EarthAction

Country Energy Policies

Climate change is real, and what governments do matters.

The current energy policies of many countries fail to demonstrate a commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. However, many countries have policies that could be quite effective if strengthened. It is encouraging to see that almost all countries also contain a commitment to the use of renewable energy.

READ THE REPORT

Become a Partner: We must save the Paris Agreement!

Our campaign is focused on raising public awareness and putting public pressure on leading greenhouse gas emitting countries. Learn More

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From Climate Scorecard. Read more here

Top 10 Animals Going Extinct Because of Climate Change

NASA scientists announced yesterday that 2018 was the fourth hottest year on Earth, exceeded only by 2017, 2016 and 2015. After 140 years of record-keeping, 18 out of 19 of Earth's warmest years have occurred since 2001.

For humans, this means more destructive hurricanes, floods, forest fires, droughts, and bone-chilling Arctic blasts resulting in thousands of deaths, billions in property destruction and massive interruptions of life as we know it.

But let's stop and think about what extreme weather and changes in climate caused by humans means for species.

By 2100, an estimated 50% of all world's species could go extinct because of climate change. We can't let that happen. At Earth Day Network we're working to Protect Our Species.

Here are 10 animals threatened with extinction because of climate change.

1. Bumblebees: Rising temperatures force bees north, disrupting access to the nectar and pollen they need to survive.
2. Whales: Migration, feed, and reproduction necessary for survival are disrupted by warming waters.
3. Asian Elephants: Habitat is disappearing due to lower rainfall and higher temperatures.
4. Giraffes: In addition to illegal poaching, shrinking habitat and disappearing food sources threaten their survival.
5. Insects: 18% of insect species will die off due to warming by 2100; if the planet warms 3.2 degrees C, that number rises to 49%.
6. Oceanic Birds: Rising waters threaten to submerge their coastal habitats and nests completely.
7. Sharks: Difficulty hunting and lower birth rates threaten sharks as ocean temperature and acidity rise worldwide.
8. Monarch Butterflies: Monarchs can't survive without milkweed, now being destroyed by hotter dryer land often damaged by pesticides.
9. Great Apes: With nearly 75% of forest cover at risk due to climate change, their habitat is disappearing.
10. Coral: Sustained heat stress causes coral bleaching, an often deadly occurrence in which coral starves from a loss of nutrition.

Join Earth Day Network's campaign to Protect Our Species, Together we can slow the pace of extinction.

Got ideas? Please share your plans to Protect Our Species.

Thank you for being part of our global movement.

From Earth Day Network. Read more here.

2018 EarthAction Report & Request

December 2018

 

Dear Friend of EarthAction,

Our current President and his allies, with their domestic and foreign policies, judicial appointments, rhetoric, insults, and name-calling have set our country and the world on a very dangerous course.

EarthAction has a key role to play in limiting the damage and getting the world back on track to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. That's why we need your support now, more than ever.

With your contributions over these last 26 years, EarthAction has made real progress in finding solutions to many of the world’s most pressing issues. Our work has helped to educate children around the world, provide health care to women, protect the lives of indigenous peoples and immigrants, stabilize our climate, and reduce the risk of chemical, biological and nuclear wars.

As one of our generous friends, you have—and will continue to play—a critical role in changing our national and global political landscape forever. I urge you to make a donation that will enable us to continue and expand our work in 2019.

There is so much more we can do, with your help. This is the time of year when many of us make our most meaningful donations to help change the world. I hope you’ll include EarthAction on your list of causes to support. Click here to contribute on our website, or send a check to EarthAction, PO Box 63, Amherst, MA 01004. Please make the most generous gift you can.

EarthAction remains unique in its ability to build global political will and create positive solutions on such a wide diversity of issues. Whenever there are opportunities to make change towards a world with more peace, justice, and environmental protection, we are at work making sure people understand the issues, appreciate what’s at stake, and know how to add their voice for change.

Your support is what makes it possible.

With gratitude for your generosity,

Lois Barber
Co-Founder & Executive Director

 

P.S.  Can't help spilling the beans a little … as you'll read in our EarthAction 2018 Campaign Report, Best Climate Solutions has given its 2018 International Award to our Climate Scorecard Spotlight Project for our “effectiveness in Communicating Climate Change Threats and Opportunities.” I'm very proud and very grateful for your help to make this possible. This is one more example of what we're doing together for democracy, peace, and the environment. Your donation today will help us continue that critical work in 2019. Click here to donate. Many thanks.

Will We See the Trial of the Century?

The midterm election on Nov. 6 is one of the most important in memory. It will decide whether checks and balances will be restored to the federal government and especially to our out-of-control president.

An even more important event is scheduled to take place nine days earlier, however. It could make history by ensuring that our children and future generations have a constitutional right to a livable world. 

On Oct. 29, the United States government is scheduled to go on trial for contributing to global climate change. The trial is the result of a lawsuit, Juliana v United States, filed three years ago by a group of 21 young adults and children. They allege that the federal government is violating their constitutional rights by promoting the use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel pollution is the principal cause of global warming. 

The Julianas, as I’ll call the young plaintiffs for the sake of simplicity, want the courts to rule that the federal government must stop subsidizing fossil fuels, opening public lands to fuel production, and doing other things that result in carbon pollution. They want the government to rapidly phase out carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion and to develop a national plan to stabilize the climate system and “restore Earth’s energy balance”.  

Finally proceeding to trial would obviously be a big milestone in the Julianas’ long fight through the federal court system. It is not motivated by partisanship. It was filed when Barack Obama was president and it named his as well as many federal agencies as defendants. Now, the Trump Administration is on trial and the U.S. Department of Justice has been fighting furiously to keep the case from being tried.  

Justice Department lawyers have filed motion after motion to have the case dismissed, including legal maneuvers one judge called “rare as hen’s teeth”. But so far, the legitimacy of the case has been upheld repeatedly by a U.S. District Court, a Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel and even the U.S. Supreme Court.  As I write this, the Supreme Court is deciding yet another late motion by the Justice Department to keep the trial from happening.

By William S. Becker

Read more here

The bruges whale

Near the statue of Jan Van Eyck, Skyscraper (the Bruges Whale) rises up from the Canal. Skyscraper is 5 tons of plastic waste pulled out of the ocean to create a 4 story tall whale: a powerful reminder of the 150,000,000 tons of plastic waste still swimming in our waters. Skyscraper is a physical example of why we need to change how we use and dispose of plastic in the world today.

The Installation

The gigantic sculpture is more than just a representation of a whale; the animal is made of waste, collected from the plastic soup that floats on the seas and oceans of the world. Working with volunteers from the Hawaii Wildlife Fund and the Surfrider Foundation, StudioKCA combed the beaches of Hawaii to gather up the waste. The installation was built out of those finds. StudioKCA seeks this way to draw attention to the universal problem of pollution that affects us all, and to make viewers aware that individual action is necessary.

About the Skyscraper Kickstarter Project

StudioKCA has started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Processing and transporting the waste on this scale is larger than expected. StudioKCA is still looking for $15,000 to complete the manufacturing of the steel and aluminium parts, to hire the cranes and tools, to transport everything to Bruges in time for the event and to assemble all 107 parts that Skyscraper consists of on location. Deposit your contribution to this project via the Kickstarter website and receive exclusive Skyscraper (the Bruges Whale) returns!

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Strengthen local forest rights for best climate solutions

A group of tribal voluntary forest guards in Thengapalli forest in Odisha (Photo by Ranjan K Panda)

India needs to proactively include indigenous communities and forest dwellers in its efforts to restore and expand forest cover to sequester carbon, and not exclude them from forestry management

In India, a new wave of admiration about our traditional knowledge has emerged in public discourse, but it is not reflected in the ways the State wants to manage our forests. Politicians, bureaucrats and intellectuals are holding forth on importance of indigenous knowledge and practices. For instance, the Indian government has been championing the cause of Yoga in the international arena, and has successfully put it on the global map by pushing for an International Yoga Day. Similarly, traditional medicines including Ayurveda have become a buzzword among policymakers.

In this rush to promote India’s traditional knowledge and practices, policymakers have seemingly forgotten another longstanding, rich tradition of India. Indians, especially the indigenous communities living in and around forests, have been living with and protecting India’s biodiversity-rich forests for thousands of years, with a vast repository of lived and traditional knowledge about forest ecosystems.

Most importantly, many of them have demonstrated scientific methods of conservation much before modern forest science emerged. Thousands of villages across India have been protecting natural forests for decades. For example, over 10,000 communities in Odisha have been protecting state-owned forests, often through voluntary labour, and have a deep understanding and commitment to conservation. The vast number of scared groves across the country remains a living testimony to the traditional conservation ethics of Indian tribal communities and forest dwellers.

Ranjan K. Panda, from India Climate Dialogue

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Top 3 Shocking Facts About Plastic Pollution

Fact #1:

8.3 BILLION Metric Tons (9.1 BILLION US Tons) of plastic has been produced since plastic was introduced in the 1950s. The amount of plastic produced a year is roughly the same as the entire weight of humanity!

Fact #2:

Virtually every piece of plastic ever made still exists in some shape or form (with the exception of the small amount that has been incinerated).

Fact #3:

Nearly TWO MILLION single-use plastic bags are distributed worldwide every minute.

Plastic pollution is killing our planet, and plastic pollution is killing us. It's choking our oceans, poisoning our food and water supply, and wreaking havoc on the health and well-being of humans and wildlife worldwide.

That's why we are dedicating Earth Day 2018 to ending plastic pollution. We've developed a series of comprehensive resources and toolkits to help Individuals, Organizations, and Educators like you inform, inspire, and mobilize everyone you know to join the movement to END PLASTIC POLLUTION this Earth Day.

Every week, we'll be releasing new resources to help you build the Earth Day 2018 End Plastic Pollution movement-starting now, with our Scope of Plastic Pollution Fact Sheet offering 10 shocking facts about plastic pollution.

Stay posted for more upcoming resources you can use to play a role in saving our planet. Putting an End to Plastic Pollution is a fight citizens across the world MUST win.

Our survival depends on it.

Join the fight today!

DONATE NOW

The Earth Day Network Team

Takoma Park Becomes First US City to Declare Its Compliance with Nuclear Ban Treaty

Photo Credit: Google "labeled for non-commercial reuse"

TAKOMA PARK, MD, March 15, 2018 — The City Council of Takoma Park, Maryland, last night (March 14^th) voted unanimously on a resolution that reaffirms the city’s support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or ‘Nuclear Ban Treaty.’

The Nuclear Ban Treaty was adopted last year at the UN by 122 countries. The Treaty comprehensively prohibits everything to do with nuclear weapons and makes these weapons illegal under international law. Fifty-seven countries have signed it so far, and as many as 146 countries are expected to sign it in the coming months.

The United States is not one of them, but as with the Paris Climate Agreement, that does not stop cities, states, businesses, colleges and faith communities from complying with this Treaty.

Takoma Park was one of the first cities in the US to declare itself a ‘Nuclear-Free Zone’ back in 1983. Since then, through a city ordinance, Takoma Park has banned companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons from doing business in Takoma Park, or from bidding on City contracts, and has avoided investment in companies engaged in the production of nuclear weapons.

Since these prohibitions mean that Takoma Park already complies with the new Treaty, the March 14 resolution declaring the City ‘treaty compliant’ was more of a formality. As the first city in the US to do so, however, Takoma Park has led the way for many more to follow.

As many as 220 Nuclear Free Zones were established across the US during the 1980s. Many of these, including Chicago, still have legally-binding ordinances on their books which comply with the new Treaty. Others, including New York City, are now looking into this afresh in light of this Treaty.

By aligning themselves with the rest of the world in support of the Nuclear Ban Treaty, Takoma Park is turning its back on the $1.2 trillion plans to upgrade and modernize the US nuclear arsenal. Takoma Park is the first to officially do so, but it will not be the last.

By Tim Wallis, Treaty Compliance Campaign

Protect Wild Salmon

Juvenile sockeye salmon swimming past salmon farms are exposed to piscine reovirus shed by the farm salmon. Photo by Tavish Campbell

 

Finally, good news!  Washington State, on the West Coast of the USA, is the first government anywhere, to legislate removal of Atlantic salmon farming from a region of our oceans.

It was a tough fight, but determined organizations and citizens won an impressive and life-saving victory. 

I have released a new 5 minute innovative film - behind-the-scenes on farm salmon science because, frankly it is hard to believe. The film is spreading rapidly. You can see it here:

Alexandramorton.typepad.com

We are getting closer to finally closing this disastrous chapter in our history, but for now the next generation of wild salmon leaving BC rivers face the same exposure to farm lice and disease and they really are in no condition to survive this. 

Thank you for sticking with me on this!

Alexandra Morton

Climate Change Public Opinion Surveys Show Growing Concern

Climate Scorecard Report #15 highlights the results of climate change public opinion surveys that have been conducted in leading greenhouse gas emitting countries over the last five years. Looking across countries we see the following trends:

• Citizens in many countries agree that climate change is caused by humans and that it is a major threat to national security and their own well-being. (Argentina, France, India, Italy, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa)
• Citizens in many countries are in favor of their nations taking stronger action to reign in greenhouse gas emitters. E.g. Germany, Spain
• There is strong support for the Paris Agreement in many countries. (China, Canada, the United States)
• In several countries, citizens believe that their country as well as other countries are not doing enough to combat climate change, e.g. Brazil, India
• Citizens beliefs in the importance of climate change is at a low level in certain countries, e.g. China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea

The surveys also reveal the need for increased efforts in all countries to better inform citizens about the nature of climate change and the importance of both their governments and individuals taking stronger action to mitigate the impact of global warming.

Download Climate Scorecard Report 15

EarthAction is a founding partner of Climate Scorecard, an international project that monitors and reports on the status of efforts to implement the UN Paris Agreement among leading greenhouse gas emitting countries. This is Climate Scorecard’s 15th Report. Learn more at climatescorecard.org