Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Sign the petition to Ecuador’s president: Save the Amazon from another Big Oil disaster!


“As concerned global citizens, we stand in solidarity with these indigenous nations and urge you to immediately stop plans for new oil drilling in Ecuador’s rainforests!”Add your name:
SierraRise petition box test button PNG

 

Take Action

Jaime Vargas, an Ecuadorian tribal leader, stood proudly in the howling wind and rain to send us this urgent plea: “Big Oil will stop at nothing to destroy our sacred rainforest home. But with your help we can save it!” [1]

Jaime and his Achuar people are guardians of a spectacular land teeming with one-of-a-kind plants and animals. But Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, is racing to sell off the Achuar’s rainforest home and the neighboring Yasuni National Park to greedy international oil companies.[2]

The president is determined to put profit ahead of his own people — even though they’re still suffering from Chevron’s decades-old oil disaster. [3]

More than 1 million people have stood up to save Ecuador’s threatened rainforests [4] — now it’s time for the SierraRise community to join the fight. Let’s stand with Jaime and all Ecuadorians and flood the president’s inbox with 50,000 messages!

Tell Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa: The world is watching — protect the irreplaceable Amazon and halt all plans for oil drilling!

Big Oil can’t be trusted to operate safely in the rainforest. For three decades, Texaco, now part of Chevron, dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste into the beautiful Ecuadorian Amazon. [5]Thousands of people are still suffering a plague of deadly cancers and devastating birth defects. [6]

This land is not only crucial for wildlife, but also to the seven vibrant indigenous communities that call it home. Jaime says it best: “For us, the indigenous people, the rainforest is life. There we are in touch with everything.” [7]The Amazon can’t afford another deadly oil disaster like Chevron’s.

Last November, hundreds of everyday Ecuadorians protested the proposed oil drilling. President Correa and his government, feeling the pressure, shut down Pachamama, a local nonprofit fighting the oil drilling, stifling his people’s free speech. [8] It’s clear — President Correa is feeling the heat.

Carmen, will you stand with Jaime and his tribe to save the Ecuadorian Amazon from another Big Oil catastrophe?

In it together,

Ashley Allison
SierraRise Senior Campaigner

P.S. Five signatures are even more powerful than one — after you take action, be sure to forward this alert to your friends, family, and colleagues!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Get breastfeeding support and supplies without extra costs


National Women's Law Center
Something to be pumped about!
Check out our easy-to-use guide on the health care law’s breastfeeding benefits and share with the parents in your life today.
Learn More

From diaper duty to sleepless nights, new parents have enough to worry about. But there’s one thing they shouldn’t have to stress over — paying extra costs for breastfeeding support and supplies.

Do you know someone who’s breastfeeding — or will be soon? Send them our easy-to-use guide on the health care law’s new breastfeeding benefit.

Thanks to the new law, breastfeeding supplies and support are now available in many private insurance plans without costs. Our toolkit will make sure parents can take advantage of this benefit.

With our toolkit, you can get the facts on the breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling in the health care law and the tools you need to help you get this coverage. The toolkit includes details on how to call insurance companies as well as step-by-step instructions on how to file an appeal if an insurance company denies coverage.

We want to make it easy for parents to get the breastfeeding support they need so they can focus on what’s most important: their families.

Share our easy-to-use resource with the parents in your life.

Breastfeeding benefits both parents and children, reducing the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in adults and asthma, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and leukemia in children. Women who breastfeed have also reported psychological benefits such as close bonding with their infants. And with the health care law, breastfeeding support and supplies have never been more affordable.

Thanks for everything you do to ensure women and their families get comprehensive and affordable health care.

Sincerely,
Judy Waxman Judy Waxman
Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Need extra help using our breastfeeding toolkit? Contact our CoverHer hotline at 1-866-745-5487 or CoverHer@nwlc.org for help.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Ed Markey …


The Republicans are getting serious about this fall’s campaign. My opponent has joined forces with GOP candidates up and down the ticket, and they’ve opened a command center on the outskirts of Boston.

 

Back in 2008, our country suffered the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. It happened because deregulation allowed Wall Street to turn into a big casino. Huge financial firms made bad bets — and they lost — damaging the economic welfare of the American people.

The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill, passed 4 years ago this month, went a long way to put the reins back on out-of-control Wall Street risk-taking.

But today, Dodd-Frank is in trouble.

House Republicans are trying to strip the teeth out of Dodd-Frank. If that happens, Wall Street could go right back to the practices that brought our nation to the brink of disaster.

We have one week until our pre-primary filing deadline, and we’re aiming to raise $25,000 by then. Republicans are getting organized and running hard, and we need to respond — make a $5 contribution and help us hit our goal.

The Tea Party has control in the House.

The Tea Party is able to push legislation through the House that puts Wall Street’s wishes before the needs of Main Street families.

We can’t let that happen to the Senate, too.

 

In July, MassLive: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey join Democrats in pushing bill to address Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling granting religious exemptions to health care law

WASHINGTON — In the wake of the Supreme Court decision granting companies the right to cite religious beliefs in denying health insurance coverage for things like birth control, Democrats in the U.S. Senate are wasting no time fighting back. On Wednesday, the Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act introduced in the Senate was co-sponsored by dozens […] More »

Resource: Ed Markey’s site and fundraiser for Ed http://www.edmarkey.com

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

ColorOfChange.org


Profiting from Michael Brown’s death is not okay.ImageTell GoFundMe: Take down the Darren Wilson fundraisers, and return all profits immediately.Take Action

 

The online fundraising platform GoFundMe is profiting off racially-motivated donors, some of whom are celebrating the police killing of Michael Brown.

Join our campaign demanding that GoFundMe return these profits and take down the Darren Wilson fundraising pages. It only takes a moment.

In the past week, a fundraising effort has been started to support Darren Wilson, the officer responsible for the police killing of Michael Brown.

They were so successful with their first page, that they’ve started a second page, raising over $300,000 so far. And GoFundMe takes 5% of every donation processed, meaning the company has made more than $15,000.

Take a look at some of the donor comments below. (1) They will make your blood boil.

“Waste of good ammo. It’s my privilege to buy you a replacement box.”

“I thank all Police…protecting normal Americans from aggressive and entitled primitive savages.”

“Black people can be their own enemy and I am not white…He was shot 6 times cause the giant wouldn’t stop or die. Evil people don’t die quick”

“Let this ‘GoFundMe’ serve as an example to all cops in America: The general public will support you, especially if you pull the trigger on violent criminal thugs.”

That last comment is chilling, and not just because it indicts and criminalizes Black youth like Michael Brown. But because it lowers the social and financial costs of killing Black men and boys. That’s the most insidious impact of this fundraiser. It sends the message that you will be supported in the aftermath of taking Black life.

We’ve seen this before. Racist right-wingers flocked to George Zimmerman’s defense in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin murder, creating a climate of sympathy for perpetrators of violence against Black teens.

GoFundMe is the world’s #1 personal fundraising site and if we can push them to take a stand against the Darren Wilson fundraisers, it will send a strong signal. That it’s not okay to fundraise on behalf of the shooter in the aftermath of a police killing. That it won’t be tolerated, at least not on the largest and most popular platforms.

Add your name.

After a public outcry on Twitter, GoFundMe has taken down the hateful comments listed above, but the pages are still up. (2)

The thing is: simply hiding the comments is not enough. In fact, it may even do more harm because it hides the real motivations behind this type of fundraising drive.

GoFundMe’s own terms of service prohibit “items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance, or the financial exploitation of a crime.” If Darren Wilson is charged, then it would stand to reason that this fundraiser is in violation of these terms, specifically “financial exploitation of a crime.” (3)

GoFundMe should return any money it has made from Darren Wilson fundraising pages, and take them down right away. Profiting off the killing of Michael Brown is not okay. Profiting off of racially-motivated donors is not okay.

Right now, as the entire country is paying attention, we can pressure GoFundMe to end this disturbing fundraising effort.

Tell GoFundMe: Don’t profit from donations to Darren Wilson, and take down the fundraising pages immediately.

Thanks and peace,

–Arisha, Rashad, Matt, Bhavik, and the ColorOfChange team
Sources:

  1. “Tweeps Demand GoFundMe Remove Darren Wilson Support Page“, ColorLines, 08-22-2014.
  2. “GoFundMe defends Darren Wilson fundraising page despite racist postings“, The Guadian, 08-22-2014.
  3. “Terms & Conditions“, GoFundMe.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Orangutans and palm oil


WorldOrangutanDay_v1.pngRan

August 19, 2014, World Orangutan Day!

There are only 60,600 orangutans left in the wild, and unchecked palm oil expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia is driving these beautiful creatures to the brink of extinction. Join people all over the world who are taking a stand for endangered orangutans and ask PepsiCo to get Conflict Palm Oil out of our food.

If you’ve been following our summer campaign push on PepsiCo, you know that things are heating up! Our message that #LiveForNow shouldn’t mean destroying tomorrow is hitting PepsiCo in a big way via all your beautiful photos and tweets, but today is the day to go big. Here is how to make a difference for orangutans on World Orangutan Day:

  1. Sign up right now for Thursday’s Twitter training with our expert digital team. In one hour you will become a social media ninja and walk away with the skills and knowledge to strategically pressure corporations on Twitter.
  2. Download your own sign, get a photo of yourself (bonus: with friends) holding the sign in front of any Pepsi display, product, vending machine or logo and start tweeting at @PepsiCo with YOUR demands and the hashtag #LiveForNow. Not sure what to say? Here’s a tweet I posted as an example.

Join me on World Orangutan Day by taking a stand for our red furry friends! Help us push huge corporations, like PepsiCo, to change.

Thank you!

Ashley Schaeffer Yildiz
Rainforest Action Network