Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Joshua Northrup via Change.org —


I’m a wildland firefighter, and this year I’ve seen even more budget cuts to firefighters across the country despite the fact that fire season is getting worse.   Wenatchee, WA

Sign my petition to tell Congress to stop cuts to firefighters.

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My name is Josh, and I’ve been a wildland firefighter for 18 years. The work I do is hard and dangerous, and when I’m fighting fires, I want to be sure that my crew and I are safe.  But Congress has continued to cut the federal budget for firefighters like me across the country, despite ten states battling large fires right now.

In Washington State’s Wenatchee River Ranger District where I work, we lost a twenty person crew and an engine to budget cuts during one of the worst fire seasons in 50 years. This happened just months before the start of a huge fire which burned more than 45,000 acres.  

Firefighters like me do everything we can to protect people from danger, but we can’t do our jobs without adequate crews and equipment. That’s why I started a petition on Change.org asking Congress and the Administration to stop further budget cuts from sequestration to firefighters across the country. Click here to sign my petition.

Reducing the budget for firefighters guarantees the cost and size of catastrophic wildfires to only become worse. What happened in Wenatchee can and has happened all throughout the country. 

When airline customers were upset about federal budget cuts affecting air traffic controllers and causing flight delays, Congress moved quickly to restore their funding. With wildland fires affecting so many states across the country, I believe a public outcry can push Congress and the Administration to stop cuts to firefighters.

Every summer, tens of thousands of wildland firefighters put their lives on the line to keep communities safe from harm. Join me in fighting for the resources firefighters need to stay safe on the job.

Click here to sign my petition asking Congress and the Administration to stop further budget cuts to wildland firefighters.

Thank you for your help.

Joshua Northrup Wenatchee, WA

Meet Carl Sciortino


Carl Sciortino, the first congressional candidate we’ve endorsed this cycle, who “comes out” as liberal to his Tea Party father in a new ad.

Over 200,000 people watched the ad so far. The election’s one month away and Carl will be on MSNBC’s Hardball tonight at 7pm!

Watch the ad everyone’s talking about — and chip in $3 to make sure Massachusetts voters see it on TV.

Carl is the definition of a true progressive leader — he supports prosecuting Wall Street bankers, increasing Social Security benefits, passing Warren’s student loan bill, and reversing Citizens United.

His special election is right around the corner on October 15, voters are just starting to pay attention, and he needs our support.

Check out the ad, and donate $3 so Massachusetts voters will see it and elect a bold ally for Senator Warren.

Or, watch the ad and sign up to make calls from your home for Carl before Election Day!

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

— Stephanie Taylor, PCCC Co-founder

Think Progress … sad realities


NAVY YARD SHOOTER’S TROUBLED PAST DIDN’T STOP HIM FROM BUYING GUNS

FATALLY SHOT FOR ASKING FOR HELP?

YOUR GUIDE TO THIS WEEK’S FOOD STAMPS VOTE

Palm Oil & Kellogg


Demand that Kellogg’s and the rest of the Snack Food 20 stop using “Conflict Palm Oil”
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Wow, we’re off to a great start!
A lot has happened since Rainforest Action Network launched our ambitious new campaign to save some of the world’s most important rainforests and the last remaining wild orangutans from “Conflict Palm Oil.”
Last Thursday, we publicly named The Snack Food 20 at our launch in Chicago. They are the makers of some of the top name brands in the world, companies like PepsiCo, The Hershey Company, Kraft Foods Group, Mondelēz International and the Kellogg Company, and they are using Conflict Palm Oil in their products—palm oil tied to rainforest destruction, orangutan extinction, and human rights violations.
Since last week, over 12,000 people have written to the Snack Food 20 demanding that they cut conflict palm oil from their products. We are well on the way to reaching our target of having 60,600 people standing with the 60,600 orangutans left in the wild forests of Borneo and Sumatra, but we need you standing with the orangutans too.

Tell Kellogg’s and the rest of the Snack Food 20 to cut Conflict Palm Oil from their products now!
This morning, an orangutan called Strawberry, along with our Palm Oil Action Team and local residents from Battle Creek, Michigan, paid a visit to the home of Tony the Tiger (a.k.a Kellogg’s headquarters) to call on the snack food giant to cut Conflict Palm Oil from its products.
At the Kellogg’s HQ, Strawberry and her friends from the Battle Creek Palm Oil Action Team gave representatives of the Kellogg Company a copy of the report that RAN released last week, titled Conflict Palm Oil: How US Snack Food Brands are Contributing to Orangutan Extinction, Climate Change and Human Rights Violations, as well as a set of demands that the company cut Conflict Palm Oil from its supply chain.
Can you take action now to add your voice to our demands of Kellogg’s and the other 19 companies in the Snack Food 20?
Today’s visit to Kellogg’s is the third company stop on The Power Is In Your Palm Tour. Last Friday, Strawberry and our team visited the headquarters of Mondelēz International and Kraft Foods Group to deliver the report and a similar set of demands.
You and I have been calling on Kellogg’s, Mondelēz and Kraft to adopt a global responsible palm oil procurement policy since last April. In the past month, both Mondelēz and Kellogg’s have strengthened their commitments on palm oil and publicly stated that they will work with their suppliers to source traceable palm oil that is not associated with deforestation, expansion onto carbon-rich peatlands or human and labor rights violations.
This is a good start, but what is urgently needed is for Mondelēz and Kellogg’s to put these commitments to sourcing responsible palm oil into a procurement policy that their suppliers, like Cargill, must comply with.

These companies need to hear from consumers like you so they know that we expect them to cut Conflict Palm Oil from their supply chains as quickly as possible.
Kraft Foods Group is a different story. It has not made any commitments to source responsible palm oil and has yet to adopt a palm oil procurement policy. During our visit to Kraft HQ, we told representatives of the company that they need to prioritize developing a responsible palm oil policy and eliminate conflict palm oil from their products ASAP.

 

Send them a reminder, won’t you?

For the great red ape,

Gemma Tillack             Senior Agribusiness Campaigner @ProbWithPalmOil