on oil, climate and politics launched by Capital & Main.

• Will loopholes gut New Mexico’s new rules on oil and gas well pollution? (Elizabeth Miller, The Slick, Capital & Main)
• EPA finalizes rule letting some big polluters follow weaker standards (Rebecca Beitsch and Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• Fires in Brazil’s Amazon the worst in a decade, data shows (Jake Spring, Reuters)
• Greenland’s ice sheet is melting as fast as at any time in the last 12,000 years, study shows (Drew Kann, CNN)

Round of applause…

In 2018, a report found that nighttime mechanical harvesting of olives in Spain and Portugal to produce olive oil was linked to the deaths of wild birds. But after efforts by wildlife conservationists, earlier this year the deadly harvesting method was banned. “As a European and a fan of olive oil, I can’t help but celebrate this excellent news,” writes Iván Ramírez, senior head of conservation at BirdLife International, a nonprofit.

• Olive oil is no longer a threat for migratory birds (Iván Ramírez, BirdLife International)
• France to ban mink farms and wild animals in circuses (France 24)
• Florida’s ‘gray greens’ are mobilizing to save the environment (Bailey LeFever, Tampa Bay Times)
• Some young evangelicals abandoning Trump over climate change (James Bruggers, InsideClimate News)
• Researchers create lab-grown human skin to reduce animal testing (Liam Gilliver, Plant Based News)

Parting thought…

“Humanity can no longer stand by in silence while our wildlife are being used, abused and exploited. It is time we all stand together, to be the voice of the voiceless before it’s too late. Extinction means forever.” —Paul Oxton, founder of the Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation.

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.

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute

7 min read

The facts are clear and they are shocking: Factory farming is unhealthy for consumers, dangerous for workers, and devastating for the environment, and it is the largest cause of animal cruelty in the history of mankind.

In the United States alone, nearly 10 billion land animals are raised on factory farms and killed in slaughterhouses every single year, accounting for 99 percent of farmed animals in the nation. These animals are subjected to physical, psychological and emotional cruelty on a constant basis, living in extreme confinement where they experience fear and pain daily until they are killed for their meat. The normal lifespan of a chicken is five to eight years. But on a factory farm, they live just 47 days before they are sent to slaughter.

In addition to being the main cause of animal cruelty in the world, factory farming is a primary source of environmental degradation. The industrialized meat industry accounts for 37 percent of worldwide emissions of methane, a global warming gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after its release. It is also responsible for 65 percent of human-made emissions of nitrous oxide—a gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide—that depletes the ozone layer, which protects the Earth’s surface from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Factory farming also depletes the planet’s fresh water. Just a single egg takes more than 50 gallons of water to produce. A pound of chicken, 468 gallons. A gallon of milk, 880 gallons. A pound of beef, 1,800 gallons. It also requires vast tracts of land, which means the industrial meat industry is also the cause of massive deforestation around the globe, destroying ecosystems, threatening Indigenous communities and their traditional ways of life, and endangering a host of wildlife. Data shows that companies in the supply chain of JBS, the world’s largest supplier of meat, are potentially responsible for the destruction of up to 124 square miles of Brazilian rainforest every single year to produce beef that is exported around the globe.

It won’t be easy to transform the world’s food systems from animal to plants, but as Richard Trethowan, the director of the IA Watson Research Center at the University of Sydney’s Narrabri Plant Breeding Institute, writes in the Conversation, we can feed the human population with plant protein—without increasing the amount of farmland: “governments around the world must turn away from heavily [subsidized] but protein-poor cereals, and aggressively pursue legume production.”

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) contributor Josephine Morris, an expert in food policy and animal welfare with the Humane Society of the United States, works with the largest food companies, from fast-food chains like McDonald’s to foodservice firms like Sodexo, to uphold their commitments to improving the lives of animals in their supply chains. Last month, she wrote about the Food Industry Scorecard, a survey of 95 companies that looked at the progress being made (or not made) in terms of their stated public promises on increasing animal welfare.

“We’ve found that some of them are trying diligently to improve the lives of animals used in their supply chain; others are lagging behind or have backtracked from their pledges altogether,” she writes on NationofChange. “Sodexo is more than 60 percent compliant toward its goal of using only cage-free eggs and is actively working to increase its percentage of plant-based entrees,” Morris reports. “On the other hand, Marriott (and other companies) have repeatedly failed to keep their animal welfare promises, and Subway reports no progress made toward its 2012 promise to ‘rapidly eliminate’ cruel gestation crates from its pork supply.”

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the harsh realities of factory farming, as EFL contributor Linda Tyler, a fellow at Sentient Media who covers animal welfare issues, recently reported on Citizen Truth. “The COVID-19 crisis has played havoc with factory farming’s relentless raise-and-kill operations,” she writes. “Thousands of meatpacking and processing workers have been infected with the coronavirus, leading to the closing down of dozens of slaughterhouses. The animals destined for those slaughterhouses have had nowhere to go, and farmers have killed millions of animals, often in crude and cruel ways, including shooting, suffocation, and even heating the animals to death. Grown animals, as well as born and unborn baby animals, have been slaughtered. Farmers are ill-prepared to carry out this gruesome task, and animals are suffering horribly as a result.”

In addition to being exposed to coronavirus, factory farm workers—often undocumented immigrants—are routinely exploited by factory farm owners as a source of cheap labor and are forced to deal with dangerous working conditions: There is a 50  percent chance that a factory farm worker will be injured on the job. No wonder that U.S. factory farms, despite employing more than 500,000 workers, have one of the largest turnover rates in the nation: up to 100 percent annually.

What can be done? Well, the information gathered in the Food Industry Scorecard can help consumers make decisions about which companies they want to support, and which companies they want to avoid. It can also help shareholders decide where they want to invest and—if they’ve already invested in companies that have failed on their animal welfare commitments—where they might want to apply pressure. “Shareholders owning at least $2,000 worth of stock for at least one year can introduce a resolution,” writes Cameron Harsh, who manages the “Raise Pigs Right” campaign at World Animal Protection, a nonprofit. “In some cases, the submission of a resolution alone can lead to action by the company to address the issue of concern without requiring a full vote. It is in the interest of the company to avoid a public vote, and it can project a progressive image to shareholders ahead of the annual meeting.”

But the best thing we can all do is to reduce—or better yet, eliminate—our meat intake. For each person who chooses to switch to a meat-free diet, an estimated 100 animals per year could be spared a terrible fate. In addition to leaving animal cruelty and the environmental destruction caused by the meat industry off their plates, eaters who move to plant-based diets can experience a wide array of health benefits. Rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, plant-based diets are full of fiber, packed with vitamins and minerals, low in calories and saturated fat, and cholesterol-free. That translates to better health on multiple fronts: It can reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, and other major illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive conditions. Many people who have transitioned to a plant-based diet “report bigger fitness payoffs, more energy, reduced inflammation, and better health outcomes after making the switch,” reportsForks Over Knives.

Some lawmakers are taking action. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined forces to advance federal legislation that would ban large-scale factory farming in the United States over the next two decades. The Farm System Reform Act seeks to place a moratorium on large-scale factory farming. It would also strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 to require country of origin labeling on beef, pork and dairy products. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is also co-sponsoring the effort, introducing companion legislation to the House of Representatives.

“Our food system was not broken by the pandemic and it was not broken by independent family farmers. It was broken by large, multinational corporations like Tyson, Smithfield, and JBS that, because of their buying power and size, have undue influence over the marketplace and over public policy,” Booker said. “That undue influence was on full display with President Trump’s recent executive order prioritizing meatpacker profits over the health and safety of workers.”

In June, Care2 launched a public petition—already signed by more than 131,000 people—to give Americans a chance to lodge their support of the Farm System Reform Act. In addition to signing this petition, you can contact your senators and representative to urge them to co-sponsor these bills. Animals trapped in our broken, inhumane food system don’t have a voice. So it’s up to all of us to speak on their behalf. Together, we can move the country to a healthier, more humane future. As Gandhi—who espoused a total commitment to nonviolence—wisely observed, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

• Sign the petition to support Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren’s bill to ban factory farming in the United States by 2040.

Cause for concern…

• Vegan activist targeted by death threats (Robyn Wuth, Forbes Advocate)
• Sioux City pork plant cited by regulators for inhumane slaughter (Nick Hytrek, Sioux City Journal)
• Horrifying secret footage shows factory farm workers abusing young sheep at Spanish slaughterhouse (Charlotte Mitchell, Daily Mail)
• Delhi: Farm animals being slaughtered in violation of laws (Shivam Patel, The Indian Express)
• Livestock transport must end: Ship carrying 5,800 cows from New Zealand to China sinks (Maritime Executive)

Round of applause…

• Moby discusses his new documentary “Takeout,” which shows how meat is killing the rainforests (LIVEKINDLY)
• The green movement: The push for a plant-based diet is getting bigger worldwide (Vaishali Dar, Financial Express)
• Polish parliament votes to ban $1.8 billion industry of kosher and halal meat for export (Cnaan Liphshiz, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
• The vegan cookbook that’s also a call to action (Arati Menon, Food52 via MSN)
• Vegan tuna is the latest addition to the world of plant-based dining(Prestige)

Parting thought…

“Our relationship to most living things is and must be, I think, a moral one, not a practical one.” —Carl Safina

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.

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute
September 15, 2020

The catastrophic wildfires that are raging across California, Oregon and Washington state have consumed 5 million acres of dry forest. In the last week alone, they have killed at least 24 people. “I drove 600 miles up and down the state, and I never escaped the smoke,” Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Sunday on the ABC News television show “This Week With George Stephanopoulos. “We have thousands of people who have lost their homes. I could have never envisioned this.”

As firefighters continue to battle the deadly blazes, the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly opens Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York. One of the high-level meetings will be the Summit on Biodiversity, which will be held on September 30. Though wildfires are not mentioned in the event program, they must be discussed, as wildfires continue to pose a direct threat to biodiversity across the planet. A new report by WWF found that there has been a 68% average decline in species population sizes since 1970. The underlying cause: humanity.

Cataclysmic wildfires—the intensity and frequency of which have been increased by human-caused climate change—are not just an American phenomenon and impact far more than human life, trees and the built environment. “[A]s many as 1.25 billion animals—including iconic Australian species such as koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and gliders—have been killed or displaced by the fires,” Earth | Food | Life (EFL) reporter Robin Scher wrote on Truthout in April, about Australia’s “Black Summer,” the colloquial name of the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season, which was unusually intense. “In some instances, certain species may have even gone extinct,” Scher reported.

Writing about the Amazon wildfires for Truthout in June, EFL reporter Daniel Ross noted the “illegal logging, encroachment from agribusinesses and profit-driven government policies” that underpin Brazil’s wildfires, which have impacted wildlife, threatened Indigenous communities and created an air pollution-related health crisis in the nation’s urban areas. This month fires raging in Brazil’s Amazon worsened and are now threatening virgin forest.

In addition, the fires—many of which are illegally started to create pasture for cows that supply the nation’s multibillion-dollar beef industry—have created a dangerous situation for the global climate. “New research suggests that some deforested regions of the rainforest are exhaling more carbon dioxide than they’re taking in,” Ross reported. And make no mistake: a rapidly and unnaturally changing climate is a direct threat to the planet’s biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth that provides the foundation for a host of life-supporting ecological services such as clean air, clean water, healthy soil and crops, plant pollination, pest control, wastewater treatment and outdoor recreation.

Some organizations are fighting back. Amnesty International reported that “63% of the [Brazilian Amazon] deforested from 1988 to 2014 has become pasture for cattle—a land area five times the size of Portugal.” The group has launched a public petition urging the Brazilian company JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier, to take cows that have been illegally grazed on protected lands out of their supply chain. And earlier this month, Care2 launched a public petition—signed by more than 65,000 people—urging the Brazilian government to ban the human-created fires that are destroying the Amazon rainforest.

In July, BirdLife International, a global partnership of non-governmental organizations working to conserve birds and their habitats, launched a public petition—already signed by nearly 94,000 people—urging the United Nations to recognize the right to a healthy natural environment at the UN Human Rights Council, in the UN General Assembly and as an urgent topic at the UN Summit on Biodiversity later this month—and ultimately in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“We must completely change the way we treat our home,” the group writes. “Human rights movements have a long and successful track record at transforming society and, with governments meeting in September to discuss the fate of our planet at key UN meetings, there has never been a greater need for action.”

“The choking smoke cast a dark pall over the skies and created a vision of climate-change disaster that made worst-case scenarios for the future a terrifying reality for the present,” reported the New York Times about the wildfires blazing across the western United States. To overcome our terrifying reality, let’s hope that representatives at the United Nations—and leaders and legislators of all nations—make solving the climate crisis a top priority.

Take three minutes to take action:

• Sign the petition urging JBS to stop using cattle illegally grazed on protected lands.
• Sign the petition urging the Brazilian government to ban human-created wildfires.
• Sign the petition urging the United Nations to recognize the right to a healthy natural environment at the UN Human Rights Council.

Cause for concern…

“I found out our insurer has more than $1 billion invested in fossil fuels,” EFL contributor Tony Dunn wrote earlier this year in Truthout. Dunn, a former fire ecologist, lost his home to a California wildfire in 2018, but his insurer refuses to pay for the damage. “In fact, insurers working in California have more than half a trillion dollars invested in fossil fuels, and many of them provide insurance coverage for fossil fuel infrastructure like coal plants and oil pipelines.”

• Wildfires bring another climate crisis: Homeowners can’t get insurance (Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times)
• Many forests scorched by wildfire won’t bounce back (Conor McCue, CBS Denver)
• More than half of world’s oceans already being affected by climate change (University of Reading, Phys.org)
• The palm oil problem we’re all part of (Khara-Jade Warren, Elephant Journal)
• Starving pigs forced to eat each other in shocking catalogue of neglect at “high standards” farm (Alex Winter, The Sun)

Round of applause…

“Fashion will become more and more about expressing who you are and about sharing your beliefs, morals and codes through what you’re wearing,” designer Stella McCartney recently told Vogue. For her spring 2021 collection, McCartney—an outspoken animal rights activist—created unique, limited-edition pieces by upcycling old stock fabrics, minimizing waste and the use of raw materials.

• 15 designers, scientists and environmental activists on sustaining the fashion industry (Vogue)
• Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein ban exotic skins in effort to “drive fashion forward for good” (Liam Gilliver, Plant Based News)
• ‘Loneliest elephant’ heads to Cambodia (Khmer Times via Manila Times)
• What you can learn from 20 athletes who went vegan to get stronger (Hailey Welch, The Beet)
• 10 exceptional white wines you didn’t know were vegan (Sarah Phillips, VegNews) 

Parting thought…

“Veganism is a practice—doing our best to be a force for healing and kindness in the world, no matter what other people may be doing or saying.” —Will Tuttle

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.

In June, Earth | Food | Life reporter Daniel Ross examined the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s “aggressive deregulation and increased commercial exploitation of the Amazon’s resources.” Now a new report by Human Rights Watch, the Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute reveal that “unchecked deforestation” from human-created fires “are poisoning the air millions of people breathe, affecting health throughout the Brazilian Amazon.”

Care2: The fires blazing in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest this year are beyond anything we’ve ever seen before. Every year—and now, it seems, every month—it gets worse as more and more people intentionally set fire to the lush, rare habitat that is the Amazon to provide the food that you and I eat. But now more than ever, we need the Amazon rainforest, which is frequently referred to as “the Earth’s lungs.” As this critical ecosystem burns to the ground, not only is climate change ramping up, but the air quality is also declining. Now, the pollution has gotten so bad, people in Brazil are getting sick and dying from it. A recent study shows that the situation has intensified so drastically, there are now thousands of air quality-related hospitalizations in the country just because of the fires alone. This could not come at a worse time, since we are already in the middle of a global respiratory pandemic and Brazil is suffering some of the worst COVID-related fatality rates in the world. The report explains that President Jair Bolsonaro, his administration, and their failure to do anything to stop these human-caused fires are directly at fault for all of this sickness and death. Brazilians can’t afford any more illnesses, and the global community can’t afford any more greenhouse gas-emitting deforestation. These fires must end now.
>>>Demand that the Brazilian government bans human-created fires that are destroying the Amazon rainforest.

Environmental Action: Red wolves ended last year on a hopeful note: A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is not permitted to capture and kill them. But this story is not over quite yet. We need to make sure the future fulfills last year’s promise that red wolves will be managed in a way that allows them to thrive. One fact hasn’t changed: There are still only a few dozen wild red wolves, and they still need our help. North Carolina’s tiny red wolf population faces terrible threats from natural dangers and humans alike. We know for a fact that the FWS is capable of managing red wolves responsibly—history proves it. Years of hunting once drove red wolves extinct in the wild. But then, over the intervening decades, a remarkable conservation effort took shape: FWS reintroduced them to their natural habitat and protected the delicate new population until their numbers swelled to over 120. But then things changed. Under pressure from private landowners, the FWS altered their management to allow red wolves to be killed. They stopped releasing new animals and monitoring pups’ health. The wild population plummeted again. FWS has not yet announced what its newest revised red wolf management practices will look like. We need to make sure their management plan repeats the proven success of their very first one, or else risk losing these animals forever.
>>>Urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to use the breadth of their experience and the best possible science in designing their final red wolf management plan.

Change: The city of Denver has a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services (APHIS-WS) to kill Canada geese under the misconception that geese droppings contain harmful bacteria. No scientific research supports this notion. “Geese feces are no more dangerous than other feces and probably a lot less so than human feces,” says David E. Stalknecht of the University of Georgia, who co-authored a study on bird droppings for The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Geese present no more of a health risk than any other species, including cats and dogs, says Dr. Julia Murphy, public health veterinarian for the Virginia State Department of Health. “Certainly there’s a possibility of pathogens in fecal material, but as a particular risk factor in and of itself, there simply is no direct link,” says Murphy. You would have to ingest droppings to experience discomfort (such as mild gastrointestinal cramps or upset stomach), she adds. “APHIS-WS is a strategically misnamed federal program that wastes millions of taxpayer dollars each year killing wild animals using traps, snares, poisons, gas and aerial gunning,” writes Colorado-based animal activist Ellen Kessler, who started a petition to save the geese. According to their reports, they have slaughtered more than 34 million animals in the last decade alone.
>>>Demand that Denver permanently terminate its contract with APHIS-WS and cease the useless and costly killing of Canada Geese.

Cause for concern…

Last year, Earth | Food | Life reporter Daniel Ross investigated an underexplored solution to climate change: healthy soil, which has a powerful ability to sequester carbon, with three times the holding capacity than the atmosphere. Now a new study by the University of Basel has found that climate change and intensive agriculture could greatly increase soil loss across the globe over the next 50 years. The researchers are calling for more sustainable land cultivation.

• Climate change and land are accelerating soil erosion by water (University of Basel)
• Big Dairy is heating up the planet and hollowing rural communities (Shefali Sharma, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy)
• Brazilian Amazon drained of millions of wild animals by criminal networks (Sharon Guynup, Mongabay)
• New study warns: We have underestimated the pace at which the Arctic is melting (University of Copenhagen, Environmental News Network)
• How billions in EU farming subsidies are being misspent (Lund University)
• Big mammals at higher risk of extinction in world’s poorest countries (University of York)
• Water availability has changed, and humans are to blame (CMCC Foundation, Smart Water Magazine)
• COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for water security (University of Birmingham)
• The wool industry means suffering for sheep (Humane Decisions, Animal People Forum)
• USDA says current poultry food safety guidelines do not stop salmonella outbreaks (Society for Risk Analysis)

Round of applause…

“Conservationists at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State have spotted a wolverine mother and her two offspring, known as kits,” reports George Dvorsky for Earther. “A reproductive female hasn’t been seen in this national park for over a century, which suggests ecological conditions in the area are improving.” 

• Wolverines return to Mount Rainier after 100-year absence (George Dvorsky, Earther)
• U.K. seeks to ban supermarkets selling goods linked to deforestation (Jessica Shankleman, Bloomberg Green)
• Dutch government to shut down all mink farms by next year (The Mainichi)
• Elephant trails may lead the way to better conservation approaches (Purdue University)
• A photographer turned his Mumbai window into a butterfly garden during lockdown (Kiran Mehta, Atlas Obscura)
• University of Adelaide bans inhumane animal testing (News.com.au)
• Pesticide-free crop protection yields up to US$ 20 billion/year benefits in Asia-Pacific (CABI)
• Our son wanted to be vegetarian, and we’re proud he stood up for what he believes in (Beth R, Popsugar)
• Vegan milk no longer just a trend with millennials as third of Britons buy non-dairy alternatives (Helena Horton, The Telegraph)
• Majority of French public wants better treatment for animals, poll says (Mike Woods, RFI)

Parting thought…

“It’s a small thing to help one animal, but to that one animal it’s a big thing,” —Gene Baur

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.

Care2: Scientists warn that in less than 80 years, polar bears could go extinct due to climate change. But at the same time when one of the world’s most iconic species is on the brink of extinction, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is fast-tracking rollback after rollback of important environmental protections in order to benefit the fossil fuel and construction industries. It’s hard to keep up, with a new rollback announced almost daily. As of July 15, Trump had successfully taken away 68 regulations, and still has his sights on eliminating 32 more. With these rollbacks, he is increasing the amount of permissible emissions from power plants and vehicles at a time when we know emissions need to shrink. He is also opening up vital wildlife habitat, some of which is the very habitat polar bears rely on, for oil and gas drilling.
>>>Urge the EPA to halt the relentless attack on legislation that was put in place to curb climate change.

Care2: Birdcalls in the morning are becoming quieter. As the sun rises, these chipper friends often rise too, welcoming the start of the day. But now, our morning singers are at risk of disappearing completely—and it’s thanks to Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Determined to protect profits above everything else, the EPA has rolled back restrictions on pesticides that are so toxic, they’re actually illegal in many parts of the world. Neonicotinoids, used in agriculture, have been linked to massive bee population loss, and they’re also taking a toll on our avian friends. Farmers apply poisonous neonicotinoids to their crops by treating the seeds before planting, so birds eating these seeds are immediately exposed to the deadly toxins. Even when the seeds have become a full-grown plant, the noxious chemicals remain in every part of the crop, ready to kill animals. In one U.S. county where neonicotinoids were used, bird populations dropped by more than 2% compared to other areas where safer pesticides were used. The U.S. and Canadian bird populations combined have plummeted by almost 30% in the past 50 years. But because these toxins have long, lasting effects on bird populations like owls, sparrows and meadowlarks, we likely won’t know the true magnitude of the devastation for years.
>>>Demand that the EPA immediately ban the use of neonicotinoids in the U.S.

Action Network: U.S. researchers are seeking government approval to legalize the widespread release of unproven genetically engineered (GE) trees into forests. This would be a giant open-air experiment. The risks are huge. If approved, these trees, GE American chestnuts, will spread their GE pollen and seeds freely. This would be the first-ever GE tree approved in the U.S., opening the floodgates to others. It would also be the first-ever intentional release of a fertile genetically modified organism (GMO) into wild ecosystems, opening the door to other uncontrollable GMO releases. For years, companies have sought approval to use GE trees in industrial timber plantations, but public opposition has stopped them. Now they are promoting this GE tree for “forest restoration” to try to win public approval of GE trees. This experiment would threaten wild American chestnuts with contamination from GE chestnut pollen. Decades of progress to restore wild American chestnut trees would be lost. There are no long-term risk assessments of this scheme and scientists warn such assessments are not possible. American chestnuts can live hundreds of years and have deeply intertwined relationships with other trees, and with insects, songbirds and other wildlife. In a violation of indigenous sovereignty, tribes and First Nations would have no ability to keep these GE trees out of their territories. Additionally, any town or county that has or wants “GMO-free” status would have the same problem. Farmers who are growing organic and non-GMO chestnuts are also threatened, as chestnut orchards may be contaminated by GE chestnut pollen.
>>>Urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reject all genetically engineered trees.

Cause for concern…

• It could be decades before emissions cuts slow global warming, scientist warn (Marlowe Hood, AFP via ScienceAlert)
• Millions of pounds of extra pollution were released before Hurricane Laura hit (Rebecca Hersher, NPR)
• As hurricanes bring chemical fires, minority neighborhoods take a hit (John Schwartz and Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times)
• Air pollution linked to higher risk of young children developing asthma (Hanna Geissler, Express)
• Air pollution impacts the health of wild pollinators (Devrupa Rakshit, The Swaddle)
• Trump Interior expands hunting at 147 wildlife refuges, hatcheries (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• States must stop exporting unwanted toxic chemicals to poorer countries, says UN expert (Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, United Nations)
• Elephants almost extinct in Nigeria, conservationist laments (Premium Times)
• Live export ship to take 7,300 cows from Napier to China (Shannon Johnstone, New Zealand Herald)
• Study finds high levels of toxic pollutants in stranded dolphins and whales (Gisele Galoustian, Florida Atlantic University)

Round of applause…

On Friday, a coalition of 21 states sued the Trump administration for rolling back what they say is a “rule that is, at its heart, the gutting” of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). For half a century, the nation’s bedrock environmental law has required the government to assess the environmental impact of their proposed actions before approving new factories, pipelines, highways, drilling permits, new factories or any major federal land management actions.

• 21 states sue White House over rollback of bedrock environmental law (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill)
• Thousands protest in Mauritius over dead dolphins, demand resignations (Giulia Paravicini, Reuters)
• Vietnam bans wildlife trade over pandemic risk (BBC News)
• Northeast U.S. climate pact has major side benefit: healthier children (Brian Bienkowski, The Daily Climate)
• Restoring mangrove forests in the Niger Delta (Inès Magoum, Afrik 21)
• New device can measure toxic lead within minutes (Rutgers University)
• Eco-friendly leather made from cactus could be the next big thing in vegan fashion (Ellen Scott, Metro)
• Nestlé launches vegan alternative to tuna (Silke Koltrowitz, Reuters)
• Dairy farmer retires cows and moves to ethical oat milk production (Plant Based News)
• Is going vegan the next best thing for post-COVID America? (Summer Anna Burton, Austin Monthly)

Parting thought…

“Love animals. The way we treat them is a reflection of our own humanity.” —Ahad Raza Mir

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.

Environmental Action: The Trump administration is barreling ahead with approvals for destructive oil and gas drilling in the sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—some of the best polar bear denning habitat in the country. Make no mistake: Drilling is bad for wildlife and the environment. Land near the Arctic Refuge bears the scars from fossil fuel sites that were shuttered decades ago. Spills and accidents still occur at nearby oil and gas sites, damaging delicate ecosystems and the irreplaceable wildlife that makes its home within the refuge. Polar bears den here, but the noise and traffic that could come with new drilling could disturb polar bear moms, causing them to abandon their cubs. Without a mother, cubs have little chance for survival. This special place is not only home to polar bears, but also the world-famous Porcupine caribou herd and other irreplaceable wildlife. It should not be sacrificed for the sake of more fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.
>>>Urge congressional leaders to restore federal prohibition on oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Center for Biological Diversity: On the West Coast, Southern Resident killer whales have plummeted to an astonishing new low in the past three decades, with just 76 individuals remaining—the lowest it has been in 34 years. They’re in a dangerous decline because of a lack of food, pollution, and noise and disturbance from boats. But there’s new hope, despite annual surveys showing a severe decline in their condition due to lack of food. New ways to study orcas, like collecting fecal samples from boats with the help of dogs, have given scientists undeniable evidence of the importance of Chinook salmon in orcas’ diets. Now it’s time to use that science to stop overfishing of salmon and leave enough for the whales.
>>>Urge the Pacific Fishery Management Council to pass new measures for reducing the salmon harvest if the health of either the fish or orcas doesn’t meet certain levels.

Change: Chinchillas are notable for their kindness to one another. For example, reports PETA, “if a chinchilla mum has problems producing milk to feed her babies, another female will often step in to assist, while male chinchillas will often help out with babysitting.” Quiet and shy, they have a natural lifespan of 10 to 20 years. But on fur farms, these gentle animals are killed at just eight months old by extremely cruel practices, including electrocution or breaking their necks. No animal should ever be treated like this. It takes over 200 chinchillas to make just one fur coat. Fashion is not worth an animal’s life.
>>>Urge the European Union to ban the farming of chinchillas.

Cause for concern…

• Trump’s EPA dumps methane emissions rule for oil, gas fields (Associated Press via Marketwatch)
• Greenland ice sheet lost a record 1 million metric tons of ice per minute in 2019 (Damian Carrington, The Guardian)
• Global deforestation accelerates during pandemic (Anna Gross, Andres Schipani, Stefania Palma and Stephanie Findlay, Financial Times)
• Canada’s last intact ice shelf has collapsed (Mindy Weisberger, LiveScience)
• “Massive poisonous shock”: Scientists fear lasting impact from Mauritius oil spill (Duncan Miriri, Omar Mohammed and Matthew Green, Reuters)
• Air pollution remains worst in U.S. communities of color despite progress (Emily Holden, The Guardian)
• U.S. air conditioning use could surge nearly 60% by 2050 (Dharna Noor, Earther)
• Migratory river fish populations plunge 76% in past 50 years (Damian Carrington, The Guardian)
• Washington state says Navy’s testing program would harm more orcas (Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times)
• Factory farms disproportionately threaten Black, Latino and Native American North Carolinians (Sarah Graddy, Environmental Working Group)
• Mink farms incubate cruelty and COVID-19 (Wayne Pacelle, Animal Wellness Action)
• There’s so much poop along the Texas coast, swimming could make you sick (Sanford Nowlin, San Antonio Current)

Round of applause…

• U.K. conservationists have successfully brought back butterflies declared extinct in 1979 (Annie Reneau, Upworthy)
• Norwegian pension fund to divest over $47 million from 27 companies, including Exxon and Chevron (Associated Press)
• More coal power generation closed than opened around the world this year (Adam Morton, The Guardian)
• U.S. House bill seeks to create animal cruelty crimes unit in DOJ (Jessica Savage, WTOC 11)
• Restoring mangrove forests in the Niger Delta (Inès Magoum, Afrik 21)
• These 3D printed tiles are helping restore devastated coral reefs (Ben Dahl, Cool Material)
• ‘World’s loneliest elephant’ finally released to sanctuary after 35 years in zoo (Doloresz Katanich, Euronews)
• Handmade nest lures golden eagles back to Highlands estate (Patrick Barkham, The Guardian)
• 500,000 sign petition for French vote on animal cruelty (Joanna York, The Connexion)
• New television ad shows top food critics tricked by vegan meat (Maria Chiorando, Plant Based News)

Parting thought…

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.” —John Ruskin

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.