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

November 12, 2019
Nature for sale: “Privatizing America’s public campgrounds and jacking up national park fees to appease big business concessionaires and powerful corporate campaign donors is just the latest egregious attempt to rip public lands out of public hands,” said Jayson O’Neill, deputy director of the watchdog conservation group Western Values Project, about the Trump administration’s “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee recommendation that national park campgrounds be privatized. (Photo of the Grand Canyon by Bradley Weber/Flickr)

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

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

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

Cause for concern…

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

Round of applause…

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

Parting thought…

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


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

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

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