Globabl Warming is a Scientific Fact

Most rational Americans support a clean energy economy that creates jobs and fights global warming. Now the United States Chamber of Commerce wants to sue the EPA and put the "the science" of climate change on trial. This stunt is expressly designed to undermine the EPA's authority to fight global warming.

The Chamber of Commerce already had an opportunity to air their concerns during the 60-day comment period on the finding that global warming poses a threat to our health and welfare. so EPA should be the lead agency on protection.

The Chamber wants to pretend that the 41,000 comments we collected supporting the EPA were never written, that the 2,000 people who rallied at the hearing in Seattle never showed up, and that the people speaking out in favor of action to fight global warming at the hearing in Arlington, VA did not out number the skeptics by 9 to 1. (EPA)

Take Action: Send a message to members of the US Chamber of Commerce and tell them that short-term and long-term effects of global warming have been well-documented and to move on.

The Chamber is siding with a minority of polluting energy companies, even though it is now clear that reducing global warming emissions is good for both the economy and the environment.

Earlier this year, a group of big companies like Nike and Johnson and Johnson sent a letter to the Chamber asking them to more accurately reflect the majority of American businesses who are well aware that the science of global warming is settled, and who want to move the U.S. into a cleaner energy future.

Tell responsible companies to stop letting a handful of polluters use the Chamber of Commerce to hold our Country hostage to last century's dirty energy technology. Take Action : Sign the petition today!

Sign the petition to these responsible companies urging them to back up their words with action. Also, tell the U.S. Chamber of Commerce conform to scientific method and the accepted practices of the current administration.

Tags: chamber of commerce, global warming, epa, take action

God Bless You, Edward Kennedy

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Rest in Peace, Edward Moore Kennedy,
you fought a good fight
and the world is a lesser place without you in it.

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Killing Wolves Just Was Approved Again

Killing Wolves Just Was Approved Again

In just two days, state officials in Idaho will begin selling some 70,000 permits to shoot and kill up to 220 of 1,000 wolves living in Idaho.

DANGER >>> So in two days, the great citizens of Idaho will have between 70 to 318 yahoos tracking, bow hunting, shooting and gassing the lairs of the remaining wolves living in Idaho. <<< DANGER

Unless we stop them, hundreds of defenseless wolves will be killed. Orphaned wolf pups that are unable to hunt for themselves will be left to starve to death during the brutal winter months. Some will be killed with poison gas or bait.

More than 500 wolves could be killed over the next two years under the state’s wolf plan.But the true results of the state’s plans may be even worse, leading to mass death for Idaho’s wolves, including those leaving the safety of Yellowstone National Park:

• When wolf parents are shot during the fall, some pups will be too young to feed themselves and will likely starve to death -- assuming those pups are not shot themselves.
• Idaho Fish & Game estimates that it will issue an estimated 70,000 permits to hunt and kill up to 220 wolves, even though there are only about 1,000 wolves in the entire state of Idaho!
• The state legislature has declared that it wants to remove all wolves from the state “by whatever means necessary.”
• Governor Butch Otter has declared he wants to be the first one to buy a ticket to shoot a wolf. He literally howled with delight when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar eliminated Endangered Species Act protections for wolves.

Please help us STOP IDAHO’S DEADLY WOLF HUNT. Last year, Defenders of Wildlife helped convince a federal judge to stop the wolf killing and restore life-saving federal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies.

Unbelievably, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar decided to adopt the discredited and illegal path charted by the Bush administration and strip wolves in the Northern Rockies of vital federal protections -- a decision Defenders of Wildlife is now challenging in federal court.

You know what it takes to win a battle in court. Money. Give up your lattes or your drycleaning or your friday night out for a while and send that move to help save a little bit of life that is left to us. Please help us STOP IDAHO’S DEADLY WOLF HUNT

Or, maybe you think this is sport:

Tags: idaho, wolf kill, cub kill, wolf hunt, no protection under ESA

Slow and Steady : Protect Desert Tortoises

Tortoises Need Protection, Too!

It is easy to forget Tortoises in every day life. They are not cute like sea otters, seal pups, wolves, whales . . . However, they do have their place in our world and they need our help today. The army want to relocate 1000+ desert tortoises so they may have a tank warfare training area in the California desert. We are not discussing the warfare training range. Just the tortoises.

In the spring of last year, over 250 desert tortoises died after a disastrous attempt by the Army to relocate approximately 600 tortoises. The result was 252 tortoise deaths (both resident and translocated tortoises) have been documented as a result.

The desert tortoise population cannot withstand yet another ill-conceived and hastily implemented governmental plan. This year, the Army and the Bureau of Land Management are rushing forward with a plan to TRY TO move over 1,100 more tortoises.

The public comment period is only 15 days long. In order to to comment on this proposal, send your thoughts to the Army and the Bureau of Land Management--which you may easily do by clicking here and taking action. When you click, you will be taken to an online hub for sending these messages. You can read more on the issues, send funds to help, volunteer, send alerts and emails to your friends.

Please remember to include these points if you write your own letter or edit the sample letter:

• Extend the deadline for public comment for an additional 60 days.
• Conduct an Environmental Impact Statement, before moving forward,
  
• If tortoises must be moved, translocation must be designed to discourage them from making the perilous journey back to their homes on the base.
• No tortoises should be moved in a drought year when their survival is already compromised.
• Assurances must be provided that overall tortoise deaths from the translocation will be significantly reduced from last year.

Tags: take action, desert tortoise, center for biological diversity

Just Say No : Oil, Coal or Tailings

The well-funded fossil fuel lobby is poised for a fight in the Senate. The clean energy and climate change legislation being debated in the Senate is in danger! Big Oil and Big Coal do not want to release their stranglehold on our economy.

Even worse, our wild lands are in danger! Big Oil wants to drill the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and Dirty Coal just wants to keep leveling mountains and polluting water supplies with heavy metals.

Do not even get me started on tailings! Tailings are made of water with naphthenic acids (NAs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), arsenic, sand, mercury, residual bitumen, salt and clay. To extract one cubic meter of bitumen, you must create three to five cubic metres of tailings. These tailings are stored in ponds so large they can be seen by the naked eye from space.

Tell Your Senators What You Want! Take Action

Tags: wilderness org, coal, oil, senate, take action, tailings

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If you are sickened as I am by the brutal slaughter of the grey wolves, please give whatever you can spare to Defenders of Wildlife.

Stop Palin's reign of terror today! Stop aerial hunting of wolves, which is unnecessary and uncivilized.

Tags: grey wolves, defenders of wildlife, aerial hunting

Arsenic, lead and cadmium in our waters?

Due to a recent Supreme Court case, Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, a mining company will dump toxic mining waste into a pristine Alaskan lake on national forest lands.

Redefining mine waste as "fill material," which is exempt from EPA pollution standards. Conservation groups and EPA have proposed a better alternative that would prevent the discharge of toxic wastes into any lake or stream.

Take action to protect our water.

Mine tailings and their associated metal contaminants, such as arsenic, lead, and cadmium, are prone to wind (eolian) dispersion and water erosion. Wind dispersion occurs because the fine tailings particles (silty sand-like material) and their associated contaminants are easily suspended into the atmosphere by wind and dispersed throughout the environment as dust particles. The spread of metal toxins associated with tailings has been shown to result in measurable elevated levels in wildlife and humans. For more information, visit the Superfund site: http://superfund.pharmacy.arizona.edu/Mine_Tailings.php

Take action to protect our water.

Tags: tailings, fill material, arsenic, lead, cadmium