Be healthy, eat local


Did you know that most fruits and vegetables have lost up to 45% of their nutrients by the time you buy them at the store? 45%!

Join us in pledging to buy local produce!

There are a couple reasons for this problem. First, produce loses its nutritional value quickly – just three days after being picked, most fruits and vegetables have already lost a third of their nutrients. And second, most produce has to travel several hundred miles before it reaches the store – an average piece of produce takes seven days to get from the farm to the produce aisle.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to this problem. By buying local produce, you can maximize the nutritional value in the fruits and vegetables you buy. Plus, since the produce doesn’t have to travel as far, you’re cutting the carbon emissions associated with transporting your food across the country.

Wondering where you can find local produce near you? Take the pledge to buy more local produce and we’ll help you find a local farmer’s market in your area.

Switch to local produce today! It’s good for your health and the planet’s.

–          The Earth Day Network Team

The Arctic 30


Shots fired so close they felt the splash in the water. Knives bared to slash their rubber boats. Russian special forces storming their ship from a helicopter. Five days incommunicado at sea under armed guard. And now, two months of detention in Russian jails. All for a peaceful protest to protect the Arctic. 

It’s now been 13 days that our activists have been detained in Russia. Please click here to email your local Russian embassy demanding their immediate release.

If you have already sent a message, please share this page with your friends and family today.

Free the Arctic 30
You already know that 28 Greenpeace International activists and two freelance photojournalists were detained by Russian authorities after attempting a peaceful protest at a Gazprom oil platform in the Russian Arctic to protect the fragile region from the disastrous consequences of reckless drilling.

Now our brave activists and crew, along with two freelancers that accompanied them, are to be held without charge for two months pending an investigation into potential piracy charges – an unfounded accusation that even Russian President Putin has dismissed.1

Since then, over half a million people have written letters to their Russian embassies, demanding the immediate release of our activists, and the call to #FreeTheArctic30 has spread like wildfire all over the world. From governments to NGOs and independent legal experts,2 there’s been a ringing global cry to free the Arctic 30 that the Russian authorities will find it hard to ignore.

Gazprom just signed a massive deal with Shell, and together they are leading the mad rush to drill in the melting Arctic for more of the stuff that is causing devastating climate change. Just last week, Arctic sea ice reached its lowest point all year — the sixth lowest in recorded history. Last Friday, the IPCC released a report stressing the urgent need for action on climate change.

This moment is critical. The time is now to raise our voices to protect the Arctic,
 to speak out for those who are being silenced by the authorities for protesting against the destruction of our planet, and to stand up against the collusion of governments and companies in crimes against our future.

Are you in? Send a message to your local Russian embassy now.

In solidarity,

Ben Ayliffe
Arctic Campaigner
Greenpeace

1On September 25, President Vladimir Putin said “It is absolutely evident that they are, of course, not pirates” in reference to the Greenpeace activists arrested by the Russian authorities http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/25/us-russia-greenpeace-idUSBRE98O09I20130925
2 What independent legal experts have said about the Russian authorities’ seizure of our ship: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/legal-experts-on-arctic-sunrise/

Sea Change … Pacific Ocean takes perilous turn


 

Story by Craig Welch

Photo’s by Steve Ringman/ The Seattle Times

Click on Photo below for the full Story & Video

Walleye pollock show some behavioral problems when exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide. That raises concern about the North Pacific's $1 billion-a-year pollock fishery, which accounts for half the nation's catch of fish.

 Walleye pollock show some behavioral problems when exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide.

What a shutdown means for veterans


VoteVets.org

Add your name to VoteVets’ petition calling
for an end to the government shutdown

The Republican-sponsored government shutdown promises to have a drastic, and immediate, impact on veterans and military family members.

Starting today, the Department of Veterans Affairs may be forced to furlough up to 20,000 claims processors — wiping out all of the recent progress made reducing the backlog.

We could also begin to see immediate lapses in care. During the 1995 shutdown, some military hospitals canceled appointments and even some surgeries.

From there, things only get worse…

The VA believes that after two or three weeks “benefit checks it issues, including disability claims and pension payments will be disrupted.”

Worse still, the toll sequester has already taken on military readiness will be multiplied with each passing day.

But nothing ends this shutdown faster than the voices of veterans and military family members, particularly those personally impacted.

Add your name to mine on VoteVets’ petition calling for an end to the government shutdown, and let them know if you expect it to impact your family.

http://action.votevets.org/shutdown

In their zeal to deny coverage to the one million-plus uninsured veterans who will qualify for health care under the Affordable Care Act, Ted Cruz and his Tea Party allies are disproportionately placing the burden of a shutdown on military families.

We have an extraordinarily unique voice in this fight. It’s critical that you make yours heard today.

All the best,

General (Ret.) Wesley Clark

Tell Mars, Inc. to set an example for the Snack Food 20


Ran

by RAN

Today I visited the corporate headquarters of Mars, Inc. with Strawberry, an orphaned orangutan from Indonesia, to let the company know that consumers all across the world want Mars to stop using Conflict Palm Oil in its products.

Tell Mars and the rest of the Snack Food 20 to cut Conflict Palm Oil!
Image Description

Mars and all of the Snack Food 20 companies need to hear from you too!

Unlike some of its fellow Snack Food 20 companies, like Kraft and Smucker’s, Mars is on the move. We have a chance to push Mars, the maker of wildly popular brands like M&Ms, Snickers, and Combos, to become an industry leader in sourcing responsible palm oil.

After RAN put the snack food sector on notice last April, Mars, Inc. responded by strengthening its palm oil commitment. The company has committed to working towards sourcing 100% of its palm oil from traceable sources that are not associated with deforestation, expansion on carbon-rich peatlands and the violation of human and labor rights.

Mars needs to hear from you right now—the power is in your palm! Tell Mars to turn its new commitments into a global palm oil policy and take action to cut Conflict Palm Oil from its products immediately.

At the Mars HQ, Strawberry and I gave representatives of the company a copy of the RAN report Conflict Palm Oil: How US Snack Food Brands are Contributing to Orangutan Extinction, Climate Change and Human Rights Violations and outlined RAN’s demand to cut Conflict Palm Oil. We’re confident the company is getting the message.

But Mars won’t change unless it hears from enough of us that we expect it to cut Conflict Palm Oil from its products. Tell Mars and the rest of the Snack Food 20 to cut Conflict Palm Oil from their products!

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