EarthAction

Protect Our Species

“In nature, nothing exists alone.”
— Rachel Carson, 1962

Nature’s gifts to our planet are the millions of species that we know and love, and many more that remain to be discovered. Unfortunately, human beings have irrevocably upset the balance of nature and, as a result, the world is facing the greatest rate of extinction since we lost the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago. But unlike the fate of the dinosaurs, the rapid extinction of species in our world today is the result of human activity.

The unprecedented global destruction and rapid reduction of plant and wildlife populations are directly linked to causes driven by human activity: climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, trafficking and poaching, unsustainable agriculture, pollution and pesticides to name a few. The impacts are far reaching.

If we do not act now, extinction may be humanity’s most enduring legacy. Here are some quick facts on the current wave of extinction and additional information about this problem here.

All living things have an intrinsic value, and each plays a unique role in the complex web of life. We must work together to protect endangered and threatened species: bees, coral reefs, elephants, giraffes, insects, whales and more.

The good news is that the rate of extinctions can still be slowed, and many of our declining, threatened and endangered species can still recover if we work together now to build a united global movement of consumers, voters, educators, faith leaders, and scientists to demand immediate action.

Earth Day Network is asking people to join our Protect our Species campaign. Our goals are to:

• Educate and raise awareness about the accelerating rate of extinction of millions of species and the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.
• Achieve major policy victories that protect broad groups of species as well as individual species and their habitats.
• Build and activate a global movement that embraces nature and its values.
• Encourage individual actions such as adopting plant based diet and stopping pesticide and herbicide use.

Click here to view our library of resources

Click here to view our partners

Sign up here to receive updates on how to Protect Our Species and new ways to get involved. Please donate to support our campaign.

Taken from Earth Day Network. Learn more here

Take Action to Help Save the Korea Peace and Denuclearization Process

UNFOLD ZERO encourages you to take action to ensure the Korean peace and denuclearization process does not unravel and return the region to the nuclear confrontation we saw as recently as 2017.

The peace process got off to a promising start with the Winter Olympic peace initiative in PyeongChang in February 2018, followed by the inter-Korean peace summits in April 2018, May 2018, and September 2018 and the North Korean/USA peace summit in Singapore 2018.

However, the most recent summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi (Vietnam) ended abruptly with no agreement and no plan for future talks.

A key area of disagreement is on the sanctions regime. North Korea wants some sanction relief in return for incremental disarmament steps they have already taken and other steps they are willing to take, but the US is not willing to grant such sanction relief this early in the process.

South Korea has supported the call for incremental sanction relief to allow humanitarian aid and limited economic cooperation between them and North Korea. Indeed, this was agreed in the Panmunjom Declaration.

Without some reciprocal good faith action by the US and the UN Security Council - such as limited sanction relief - it's quite possible that the peace process will fail. Indeed, on March 15, North Korea's vice minister for foreign affairs said that Pyongyang is considering halting the diplomatic process (See Arms Control Today, What Comes Next in U.S.-North Korean Negotiations?)

Call on the UN Security Council to Ease the Sanctions

In light of these developments, on March 21, 55 South Korean non-governmental organizations joined together in an impassioned plea to the UN Security Council to lift all sanctions related to humanitarian assistance and to support reciprocal, incremental measures for peace, especially those agreed in the Singapore summit.

The letter to the Security Council, which was coordinated by People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, notes that the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council and the USA have hampered not only humanitarian aid to North Korea, but also the minimal economic cooperation that both North and South Korea desire, such as the resuming operation of Mount Geumgang tours and the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.

'As initial steps for peace, the two Koreas need to expand meeting and cooperation among them in order to end military tension and confrontation, and thus paving way for peace in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia,' says the letter. 'The sanctions against the DPRK, which impede humanitarian assistance and building of cooperative relationships between the two Koreas, must be relieved as soon as possible.'

Please take action by contacting UN Security Council members and supporting the calls in the letter.

Click here for a list of UN Security Council member contact emails.

Learn more at UNFOLD ZERO 

The 99 Best Things That Happened in 2017

Photo Credit: Reuters/Kevin Coombs

If you’re feeling despair about the fate of humanity in the 21st century, you might want to reconsider.

In 2017, it felt like the global media picked up all of the problems, and none of the solutions. To fix that, here are 99 of the best stories from this year that you probably missed.

An incredible year for global health

1. This year, the World Health Organisation unveiled a new vaccine that’s cheap and effective enough to end cholera, one of humanity’s greatest ever killers. New York Times

2. Cancer deaths have dropped by 25% in the United States since 1991, saving more than 2 million lives. Breast cancer deaths have fallen by 39%, saving the lives of 322,600 women. Time

3. Zika all but disappeared in 2017. Cases plummeted in Latin America and the Caribbean, and most people in those places are now immune. Science Mag

4. A new report showed that the world’s assault on tropical diseases is working. A massive, five year international effort has saved millions of lives, and countries are now signing up for more. STAT

5. Soft drink sales in the United States dropped for the 12th year in a row, thanks to consumer education and new sugar taxes aimed at stemming obesity and diabetes. Reuters

6. Trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, was eliminated as a public health problem in Oman and Morocco, and Mexico became the first country in the Americas to eliminate it. NBC

7. Meet Sanduk Ruit and Geoff Tabin, two eye doctors responsible for helping restore sight to 4 million people in two dozen countries, including North Korea and Ethiopia. CBS

8. Premature deaths for the world’s four biggest noncommunicable diseases­ — cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory — have declined by 16% since 2000. World Bank

9. Global abortion rates have fallen from around 40 procedures per 1,000 women in the early 1990s, to 35 procedures per 1,000 women today. In the United States, abortion rates have reached their lowest level since 1973. Vox

10. In July, UNAIDS, revealed that for the first time in history, half of all people on the planet with HIV are now getting treatment, and that AIDS deaths have dropped by half since 2005. Science Mag

From Quartz.com

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