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Read this email if you want to keep breathing

04/22/2014 Nativegrl77

This Earth Day, do your part to protect the Amazon by
supporting the effort to save the Yasuní National Park
from destruction!

The Amazon rainforest provides us with 20% of our oxygen – that’s 1 in every 5 breaths! Much of the world’s rainfall is generated directly by the Amazon, and its vegetation continuously recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen. In a very real way, it serves as the heart pump of the Earth’s climate and the lungs of our planet.

Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park is the heart of the Amazon. It is one of the most biodiverse rainforests on the planet and home to Ecuador’s last remaining indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. Underneath this global treasure, there’s oil. For 7 years, the Ecuadorian government proposed to keep the oil in the ground, inspiring and encouraging the world that we can do better. Now they’ve changed their plan and are set to drill in the Yasuní.

In response, nearly 800,000 Ecuadorians signaled their support for a referendum to keep oil in the soil in Yasuní forever. Oil exploration there would be a disaster for the climate, the rainforest, and indigenous rights, and it would pave the way for drilling in 6.5 million acres of indigenous territory in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon.

As Yasunidos in Ecuador said last week, “NOW is the time to be vigilant for nature, our communities and our democracy.” Please support this call to action to keep the oil in the ground under Yasuní.

For Earth Day, every day,

Branden Barber
Director of Engagement

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Twice the impact

04/22/2014 Nativegrl77


	$997,923 and $372,315. That’s how much the gun lobby spent on state and federal candidates in Washington in 2012 — and that’s not even counting their lobbying in Olympia, communicating directly with their members about legislation, or any other political work. It’s a lot of money — but it’s nothing compared to what they’re prepared to spend to defeat anything that would help reduce gun violence in Washington, which is exactly what I-594 will do. So, we’re going to need a lot of money to fight the gun lobby this fall — and one very special supporter, who wishes to remain anonymous, has offered to help us close that gap by matching every dollar we raise online from now until the end of April, up to $20,000. Click here to contribute $3 before our deadline, and your gift will be DOUBLED! The gun lobby has a lot of powerful friends, and they have nearly limitless piles of cash to both swing elections and lobby in Olympia and Washington. That can be a very powerful combination — it’s kept a lot of commonsense reforms from becoming law. But what they don’t have is you, Carmen. And they don’t have our thousands of supporters, or nearly 80% of voters who think that it’s long past time to apply our already existing background checks to all gun purchases in Washington. Unfortunately, that won’t matter if our simple message is drowned out by the confusing and misleading ads, phone calls, and mailings that we KNOW are coming as it gets closer to November. Contribute $3 before our A‌pril 3‌0 deadline, and your gift will go TWICE AS FAR towards making Washington safer from gun violence. Together, we can make sure that Washington voters will know the truth about I-594, and come November, we’ll finally make progress toward reducing gun violence. Thanks so much, Tracy Newman Finance Director WA Alliance for Gun Responsibility

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Pepsico and Deforestation

04/22/2014 Nativegrl77

With massive reach and absolutely no attention to where its palm oil is sourced from, PepsiCo is driving breakneck deforestation around the globe to supply the world with chips, cookies, and granola bars.

PepsiCo is the largest globally distributed snack food company in the world. PepsiCo products such as Cheetos, Doritos, and Lay’s potato chips are sold in over 200 countries in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Africa. If we can change PepsiCo, it will have a ripple effect on the global palm oil industry.

Join RAN, Harrison Ford, and Showtime’s “Years of Living Dangerously” to tell PepsiCo to break the link between its products and deforestation.

Note: If action link doesn’t work in your browser, use this instead.

When we launched our Snack Food 20 campaign over a year ago, PepsiCo was one of the companies that RAN called on to clean up its palm oil supply chain. In the year since, its peers like Mars, Kellogg’s, Unilever, and General Mills have made new commitments to cut Conflict Palm Oil. Meanwhile, PepsiCo has lagged behind and is now the largest and most influential of the companies yet to adopt a policy to eliminate deforestation and human rights violations from its products.

PepsiCo’s irresponsible practice of allowing large-scale deforestation in pursuit of a few extra pennies has huge impacts. With a whopping 457,200 metric tons of palm oil used every year, PepsiCo is one of the largest consumers of Conflict Palm Oil in the snack food sector. That’s why we at RAN have pushed hard for the company to adopt a global palm oil procurement policy — and we’re not alone.

PepsiCo’s culpability in forest destruction has also made it a target for Showtime’s new series with Harrison Ford, “Years of Living Dangerously.” Last night the show’s deforestation episode showcased the devastation caused by Conflict Palm Oil and other exploitation, helping to bring this issue to millions of viewers. Now the YEARS project is calling on PepsiCo CEO Ms. Indra Nooyi to answer questions about PepsiCo’s role in deforestation.

With this kind of exposure, it’s time for us to raise our voice together and make sure that PepsiCo hears from every one of us. Now is the time, so please add your name here to join RAN, Years of Living Dangerously, and thousands of people around the world demanding change at PepsiCo.

We are on the verge of a tipping point – both within the palm oil sector, and for the planet as a whole. It’s time to take action. Together, we can send the message that PepsiCo must end forest destruction and eliminate Conflict Palm Oil.

Take action now.