Environment

World Wild Life Fund

Tell Congress: Help Save Vanishing Species

Send the letter below at this web address: https://support.worldwildlife.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=929

The Multinational Species Conservation Funds, run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, play an important role in helping to protect the planet’s remaining populations of elephants, rhinos, tigers, great apes and marine turtles. To help boost these funds, Congress created the Save Vanishing Species Semipostal Stamp—commonly referred to as the “Tiger Stamp”—which lets consumers support these wildlife conservation programs every time they send a letter. Since the Tiger Stamp went on sale in 2011, more than 38 million have been sold, raising over $4.1 million for international conservation at no cost to US taxpayers. This great program will expire at the end of this month unless Congress acts to renew it.

Ask your Members of Congress to cosponsor the Multinational Species Semipostal Stamp Reauthorization Act NOTE: In order for your message to be delivered to your representative, you are required to complete all contact fields.

Dear Member of Congress,

Please sign on as a cosponsor of the Multinational Species Semipostal Stamp Reauthorization Act.

The five congressionally authorized Multinational Species Conservation Funds (MSCF) support programs to protect elephants, rhinos, tigers, great apes and marine turtles in their habitats around the globe. Administered by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, these highly effective programs are working to conserve some of the most threatened wildlife populations on the planet, including those hardest hit by the global poaching crisis. Last year’s Great Elephant Census showed just 350,000 African savanna elephants remaining in 18 major range countries—a decline of 150,000 in just seven years. Rhino poaching remains dangerously high in several African countries, including in South Africa where poaching increased over 9000% from 2007 to 2015. Six of the seven marine turtle species are listed as endangered or threatened due to habitat loss, overfishing, and human exploitation for eggs and meat.

Congress currently provides a modest $11 million in annual appropriations for the five MSCF programs. To help boost these funds, in 2011 Congress created the Save Vanishing Species Semipostal Stamp—commonly referred to as the “Tiger Stamp”. Sold at a premium, the stamp lets consumers support wildlife conservation every time they send a letter at no cost to the US taxpayer. So far, more than 38 million stamps have been sold raising over $4.1 million in voluntary contributions from the public. The program has enjoyed strong bipartisan support and was reauthorized by Congress in 2014. However, the stamp program will expire at the end of this month unless Congress acts again to reauthorize it.

Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tom Udall (D-NM) and Representatives Dan Donovan (R-NY) and William Lacy Clay (D-MO) have introduced bipartisan legislation to extend the Save Vanishing Species Stamp for four more years. I encourage you to sign on as a cosponsor of this legislation to ensure that the American public can continue to voluntarily support the Multinational Species Conservation Funds, which play such an important role in protecting our planet’s amazing wildlife.

A FUTURE FOR PEOPLE AND NATURE

Together we can challenge the threats to nature, and help ensure its ability to provide—for the sake of every living thing, including ourselves.

Our work is focused around 6 ambitious goals with people at the center

WWF’s work has evolved from saving species and landscapes to addressing the larger global threats and forces that impact them. Recognizing that the problems facing our planet are increasingly more complex and urgent, we have refined the way in which we work around an ambitious new strategy. Our new strategy puts people at the center and organizes our work around six key areas: forests, marine, freshwater, wildlife, food and climate. By linking these six areas in an integrated approach, we can better leverage our unique assets and direct all our resources to protecting vulnerable places, species and communities worldwide.

People are at the center of our work because together we can change the trajectory of the threats to nature, and help ensure nature’s ability to provide—for the sake of every living thing, including ourselves.

We work globally, with every sector, at every level

To accomplish our ambitious goals, we work to educate and influence people into making sustainable choices and decisions, including those who work in business and make decisions around the use of natural resources, and those who work in government and set policy that impacts nature.

We work globally at every level—in the field and in the local community, from the halls of government to the global marketplace. One of WWF’s strengths is our ability to engage stakeholders—in business, civil society, and academia—in partnerships to devise innovative solutions to the issues that challenge us.

Working together with 1.1 million supporters , WWF’s partners, projects and experts are making a difference in creating a healthy future for our planet.

Our Partnerships

Partnerships play a key role in WWF’s efforts to influence the course of conservation. Lasting conservation is achieved through collaboration with a range of extraordinary partners. We leverage the strengths of these collaborations to achieve great success.

 

 

Environment Massachusetts

Senate budget sells out our environment, health, and the treasured arctic national wildlife refuge

https://environmentmassachusetts.org/news/ame/senate-budget-sells-out-our-environment-health-and-treasured-arctic-national-wildlife

For Immediate Release

The Senate just passed their budget resolution for 2018. In response, Jennie Olson at Environment America, issued the following statement:

“The Senate budget makes drastic cuts to some of our most vital programs that protect our air, water, and families’ health. In addition, the Senate budget attempts to sell out our public lands to polluters by including instructions to the Senate Natural Resources Committee that would ultimately allow drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“The Federal budget should reflect our nation’s priorities, but the budget passed by the U.S. Senate today means that our air and water will be dirtier, our families will be sicker, and at least one of our last wild landscapes will be destroyed. This runs against the priorities and values of most Americans.

“Specifically, the budget includes non-defense discretionary cuts of nearly $900 billion over the next ten years, which would mean that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other departments and agencies will not be able to adequately protect our health, environment, and special places.

“Adding insult to injury, the Senate’s budget also threatens to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of America’s wildest, most unspoiled public lands. This iconic landscape is home to imperiled polar bears, wolves, muskoxen, and nearly 200 species of migratory birds that migrate to all 50 states. For decades, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska has stood as a symbol of our nation’s strong natural legacy. However, the Senate’s budget now leaves the Arctic Refuge to face irreversible damage from oil and gas drilling, just so corporate polluters can make a profit.

“This is the wrong budget for our health, environment, and kids. With the strong support of the American public, we must fight to ensure that this short-sighted provision to authorize oil and gas development in the iconic Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not a part of any final budget reconciliation package. We need Congress to oppose any future budget bill that endangers the Arctic Refuge and neglects proper funding for our critical environmental programs.”

 

Democratic Platform on the Environment

Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy,
and Secure Environmental Justice

Climate change is an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time. Fifteen of the 16 hottest years on record have occurred this century. While Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” 2016 is on track to break global temperature records once more. Cities from Miami to Baltimore are already threatened by rising seas. California and the West have suffered years of brutal drought. Alaska has been scorched by wildfire. New York has been battered by superstorms, and Texas swamped by flash floods. The best science tells us that without ambitious, immediate action across our economy to cut carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases, all of these impacts will be far worse in the future. We cannot leave our children a planet that has been profoundly damaged.

Democrats share a deep commitment to tackling the climate challenge; creating millions of good-paying middle class jobs; reducing greenhouse gas emissions more than 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050; and meeting the pledge President Obama put forward in the landmark Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global temperature increases to “well below” two degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We believe America must be running entirely on clean energy by mid-century. We will take bold steps to slash carbon pollution and protect clean air at home, lead the fight against climate change around the world, ensure no Americans are left out or left behind as we accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, and be responsible stewards of our natural resources and our public lands and waters. Democrats reject the notion that we have to choose between protecting our planet and creating good-paying jobs. We can and we will do both.

Follow these links to learn more:

A Guide to Environmental Nonprofits: How to distinguish groups doing good from groups that just sound good.

Five Groups Fighting Climate Change

100 of the Most Essential Green Web Resources
The 6 Best Environmental Groups to Donate to for a Better World