Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Polar Bear Cubs Won’t Stand a Chance …Dan Howells, Greenpeace


It’s getting harder for a polar bear mother and her cubs to survive in the Arctic.

Each day she has to travel farther and farther for food as the sea ice she relies on to hunt rapidly disappears because of global warming. Each day brings her hungry cubs closer to starvation. And now she has to deal with the prospect of an oil spill.

Oil giant Shell is heading her way right now to drill the very first wells in the pristine waters off the coast of Alaska this summer. If the company finds what it is looking for the Arctic oil rush will be on — and a spill won’t be far behind. This polar bear mother and her cubs won’t stand a chance.

Donate now and help us raise $35,000 by midnight March 30th to save this polar bear mother and her cubs from Arctic drilling. We need just 50 donors from WA to make this happen.

Greenpeace plans to mobilize millions of people around the world in 2012 to save the Arctic by using creative campaigning. It’s all hands on deck. We know that it’s the only way to get the attention of policy makers and put a stop Arctic drilling.

Our goal is to permanently ban oil drilling and industrial fishing in the Arctic and to establish the area around the North Pole as a ‘global commons.’ It may seem ambitious, but we’ve done it before. In 1991, a Greenpeace campaign much like this one helped establish Antarctica as a world park and off limits to commercial extraction.

We can do it, but not without your support.

This polar bear mother needs our help now. Please make an urgent donation by our midnight March 30th deadline to help save her cubs from starvation and protect our planet. Just 50 gifts from WA will ensure that we reach our goal to raise $35,000 by Saturday.

Last year alone Shell admitted to causing 207 ‘significant’ spills worldwide in places like Nigeria and Britain’s North Sea. Any one of those would be an even greater disaster in the harsh waters of the Arctic and for the polar bear mother trying to feed her cubs.

Carmen, this is your chance to be part of history. This drilling is happening in our backyard and to stop it we are going to need massive support in this country. Greenpeace doesn’t take a dime from corporations or governments. All we care about is doing what is necessary to save the Arctic. But our plans and the polar bears that call the Arctic home all depend on your support.

Please make a donation today to help save this polar bear mother and her cubs and ensure that we reach our goal to raise $35,000 by March 30th.

For the Arctic,

Dan Howells
Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaign Director

P.S. We need just 50 supporters from WA to reach our goal. Please make your donation to save polar bears by midnight March 30th on our secure website or by calling 1-800-722-6995. Thank you!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Real solutions to high gas prices … Union of Concerned Scientists


Union of Concerned Scientists

If you’ve filled up your gas tank recently, you don’t need the newspapers to tell you gas prices are on the rise. But oil and gas prices are in the news, and politicians are grabbing headlines with plans that they claim will bring immediate relief at the pump. But these plans always fall short while real, long-term solutions are often missing from the conversation.

There is no “silver bullet” solution to high gas prices, but there are practical steps we can take to begin the transition from our oil-based transportation system. As a driver, you can take simple steps to cut down on your fill-ups, if you haven’t already. As a citizen, you can push for a plan to cut projected U.S. oil use in half in 20 years. These steps will help insulate us all from even higher prices as we scrape increasingly expensive and dirty oil from the bottom of the barrel.

Oil companies are working hard to maintain the status quo because they are profiting more than ever at the expense of the American public. We must push back and demand a transportation system that works for us—one that is powered by less oil and more American innovation through the development of electric cars, advanced biofuels, and better transportation options.

The Obama administration has taken action to cut U.S. oil use by moving forward with strong new fuel efficiency and global warming emissions standards. This is an important piece of the puzzle, but we can and must do more. We need a combination of smart federal policies and private sector innovation to expand consumer transportation choices and cut U.S. oil use in half in 20 years—and the Union of Concerned Scientists has a plan to do just that.

You can help get the story of real solutions out—submit a letter to the editor of your local paper today showing how we can cut our oil use through a national oil savings plan and how that will help your bottom line.

Take Action Today!

Sincerely,
Rachel Cohen
Rachel Cohen
National Field Organizer
UCS Clean Vehicles Program

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Week of action for women’s health … Kate Chapek, BarackObama.com


Here’s my prediction: Women are going to make the difference in this election.

There’s a simple reason — we have the most on the line, especially when it comes to health care and our ability to make our own health decisions. From increased access to coverage, to free preventive services, to lower prescription drug costs, and, soon, ending discrimination against women when it comes to health care premiums — the Affordable Care Act protects and benefits American women.

As women, it’s up to us to protect and build on the kind of progress that prevents insurers from discriminating against our daughters, mothers, and friends. We can’t afford to see that legislation repealed.

It’s our health on the table — and it’s our vote to cast. That’s why it’s absolutely critical that we start building right now. The second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act is this Friday, March 23rd, so we’re holding a Women’s Week of Action from March 23rd to March 30th to get the conversation going among our friends. We’ll be meeting up, organizing, and making phone calls to get the word out about how the Affordable Care Act helps women.

First Lady Michelle Obama wants you to be a part of it — so she recorded a special message. Watch this video, then say you’ll take part in a Women’s Week of Action, starting on Friday:

 
Here’s how women benefit from the Affordable Care Act:

    — By 2014, health reform will completely prohibit an insurance practice called “gender rating” that charges women more than men for the same coverage.
    — Already, young women who would otherwise be uninsured have access to coverage through their parents’ plans. In the future, even more young adults will gain coverage due to the Affordable Care Act’s reforms.
    — In 2011, the President’s law saved women on Medicare more than $1.2 billion on the cost of prescription drugs in the “donut hole” gap — by 2020, the gap will be completely closed.
    — Women with pre-existing conditions will soon gain access to coverage that — without reform — would have been out of reach. Children with pre-existing conditions are now protected.
    — Women have better access to critical preventive care like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings — and in the future, well-woman visits and domestic violence screenings will be included.

All of this will be on the line in November — that’s why we need your help, starting now.

Sign up to be a part of a nationwide Women’s Week of Action. By next Friday, let’s make sure we’ve done all we can to educate our friends, our moms, and our daughters about exactly what we’re voting to protect this fall.

It’s our health and our vote. Let’s make sure we’re the ones making the difference:

http://my.barackobama.com/Join-the-Womens-Week-of-Action

Thanks,

Kate

Kate Chapek
Women’s Vote Director
Obama for America

P.S. — We put together an app that figures out exactly how health reform benefits you. Check it out and find out how the Affordable Care Act is working for you right now — then pass it on.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Support Jay Inslee for Governor of Seattle, WA


 

On Sunday, Jay Inslee made an exciting announcement.

Effective March 20, Jay Inslee will step down from my seat in Congress to devote myself full-time to my race for governor and to talking to voters throughout Washington about creating jobs and building a new economy for our state.

In the coming years, we have a chance to seize our own destiny, build our own industries, and create our own technological revolutions right here at home.

And because that chance is so important to me, I am going to give everything I have to the cause of building a working Washington, and I am going to hold nothing back.

I am traveling everywhere in our state, and I am going to listen to everybody. If you have an idea, I want to hear it. If you have a problem, I want to know it. If you have a business, I want to help you grow it.

I am getting up every morning, seven days a week, to go out and listen to the people of Washington about their needs, their ideas, and their dreams.

This has not been an easy decision to make. I’ve enjoyed every day of my work representing the people of Washington’s 1st Congressional District. But I have not shied away from hard decisions before.

I did not shy away from the decision to vote against the deregulation of Wall Street. Nor did I shy away from the hard decision to vote against the Iraq war.

I was fully confident in those difficult decisions, and I am fully confident in this one.

THIS is the place where our destiny will be decided. THIS is the place jobs will be created. THIS is the place I can make a real difference getting 290,000 of our neighbors back to work.

I’m excited about what the coming months will bring, and I hope you are too. Thank you to the people of the 1st Congressional District for the honor of representing you all these years. And thank you to all those who have already given so much by helping me in this race.

I’m excited about being able to focus full time on talking to voters. I’m putting it all on the line.

Will you contribute $3 and help us reach as many voters as possible about building a working Washington?

The best is yet to come. Let’s go get ’em!

Jay Inslee

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Al Jazeera English presents- History of the Occupy Movement
Hello,

I would like to share with you the first episode of this season’s Fault Lines, Al Jazeera English‘s award-winning U.S. current affairs show.
 

In the first of a two part series, Fault Lines tells the definitive history of Occupy Wall Street, looking at how it went from a small group of New York protesters to a broad people’s movement. Despite police repression and media ridicule, the movement mobilized thousands of people fed up with the deep economic divide in the US. Within two months hundreds of Occupy Wall Street camps swept across the country changing the political discourse in the US.

 

Watch the first episode here:

Fault Lines- History of an Occupation

Stay tuned for upcoming Fault Lines episodes this season on voter rights and immigration detention in the U.S.

New episodes air Tuesdays at 2230 GMT/630 EST, and are available the next day on our YouTube page and website.

 

Fault Lines on Twitter:

@AJFaultlines

 

Fault Lines on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/AJFaultLines

 

 

Sophia Qureshi

Al Jazeera