Dear Friend,

Humans and climate change threaten 1 million species with extinction, and the latest proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act speed up the process. The changes would rollback protection and weaken one of the best tools for preventing extinction in the last half century.

Here’s what the proposed changes do:

• Allow economic factors to be considered when making species-saving decisions, which could provide oil, gas and mining companies a clearer path to development.
• Make it harder to designate habitats for threatened and endangered species, likely shrinking livable areas for these species.
• Ignore effects like climate change when determining species’ protection status, making it tougher to protect species most at risk from climate change.

For more than 45 years, the Endangered Species Act has saved several of America’s most important species, helping save 99 percent of its listed species from extinction. What would America be without the bald eagle, grizzly bear and manatee?

Scientists predict that half of all species will face extinction by the end of the century. The new regulations make this future more of a reality. Contact your representatives in the House and Senate and urge them to act against these changes and support our wildlife.

Read more about Earth Day Network’s Protect Our Species campaign and how we can help keep our species from extinction.

Sincerely,

Earth Day Network