~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Mark Floegel, Greenpeace

06/23/2013 Nativegrl77

Hi,

Did you see my message from the other day? Honeybees are in serious trouble and need our help. One type of pesticide is killing off their hives by the thousands. The European Union just banned the pesticides responsible, and we need to convince the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do the same.
We are more than halfway to our goal of 75,000 messages to the EPA, but we need your voice to make sure we get there.

Take a minute to urge the EPA to protect the bees and ban this pesticide!
Thanks, Mark

From: Mark Floegel, Greenpeace

Subject: Honeybees

Honeybees that pollinate our food are being poisoned by pesticides called “neonics.”
Save the honeybee!

Tell the EPA to ban use of these toxic chemicals to protect our food and our environment.

Honeybees pollinate many of the nuts, fruits and vegetables we love. But beekeepers like me keep discovering our honeybees – whole hives of them – gone or dead.
This is no act of God. Our bees are being poisoned.
Scientists have linked a powerful class of pesticides called “neonics” to increases in bee die-offs. Due in part to these deadly toxic chemicals, 31% of hives in the United States collapsed this past winter alone.
Last month millions across Europe spoke up for the bees and pressured the European Union (EU) into imposing a two year ban on neonics, defeating the influential pesticide lobby. If we act together, we can convince the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do the same.
Help us send 75K comments to the EPA by June 27th to save the bees that pollinate our crops and that visit your backyard.
Tell the EPA today to suspend the use of neonics on crops that bees pollinate.
Viruses, mites and malnutrition can all contribute to the collapse of a hive. But neonics pose a unique threat to bees. These poisons spread into the pollen and nectar of treated plants, slowly accumulating in the hive with each bee’s trip to a contaminated flower.
By allowing toxic chemicals like neonics to weaken and kill bees, we threaten our food and our environment.
The companies that make these pesticides, Bayer and Syngenta, have spent millions lobbying the United States and European governments that simply commissioning more studies – even while bee populations plummet – will somehow solve the problem.
Of course more studies are welcome, but action is needed now to prevent an agricultural catastrophe.
Tell the EPA to suspend use of neonic pesticides in order to save the bee population that we all depend on.
Trying to solve all agricultural problems with chemical additives is shortsighted and reckless. To ensure that we have safe and reliable food, we must strive for sustainable agriculture that works with nature, rather than manipulates and destroys it.
The elimination of bee-killing pesticides is major progress towards that goal. Every step that helps restore the balance between the natural world and the agricultural world is an important one.
For the bees,
Mark Floegel Greenpeace Senior Investigator and Beekeeper
P.S. Honeybees need our help. Pesticides from our crops are killing off their hives by the thousands. Tell the EPA to protect the bees and ban the pesticides responsible.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Pear Energy

06/22/2013 Nativegrl77

Call Them

(877) 969-7327

Switch Now!

Their Commitment Clean Energy for Your Home … Now

Did you know you can power your home using 100% clean energy?

Did you know you can do it without special hardware, installation, or even increasing your bill by more than the price of one cup of coffee per week?

Did you know your utility bill can fund progressive organizations like Campaign for America’s Future and The Nation instead of corporate lobbying that gets oil companies big tax breaks?

Cut your carbon footprint and support progressive change with Pear Energy.

Find Out How

Pear Energy is an easy way to offset all of your dirty coal, nuclear, or natural gas-based electricity by putting clean wind energy onto the grid;

We only deliver friendly, efficient and reliable customer service;

We stick to our Fair Price Promise of transparency and reasonable prices -buying clean energy costs a little more, but just a little more – around the cost of one cup of coffee per week;

Pear Shares – We donate half of our profits to organizations that share our dedication to ecological sanity and full employment;

We have a no-hassle satisfaction policy – if you are unhappy, well switch you back with no switching costs and no service interruptions.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Watch this — and then fight for her

06/21/2013 Nativegrl77

Organizing for Action

Ola is the daughter of immigrants and a college student who wants to help cure cancer.
But when a clerical error brought her family’s immigration status under investigation, Ola’s future became uncertain — she didn’t know whether she would be allowed to stay in the United States or for how long.
Watch her story — then sign up to join an interactive livestream of the full 30-minute film, “The Dream is Now,” next Thursday, June 27th, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

This incredibly moving documentary tells the story of four DREAMers who are just like you and me in that they call America home.
Their futures hinge on comprehensive immigration reform.
You’ve got to see this movie. It’ll be 30 minutes you won’t regret.
Ola will be one of several special guests joining us for an online chat after next week’s showing.
Watch her tell her story — then RSVP to join the livestream on Thursday:
http://my.barackobama.com/Watch-Olas-Story
Thanks,
Emmy
Emmy Ruiz Immigration Campaign Manager Organizing for Action

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A snap shot

06/21/2013 Nativegrl77

President Obama Speaks to the People of Berlin

Nearly 50 years to the day after President John F. Kennedy delivered his historic speech to a city divided by the Cold War, President Obama spoke to the people of Berlin about the deep and enduring bonds between the United States and Germany, and the values we share.

The Brandenburg Gate has long been a symbol of Germany’s progress, and the President spoke from its east side – something that would have been impossible if not for the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Click here to watch the President’s full speech and learn more about his trip to Germany.

Intellectual Property: A Key Driver of our Economy

Innovation and creativity have always been the foundation of our economy, and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights enables us to promote economic growth, ensure our global competitiveness, and protect the health and safety of our citizens. Today’s release of the Administration’s 2013 Joint Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property Enforcement provides a roadmap for our work over the next three years.

This week is National Small Business Week. The U.S. Small Business Administration, along with agencies across the Obama Administration, are hosting events in five cities.

Across the country, Democratic and Republican state and local officials are speaking out about the need for commonsense immigration reform. This week, we’ll share thoughts from governors, mayors, county executives, state legislators, attorneys general, treasurers and more about why they support immigration reform and how fixing the broken immigration system would impact their communities.

A little more than six months after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, Vice President Biden said yesterday that he and President Obama have not given up the fight to reduce gun violence.

And although a minority of the Senate voted down common-sense legislation that would keep our kids and communities safer, President Obama has “moved forward on what was within his power, what executive actions he could take,” the Vice President explained. “Today, I can report that he announced 23 executive actions; 21 of them have been completed or there has been major progress made toward the total completion and that we’re on track to finish the job.”

Click here to learn more about how President Obama is fighting to reduce gun violence.

How Immigration Reform Will Shrink the Deficit

The independent Congressional Budget Office released its score of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill, providing even more evidence that commonsense immigration reform is good for the budget and good for economic growth. CBO estimates that fixing our broken immigration system will reduce federal deficits by about $200 billion over the next 10 years, and about $700 billion in the second decade.

President Obama discussed a range of issues in his interview Monday night on PBS, but the National Security Agency was the topic for an extended part of the conversation.

“My job is both to protect the American people and to protect the American way of life, which includes our privacy,” he said. “So every program that we engage in, what I’ve said is let’s examine and make sure that we’re making the right tradeoffs.”

June 16, 2013 marked the four-year anniversary of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a collaboration of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since 2009, our three federal agencies have been working together to help communities build stronger regional economies, improve their housing and transportation options, and protect the environment.

This is crazy, Washington!

06/21/2013 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

Here’s TJ’s number, call them maybe?

Their customers are calling, but Trader Joe’s still refuses to meet with us to discuss ending the sale of meat raised on antibiotics. The grocer says it listens to its customers, so we’re ramping up more calls. Can you call them, maybe?

To save our antibiotics, we can’t just wait for Congress to act. We have to go directly to grocery chains selling antibiotic-raised meat and get them to stop.

So we targeted Trader Joe’s, one of the nation’s most progressive grocers, to lead the way in the fight to save our antibiotics.

But after presenting a half-million of your signatures, sending thousands of emails, postcards and fliers – and running full-page ads in the hometown newspapers where they’re headquartered – Trader Joe’s management still refuses to sit down and talk with us about stopping the sale of this meat.

This is crazy! Now we need a little help from you to convince them.

Make a toll-free call to company headquarters today, and ask them to stop selling meat raised on drugs!

Trader Joe’s prides itself on listening to its customers. Since the company is headquartered in California, we recently put ads in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle asking customers to call company execs and ask them to end the sale of antibiotic-raised beef, poultry and pork. The execs got a LOT of calls!

What did Trader Joe’s do? They dug in even deeper, telling callers they will keep selling meat raised on antibiotics. Pretty unbelievable for a company that claims to listen to its customers. The Pacific-Northwest is a major market for Trader Joes. Your call may be the tipping point.

We’re not giving up until they do. Help us keep the pressure on by making your own quick phone call — and let us know what the grocer tells you.

We’re tackling the overuse of antibiotics in our food animals on every front – including testing meat for drug-resistant superbugs, lobbying in Congress, and pushing industry and the marketplace to stop this risky practice. Join us in making a safer future for your family by making a call now.

Sincerely, Jean Halloran, NotInMyFood.org, a project of Consumers Union Policy and Action from Consumer Reports