Dear John,
Trump just signed an executive order gutting long-standing environmental
protections -- yet another attack on communities of color. Please donate now to organizations fighting for racial justice.
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After decades of racist housing policies pushed Black communities right up
against industrial polluters and hazardous waste sites, Black Americans
disproportionately bear the burden of toxic air pollution -- and associated
respiratory diseases. More and more studies are linking prolonged air pollution
with increased susceptibility to the coronavirus, making clear why Black
Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to get and die from
the coronavirus.
In Minnesota, where police brutally murdered George Floyd, Black people make up
6 percent of the state’s population, but 30 percent of the state’s coronavirus
cases. Already suffering at the hands of corporate polluters and the police, Black
Americans will yet again disproportionately suffer from Trump’s rollback of
bedrock environmental laws.
We’re fighting for justice together. Thanks to your support, we just raised over
$7,000 for the Movement For Black Lives and The Bail Project. Let’s keep up the
momentum and the donations.
Fight back against systemic racism: Donate $10 or more today, and Friends of the
Earth will regrant 100% of your contribution to the Movement For Black Lives and
The Bail Project.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation
will go through immediately:
Donate $10 immediately
[[link removed]] Donate $5/month immediately
[[link removed]]We’ve already been fighting against Trump’s EPA, led by former coal lobbyist
Andrew Wheeler. He and Trump have been exploiting the pandemic to give polluters
free reign to pollute vulnerable communities. But this latest executive order
would gut our bedrock environmental laws, including the National Environmental
Protection Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
It’s yet another handout to fossil fuel industry executives, who are already
getting billions of dollars in tax breaks and bailouts due to COVID-19, while
profiting from polluting Black communities and other communities of color.
The Movement For Black Lives has condemned this disparity, demanding “a just
recovery that doesn’t prioritize corporations and leave our communities behind”
and to move the economy to serve “the needs of the people and the planet, not
the corporations and the wealthy.” Friends of the Earth is uplifting these
demands, and the movement’s demand for more community control over laws.
Shifting the unequal balance of power is central to all of our campaigns,
including holding Big Polluters accountable and protecting the web of life on
which we all depend. We’re up against a racist, capitalist system that values
property and extraction over human life -- especially Black life.
Climate chaos hits communities of color first and worst, and the Trump
administration’s rollbacks of environmental laws will do the same. The
compounding injustices that connect the poisoning of our communities and racist
police violence are no accident. They reflect and reinforce the systemic racism
that’s been here since our country’s founding.
Help racial justice organizations transform our broken systems and build the
world we need: Donate $10 or more today.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation
will go through immediately:
Donate $10 immediately
[[link removed]] Donate $5/month immediately
[[link removed]]One particular story of environmental racism may help connect the dots even more
clearly.
One of the country’s most polluted zip codes is in Detroit, where for years the
majority-Black community has lived under the shadow of the Marathon refinery --
the largest in the country. Here, infant mortality is twice the rate of the rest
of the state, and the average life expectancy is significantly lower, too. The
neighborhood’s ozone levels often exceed federal limits, leading to huge health
disparities, including increased deaths from COVID-19.
Amid the pandemic ravaging its community, Marathon has urged state regulators to
suspend environmental monitoring rules, and lobbied for the COVID-19 tax bailout
of the fossil fuel industry (thanks to our research, we know that they’ve
already gained $411 million from this endeavor).
Now, the House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into Marathon’s
political influence: in particular, its funding and coordination of dark money
groups that lobbied to weaken vehicle standards for fuel economy and greenhouse
gas emissions. Together, they undid a landmark precedent set under the Obama
administration, which was the biggest U.S. effort yet to fight the climate
crisis. Undoing Obama’s clean car rule will lead to nearly a billion additional
metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The increased air pollution alone will
cause premature deaths, according to the EPA’s own analysis -- which will, yet
again, disproportionately harm Black Americans.
As environmentalists, we must tell these stories. At Friends of the Earth, we
recommit ourselves to doing the necessary advocacy, organizing, and mobilizing
to dismantle systemic racism in achieving a more healthy and just world.
That’s why we’re not only centering racial justice in our campaigns, but also
moving resources to two incredible racial justice organizations: the Movement
For Black Lives and The Bail Project.
Please give generously and give NOW, John: We will
regrant 100% of your contribution to organizations fighting for racial justice
and in defense of Black lives.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation
will go through immediately:
Donate $10 immediately
[[link removed]] Donate $5/month immediately
[[link removed]]Thank you,
Liz Butler,
Vice president of organizing and strategic alliances,
Friends of the Earth
Contact Us:Friends of the Earth U.S.
Washington, D.C. | Berkeley, CA
1-877-843-8687
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