No. 1250, June 20, 2024

FEMA Urged to Fund Response for Extreme Heat, Smoke 

This week the Center for Biological Diversity led a multistate coalition of environmental, labor, and health groups in urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency — FEMA for short — to unlock crucial disaster-relief funding for extreme heat and wildfire. Funding could go to cooling centers, air-filtration systems, and vital community solar and storage. 

Right now FEMA recognizes neither extreme heat nor wildfire smoke — both driven by climate change — as a major disaster. Meanwhile heat is the leading climate-fueled killer in the United States, and people are breathing too much smoke as wildfires grow in frequency and intensity. 

Watch an interview with Energy Justice Director Jean Su about why this is so important.  

Then take action: Urge FEMA to act quickly and classify extreme heat and wildfire smoke as major disasters. 

Petition Defends Wildlife, the Climate From Pipeline

The Center and allies just petitioned the U.S. Department of the Interior to do a new analysis of how the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline harms vulnerable wildlife and the climate — and to make a plan to urgently phase down the pipeline’s operations. 

The existing environmental analysis is now more than 20 years old. It failed to assess the climate harms of extracting and burning the oil moving through the pipeline. And it didn’t study how those harms are devastating Alaska’s polar bears, caribou, and other wildlife. With massive potential drilling projects on Alaska’s North Slope — including the Willow project — the pipeline may transport much more oil in the coming years. 

“To ward off climate devastation here in Alaska and globally, we have to move quickly to plan for the end of this pipeline,” said the Center’s Cooper Freeman. 

Help our fight with a gift to the Center’s Saving Life on Earth Fund. 

Sea Turtle Area Closed to Gillnet Fishing 

Following a Center letter, NOAA Fisheries just temporarily banned drift-gillnet fishing in the Pacific Loggerhead Conservation Area off Southern California to protect endangered loggerhead sea turtles. 

El Niño conditions have warmed up sea-surface temperatures in the area, which increases tuna crab populations and draws loggerhead sea turtles, who eat the crabs. The new fishing closure will help save loggerheads from getting entangled in nets, letting them feast in peace. 

Webinar: Building a Future for Endangered Red Wolves

Red wolves are the world’s most endangered canines, with fewer than 25 left in the wild. In just the past year, five were killed by vehicle strikes along or near Highway 64 in eastern North Carolina, which passes through the heart of red wolf habitat. 

The Center and the Wildlands Network have launched a campaign to secure a safer future for red wolves by building wildlife crossings on U.S. 64. A generous donor has already pledged to contribute a landmark $2 million match challenge for a Red Wolf Wildlife Crossing Fund — but we need to raise another $2 million in committed matching funds. Meeting that goal is critical to getting state and federal funding that will make lifesaving wildlife crossings a reality. 

Join us for a special webinar Tuesday, July 2, at 10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST to learn more about this important campaign. 

And consider giving to the Red Wolf Wildlife Crossing Fund to help meet this moment and save critically imperiled red wolves.

Mexico Penalizes 26 Factory Pig Farms 

Thanks to a formal request from the Center and Greenpeace Mexico, Mexican officials have fined more than two dozen industrial pig farms in the Yucatán Peninsula for violating environmental laws. We also asked Mexico to grant Mayan communities’ request to ban approvals of new industrial pig farms in Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo to respect the Mayan people’s rights and confront ongoing damage to air and water quality, biodiversity, and human health. 

The Mayan jungle of the Yucatán Peninsula provides crucial habitat for countless species, including imperiled spider monkeys and jaguars, as well as numerous plant and animal resources for food and medicine. 

Revelator: Cities Respond to Pollinator Decline 

It’s Pollinator Week — and pollinator populations around the world are in crisis, with many species at risk of extinction. But not every part of this picture is bleak: Cities across the world are working to support their local pollinators. 

Get more from The Revelator. And if you don’t already, subscribe to the free weekly Revelator e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news. 

That’s Wild: Deep-Sea Mountains Harbor New Species 

Glass sponges. Squat lobsters. Wrinkle corals. Galaxy siphonophorae (long, thin, transparent colonial organisms that float through the deep ocean and emit light to attract and attack prey). 

These are just a few of the 160 astounding marine species recently recorded by a deep-diving sea robot on an expedition to underwater mountains off the coast of Chile. None of the species were previously known to live in this place, and at least 50 of them are totally new to science. The information gathered will help people develop strategies for protecting biodiverse regions in international waters. 

Watch footage of these creatures, from enchanting invertebrates to surly-looking sea toads. 

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Photo credits: Firefighter by Josh O'Connor/USFWS; polar bear cub © Alan D. Wilson/Nature's Pics Online; loggerhead sea turtle by ukanda/Wikimedia; red wolf by B. Bartel/USFWS; Fargo’s Urban Pollinator Plots program by Sam DeMarais; sea toad screenshot from footage by Schmidt Ocean Institute.

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