EarthAction

World Refugee Crisis Continues

US-Mexico border in San Diego. (Creative Commons, Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuño)

Last Friday, June 20 marked yet another World Refugee Day, a day meant to draw our attention to the growing number of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced individuals and families.  This year the numbers have gone up from 45.2 million at the end of 2012, to 51.2 million at the end of 2013. 

Last year’s World Refugee Day was just days after the G8 Summit, where global giants focused primarily on the crisis in Syria and how to address the growing tensions between Syrian rebels and the Assad regime.  The refugee crisis in Syria has only grown in the last year, with roughly 1.5 million who had fled the country at this time last year and a striking increase by the end of last year, which created 2.5 million more refugees and 6.5 million displaced within the country.

The crisis of displaced persons is, however, not specific to Syria and we must also consider an issue closer to home.  Since October 2013, nearly 47,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the US-Mexico border, reports The Nation, with nearly 21,000 from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, and over 17,000 from Mexico. 

 With the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border expected to reach nearly130,000 next year, it’s time we think about what World Refugee Day really means—finding a solution to this humanitarian crisis.  

Stop the “Carbon Cowboys” from Turning the Amazon Rainforest into their Private Palm Oil Plantation

Image source: Andre Penner, CTV news

RIGHT NOW, the world’s remaining rainforests are being cut down and replaced with palm oil and soybean plantations, and cattle ranches. Here’s an Action Alert from Friends of the Amazon. Please take the action they suggest to send a message to the President of Peru.

“Currently, scammers are cheating native Amazonians out of their land under the pretext of creating REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects. These unscrupulous businessmen have been termed "Carbon Cowboys." While they say that they want to protect the forest, what they really want is to get the land for free and cut down the forest and replace it with palm oil plantations. They lie and say that they are representatives of the United Nations and the World Bank and promise the communities "billions of dollars" from carbon offset credits. Using these tactics, they trick vulnerable and trusting people into signing unfair contracts with hidden clauses giving the scammers a power of attorney that essentially gives these conmen the forest for free, allowing them to harvest the timber and replace the native forest with monocultures of palm oil trees.”

What do Pearl Jam and the UN have in common?

EarthAction and 2020 Action fully support and have signed the Global Zero petition to President Obama calling for zero nuclear weapons. We hope, wherever you live, you will sign it too and will forward it to your friends and contacts.

From Global Zero:

What do Pearl Jam and the United Nations have in common? The same thing that REM and Richard Branson do: they all love this inspiring video at the heart of our new campaign calling on President Obama to set the world’s course to zero.

Watch the 2-minute video and see what all the buzz is about.

This month, we rolled out our biggest and most important campaign to date: a massive global grassroots appeal to President Obama to negotiate deep cuts in U.S.-Russian Cold War arsenals and bring world leaders together to set the world’s course to zero. And with a little help from Michael Douglas -- a passionate supporter of the Global Zero movement -- we released an amazing 2-minute video calling on the public to rise up and demand zero.

More than 50,000 people have already watched the video. We know that the more people who see it, the more likely it is to get in front of President Obama - so this week let’s double that number. Will you please take 2 minutes to watch it and share with friends and family?

www.globalzero.org/demand-zero/2030

We’ve already made a big splash in the media, thanks to a little help from Valerie Plame Wilson and Queen Noor, but we need your help if we’re going to reach the White House.

Watch it. Share it. Stand up and demand zero. Together, we’ll make history.

Onward,

Derek, Lauren, John-Michael, Marion, Bonk and the rest of the Global Zero team

P.S. - Our video links to Global Zero's petition urging President Obama to take the next bold steps to global zero. Have you signed it yet?

www.globalzero.org/demand-zero/sign-the-petition