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Extinction for palm oil


 greenpeace
We must act fast to stop rainforest destruction and save the last home of the Sumatran tiger.
Donate today to save the Sumatran tiger
Make an urgent gift today to help us reach our goal of $150,000 by December 31st and support all the work we do to protect the environment. Donate button EOY

A century ago, thousands of Javan, Bali and Sumatran tigers roamed the rainforests of Indonesia.
Not any more. The Javan and Bali tigers have been driven to extinction. And only a few hundred Sumatran tigers — the last survivors of their kind — remain. Every day they have less forest to hunt, to raise their cubs, to evade poachers. Every day brings them closer to extinction.
But we have the power to swing the balance back in the tigers’ favor. 
Greenpeace just launched a new campaign to transform the single biggest threat to Indonesia’s rainforests: the palm oil industry. Changing the industry means saving the Sumatran tiger’s remaining habitat from the bulldozer. Reversing this century of destruction can only happen with your support.
Carmen, if you have been waiting for the right time to make your first gift to Greenpeace, this is it. Please chip in 5 dollars or whatever you can today. Make an urgent gift to help us reach our goal of $150,000 by December 31st to support our campaigns to stop environmental destruction worldwide. Help save the last home of the Sumatran tiger.
In just two years, an area of Sumatran tiger habitat twice the size of Los Angeles has been destroyed to make way for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations. The companies behind the destruction are only thinking about profit and have been allowed to get away with it, no questions asked. Until now.
With your help, Greenpeace is exposing companies that buy palm oil linked to rainforest destruction. And using public pressure to convince these companies to end their role in deforestation. So you never have to wonder if the palm oil in your cookies or your shampoo was grown on former tiger habitat.
After the progress we’ve made this year, it’s clear that we are on the verge of something BIG. Just last week, Wilmar — a company that buys and sells over a third of the world’s palm oil — committed to stop trading palm oil linked to rainforest destruction because of Greenpeace’s research and campaigning. This, less than a month after major company Mondelez (formerly Kraft) committed to a zero-deforestation palm oil policy for its products.
But we are only part way there. We need more big companies to start demanding accountabilityin order to change the palm oil industry as a whole. This is a pivotal moment for the forests of Indonesia. We can’t back down now. For Greenpeace to keep the pressure up, we need your help.
Help us protect the Indonesian rainforest and home of the endangered Sumatran tiger by making an urgent donation in support of our campaigns to end forest destruction and all the work we do to protect the environment. Our goal is to raise $150,000 by December 31st.
Greenpeace is dedicated to doing whatever it takes in 2014 to reverse the march towards extinction for the tigers of Indonesia, and to save the crucial rainforests there from destruction.
We are committed to tracking dirty palm oil from its source on destroyed rainforest land in Indonesia all the way to your supermarket shelf. And then exposing the supply chain so that everyone — from the palm oil trader, to the consumer company, to the customer — knows that a product is tied to habitat destruction. Make a donation to help us expose rainforest destruction in products we use everyday, and for all our work protecting the environment.
But it isn’t enough just to shine the spotlight on dirty deeds. Just last week, almost 50,000 supporters sent messages to the Consumer Goods Forum — an organization of over 400 consumer goods companies — demanding that the organization require its member companies to end their part in deforestation. And we won’t stop putting palm oil companies and consumer companies in the hot seat until they commit to no deforestation palm oil.
The rainforests in Indonesia, like all forests around the world, are critical for our planet to thrive. The species that live in forests — and the carbon that the forests hold — keep our world rich with life and our climate stable.
2014 can be a year for action and promise for our world’s forests. But only if you join in.
Make a donation today to support all of Greenpeace’s work on the frontlines of environmental injustice, and to help stop the destruction of tiger habitat for palm oil.
Greenpeace has a goal of zero global deforestation by 2020. It’s ambitious, but with your support I know it’s possible. Thanks for all you do.
For the tigers,
Dr. Amy Moas Greenpeace Senior Forests Campaigner
P.S. Time is running out to save the Indonesian rainforest and the Sumatran tiger. Donate today to Greenpeace’s campaigns to protect the environment and stop rainforest destruction.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Nina Pillard … Urge Your Senators to Confirm Nina Pillard


AAUWWhen it comes to judicial nominations, it often feels like we’re in a time warp – and not in a good way.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the second-most important federal court in the country, has not been fully staffed in over a few years. This court hears some of the most complicated cases, from vital national security challenges to reviews of federal regulatory agencies, and the court is hearing them without a full slate of judges. Nominees to fill the vacant seats – including three well-qualified female jurists – have been obstructed at nearly every turn.

 What’s worse is that one of those female nominees is being attacked with accusations that quite frankly sound like something out of the 1950s or 1960s. Georgetown Law Professor Cornelia “Nina” Pillard is a “scary feminist,” a “radical feminist,” they’re saying. 

Pillard’s detractors are wrong. Their comments are offensive, and U.S. senators should know better than to fall for hyped-up, false attacks on a nominee’s gender. Urge your senators to support Pillard’s nomination when it comes up for a vote this week .

Pillard has a distinguished career of working with lawyers on both sides of the aisle. She has argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and is best known for her argument that convinced a nearly unanimous Supreme Court to open the Virginia Military Institute to women. She worked alongside Bush administration attorneys to successfully defend the Family and Medical Leave Act in the courts. She has consistently opposed government policies that treat men and women differently based on outmoded stereotypes that harm both sexes.

When the Senate adjusted its rules for considering judicial and executive nominations last month, it paved a path forward for the up-or-down confirmation vote that had previously been denied to Pillard. The Senate is expected to reconsider Pillard’s nomination this week, which gives your senators a chance to confirm this outstanding jurist who is uniquely qualified because of her work on AAUW priority issues.

Please, urge your senators to vote for Nina Pillard’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The seats on the D.C. Circuit Court have been empty for far too long, and Nina Pillard is exactly the right kind of person to seat on the bench.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A moving tribute to a legendary figure


The White House

Nelson Mandela’s struggle against South African apartheid inspired millions. And his great call for justice and equality continues to resonate around the world, as new generations of young people pursue the ideals he embraced.

Earlier today in Johannesburg, President Obama paid tribute to a hero and a leader — and spoke about the path that’s still ahead.

It’s a powerful, moving speech. Watch this tribute to Nelson Mandela:

Watch: President Obama's tribute to Mandela

 

 

 

 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Abby Spiwak via Change.org


Taylor Radig was working as an undercover investigator at a cattle company that was abusing baby calves, and was unfairly charged with animal cruelty after exposing the mistreatment.

Sign my petition asking for the charge to be dropped.

An undercover investigator named Taylor Radig worked at Quanah Cattle Company to document the violent abuse of baby calves, some of which were too young to have been taken away from their mothers. The cows are shown in the footage being dragged around by their ears, tossed onto their heads, and kicked until they cry.

Taylor helped document and report the abuses, leading to three of the workers being charged with animal cruelty. But then the sheriff charged her with a crime for simply witnessing and documenting this animal cruelty!

I started a petition on Change.org because I know other whistleblowers have have won campaigns against reporting factory farming abuse. Now I’m hoping I can help Taylor for her bravery. Click here to sign my petition asking for the charge against Taylor Radig to be dropped immediately.

Going undercover in factory farms and slaughterhouses is becoming more and more dangerous as states around the country start passing laws that make it illegal to film or photograph inside of them. That’s why it’s so important that people like Taylor aren’t punished for doing the right thing.

Animal welfare experts describe the footage from Quanah as unacceptable treatment and severe abuse. Without this evidence, baby cows would have continued to face violent beatings and cruel treatment without any recourse.

I believe that Taylor is being charged with animal cruelty as a way of intimidating other people who want to ensure humane conditions for livestock animals, even though she helped blow the whistle on these atrocious abuses. Pressuring the district attorney to drop the charges is important for whistleblowers like Taylor and for protecting farm animals everywhere.

Sign my petition asking the Weld County District Attorney to drop the animal cruelty charge against Taylor, the whistleblower on the Quanah Cattle company.

Abby Spiwak Denver, CO

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