Speak Out!
One of the most important actions you can take is to have the back of activists, journalists and citizens imprisoned or killed (altlink) for their ideas and their voices.
Voting Serious attempts are being made to prevent people from voting, including students. Local info on how to vote at UCSC here. You may need to re-register before the Oct. 22 deadline, check your status. If you think your vote does not matter, check this out. If you want to boost student voting see Campus Select and of course Rock the Vote.
Sites
Environment California has news and campaigns.
New
DEADLIEST YEAR ON RECORD FOR LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS, AS AGRIBUSINESS IS SHOWN TO BE THE INDUSTRY MOST LINKED TO KILLINGS In 2017, almost four people a week were killed defending their right to a clean and healthy environment and already in 2018, around 130 environmental defenders have lost their lives.photo gallery. Take action at https://www.globalwitness.org or Amnesty Int'l 11/8.
UC sells off $200 million in coal and oil sands investments whoohoo! FossilFree UC: UC Santa Cruz became an active campaign in 2012. Since then we passed a resolution through the student senate and had the Board of Trustees agree to write a letter in support of the campaign to urge the Reagents to divest. Currently, the Fossil Free Campaign at UC Santa Cruz is working to build support among stakeholders within the student body, faculty, and alumni organizations. We aim to collaborate with other campaigns and our community to keep the pressure on to divest from a future of dirty energy. If you want to get involved, or just learn more, feel free to contact aphinney@ucsc.edu.
EarthJustice (because sometimes the earth needs a good lawyer) urges us to support Implement Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendments to Protect Forage Species (NOAA-NMFS-2015-0123) contact Regional Administrator William Stelle. 1/16
The Panoche Valley is one of the last refuges for some of our most imperiled wildlife in California,a place to weather the coming threats due to climate change. Right now the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is considering whether to allow a solar project to destroy this crucial habit (endangered species -- the giant kangaroo rat, San Joaquin kit fox and blunt-nosed leopard lizard).11/15 take action. Sierra Club.
OMG Bay Area forest clearcut: The largest San Francisco Bay Area forest clearcut in 100 years will begin in August. An estimated 450,000 healthy, mature trees in the Oakland and Berkeley hills and county parklands will be cut down and chopped into logs and piles of wood chips. In an additional effort to publicize the plan and rally the SF Bay Area community, the environmental art project, The TreeSpirit Project, will host a community rally and make an art photograph with attendees on July 18 2015 at 7 a.m.
We worry about Money = Speech in elections after Citizens United, but now activists must pay to protest: link if they get away with this, we all lose, so step up with me: donte. 6/15.
Vaquita In the upper part of Mexico's Gulf of California lives the world's smallest porpoise, the vaquita. Scientists believe that there are fewer than 200 of these rare and elusive mammals remaining on the planet. This endangered species--whose name means “little cow” in Spanish--has been in decline for years and is on the brink of extinction. Without new and bold protective measures, it could be lost forever. take action 1/13. 6/15 update (note, not happy one, just important).
5 Easy Actions You Can Take to Help Animals on Endangered Species Day 5/15 see Wildlife.
Petition to protect wolves, since Congress is trying to take them off Endangered Species list. 2/15 see Wolves.
Global Divestment Day: A Huge Success with more than 400 events in 48 countries spanning six continents, including UCSC, put on by Fossil Free, a project of 350.org— bringing people together to stop the fossil fuel industry in its tracks.
Save Monach Butterfly: In 1996, an estimated 1 billion monarch butterflies migrating to forests in central Mexico covered nearly 50 acres. But in 2013, they only covered the area about the size of a football field.
Studies show that, due to the widespread spraying of toxic herbicides made by Monsanto and other agro-chemical manufacturers, the monarch butterfly population is on the brink of collapse. But there’s hope to save this iconic black-and-orange butterfly from extinction.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering listing monarchs as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) which would secure stronger protections for the butterfly and its habitat. We must act now to convince the agency to protect monarchs before it’s too late.
Petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says the following:
The monarch butterfly population has decreased more than 95% over the last 20 years and there is substantial evidence to show that this in large part due to the application of toxic herbicides sprayed on genetically engineered crops. The monarch butterfly is urgently in need of stronger federal protections. We urge you to list the monarch butterfly as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Protect the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act.
Since the 1990s, the number of monarch butterflies has decreased an incredible 95%, due in large part to the destruction of its main breeding habitat in the Midwestern Corn Belt. Monarch butterflies exclusively lay their eggs on milkweed, and their caterpillars rely on the plant as their only food source.
But due to unchecked spraying of highly toxic herbicides manufactured by Monsanto and Dow on genetically engineered crops, milkweed plants have been nearly eradicated in the monarch’s key habitat. By some estimates, monarchs have lost 165 million acres of habitat, an area nearly the size of Texas.
Listing monarchs under the ESA would bring much-needed resources and funding for monarch conservation efforts and allow federal agencies to urgently address the industrial agricultural practices that are causing this problem in the first place. The ever-increasing use of these toxic chemicals imperils not only important pollinators it also threatens many other species, including our own. 2/15. See Butterflies.
Why is the Orangutan in Danger? (Orangutan Foundation International) 2/14.The rainforests that endangered orangutans call home are quickly disappearing, and McDonald's may be to blame. One of the leading drivers of tropical deforestation is palm oil. At the current rate of deforestation, the Sumatran rainforest will disappear within twenty years, taking the 7,000 remaining Sumatran orangutans with it. Take action at SierraRise1/15.
Subject: Tell The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to Protect the Threatened Monarch Butterfly, which stop at Natural Bridges near campus. 9/14. See Butterflies.
Governor Jerry Brown thinks fracking has "zero impact," but we know a few towns in the Central Valley that beg to differ. Kern County is California's most-fracked county. It also has the worst air quality in the nation, as well as highly elevated rates of cancer and respiratory illness.
Planet Fitness gym campaign 5/14.
Save the bees, we really need them. See here. 5/14.
Buffalo slaughter : In harsh winters like this one, Yellowstone's bison -- the last genetically pure wild bison in the country -- naturally migrate outside the park in a desperate search for food, where the National Park Service rounds them up and ships them off to slaughter. More than 250 wild bison, symbols of the American West, have already been needlessly killed this year.3/14.
Speak up to make sure the government counts climate costshere
Normally would not ask broke students for $, but Climate Scientist Ralph Keeling Makes Crowdfunding Plea to Back Key Research 1/14.
Hundreds of South African lions are being slaughtered to make bogus sex potions for men. But we can stop this cruel trade by hitting the government where it hurts -- the tourism industry. A global ban on tiger bone sales has traders hunting a new prize -- the majestic lions. Lions are farmed under appalling conditions in South Africa for "canned hunting", where rich tourists pay thousands to shoot them through fences. Now experts say lion bones from these killing farms are being exported to phony 'medicine' makers in Asia for record profits. Trade is exploding and experts fear that as prices rise, even wild lions -- with only 20,000 left in Africa -- will come under poaching attack. 11/13. see Big Cats.
Demand safer strawberries 8/13.
Give students the same interest rates on loans as the big banks related, current loan rate will double at the end of June. infographic
The Farm Bill is a climate bill but also social justice and current farm bill will be key in terms of GMO's, so get on it (food stamps). 6/13
Reunite Gondwanaland! (or Pangea). (bumpersticker) See Maps.
Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act. "Cynically dubbed the "Farmer Assurance Provision," the Monsanto Protection Act allows Monsanto and other companies to ignore existing food safety rules, and continue selling genetically modified seeds even if a court has blocked them from doing so. Even worse is how this shameful giveaway became law. It was inserted anonymously, and without review into the must-pass budget bill to avoid government shutdown in March." (Creedo)
Tell your member of Congress to support the Women’s Climate Change Resolution to ensure climate policies effectively address women’s needs. 6/13.
Garment workers die in fires and bulding collapse in Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. See Labor.
Aceh Indonesia is preparing to open over 1.2 million hectares of protected forest for the development of mines, plantations, roads, logging and palm oil expansion. sign the petition to stop 3/18
Don't let the utilities prevent Californians from benefiting from solar, just so they can continue their guaranteed profits and monopoly over our energy. Tell your representatives in Sacramento: you want more opportunities to go solar, not less! 3/13.
A report on genetically-modified salmon. online petition 2/13
Earth Hour At 8.30 p.m. on March 23, hundreds of millions of people will turn off their lights for one hour in a huge, symbolic show of support for our planet. From Las Vegas to New Delhi, cities around the world will come together to stand up for the one thing that unites us all -- our planet. Will Santa Cruz be among them?
The US Navy is seeking permission to kill, permanently injure, or otherwise seriously harm whales and dolphins more than 31 million times over the next five years throughout Southern California, Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Atlantic Coast, using sonar and other equipment. This staggering and unprecedented amount of harm is the Navy’s own estimate of impacts from its training and testing activities to more than 40 marine mammal species, which can include loss of hearing, maiming or bleeding to death. The Navy is seeking permission to increase the use of this devastating sound and to use it intensively throughout an area the size of the country of Mexico. This is our last opportunity to comment on this proposal. The Navy should not be allowed to inflict harm to marine wildlife! The Navy will use underwater explosions, sinking of ships and active sonar so loud and intense it can seriously harm or kill marine mammals. This sonar alone has been implicated in mass stranding of marine mammals all over the world. Now they are asking to radically increase what they have done in the past, knowing that its activities will kill, maim, and harass millions of marine mammals including 9 species listed under the Endangered Species Act. See here for more.
This guy is babysitting 27 orphaned bear cubs, and he could use your help 1/13
Ecuador’s Kichwa people have asked for our help to stop the government turning their forest home into an oil field. A massive scandal in the global media challenging President Correa to act on his environmental principles could persuade him to pull back and stop the Amazon oil rush. Sign the petition now 1/13. See Native Americans.
Save bees by banning pesticides 1/13
Mountaintop removal: For many people living near mountaintop removal coal mining sites in Appalachia, the water they are forced to use for bathing, cooking, and even drinking is cloudy, brown, and toxic. Years of mountaintop removal coal mining have buried 2,000 miles of local streams with waste from Big Coal's destruction -- many of the streams that are left are devoid of life. Well water in the area isn't safe either, and it's making people sick. People living nearby are at higher risk of cancer and birth defects. See Fossil Fuels.
Secret Farm bill really matters. 12/12
Prop 37 GMO labelling on November ballot. panel discussion (audio) 9/12. California fights for labels 2/12. Commonwealth Club discussion audio video 10/12.
Sierra Club urges action on these California bills (9/12): (make sure you don't miss them) For: SB 1221 (Lieu) - Will prohibit the use of dogs for bear and bobcat hunting while still allowing hunters to take bears and bobcats during open season with the appropriate Department of Fish and Game licenses and tags.
SB 1222 (Leno) - Will establish a cap on permit fees charged by local governments for residential and commercial rooftop solar photovoltaic energy systems.
AB 1589 (Huffman) - Will establish new funding to prevent closures of state parks and provide more clarity on how the Department of State Parks and Recreation selects parks for closures.
AB 1478 (Blumenfield) - Will direct $20 million in special fund money to state parks and strengthen the composition and duties of the State Parks and Recreation Commission.
AB 685 (Eng) - Will establish a right to water for basic human needs as a policy of the state of California. This currently proposed Bill, states that every human being has the right to clean drinking water. As you know, Fracking irreversibly pollutes drinking water. Here is a link about AB 685. Here is a link to sign a petition to Governor Brown asking him to pass this Bill, and to make it into a legislative Act.
SB 1464 (Lowenthal) - Will establish safe passing distance and other procedures for motorized vehicles passing bicycles.
Against:
AB 845 (Ma) - Will undermine a 1984 voter-passed initiative to protect sensitive marshes from landfill expansion for imported garbage.
AB 2200 (Ma) - Will increase congestion and pollution by eliminating the HOV lane on eastbound Highway 80 morning traffic between San Francisco and Sacramento.
SB 744 (Wyland) - Will remove the independent, non-biased, third-party county sealer of weights and measures from the accuracy inspection process for water submeters prior to installation.
AB 976 (Hall) - Will make the launch of new Community Choice Aggregation programs virtually impossible by prohibiting any contact by local governments with potential providers of electricity or energy services prior to the commencement of service to customers.
Activists are being suppressed in a variety of ways in the former Soviet Union, for example, big fines for protesting, but they have found some interesting ways to fight back, such as teddy bear airdrop and a punk band viral video (they could use your help to get out of jail). 8/12
EWG says the 2012 farm bill - the single biggest factor that determines what ends up on your plate - and is a doozy. This bill would feed fewer people, help fewer farmers, do less to promote healthy diets, prevent California from enforcing our own agriculture laws and weaken environmental protections - all while giving hand outs to Big Ag! Weigh in. 7.12
The Sierra Club has questions about the Sacramento Delta water.
Santa Cruz Desalinization plant Opponent activist site 9/12
Stop Public Handouts to Oil, Gas and Coal Companies, Now.
Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide, who brought us Bhopal, but never really helps the thousands hurt and killed. Dow now want to greenwash its image by being an Olympic sponsor.
Teach the Forest UCSC In spite of evaporated state funds, the UCSC administration intends to forge ahead with the LRPD, which would rip up over a hundred acres of redwoods, chaparral, and other sensitive ecosystems in upper campus. A group of students, faculty, and staff has set up a website to inform about and oppose this plan. The site includes an opportunity to sign a petition to LAFCO in support of their fragile minority (4:3) who are, so far, in spite of extremely heavy pressure from the City and the U., aiming to deny the university water access, which would, in turn, require that the U. re-think this planned expansion.LAFCO will meet Wed. June 6 for a final decision -- a crucial public hearing. So much stands in the balance. Here are links to the this hot-off-the-press website: http://teachtheforest.wordpress.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teach-the-Forest/372635352794262.
UCSC's Storm Water Survey will help us determine the level of understanding about the importance of sound storm water practices on campus. In addition, your participation will help us understand how our Storm Water Management Plan education and outreach program can better serve our campus community and our environment. Please complete the survey by June 4th. All responses are anonymous. The survey takes approximately five minutes to complete.
In August 2008, the Shell Oil pipeline that ran through his property in the Niger Delta burst, smothering everything in its path with crude oil. tens of Thousands of people living along the Niger Delta have suffered the same devastating fate caused by oil spill after oil spill. While the Niger Delta has been awash in pollution, Shell has been swimming in profits -- $30.9 billion globally in 2011. Tell Shell -- Own up. Pay up. Clean up. 4/12
EWG says: Every five years, the federal farm bill sets our nation's food policies - it's the single biggest factor in determining what ends up on your plate. But right now Congress is only providing minimal support for healthy, local and organic foods while expanding wasteful subsidies and giveaways that support the wealthiest agribusinesses - at the expense of family farmers. Tell your senator what you want.
Online petitions to help endangered species
Tim DeChristopher, a student, bid up BLM oil lease auction, monkey-wrenching to protect our land from our companies, for which he will probably face charges. His statement on why he did it, with a link to his legal defense fund. Facebook page. Powershift 2011 talk (video excepts). UPDATE: he's been put under harsh conditions 3/12
Tell Tide to get cancer-causing ingredients out of "kid safe" products. 3/12
Click here to sign petition asking Amazon.com to permanently ban whale, dolphin, and porpoise meat from its sites.
Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act introduced in Congress by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). If passed, the bill will put more organic and locally produced food in our supermarkets and in the national school lunch program. It will also help local family farmers connect to new markets and give them the support they need to thrive. Link 3/12
Help Track down Oil Subsidies: In an effort to better account for what various energy sectors get from U.S. taxpayers, we at the Institute for Policy Integrity have launched a wiki. It will use crowdsourcing to catalog tax-code sections that provide tax relief to energy-producing companies, tapping the expertise of lawyers, economists, tax professionals, and concerned citizens.
Demand GMO food be labelled 1/27/12
The people of Pompton Lakes, NJ have been suffering for decades because of the noxious chemicals dumped in the community by DuPont Chemical. DuPont Chemical dumped chemicals in Pompton Lakes for more than 90 years -- from 1902 to 1994. Although the site has been closed for nearly two decades, the chemical giant has yet to clean it up, so the toxic waste the company left behind continues to leech into the air and water in the region.
There’s a potential solution: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could declare this area a “Superfund site,” which would force DuPont to either clean up the site itself or pay for a government-led clean-up.
Lisa Riggiola was born and raised in Pompton Lakes. She spearheaded a local effort to get DuPont to clean up its mess, but the company has yet to take any meaningful action. So Lisa started a petition on Change.org asking the EPA to declare Pompton Lakes a Superfund site and force DuPont to remove the toxic chemicals it left behind. Click here to sign Lisa’s petition right now -- Lisa will deliver the signatures at an EPA hearing in Pompton Lakes on January 5.
Indeed, just two years ago, the New Jersey Department of Human Health and Senior Services released a shocking report that found a "significantly elevated" cancer rate in the region, potentially linked to contamination from the Pompton Lakes DuPont site.
Write for Rights (Amnesty International)
Save an important university research farm. Nevada’s Main Station Farm is 112 years old, owned by the University of Nevada College of Agriculture, and it’s one of the few active university teaching farms in America -- the place where our country’s next generation of farmers comes to learn about sustainable agriculture. And, in two weeks, it could be on its way to becoming a McDonald’s. Or a strip mall. Or a Baby Gap. That’s because the university Board of Regents is seeking approval from the Reno City Council to sell off 104 acres of farmland to commercial developers. 11/11
Eliminating funding for bikes and pedestrians 10/11
October Unprocessed Challenge: can you an entire month without eating any processed foods?
Shark Finning Ban the Gov signs it (though he vetoed bicycle safety). Update: ask the Governor to sign: Link Less than one week after Chinese New Year, California legislators have introduced a bill to ban the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins used in a traditional soup. If successful, the proposed ban announced Monday would follow a similar measure enacted in Hawaii last year. Oregon and Washington are also considering similar legislation.
Shark fins are used to create a luxury Chinese soup that can sell for as much as $40 a bowl. Supporters of the ban say shark finning is a cruel practice in which fishermen slice the shark's fin off while the animal is still alive and then throw the shark back in the sea to die. Democratic Assemblyman Paul Fong, of Cupertino, introduced the legislation with fellow Democrat Jared Huffman, of San Rafael. It has now passed and waiting to be signed. 9/11
New tool to communicate with political leaders, Votizen says "we find all your officials, and deliver your messages to them both electronically and via in-office delivery in the U.S. Capitol. Your standing as a registered voter allows us to deliver your opinions to your officials above the noise of unfiltered social media, emails, and letters. Your social networks are powerful. Connecting them to Votizen turns them into real-world influence.
Congress (particularly the House, often by attaching riders to other bills) is threatening to roll back environmental protections, including the Endangered Species Act and a key energy efficiency victory our movement won in 2007. The "BULB Act" (H.R. 2417) attacks standards that would require new light bulbs to achieve higher efficiency levels - and it may reach a VOTE as early as Monday. The BULB Act will COST American households $100 to $200 every year in missed energy savings. The bill's sponsors claim that the lighting efficiency standard is an outright ban on incandescent bulbs. On the contrary, advanced incandescents meet efficiency standards and they have created 2,000 new American jobs. H.R. 2417 is simply a lose-lose-lose proposition for America. It will COST us money, kill green jobs, and pollute our air. Please, use your influence to stop the attacks on this fundamental energy efficiency mandate. Also notable because this is the first time existing legislation supported by industry has been challenged. Write your Senators and Representative, speak out against the BULB Act.Tell Congress to Protect the Cost Saving Light Bulb Efficiency Standard - Strike Down the BULB Act. 7/11
Old Growth Redwoods threatened by 101 expansion. 5/11
Please sign the petition to tell Resorts World Sentosa to free the 25 dolphins being held captive in the Philippines. 27 dolphins were captured from the waters of the Solomon Islands -- 2 have died so far. 25 remain in captivity, and the longer they stay there, the odds increase dramatically that they'll die before they can be freed.
350.org says: "Big Oil is raking in record profits, funding the climate denial machine, and heating up our planet—there's no reason to be spending our tax dollars to support them. The U.S. government actually rewards Big Oil with over $4 billion [$21?] per year in tax credits and subsidies. But we have an opening: the debate over oil subsidies is heating up in DC, and pressure is building against oil companies all across the country. We want to channel this citizen outrage and bring it to bear on the process in DC, so we're working with partners to setup a high-profile delivery of a huge VOIDED check next for $4 Billion, signed by the the American Taxpayers. Add your name. 5/13
Sludge Scam: The U.S. Composting Council (USCC) is pitching its annual PR campaign this week, which it calls "International Compost Awareness Week." The USCC describes itself as a national trade organization. USCC's members include Synagro, the largest processor of sewage sludge in the United States with revenues of over $300 million annually. The "International Compost Awareness Week" is coordinated by Jeff Ziegenbein of the giant Inland Empire Utility Agency (IEAU) in Southern California. IEUA supplies the sewage sludge "compost" that is resold by companies like Kellogg Garden Products, which supplies the sewage sludge-based products to local Home Depot and Lowe's garden centers.
But you won't find the word "sewage sludge" on the bags of "soil" "soil amendment" "compost" or "fertilzer" that are made from the sludge. Instead, you may find the word "compost" in the ingredients and even the word "organic" or "organics" on the label. Unless the material has the OMRI certification, however, it is not a certified organic product. Organic produce cannot be grown in sewage sludge under federal law. So, this week, in honor of what really should be called "International Sewage Sludge Awareness Week," let your friends know that they should beware of any garden product that uses the word "compost" or that has a "seal" from the U.S. Compost Council, because it might be from sludge.We need you to help spread the word on the sludge industry's effort to market sludge as "compost." From PRWatch at Center for Media and Democracy. 5/11
Stop unranium mining near the Grand Canyon link. 4/11
Anti-Sweatshop UCSC Petition:
Below, please find a petition to our Chancellor, George Blumenthal, through which you can express your support for a campaign to offer UCSC students apparel that is not made in sweatshops. You can copy and paste (or even better, personalize it) a copy of the letter and email it to the Chancellor at: chancellor@ucsc.edu. Please put sroneil@ucsc.edu, openup@ucsc.edu, teresa@usas.org in your cc line before sending the email so the Bay Tree Bookstore Manager Steve O'Neil, the UC-AFT, and the people organizing the anti-sweatshop campaign will know how many petitions the Chancellor received. This will only take you about two or three minutes and make a huge difference to garment workers in the Dominican Republic.
Chancellor George Blumenthal
Chancellor, UC Santa Cruz
200 Clark Kerr Hall
University of California
Santa Crus, CA 95064
chancellor@ucsc.edu
Dear Chancellor Blumenthal,
As you know, universities and members of the university community have long been at the forefront of support for workers' rights in the global apparel industry. Universities and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), the labor rights watchdog organization with which over 180 American colleges and universities are affiliated, have been leaders in developing and adopting labor codes of conduct and in the independent monitoring of compliance with those codes. In many instances, university support has been critical in the struggle to defend workers' rights and to ensure that workers who produce apparel bearing our logos are treated with dignity and respect. We are writing to ask that the University of California Santa Cruz continue to play an important role in advancing the goals of worker rights by supporting a new line of living-wage, union-made clothing called Alta Gracia Apparel with a significant portion of the orders by our campus bookstore.
Alta Gracia Apparel is a brand of Knights Apparel, the largest supplier of collegiate clothing, and is produced at a factory located in Villa Altagracia, Dominican Republic where workers earn a genuine living wage, as calculated by the Worker Rights Consortium. This wage is more than three times both the Dominican minimum wage and the pay earned by workers in other apparel factories in the region. As you can imagine, the impact of the living wage in the community has been tremendous. New businesses have opened near the factory gates to provide workers with food and other necessities, business has increased for motorcycle taxi drivers, and many Alta Gracia workers have either moved into larger, better quality housing or are finally able to afford to make improvements on their current homes. Not only are they now able to afford school fees for their children, but many workers are going back to school themselves. Alta Gracia Apparel is the first clothing brand ever to make its products in a factory where workers have union representation, and where the WRC has unfettered factory access to verify that all pay and labor rights commitments are being met.
With Alta Gracia Apparel, the Bay Tree Bookstore finally has the ability to provide such an option with a product that costs no more, wholesale or retail, than comparable brands. We applaud the initial steps the Bay Tree bookstore has taken towards this end.
As University of California Santa Cruz faculty, we now ask that the Bay Tree Bookstore source a substantial portion of its offerings – no less than 30% - (including in store, online, and at off-site events) from Alta Gracia Apparel, beginning with the next order. Recognizing that Alta Gracia has been successful at universities that have actively marketed it, we ask the bookstore to promote Alta Gracia and future living-wage, WRC-verified brands through informative displays, competitive placement, on-campus advertising, training of store staff, in-store promotions and promotional events. We as faculty commit to support the bookstore in this endeavor by actively educating students and our colleagues about the option of living-wage brands via e-mail, campus publications, and in our capacity as voices within the university community.
Sincerely,
Through Alta UC students have the opportunity to support workers' rights and transform the global apparel industry by choosing living-wage union-made Alta Gracia the next time they purchase a t-shirt or sweatshirt at the bookstore or online. Want to get involved in this campaign on campus? Contact Teresa Cheng - teresa@usas.org, 925.330.4449.
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Honey bees are dying at an alarming rate –– about a third of the existing population has died off every year since 2006, and scientists believe this year could be even worse. Losing any species is tragic, but honey bees are a special case, because fully one-third of our food production depends on honey bee pollination. Without honey bees, we risk not only the livelihoods of beekeepers and farmers, but our domestic food supply itself.
Why are the bees dying? There are lots of reasons, but mounting evidence is pointing to pesticides, and one chemical in particular: clothianidin. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved clothianidin in 2003, and the chemical has since been sprayed on millions of acres of corn, soy, and wheat fields.
Tell the EPA to ban clothiandin to save American honey bees.
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Monsanto has cleared almost every necessary hurdle toward getting its genetically engineered alfalfa (commonly sold as hay) on the market –– this is a potentially devastating development for farmers, livestock, and the environment. The alfalfa in question is one of Monsanto’s "Roundup Ready" crops: That means that the crop has been genetically engineered to be resistant to one of Monsanto’s most popular herbicides, Roundup. In theory, that means farmers could grow this alfalfa, blanket their crops with chemicals, and kill weeds without killing the alfalfa, thus saving money.
Here's what happens in reality: Roundup kills the first batch of weeds, but the weeds adapt, growing into super weeds which in turn must be sprayed with – you guessed it – even more chemicals from Monsanto.We need to take action to stop this vicious cycle before it starts. Tell Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to reject "Roundup Ready" alfalfa. 1/27/11
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Give the gift of life for ten bucks this holiday season, a malaria net.
"Critical Vote: Tell your Senators to support the Tester-Hagan amendment - Vote YES for family farmers! Update 21/1: it has now passed both houses, but one ill is much stronger than the other. Make sure the stronger one wins.
The Senate just voted 74 Yes to 25 No in favor of the cloture vote. This means that S.510, aka The Food Modernization Act, will move forward in the Senate for a vote by the end of the week, possibly as soon as tomorrow. Even as the debate continues on the Senate floor, the forces of Big Ag are working behind the scenes to kill the Tester-Hagan Amendment and all provisions meant to protect small farmers.
Despite [this online] heroic effort, we're hearing that some Senators still have not made up their minds or even worse, some are waffling in their support for the Tester-Hagan and Manager's Amendments, which will help protect farmers who sell their produce or goods locally to farmers markets, customers, stores and restaurants from excessive regulations that could harm their ability to compete and even survive. ..As early as tomorrow the Senate could vote on the food safety bill and FARMERS NEED the Tester-Hagan and Manager's Amendments to be included to protect them from harmful regulations.
Pollan and Schlosser weigh in: The recognition of how important the passage of the Tester-Hagan Amendment is has brought out 2 of the biggest voices in the sustainable food movement to lend their support for family farmers. Yesterday food experts and authors Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser released a statement urging swift action in passing the food safety bill and the Tester Amendment:
"S.510 is the most important food safety bill in a generation. The Tester amendment will make it even more effective, helping to ensure food safety while protecting small farmers and producers. We both think this is the right thing to do," said Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. After years of following these issues, meeting with hundreds of farmers and victims of food safety outbreaks, both Pollan and Schlosser are convinced that these important provisions are needed to improve food safety and protect family farmers."
Please join them in asking your Senators to vote Yes for family farmers and the Tester Amendment! 11/10
Child Slavery: More than 150 million children younger than 14 years-old are child laborers -- one in six children in the world. Those children do hazardous work in mines or on farms, often handling chemicals and pesticides or working near dangerous machinery. Others toil as domestic servants in homes or workshops.
Another 300,000 children under 18 are child soldiers used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks, or sexual servants in some 30 conflicts worldwide. They are most often forcibly recruited or abducted, or feel so helpless and overwhelmed by poverty they are driven to join the fight. Girls are particularly vulnerable. Some as young as 13 are trafficked as "mail-order brides." Nearly 90% of domestic workers trafficked in West and Central Africa are girls. It's an epidemic that isn't getting enough attention from governments worldwide -- and Change.org members can help change that. Click here to take a stand now against child slavery and exploitation and demand that governments protect and uphold the basic rights of all children.
Enviromental Working Group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides was targeted with an expensive, misleading public relations attack campaign. The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), a California-based public relations group of pro-pesticide, big agricultural producers made the unfounded charge that the EWG Guide is influencing people to eat fewer vegetables. Those bogus claims won't fool most people. Still, we were shocked when California and federal officials started handing out taxpayer dollars to support the industry's tactics. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have awarded a $180,000 grant to an industry front group. If you think attacking non-profit, independent, food safety watchdog groups, like EWG, that educate the public about pesticides in food is an outrageous way to spend taxpayer funds, the CDFA and the USDA need to hear from you today.
Tell Rupert Murdoch: Get the Facts Straight! Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is a global media company that owns everything from newspapers to television networks to film studios. The company has stated publicly that "News Corporation is committed to addressing its impact on climate change." They also say they "hope to engage our audiences and enable them to find ways to reduce carbon emissions in their own lives." So why is News Corp. giving so much air time and column inches to people who attack climate science and mislead the public? News Corp. has broadcast and published media pundits claims that the earth's temperatures have flat-lined, that arctic ice is increasing, and that there is no such thing as global warming. Please urge News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch to match his corporation's green pledges with real action. Tell him we aren’t entertained by scientific misinformation.
The California Toxin-Free Infants and Toddlers Act, Senate Bill 797, has passed the California Assembly. It passed the state Senate last year, but we need to do it again! The Senate has to affirm the Assembly's amendments before the bill can reach the Governor. California Senate Bill 797 would ban the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant formula and food containers. This legislation is an important step to protect children's health. BPA, a synthetic estrogen, can be found in metal food can linings, infant formula containers, and hard plastics, such as sippy cups and baby bottles. It leaches from these containers into babies' food and formula. More than 225 studies have linked this chemical to health effects such as reproductive disorders, prostate and breast cancer, birth defects, low sperm count, early puberty, and effects on brain development and behavior. Your state Senator's vote is crucial. To keep California's kids safe, your Senator needs to hear from you today. Click here to tell your Senator to vote "yes" on SB 797 today.
Watch fun mocumentary on the plastic bag. Then sign the petition.
Important seed bank in Russia needs your help. 8/10
Kickstarter is an excellent source of funding, and a place to act on your ideals. You post your idea, tell people how much you need, and they pledge. Example, an urban art farm in the Bronx.
6/28
"We're writing to everyone 350.org because it's crunch time. We learned earlier today that President Obama will convene a meeting at the White House tomorrow with a group of key senators to hammer out an energy and climate proposal to take to the floor of the Senate in the next six weeks. Whatever that proposal contains, it won't do everything that we need--but it might at least get us started. The danger is that Senators will just do the easy stuff, and remain too timid to seize this moment to pass truly far-reaching legislation.
So it would be very useful to call your Senators and make the following points:
1) We need a bill that puts an economy-wide cap on carbon--all carbon, from utilities and factories and cars and anything else that burns coal, gas, and oil. And we need those caps based on science--they have to start us on the route back towards 350 and towards a safe climate.
2) We won't be fooled by a bill that merely addresses the need for oil drilling regulations or incentives for renewable energy. These things are so obvious that they require no political courage; the only way to honor the suffering in the Gulf is to make deep progress on ending our use of fossil fuel--and that progress must include an economy-wide cap on carbon.
If you need inspiration, take a moment to look through the photos from Hands Across the Sand last Saturday, when communities across the country took a united stand against offshore drilling and for clean energy. If you need motivation, consider this: in the past six weeks, seven countries have set new all-time temperature records. Our friends at 350 Pakistan report that the mercury hit 129 degrees last week. The planetary heat is on, for real. We need to put the political heat on, right now. Many thanks, Bill McKibben for 350.org"
Doctors Without Borders website and petition to fight malnutrition
Draft Campus Sustainability Plan 1.0, Public Comment Period Nine years ago, the UCSC Student Environmental Center hosted the first campus Earth Summit, during which students, staff, and faculty expressed a desire to develop a vision for a sustainable campus. The campus is pleased to announce the official release of the draft Campus Sustainability Plan 1.0 and the associated opening of a campus comment period through June 30, 2010. Comments or other questions regarding the Campus Sustainability Plan (CSP), which can be downloaded from the home page of the campus sustainability site and can be emailed to sustain@ucsc.edu.
People for Bikes petition
Offshore drilling petition from 350.org.
Oxfam info on and advocacy for poor countries that will suffer the brunt of climate change and are already affected by corrupt oil and mineral extraction.
Proposition 16 would make green energy much more difficult in CA. (audio of discussion) 5/10
Earth Day 40th anniversary Climate Change petition
League of Conservation Voters tracks how our representatives vote. The 2010 Dirty Dozen list includes CA's own Pombo, who tried to eliminate the Endangered Species Act.
At UCSC, during December all dining halls are collecting food for the hungry. Check it out!
Stop resumption of whaling Greenpeace 4/10
How To Save The World With Your Old Cell Phone. Every day 450,000 cell phones are discarded in the United States. But there's a better way to get rid of them. With Hope Phones you can donate your old phone to help healthcare workers and medical clinics in developing countries.
The not for profit service allows donors to print a free shipping label and send their old phones in for recycling. The phone’s value is then used to purchase usable, recycled cell phones for healthcare workers in various third world areas.
Local
(See also Event Calendar and Volunteer Opportunities)
UCSC Cage Free Egg petition: "A number of UCSC students are working to get Dining Services to take an important step towards sustainability and eliminate some of the worst cruelties to animals. Our goal is to get UCSC to switch to cage-free eggs in its dining halls and restaurants, because even animals raised for food deserve to be treated humanely. Would you please take a moment to provide a polite comment to Dining Services?
You can sign the petition and comment online at: http://www.CageFreeUCSC.com or you can agree to sign the petition simply by replying, with a "Yes" in subject line, to this email.
Hens on "battery cage" egg farms - where UCSC currently gets its eggs - are packed so tightly in small wire cages that they can barely turn around and are unable to even spread their wings. Their cages are stacked in tiers in dark, filthy warehouses, and the birds frequently live among the excrement and waste of other birds, therefore we are working towards getting cage free eggs in order to have these animals treated more humanely.
What’s most surprising is that UCSC would support a practice as environmentally destructive and unsustainable as battery cage egg farms. National environmental organizations like the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Environmental Trust all strongly condemn battery cage egg farming for its destructive impact on the environment.
Hundreds of other colleges have gone cage-free, including UC-San Diego, UC-Davis, UC-Berkeley, and just this week UC-Santa Barbara. Even in these difficult times other UC schools are making the switch to cage-free eggs and so can UCSC.
Please take a moment to leave a comment for Dining Services and sign the petition online at: http://www.CageFreeUCSC.com or simply by replying with a "Yes" subject line to this email. You can read more information and see a special two-minute video on the site as well.
Thank you for helping to make UCSC more sustainable as well as more humane for animals!
Best,Eric Deardorff edeardor AT ucsc.edu
CalPIRG Campaigns
Think we have some mighty big problems in the world? Want to help be the solution? Come find out how you can help solve global warming, make our oceans cleaner, make higher education more affordable, provide food for the hungry, and pass health care reform. We'll be working to get over 1,000 lbs of food donated to local food banks, increase grant aid for students by $40 billion, pass a national cap on global warming, ban plastic bags from Santa Cruz to save the sea otters, and much, much more. Get course credit for doing an internship, or volunteer to make a difference in your community. There are tons of opportunities to get involved, so make sure you come find out what we have in store for this quarter! Contact by e-mail/phone, or drop by our office: 3rd Floor Student Union 459-4649 Campus Organizer: Carolina Van Horn mailto:carolina@calpirgstudents.org Link
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition has q number of campaigns, including Greening UC and a project to protect prisoners and poor people in Third World countries who are not given protection while recycling e-waste.
General tips for organizing against polluters from NRDC.
(Inter-)National
Environmental Working Group has a number of campaigns, especially on chemicals and energy.
Pesticide Action Network has campaigns and internships (San Francisco)
Ecovolunteer.org/ allows you to find places to travel to see and even participate in eco-programs
350.org actions on global warming
Email Campaigns
Many organizations need your help and provide opportunities for you to tell politicians and companies that you want action. You can also help spread the word on various issues that concern you. Send your suggestions to mailto:pmmckerc@ucsc.edu
Coastkeeper asks for your help to stop marine life from being killed by obsolete power plant cooling. 1/10
Environmental Defense Fund has email campaigns, as well as other actions.
Tell the Senate to help poor people cope with Global Warming
Tips for how to get results from World Wildlife Fund
WWF campaigns including success stories.
Global Response You can sign up to get Emergency Help notification
