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.

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.

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.

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

Congress Should Ban Brazilian Products Linked to the Amazon Wildfires

Burning for meat: This NASA satellite image shows numerous wildfires burning across the Amazon rainforest on August 11, 2019. The space agency began to detect heightened fire activity in the region in July. (Photo credit: NASA)

Mercy for Animals: The Amazon rainforest is burning. A cloud of smoke covered São Paulo, Brazil, shrouding the city in darkness for a day. What’s driving the rapid increase in fires? Experts point to the clearing of forest for farmland to raise cattle and grow soybeans to feed farmed animals. The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world and helps buffer against global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide—2 billion tons of it per year, holding a total of around 150–200 billion tons of carbon. When they burn, trees and plants release stored carbon. Destroying large blocks of rainforest accelerates climate change by releasing massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The entire world will feel the effects of these fires, and we are all culpable for the destruction they cause. The United States is Brazil’s third-largest export market. In response to the fires, lawmakers in Congress recently introduced H.R. 4263, the Act for the Amazon Act, federal legislation calling for a prohibition on importing certain Brazilian products from industries linked to the fires.
>>>Urge your representative to cosponsor H.R. 4263.

NRDC: Are you flushing Canada’s boreal forest, one of Earth’s greatest defenses against climate change, down the toilet? The majestic forest stores huge amounts of our climate-busting carbon pollution, but it’s being cut at a dizzying rate—much of it for toilet paper. Toilet paper brand Charmin uses absolutely no recycled paper in its toilet paper—just 100 percent virgin forest fiber from the boreal forest. This destroys its trees, hurts the livelihood of hundreds of Indigenous communities, and threatens the iconic boreal caribou, billions of songbirds, and other wildlife who call this ancient forest home.
>>>Tell Procter & Gamble to make Charmin planet-safe.

Compassion Over Killing: An undercover investigation at Cooke Aquaculture, an industrial Atlantic salmon hatchery in Bingham, Maine, that supplies to Martha Stewart’s new True North Seafood line, has revealed putrid conditions breeding disease and parasites, intensive crowding, and widespread cruelty to fish. The plight of fish often goes unseen and unheard, but this new exposé brings to light the dire lack of protection for millions of animals raised for food. Just as billions of land animals suffer inside factory farms, so too do farmed fish. And like land animals, fish have the ability to suffer and feel pain.
>>>Tell Martha Stewart to cut ties with Cooke Aquaculture.

Cause for concern…

Rivers in retreat: A new study has found that groundwater pumping is depleting rivers and streams across the world, threatening water systems already stressed by global warming and overuse. The flow of the Colorado River (above, seen in Lake Powell, Utah) could be decreased by up to 20 percent by 2050 due to climate change alone. (Photo credit: Fred Moore/Flickr)

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Round of applause…

Putting a cap on it: California has passed a law that protects public land from Trump’s oil and gas development plans. The law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday, sends a “clear message to Trump that we will fight to protect these beautiful lands for current and future generations,” said Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who introduced it. (Photo credit: California Water Boards)

Parting thought…

“We are no better or more evolved than any other living being.” —Ricky Gervais

Nestlé’s Water Bottling Plan Threatens Florida Ecosystem

Water wars: Young ibises perch on a fallen log along Florida’s Santa Fe River, which supports a myriad of plants and animals—species that would be threatened by Nestlé’s water bottling plan. (Photo credit: anoldent/Flickr)

CREDO Action: Florida’s rivers and the plants and animals that rely on them are already facing multi-pronged threats from land development, pollution and climate change. Now the state’s Santa Fe River is facing a new threat. Nestlé is seeking to extract more than 1.1 million gallons of water a day from the river’s natural springs to sell as bottled water. The Santa Fe is home to the Suwannee moccasinshell, a freshwater mussel that is protected under the Endangered Species Act, and imperiled sturgeon have been found swimming its waters. Turtles, birds and other plant and animal species have called this river home for centuries. Allowing Nestlé to jeopardize the health of this already threatened river is ill-advised and irresponsible.
>>>Urge the Suwannee River Water Management District to reject Nestlé’s bottling plan.

The Humane League: McDonald’s is a global giant, but when it comes to the treatment of chickens raised for its menu items, it is lagging behind. McDonald’s has released an inadequate animal welfare policy that fails to address several important welfare issues. Under current conditions, chickens in the company’s supply chain suffer from unnatural growth due to selective breeding and genetical manipulations, ammonia burns from toxic waste fumes, and debilitating injuries from being crippled by the weight of their own oversized bodies. As one of the world’s most influential companies, McDonald’s has the power to impact the entire food industry—as well as the lives of millions of suffering chickens. Instead, McDonald’s has chosen to mislead consumers with hollow promises that lack meaningful change.
>>>Urge McDonald’s to stop purchasing abused chickens.

Animal Legal Defense Fund: Special Memories Zoo, a roadside zoo in Greenville, Wisconsin, has a well-documented history of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations. Endangered tigers, Tanya and Teagan, are just two of the more than 200 animals kept in horrible conditions at Special Memories Zoo. These tigers are confined in small, rusty cages, where they are not provided the basic necessities of clean water, food or straw. Witnesses observed the tigers’ water tanks full of algae, their food buckets infested with maggots and rancid meat, and the tigers’ straw left soiled and unchanged for months. The Animal Legal Defense Fund sent notice to Special Memories Zoo declaring an intent to sue the facility for keeping the tigers and other animals in squalid conditions that violate the Endangered Species Act, as well as state laws covering captive wild animals, animal cruelty and public nuisance.
>>>Boycott Special Memories Zoo and other roadside zoos that profit by exploiting animals.

Cause for concern…

Danger lurking: A new study has found that pregnant women exposed to higher levels of the common chemical bisphenol A (BPA), used in the manufacturing of plastics, are more likely to bear children who suffer from wheezing and reduced lung capacity, challenging the U.S. Food & Drug administration’s position that it’s “safe at the current levels occurring in foods.” One of the most produced chemicals worldwide, the global BPA market is projected to reach 7.3 million tons by the end of 2023. (Photo credit: mali maeder/Pexels)

Round of applause…

Plastic pickup: A floating device designed by Dutch scientists for the non-profit Ocean Cleanup has successfully retrieved plastic trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous collection of marine debris in the north central Pacific Ocean estimated to be at least the size of Texas. Nearly 13 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every year. (Photo credit: Ocean Cleanup)

Parting thought…

“The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it.” —Barry Commoner

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and animal/nature 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.

Amazon Destruction Financed by BlackRock, World’s Biggest Investment Firm | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife

Rainforest rights: Activists gathered outside the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco on June 21, 2019, urging Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to protect the Amazon and respect Indigenous rights. The private sector must also play a role. “Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose,” wrote Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm, in his annual letter to CEOs last year, calling for “sustainable, long-term growth.” He added, “Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate.” These sentiments, however, are at odds with his firm’s practice. As the nonprofit AmazonWatch points out, “BlackRock’s portfolio includes many companies operating in the Amazon; companies whose operations both contribute to rainforest deforestation and run roughshod over the territorial rights, health and ways of life of the hundreds of indigenous peoples with unique languages and cultures who live in and rely on the rainforest for their livelihoods and wellbeing.” (Photo credit: Peg Hunter/Flickr)

Action Network: BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm, has more money invested in the fossil fuel and agribusiness industries–the biggest drivers of climate change–than any other company in the world. That means that BlackRock’s portfolio constitutes a huge liability for putting the planet on a path towards runaway climate change. In fact, BlackRock contributes more to climate change than almost any other company on Earth. The Amazon rainforest and its Indigenous inhabitants are under acute threat from BlackRock, which is taking advantage of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s removal of environmental barriers to economic activities in the Amazon. And now they will have even more access to deforestation and destruction. Bolsonaro has advocated for the opening of new areas of the Amazon rainforest to agriculture and industry. As a result, BlackRock announced plans to expand its operations in Brazil after Bolsonaro was elected. Moves like this signal strong support for Bolsonaro, whose rhetoric is inspiring violence against Indigenous communities in the Amazon and beyond. As one of the largest investors in Brazil’s agribusiness industry, BlackRock could use its financial clout to curb, not encourage, further forest destruction. It should divest from companies that continue these destructive practices.
>>>Urge BlackRock to stop financing Amazon destruction.

Care2: Trump’s main campaign goal of erecting a border wall along the U.S. Mexico border is not only unnecessary and a bad use of funds—it would also actively harm the environment. The walls that already exist along that border show us just how damaging a more expansive one would be. Borders are not real; they are imaginary lines created by humans to maintain power and hierarchies. Wildlife don’t care about which country says they own a certain piece of land: They live and travel where they need to. And because borders are so arbitrarily drawn with zero consideration for the environment, they wreak havoc on natural habitats. There are already some wall-like structures across the U.S.-Mexico border, and they are causing huge problems. For one thing, birds are literally getting stuck in the structures during migration, while other land-based creatures are hemmed in and prevented from moving around. And animals are not the only ones suffering. Water drainage, protected areas and more are not even being considered before these barriers are placed.
>>>Tell the Trump administration that you oppose the border wall.

WWF: From beaches in Indonesia to the Arctic, plastic is choking our planet. Most plastic becomes trash after a single use. It has contaminated the soil, rivers and oceans. Eight million metric tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year. They break down into tiny bits of microplastic, small enough to enter our food chain, along with other types of microplastics like those that are released when we wash our clothes. On average, we could be ingesting around five grams of plastic every week—the equivalent weight of a credit card. In fact, we could be consuming, on average, over 100,000 pieces of microplastic every year. That’s approximately 21 grams a month, just over 250 grams a year. Many of us are doing our bit to reduce plastic pollution, but it’s time that governments and businesses took responsibility too. 
>>>Urge world governments to introduce a global legally-binding agreement to stop plastics polluting our oceans.

Cause for concern…

Lungs on fire: A NASA satellite image take on August 21 shows smoke from the fires raging in in the Amazon basin that has created a shroud clearly visible across much of central South America. Environmental groups and scientists say the unusual number of wildfires blazing across the Brazilian rainforest were set by cattle ranchers and loggers seeking to clear the land, emboldened by the pro-business stance of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. “The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,” said Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch, pointing out that Amazon—called the “lungs of the planet” since it provides a fifth of the Earth’s oxygen—is fairly resistant to natural wildfires even during dry seasons due to its high humidity, unlike the arid bushland typical in Australia and California. Humanity’s taste for meat is a main driver for the destruction of the Amazon. According to the World Bank, cattle ranching is responsible for up to 91 percent of Amazon deforestation since 1970. Moreover, soybeans used for animal feed is one of the region’s primary crops.(Photo credit: NASA).

Round of applause…

Sisters-in-arms: Lakota Elder LaDonna Brave Bull Allard at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where she founded Sacred Stone Camp, one of the grassroots resistance camps fighting against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This past June, Allard joined fellow Sacred Stone Village residents who made the five-hour drive from Standing Rock to join the first annual Sovereign Sisters Gathering in Black Hills, South Dakota, which brought together women and their allies to oppose to the current industrialized, extractive model with the development of a new economic vision. This new model, writes Tracy L. Barnett in YES! Magazine, is one in which “Indigenous women reclaim and reassert their sovereignty over themselves, their food systems, and their economies.” (Dark Sevier/Flickr)

Parting thought…

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” —Chris Maser, “Forest Primeval: The Natural History of an Ancient Forest” (Oregon State University Press, 2001)