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Tell Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross:
"Stop Donald Trump from using the census to attack immigrants and suppress the vote. Do not include any questions about citizenship or immigration status in the 2020 census."
Add your name:
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If we don't act now, Donald Trump will use the census to rig elections for Republicans until 2030.
The Trump regime is trying to include a discriminatory citizenship question in the 2020 census that could result in a significant undercounting of immigrant communities and supercharge right-wing gerrymandering and voter suppression.1
The Department of Commerce is collecting public comments on Trump's proposed citizenship question until August 7. This is our chance to show Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that the majority of the country opposes Trump's plan to use the census as a weapon to discriminate. Will you add your voice now?
Trump and his cronies have been trying to sabotage the census for months. The Government Accountability Office has already identified the census as a “high risk area” because of underfunding, canceled field tests and the late introduction of new systems and processes.2 The census also lacks competent leadership. Trump nominated Thomas Brunell, who has supported Republican gerrymandering, opposes early voting and has no relevant experience, for the top operational role at the U.S. Census Bureau. Under pressure, he withdrew the nomination, and there is still not a permanent leader for the work.3
The citizenship question is the latest assault. It is likely to suppress participation, resulting in the undercounting of immigrant communities and communities of color. This undercount will mean less federal funding for services in those communities. Just as importantly, states with large immigrant populations are also then at risk of losing seats in state legislatures, Congress and the Electoral College.4
More than 60 members of Congress, civil rights groups and over 160 mayors urged Ross not to include the citizenship question.5 Now that he has taken this dangerous step, the New York and California attorneys general are saying the question is unconstitutional and suing to block it.6 Sens. Hirono, Booker and Menendez have also introduced the Every Person Counts Act. This bill would prohibit the U.S. Census Bureau from asking a question on citizenship or immigration status.7 Now, we need to keep the pressure on.
Wilbur Ross still has time to reverse course, do the right thing and block this extremist attack on our democracy. Add your name now to demand that he stop Trump from using the census to attack immigrants and suppress the vote:
- Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action
Add your name:
References:
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Friday, August 3, 2018
Tell Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross: "Stop Donald Trump from using the census to attack immigrants and suppress the vote."
Public Comments needed on deadly Bayer-Monsanto merger
Farmers are scared of it. Bees could be decimated by it. And anyone who eats — that's all of us — should be mobilizing to stop it.
I'm talking about a merger between Bayer and Monsanto, two of the biggest global agribusiness giants, that would create the world's largest seed and chemical corporation... and possible disaster for pollinators, farmers, people, and our planet.
Tell the Department of Justice to reject this toxic mega-merger now.
What makes this Bayer-Monsanto merger so dangerous?
One out of every three bites of food we take depends on bees and other pollinators. Yet bee populations are in a free fall that's only getting worse — beekeepers reported losing over 40% of their honeybee colonies last year, up from an already alarming 33% the year before.
Yet Bayer and Monsanto keep flooding the environment with neonic pesticides that are deadly to bees.
A Bayer-Monsanto merger would cement in place the chemical-intensive farming practices that threaten pollinators and imperil our global food supply, while likely increasing costs and limiting planting options for farmers.
The Department of Justice has proposed a settlement that would allow these two chemical titans to merge. While the department still has the power to stop the merger, it's unlikely to change course without massive public pressure from people like you and me.
The DOJ is inviting comments from the public on its proposed settlement plan for the merger — but only until August 13.
Take action before the DOJ's public comment period ends and help protect honeybees and our food supply!
NRDC and activists like you have been dedicated to saving the bees for years.
We've petitioned and sued the EPA to crack down on the use of neonics, and almost 100,000 of you have written to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos calling on him to stop selling bee-toxic pesticides.
And we've seen progress: With help from NRDC members and activists, we went to court and compelled the Trump administration to provide federal endangered species protection to the rusty patched bumble bee.
And major retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, and True Value have already announced they are taking steps to phase out neonic products or neonic-treated plants (or both).
But right now, the stakes couldn't be higher — and the need for action couldn't be more urgent.
We must ensure that this toxic merger never moves forward — for the sake of pollinators, people, and the health of our planet.
- Rhea Suh, President, NRDC
Microsoft got the message about enabling ICE
To this day, the future is uncertain for the 463 children whose parents were deported by ICE without them. Their parents came to the US for the dream of a better life, and many have fled violence in their home country. Now hundreds of parents have been deported back to potential danger with no real hope of reuniting with their children.
So last week, we took the fight to end tech companies’ collaboration with ICE's deportation machine straight to Microsoft’s door.
Together with partners like Color of Change, the Tech Workers Coalition, Fight for the Future, and Coworker, we hosted actions at Microsoft offices in cities across the country to deliver a joint petition with 300,000 signatures from members like you. But that’s not all: a Microsoft employee hand-delivered a USB with the petition—including 500 signatures from Microsoft employees—to CEO Satya Nadella at an annual gathering at Microsoft’s Redmond, WA headquarters.
Nadella definitely got the message that Microsoft’s ongoing contract with ICE can’t be swept under the rug and hurts real people. And in case 300,000 signatures didn’t do the trick, we teamed up with Color of Change to crowdsource this amazing mobile billboard that we drove around Microsoft’s headquarters during the protest.
Together with a coalition of groups representing millions of people, we’re showing Microsoft that the voices of the people will speak louder than the $19 million contract Microsoft has with ICE.
Watch and share this video of our day of action on Facebook to help keep the heat on Microsoft!
Not on Facebook? No problem, click here to watch on Youtube.
The pressure is working: Nadella was quick to downplay Microsoft’s contract with ICE, claiming in a statement that it was “not aware” of its services being used to help separate families at the border.
That’s quite a change of tune from earlier this year when the company boasted online that Azure, a Microsoft cloud computing service with deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification, was “mission-critical” to ICE.
It's a matter of life or death for so many migrant families in this moment. Deported parents worry if they will ever see or hold their infants again. They worry about who will take care of their kids if and when they are released from government detention centers. They worry about surviving another day to be able to search and fight for their separated love ones, some too young to speak.
Last week’s day of action was a crucial step in holding tech companies like Microsoft accountable for their complicity in Trump’s war on immigrants. But we will not back down until we take this crucial cog out of ICE’s deportation machine.
- SumOfUs
More information:
Microsoft Employees Question C.E.O. Over Company’s Contract With ICE, New York Times, July 26 2018.
Tell Congress to oppose bills that roll back protections on public land
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| Citadel Ruins at Bears Ears |
Right now, some of our most cherished landscapes, cultural landmarks, and pristine natural preserves are threatened by three separate bills in Congress.
We can stop these bills, but only if we act now. Send a message to your lawmakers: our country's natural treasures need more protection, not less.
Opposing these bills is crucial — if passed, they would permanently enshrine the recent, controversial rollbacks shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments into law and fundamentally change the Antiquities Act itself. That's the law that allows Presidents to protect special places through a national monument proclamation, originally championed by Teddy Roosevelt starting in 1906. It's protected countless national treasures like Devil's Tower, Chaco Canyon and the Grand Canyon.
To stop these bills, every member of Congress needs to hear from people like you — people who are committed to safeguarding the fragile beauty of our public lands. Stand up now and tell Congress that you oppose these dangerous bills.
- Shiloh Stark, The Nature Conservancy
By filling out the form found on the link above, the following message will be delivered to your Senators and your Representative:
Stop legislation that threatens public lands
I stand in firm support of our nation's public lands and urge you to help defeat H.R. 3990, H.R. 4532, and H.R. 4558. Our cherished landscapes and waters are home to our greatest natural treasures, and we cannot afford to roll back protections that previous Presidents have enacted.
National monuments and public lands not only inspire us; they give us clean water and air, provide vital wildlife habitat, and generate billions of dollars in recreational activities. Places like these need more protection, not less.
Arizona Contact Info:
Rep. Martha McSally
Tucson office: (520) 881-3588
https://mcsally.house.gov/contact/email
By filling out the form found on the link above, the following message will be delivered to your Senators and your Representative:
Stop legislation that threatens public lands
I stand in firm support of our nation's public lands and urge you to help defeat H.R. 3990, H.R. 4532, and H.R. 4558. Our cherished landscapes and waters are home to our greatest natural treasures, and we cannot afford to roll back protections that previous Presidents have enacted.
National monuments and public lands not only inspire us; they give us clean water and air, provide vital wildlife habitat, and generate billions of dollars in recreational activities. Places like these need more protection, not less.
Arizona Contact Info:
Rep. Martha McSally
Tucson office: (520) 881-3588
https://mcsally.house.gov/contact/email
Tucson office: 520-575-8633
https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff
Tucson office: (520) 670-6334
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Tell the Antarctic Ocean Commission: Create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary
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The petition to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources reads:
"Protect the Antarctic and its wildlife from the threats of overfishing, plastic pollution and climate change. Create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary."
Add your name:
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In just three months, a global commission will come together and vote on whether to create the largest wildlife preserve on Earth. If approved, the Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary would protect an area five times the size of Germany – combating the growing threats of overfishing, plastic pollution and climate change.
This week, this ambitious vision became much more likely. After a long-running campaign from Greenpeace and allies, nearly every krill fishing company agreed to abandon operations in huge areas around the Antarctic Peninsula.1 Overfishing for krill is threatening the food supply for whales, seals and penguins.
With the krill fishing industry on board, the campaign to create an ocean sanctuary in the Antarctic has gained major momentum. The European Union and Germany are backing the proposal as well. With enough public pressure on the rest of the countries who participate in the Antarctic Ocean commission, we can make this plan a reality.
Tell the Antarctic Ocean Commission: Create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary. Click here to sign the petition.
On July 9, a group of the largest krill fishing companies agreed to voluntarily stop fishing in sensitive areas in the Weddell Sea and around the Antarctic Peninsula by 2020.3 Fishing companies will also observe “buffer zones” around breeding colonies of penguins.
The next step is to permanently protect these areas. The benefits of an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary would be global. Not only would the nearly 700,000 square mile proposed sanctuary create an urgently needed safe zone for penguins, whales, seals and other Antarctic wildlife, it would increase food security and sustain a healthy ocean that can soak up carbon dioxide and help tackle climate change.
We have until October to convince world leaders to protect the ocean at the bottom of our planet.
Tell the Antarctic Ocean Commission: Create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary. Click the link below to sign the petition:
- Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action
Add your name:
References:
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Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Block and resist Kavanaugh's anti-environmental agenda
The petition to the Senate reads:
"Block and resist Brett Kavanaugh's anti-environmental agenda."
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Trump's dangerous policy decisions have set us back years in the fight against climate change – years that scientists tell us we cannot afford. But if Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, he may block federal climate action far longer – decades after Trump leaves office.
Brett Kavanaugh's long judicial record offers plenty of evidence of his extreme right-wing views, from his hostility to gun control and women's rights to his coziness with corporations to his frightening willingness to cede authority to the president.1
Kavanaugh's opposition to environmental protections, however, is especially well-documented. He is deeply opposed to the EPA's authority to protect our environment and health. In a number of high-profile cases, he has voted to limit or reverse EPA rules.
Kavanaugh does not believe that the EPA even has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases without explicit approval from Congress.2 Given how Republicans in Congress have consistently prevented climate legislation, hobbling the EPA could mean blocking federal climate action entirely.
Although Justice Kennedy's environmental record was mixed, he cast the deciding vote in the landmark 2007 case that found the EPA has the authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.3 As a judge with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Kavanaugh questioned that ruling in 2012 as part of his dissent against Obama-era greenhouse gas regulations.4
That vote is just one of many examples of Kavanaugh's long-running crusade against the EPA:5
When a future president tries to bring back the Clean Power Plan or directs the EPA to take any other action to address our rapidly warming climate, Kavanaugh could be the deciding vote on the Supreme Court to block it.
We already know Kavanaugh's views. Any senator who gives him the power to act on them is supporting that future – one in which today's wildfires, floods, droughts and supercharged storms are far deadlier and more common.
Tell the Senate: Block and resist Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. Click the link below to sign the petition:
- Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action
Add your name:
Photo: Mike Kline/Getty Images
References:
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Demand that the RSPO adopt & enforce stricter rules to protect rainforests, animals & communities from Palm Oil destruction
We only have 1 day left to stop deforestation, ecological disasters and human rights abuse on palm oil plantations. The main palm oil regulator, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, is consulting the public on its standards. It’s our last chance before 2020 to make sure reckless palm oil offenders are held to account.
We finally have a chance to transform the destructive palm oil industry -- guilty of destroying rainforests, driving orangutans to extinction, and abusing its workers.
In a rare moment of transparency, the industry’s main certification body, the RSPO, is asking the public if it should strengthen its rules. It’s huge because massive companies like PepsiCo and Nestlé are bound by these rules and rely on them to craft their own palm oil policies.
This is our very last opportunity to force the RSPO and its members like PepsiCo to adopt truly sustainable ‘No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation’ palm oil standards before 2020. And we only have 1 day left to make our voices heard!
Will you take two minutes to email into the consultation? There’s a template already written, so you and thousands of SumOfUs members can put the RSPO under pressure to actually have teeth and enforce stricter rules on palm oil growers.
Email the RSPO to demand it puts an end to palm oil destruction.
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| click to enlarge |
The Indonesian island of Borneo is losing an area of forest the size of a football pitch EVERY 47 seconds. As forests are cleared for palm oil, endangered species like orangutans and pygmy elephants lose their habitat, and eventually die. In the last 16 years, half of Borneo’s orangutan population was wiped out.
What’s more, workers are abused by reckless producers -- and palm oil deforestation on carbon-rich peatland releases carbon bombs in our atmosphere, worsening climate chaos.
Now more than ever, our rainforests and the orangutans needs this extra layer of protection. But we only have 1 day left so we need to make it count. You can be sure that industry lobbyists have already had their say!
With your support we can get thousands of comments from SumOfUs members in the RSPO’s inbox -- and show companies like Nestlé and PepsiCo, who are members of the RSPO, that they won’t get away with deforestation any longer.
Email the RSPO to demand it adopts and enforces stricter rules to protect our rainforests, animals and communities from palm oil destruction.
Together, we’ve already forced companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks to adopt no deforestation palm oil policies. Today we need you to go all in and help us stop palm oil deforestation for good.
The planet, animals, and the communities living and working in palm oil plantations can’t wait any longer.
EMAIL THE RSPO TODAY!
- Rebecca, Fatah and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
Conflict Palm Oil, Rainforest Action Network
2nd Public Consultation - RSPO Principles and Criteria review
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