Center for Biological Diversity
[link removed]
Endangered Earth
No. 1,006, Oct. 17, 2019
--------------------------------------------
Congress, Save the Endangered Species Act
When members of Congress were at home last week, they got a clear message from the Center for Biological Diversity's grassroots volunteers: Do everything you can to save the Endangered Species Act.
We delivered 500,000 petition signatures supporting the Act, and on last Thursday's day of action we visited more than 70 congressional offices in 25 states.
A huge thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who called politicians, collected signatures, and went to offices. This is exactly the kind of powerful mobilizing it's going to take to beat back Trump's attacks on wildlife and the Endangered Species Act.
The campaign isn't over. Join the fight to save endangered species and consider donating to our Endangered Species Act Protection Fund.
Join the fight: [link removed]
Donate: [link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Big Reprieve for Western Bird
Great news: In response to legal action by the Center and allies, a judge has blocked Trump's plans to expand mining, drilling, livestock grazing and other destructive activities on 51 million acres of greater sage grouse habitat in seven western states.
Greater sage grouse once occupied hundreds of millions of acres across the West, but their populations have plummeted.
"The ruling gives this beautiful bird a better shot at avoiding extinction," said Center attorney Michael Saul. "And it's also a victory for public lands and other spectacular wildlife that rely on undisturbed western sagebrush landscapes."
Get more from our press release.
[link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Speak Up for Tortoises and the Endangered Species Act
Imperiled desert tortoises could lose up to 300,000 acres of habitat if bulldozers tear up public land in Clark County, Nevada, for new subdivisions and shopping malls.
The federal bill allowing this would create a huge loophole in the Endangered Species Act to let Las Vegas sprawl run rampant. Worse, the bill's passage would set a precedent for all counties and cities to run to Congress and beg for a license to sprawl.
This is a critical moment. Please: Speak up now for Nevada's desert tortoises and the Endangered Species Act.
[link removed]
--------------------------------------------
New Endangered Species Mural
The latest installment of our Endangered Species Mural Project is also our first internationally, in Mexico. A building in the popular Parque Borunda — near the border crossing in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua — now boasts a larger-than-life painting of two majestic borderlands species, the Aplomado falcon and the jaguar. It was done by a cross-border team of artists: Jaque Fragua of Jemez Pueblo and Dose of Los Angeles, plus Juan Carlos Reyes and Laura Meneses of Ciudad Juarez.
Learn more: [link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Take Action: Keep Utah's National Parks OHV-free
Utah is home to some of the most spectacular protected lands in the national park system — from Arches, Canyonlands and Zion national parks to Dinosaur and Hovenweep national monuments.
But now, without analysis or public input, a Trump administration order seeks to open all park roads, paved and unpaved, to vehicles like four-wheelers and side-by-sides. The move threatens these world-renowned landscapes with noise, traffic and pollution. It brazenly ignores previous decisions that such OHV use would harm these special places.
Send a letter today urging the Interior Department not to take this reckless step, which could irreversibly damage Utah's extraordinary monuments and parks.
[link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Trump Opens Door to Clearcutting Alaska's Tongass
On Tuesday the Trump administration announced plans to gut longstanding protections against logging and road-building in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. This vast, temperate rainforest is the homeland of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples — plus grizzlies, salmon and rare Alexander Archipelago wolves.
"Alaska's elected officials are selling out their constituents and robbing future generations by trying to strip protection from one of the most pristine old-growth forests in the world," said Randi Spivak, the Center's public lands director.
Read more in The New York Times and look for an email from us next week about how you can take action to save the Tongass.
[link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Petition to Protect California's Joshua Trees
California's world-famous Joshua trees are seriously threatened by climate change and habitat destruction from urban sprawl and other development. So this week the Center petitioned for the protection of western Joshua trees under the California Endangered Species Act.
"This may be our only hope for saving these iconic symbols of the Mojave desert," said Brendan Cummings, the Center's conservation director and a Joshua Tree, California, resident.
Read more in The Sun.
[link removed]
--------------------------------------------
The Revelator: Will a Hail Mary Pass Save the Vaquita?
Fewer than 20 vaquita porpoises now remain on Earth. Illegal fishing has driven them toward extinction in their Gulf of California home, and heartbreakingly, they seem to be in the final stretch.
After decades of pleas by scientists, the international community recently told Mexico, in no uncertain terms, that it had to take stronger action for these creatures. But will the country save them?
Read the article: [link removed]
Sign up for The Revelator's e-newsletter: [link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Think We're a Great Nonprofit? Say So in a Review
If you're looking for a free, easy way to help the Center, please take a minute to review us at GreatNonprofits.org, a site like Yelp or TripAdvisor where you can tell others just how effective and hardworking we are.
Thanks to previous stellar (that is, five-star) reviews by our supporters, the Center has won "top-rated" awards at GreatNonprofits over and over since the site was launched. But to get our 2019 award — which will help us to save the wild world — we need a steady stream of esteem.
So please, friends and supporters, write us a rave review now.
[link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Report: Plastic Found in One-fifth of Mexican Fish
Microplastics have been found in the stomachs of 20 percent of commercially important fish tested from three regions in Mexico, according to a report by conservation groups and prominent Mexican scientists.
"These disturbing tests highlight how plastic pollution is infesting our oceans and contaminating the fish we eat," said Alejandro Olivera, a Center biologist based in Mexico. "We need national lawmakers to step up and help solve the problem."
Read more in Mexico News Daily.
[link removed]
--------------------------------------------
Wild & Weird: 'Survival of the Friendliest'
Biologists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered a microbial counterpoint to the Darwinian notion of "survival of the fittest." Colonies of bacteria organize themselves around cooperation instead of competition, and they reap rewards in strength and resilience. Stronger bacteria give extra space to weaker ones, allowing them — and the colony as a whole — to grow bigger than they would on their own. Bacteria also "inspire" each other to develop new features and innovate.
Get more from ScienceDaily.
[link removed]
****************************************************
Share Endangered Earth Online: [link removed]
Donate now to support the Center's work: [link removed]
Follow Us
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
This message was sent to
[email protected].
Opt out of this mailing list: [link removed]
Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States
