(Images from the #PaddleinSeattle protest)  Let’s keep this momentum going. Help even the odds to stop Arctic drilling!

by Annie Leonard, Greenpeace

The global movement stop Arctic drilling has taken a giant leap forward in the last few weeks. So much has happened it’s hard to even know where to even begin!

But I want to start with saying “THANK YOU.” Everything I am about to tell you was only possible because of the courage and support of the people like you who make up this movement.

When we started this, we knew it would be a challenge. Arctic drilling off the coast of Alaska was seen as a done deal. To stop Arctic drilling we need a movement.

And that’s what you are — you are part of a movement, and it’s clear you’re doing something right.

For months now, the people of Seattle have been making noise around Shell’s plan to use the Port of Seattle as a homebase for its Arctic drilling operations. Hundreds of people gave impassioned, intelligent, and sometimes musical testimonies at Port Commission hearings, over a thousand people marched in the street to oppose Shell’s plans, and activists “unwelcomed” Shell’s rigs on the water as they came into port.

On Tuesday, May 12 things really started to heat up when The New York Times published a series of articles and opinion pieces about Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic. Going as far as linking President Obama’s legacy on climate to Arctic drilling. Even the satirical news website The Onion got into the action.

The furor over Arctic drilling reached such a fever pitch that two days later President Obama himself felt he needed to directly respond from his retreat at Camp David and defend his decision to allow Shell to drill.

Amazing! It was the millions of petition signatures, thousands of actions and years of dedication from people like you that made this moment possible.

It didn’t end there.

Last weekend in Seattle, I joined thousands of people for the #PaddleinSeattle protest — with 500 kayaks out on the water, led by several indigenous Canoe Families and accompanied by a couple of odd-shaped houseboats, a sailboat, a very brave swimmer, and a giant musical solar-powered barge known as the Solar Pioneer.

It was a truly inspiring display of opposition that received media coverage around the world and in almost every major newspaper in the country via the Associated Press story. The event left Shell with no doubt about the scale of resistance to its plans to drill in the Arctic this summer.

We’re not letting up. There will be more to come this week and throughout the rest of the summer. If it’s the “People vs. Shell,” I like our chances.

This is why I decided to come back to Greenpeace after almost 20 years. To work alongside people like you, to make change on a global scale. I know we still have a long way to go stop Arctic drilling once and for all and to keep the fossil fuels we can’t afford to burn in the ground.

I also know — and these last few weeks prove it — that together anything is possible.

Sincerely,

Annie Leonard
Executive Director, Greenpeace USA

P.S. Wow! What a couple of weeks. From hundreds of kayaks on the water in Seattle to the spark for a global movement. But Shell is one of the largest companies in the world — and it plans to send its rigs from Seattle to drill in the Arctic any day now. The recent oil spill in Santa Barbara, California is a perfect reminder of what’s at stake. We still have a lot of work to do to stop Arctic drilling and we’ll need you with us. Can you help even the odds with your gift to Greenpeace today?

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“I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the costs that I paid for that.”

By CAP Action War Room

Millions of Americans Would Benefit From Expanding Overtime Pay

Americans are working harder and earning less. But finally, progress is being made on an often-overlooked policy that has a substantial effect on this trend: overtime pay. Last week, the Obama administration came one step closer to fulfilling an executive order to reform overtime rules. We don’t know the details of the proposed rule yet, but if President Obama restored federal overtime standards to its inflation adjusted 1975 level, workers earning up to $51,168 would qualify to earn overtime pay. That would mean up to 47 percent of the salaried workforce—6.1 million people—would have more money in their pockets or more time to spend with their friends and family.

The administration’s full proposal to expand the population eligible for overtime pay is now under review by to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But there are still a few steps left in the process before the rule can become final. After the rule is reviewed by OMB, it will be published and then there will be a period during which interested parties can submit comments on the rule.

Americans are overdue for an overtime update. In 1975, more than 65 percent of salaried workers earned time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked over 40 hours. Today, only 11 percent do. The threshold for overtime pay has fallen so much that current overtime law, by definition, no longer covers the middle class. Only workers earning less than $23,660 a year—below the poverty line for a family of four—qualify for overtime pay.

Increasing eligibility for overtime pay makes sense, and Americans know it. Support for increasing the threshold for overtime pay is incredibly high, according to a new poll released today:

• 73 percent of voters support some substantial increase in the overtime pay threshold.

• 65 percent of voters think workers making up to $75,000 a year should receive overtime when working more than 40 hours a week, regardless of job classification.

• 64 percent of all voters—and 54 percent of Republicans—said they are more likely to vote for leaders who support increasing the overtime threshold.

BOTTOM LINE: Americans deserve to be fairly compensated for their hard work. But instead, they are working harder and longer to stretch their earnings just to keep up with the cost of living. Our current overtime law is long overdue for an update and the Obama administration’s executive order would help millions of Americans get more money in their pockets or more time to spend with their friends and family.