Dear John,
Preserving biodiversity and saving our planet’s last remaining forests is more important than ever before.
You may know that deforestation is second only to fossil fuels in driving climate chaos. But did you know it also exposes humans to new infectious diseases like the coronavirus?
Humans are disrupting ecosystems that have naturally regulated diseases and protected human health. By encroaching on natural areas and destroying vital habitats, we’re breaking the barriers between humans and disease-carrying animals. In fact, 75% of all new infectious diseases originate in animals, and they almost universally emerge as a result of ecological disruptions.
Here at Friends of the Earth, our bold campaigns to save forests include partnering with frontline communities and elected officials to pressure banks and investment firms to stop funding deforestation. And we need your help to keep up the fight. We don’t have any time to lose.
Help prevent future pandemics and climate chaos by saving our forests: Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
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Here’s how it works: Biodiverse forests act as “disease reservoirs,” where viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms naturally live and grow. As we fragment their habitat with suburban development, logging, expansion of agribusiness plantations, and other human activity, we break the “reservoir” and the diseases flow out, jumping the species boundary and entering human hosts. With no evolved immunity, humans rapidly spread those diseases.
And the biggest drivers of deforestation? Industrial agricultural commodities like palm oil, paper, and cattle, enabled by huge investment firms like BlackRock.
But with your support, Friends of the Earth is fighting deforestation by:
- Pressuring retail corporations to adopt deforestation-free policies (and continually monitoring to ensure they follow through on their commitments)
- Blocking agribusinesses -- including palm oil producers -- from rampant deforestation, land grabs, and human rights abuses that disproportionately harm Indigenous Peoples by tapping into the international Friends of the Earth network
- Exposing how leading U.S. pension funds are directly invested in rainforest destruction through hard-hitting research and analyses
- Developing tools for investors and reporters to see which corporations are enabling and profiting from deforestation around the world
- Working with officials at the federal and state level to craft policy that would put in place strict protections for forests, biodiversity, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples
And just this month, we led a coalition of farmer, environmental, and antitrust groups to urge Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to ban large agribusinesses from exploiting the CARES Act’s $500 billion slush fund -- instead investing stimulus funds into diverse, sustainable agriculture systems.
Help fight deforestation: Rush an urgent donation of $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
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We need to move away from the extractive capitalist model that disregards life and destroys our planet. We also must reimagine our place in the world, understanding that as humans we are not in some way detached from the greater web of life.
Our health as humans is connected to the health of our natural world. We, and the ecosystems of which we’re a part, are deeply interdependent.
Our planet’s primary forests contain more carbon dioxide than all of the world’s oil reserves combined. Serving as massive carbon sinks, they sequester carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere and heating our planet, thus mitigating the impacts of disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts.
They also make rain, provide medicine, and act as a buffer between humans and an unknown world of dangerous and potentially lethal viruses.
But instead of seeing these forests as the temples of life that they are, humans have been cutting them down for palm oil, paper, and soybeans -- which is to say, for processed foods and factory farms.
And unfortunately, Big Polluters are using the coronavirus to profit by slashing environmental protections, making people even more susceptible to COVID-19 and future pandemics.
For many of us, this pandemic is a wake-up call. The time is ripe to overhaul our current systems of extraction, exploitation, and destruction of our home. It’s time to change the status quo.
Will you join us in the fight? Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
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Thank you,
Jeff Conant,
Senior international forests program manager,
Friends of the Earth
