22 | April | 2017 | Be a Seed for Change

Join Earthjustice for the Peoples Climate March for Jobs, Justice and the Climate

Every time President Trump and Congress attack our environment with bluster and ineptitude, we fight back with litigation and people power. Each unfit appointee and attack on fundamental environmental protections has been countered with thousands of phone calls and letters from Earthjustice supporters like you. When Trump signed an executive order opening tens of thousands of acres of public lands to the coal industry, Earthjustice attorneys went to court.

The overwhelming majority of Americans believe in stronger environmental protections—and resistance to assaults on these protections has transformed community members into dedicated activists.

On April 29, the 100th day of Trump’s presidency, Earthjustice will join hundreds of thousands in the nation’s capital for the Peoples Climate March—the environmental community’s strongest act of resistance yet. Will you join us?

From town halls to the streets of Washington, D.C., we have seen the difference people power can make. Together we’ve made tremendous progress toward fulfilling the promise of our communities as safe, healthy places to live and work, and toward safeguarding our irreplaceable natural world. Now it’s time to fight back against the onslaught of attempts to roll back those years of progress.

Download and print your own Earthjustice signs for the Peoples Climate March here.

If you can’t make it to the capital, we still need you in the streets. Join others in your own community at one of the hundreds of sister marches from Savannah, Georgia to Fairbanks, Alaska.

People across the country will march in support of communities facing off against big polluters and creating innovative solutions for a more sustainable future. Join us in Washington, D.C., or at one of the 250 sister marches around the country.

Thank you for helping us win—in and out of the courtroom.

Trip Van Noppen
President, Earthjustice

Below you will find Cyriac’s story: a look into the life of families grappling with climate change in a small Himalayan village called Pangthang and how Rainforest Action Network’s work gives hope for the future.

When you support Rainforest Action Network, you are addressing the root causes behind climate change and the suffering and hardships experienced by communities and people, like Cyriac.

At RAN we fight against climate change by stopping the world’s biggest banks from funding the most extreme fossil fuel extraction like fracking, and by demanding that the U.S. government #KeepItInTheGround when it comes to fossil fuels. Climate change is hurting the most vulnerable, poorest people on the planet who are often contributing least to climate change.

Fight climate change. Donate now.

My name is Cyriac, and I want to tell you the story of the small remote village I lived in the Himalayas:

Before I joined RAN, I lived for four years in a small nondescript, but beautiful, village called Pangthang in the north-eastern Himalayas. Pangthang is lush, green and known for orchids and rhododendrons and the breathtaking views it offers of the third highest peak in world Mt.Kanchendzonga. During the months of July through September, Pangthang receives the most torrential rains I have ever seen. But things are changing quickly in this very remote part of the world: as climate change is not waiting until 2100 to affect lives in Pangthang. Climate change’s impact on this idyllic mountain village is already prevalent and devastating.

The glacial systems of Mt.Kanchendzonga provide drinking water and irrigation to millions of people living downstream in Nepal, India and Bangladesh.

As you know, life in the Himalayas is hard. From fall to summer, while chickens, hogs and cows are busy doing what they do early in the morning, humans break out into frantic activity at exactly 7:30 AM. That is when the government water pipeline sputters to life. The community has just one hour to flush the toilets, the entire previous day’s worth of dishes are washed, meals are readied, and children are given baths — all during the short 60 minutes that the government tap reluctantly offers clean water.

Terquoia, DONATE NOW to help us halt climate change.

You might wonder why in a place like the Himalayas that water should be a problem — every crook and bend in the mountain should have a babbling brook. Unfortunately, this is no longer true. Over the past few decades, mountain springs in the Himalayas have been drying up resulting in water scarcity that is impacting the health, productivity and living standards of the mountain people.

I joined RAN, because it goes straight to the root causes of these issues and pressures the real power behind this crisis

Corporate profit-driven destruction of crucial forests and peatswamps that absorb greenhouse gases
Big Banks and Big Oil corporations that profit from keeping us dependent on fossil fuels

On both of these fronts, RAN has scored several victories every year confronting corporations that profit from the destruction of our environment — affecting the poorest and most vulnerable on our planet — be it human, orangutan or orchid. These are the economic forces that drive real human suffering, climate change, deforestation and extinction. While direct relief efforts to send plastic water bottles and dehydrated food packets to people impacted by climate change are commendable, they are inherently short term.

As you celebrate the coming new year with your families and friends, I am writing to urge you to also think of billions of people who are dependent on nature for life giving resources and who are suffering from climate change as you read this. Please consider making a generous tax-deductible gift to RAN for 2016. Your gift can help us take on corporate criminals who profit from the climate chaos they help create. Help vulnerable families across the world make it through this urgent and growing threat.

I wish you and your family the very best for coming year, as much as I do every other family in the world.

In solidarity with all life on our planet,

Cyriac

Cyriac Joseph