Photo: Rachel Kramer/NWF

Join the U.S. National Team’s Defender Jonathan Spector in supporting NWF’s TEAM AMAZON!

Visit www.nwf.org/worldcup today to sign NWF’s petition and show your support for Deforestation-Free Leather products!

Resources:

• Root for companies that ‘play fair’ – Join NWF’s TEAM AMAZON!
• Follow the FIFA World Cup with NWF on Facebook
• Learn more about the Amazon-World Cup connection
• NWF International - Protecting Forests in Unlikely Places
• NWF’s Climate Change, Deforestation and Agriculture Project

Join National Wildlife Federation’s TEAM AMAZON and show your support for cleats, balls, apparel and other leather products that are deforestation-free. Stay involved–follow the 2010 World Cup with the National Wildlife Federation on Twitter and Facebook!

Resources: 

• Root for companies that ‘play fair’ – Join NWF’s TEAM AMAZON!
• Follow the FIFA World Cup with NWF on Facebook
• Learn more about the Amazon-World Cup connection
• NWF International - Protecting Forests in Unlikely Places
• NWF’s Climate Change, Deforestation and Agriculture Project

Join TEAM AMAZON, National Wildlife Federation – International’s NEW! Facebook page.

Get updates on the 2010 FIFA World Cup games and learn more about how NWF & World Cup sponsors are showing deforestation the red card!

www.nwf.org/worldcup — COMING SOON!

An area of rainforest as large as the state of Texas has been cleared in Brazil’s Amazon and is now used for cattle pasture, making cattle expansion the largest driver of deforestation on the planet. Beef, leather and other cattle products make it into items we use, eat and wear each day. But solutions exist! Visit www.nwf.org/deforestation to find out more…

Related Resources: 

• National Wildlife Federation Climate Change, Deforestation and Agriculture Project
• Follow NWF International on Twitter and Facebook!

LEATHER MODEL IN HONG KONG, Photo: Rachel Kramer/NWF

What does the fashion industry have to do with tropical rainforests?

Check out our NEW PAGE to follow the National Wildlife Federation as we travel around the world, from Brazil to China, promoting market-based solutions to deforestation in the Amazon and other tropical regions.

We’re working to engage international producers, retailers and consumers to address the “forest footprints” of key agricultural products, including leather sourced from the Brazilian Amazon. See our latest update:

HONG KONG–Working Towards Company Commitments to Deforestation-Free Leather

To learn more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

Photo: Rachel Kramer/NWF

 At a special event on Capitol Hill this week, conservation giant Jane Goodall joined Avoided Deforestation Partners founder Jeff Horowitz in calling on lawmakers to include sufficient funding for international forest protection in U.S. climate and energy legislation. 

The Capitol Hill briefing focused on opportunities for U.S. leadership today, and stressed the importance of tropical forests in climate, energy and foreign policy. 

Also lending their voices in support of the cause were Senator Patrick Leahy (Vermont), Senator Sam Brownback (New Mexico), Congresswoman Nita Lowey (New York), and the Presidents of World Wildlife Fund US, CARE USA, and The Nature Conservancy. 

“We are reaching a point where the future is in jeopardy,” cautioned Jane Goodall. “Every single day we live on this planet we impact it, and today we have the opportunity to choose what that impact will be.” 

Use your voice to support forest protection worldwide. Visit the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund to send a message to your Senators today! 

Related Resources: 

• Reuters – May 17, 2010:  U.S. Senate climate bill cuts aid to global forests
• More on Avoided Deforestation Partners
• National Wildlife Federation Climate Change, Deforestation and Agriculture Project
• Follow NWF International on Twitter and Facebook!

Cross-posted on the Understory

By Amanda Starbuck

RAN activists have spent two days locked-down to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), demanding justice for the people of Appalachia by enforcing the Clean Water Act and ending mountaintop removal mining (MTR).

Specifically we requested that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson visit Appalachia to witness this American tragedy firsthand by taking a citizen-guided flyover of a mountaintop removal mine site.

While the EPA has not committed to taking the flyover, we are encouraged by their positive comments.

Almost every person who passed through our ‘Purple Mountain’s Majesty’ and underneath the banner “EPA: Pledge to End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in 2010” has been incredibly encouraging of our action. EPA employees, tourists and DC residents all demonstrated their support on the issue.

In addition to the many comments from EPA employees that “we are doing a great job” and “please keep doing what you’re doing”, Lisa Jackson personally tweeted her response. Administrator Jackson said in her tweet: “People are here today expressing views on MTM, a critical issue to our country. They’re concerned abt human health & water quality & so am I.”

This conversation extended to Lisa Jackson’s facebook page, now full of comments calling for Lisa to visit Appalachia and examine the impacts of MTR for herself. Many of these came from coalfield residents, using the opportunity to directly communicate with the EPA about their plight.

We have also been told about an internal memo that circulated the EPA headquarters yesterday, explaining that we were a nonviolent, peaceful protest and staff should not be concerned by our presence drawing attention to an issue that the EPA is working to address.

However, while we’re encouraged by the implicit support from inside the EPA, now it’s time for that to be delivered through real action.

Having firmly placed mountaintop removal back onto the EPA’s radar, we will ensure that Administrator Jackson cannot ignore this critical issue until mountaintop removal is abolished.

Filed under: global warming

by Nell Greenberg

At 7:00 am this morning, a dozen brave activists released a 25-foot banner on the lawn of the EPA headquarters in Washington, DC. The message on the banner calls on the EPA to pledge to end mountaintop removal coal mining in 2010. But there’s a catch—the banner and two of its holders are suspended from two freestanding tripods 20-feet above the air, and after seven hours they are still hanging there with no sign of coming down.

Today’s protest is an attempt to further pressure EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to enforce the Clean Water Act and halt mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR). Called the worst of the worst strip mining, the practice blows the tops off of whole mountains and contaminates drinking water all for a tiny amount of coal. Activists in today’s protest say they won’t leave unless Administrator Jackson commits to a flyover visit of the Appalachian Mountains and MTR sites, which, shockingly, she has never done before.

After seven hours, Administrator Jackson has made no such commitment. However, a few hours ago she tweeted her response to the protest gathering attention outside her window. As Administrator Jackson said in her tweet: “People are here today expressing views on MTM, a critical issue to our country. They’re concerned abt human health & water quality & so am I.”

It is very clear that the EPA is listening to the message being brought to their doorstep. However, at this point in the battle to end mountaintop removal coal mining, the question isn’t about whether Administrator Jackson is concerned about the issue. The question is what is her agency going to really do about it?

Despite the Obama administration’s big announcement last year that it was going to take “unprecedented steps” to reduce the environmental damage from mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, the EPA has been slow moving. Two weeks ago, the EPA delayed action on a set of broad-ranging and specific measures to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal, after details of the plan were leaked to coal-state mining regulators. The EPA has for months been close to finalizing these permit guidelines, which many hope will mandate tougher protections to limit damage to water quality and be a step in the right direction toward abolishing the practice.

Based on EPA Administrator Jackson’s statements on March 8th at the National Press Club, it appears that the EPA is seeking ways to “minimize” the ecological damage of mountaintop mining rather than halt the most extreme strip mining practice. A paper released in January by a dozen leading scientists in the journal Science, however, concluded that mountaintop coal mining is so destructive that the government should stop giving out new permits all together. “The science is so overwhelming that the only conclusion that one can reach is that mountaintop mining needs to be stopped,” said Margaret Palmer, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences and the study’s lead author.

The science has become clear that mountaintop removal is harming water resources in real and measurable ways. The EPA definitely can and must do much more on mountaintop mining and that includes exercising its full regulatory authority to block every single mining permit application that seeks to remove America’s oldest mountaintops and dump the waste into waterways.

As Kate Finneran, one of the two main climbers in today’s protest, said from her 20-foot high perch: “Mountaintop removal cannot be regulated. It must be abolished. Otherwise, we will continue to jeopardize our historic mountains, precious drinking water and especially the lives of the people who call Appalachia home. All of this for a tiny percent of dirty coal, the trade off doesn’t add up”

Want to support today’s protesters as they continue to defend Appalachia’s historic mountains?

TAKE ACTION

1. Facebook Action: Comment on the Lisa Jackson’s Facebook page, and ask her to “Please go to Appalachia and see for yourself, it’s time to end MTR!” Facebook.com/lisapjackson

2. Twitter Action: Follow and Retweet @RAN’s tweets about MTR, including:

Dear @LisaPJackson, Over 470 American mountains are gone forever. How many more will it take for @EPAgov to ban #MTR #coal? #GoToAppalachia!

The Appalachian Mountains are being being blown to bits. To protest, tweet @LisaPJackson #GoToAppalachia!

Filed under: global warming

Other cities across Canada supported the First Nations voices inside the AGM as well with solidarity actions from (click on a city for pictures) London, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Victoria and more. Check out photos from those and our events in Toronto. And beautiful photography from Allan Lissner.

And see some preliminary media coverage from the Wall Street Journal and Yahoo.

Since 2007 RBC has backed more than $16.7 billion (USD) in loans to companies operating in the tar sands—more than any other bank. Called, ‘the most destructive project on Earth,’ Alberta’s tar sands projects will eventually transform a Boreal forest the size of England into an industrial sacrifice zone complete with lakes full of toxic waste and man-made volcanoes spewing out clouds of global warming emissions.

Outside the shareholder meeting school children, bank customers of every age, First Nations community representatives joined Rainforest Action Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, No One Is Illegal, and Council of Canadians made their outrage at RBC’s investments heard – to the thumping beats of street Samba band, the crowd shouted “Cultural Genocide: who do we thank? Dirty investments from Royal Bank!”

Inside the shareholder meeting, Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation, Alberta,Vice Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council of BC, Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nation of BC, and Gitz Crazyboy of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation addressed RBC CEO Gordon Nixon directly about the way tar sands extraction projects have jeopardized their health and their rights.

Downstream communities have experienced polluted water, water reductions in rivers and aquifers, declines in wildlife populations such as moose and muskrat, and significant declines in fish populations. Tar sands has all but destroyed the traditional livelihood of First Nations in the northern Athabasca watershed.

RBC is clearly feeling the public pressure over their tar sands financing. They spent half their shareholder meeting addressing the issue. Recently, the bank convened a high-level meeting with more than a dozen international banks for a “day of learning” about the reputational risks associated with the tar sands. In addition, according to information the bank provided to RAN during a February meeting in San Francisco, RBC is currently evaluating new lending criteria that would apply to the oil and gas sector, in particular to the tar sands. However, the bank has been reticent to include Free, Prior and Informed Consent in its policy, which would ensure that First Nations communities are respected in lending practices.

“RBC’s significant financial relationship with companies pursuing tar sands development activities within our traditional territory and without consent warrants close attention,” said Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation. “RBC should update their policies to include a recognition of Free, Prior and Informed consent for Indigenous communities; this globally recognized concept was adopted by TD Bank Financial Group in 2007 and is endorsed by Indigenous communities across the political spectrum.”

activists disrupt the RBC shareholder meeting inside

Internationally, tar sands financing is gaining tremendous negative attention. An increasingly vocal group of shareholders and environmentalists turned last month’s BP, Shell and Royal Bank of Scotland annual meetings into a referendum on the oil extraction projects.

Today’s marches, rallies, and actions were a triumphant roar of grassroots power from across the spectrum. The day concluded with an apt chant to RBC Headquarters, foreshadowing the growing flame of tar sands resistance across Canada, “Native communities under attack! We won’t stop until you act!”

Filed under: global warming

Other cities across Canada supported the First Nations voices inside the AGM as well with solidarity actions from (click on a city for pictures) London, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Victoria and more. Check out photos from those and our events in Toronto. And beautiful photography from Allan Lissner.

And see some preliminary media coverage from the Wall Street Journal and Yahoo.

Since 2007 RBC has backed more than $16.7 billion (USD) in loans to companies operating in the tar sands—more than any other bank. Called, ‘the most destructive project on Earth,’ Alberta’s tar sands projects will eventually transform a Boreal forest the size of England into an industrial sacrifice zone complete with lakes full of toxic waste and man-made volcanoes spewing out clouds of global warming emissions.

Outside the shareholder meeting school children, bank customers of every age, First Nations community representatives joined Rainforest Action Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, No One Is Illegal, and Council of Canadians made their outrage at RBC’s investments heard – to the thumping beats of street Samba band, the crowd shouted “Cultural Genocide: who do we thank? Dirty investments from Royal Bank!”

Inside the shareholder meeting, Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation, Alberta,Vice Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council of BC, Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nation of BC, and Gitz Crazyboy of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation addressed RBC CEO Gordon Nixon directly about the way tar sands extraction projects have jeopardized their health and their rights.

Downstream communities have experienced polluted water, water reductions in rivers and aquifers, declines in wildlife populations such as moose and muskrat, and significant declines in fish populations. Tar sands has all but destroyed the traditional livelihood of First Nations in the northern Athabasca watershed.

RBC is clearly feeling the public pressure over their tar sands financing. They spent half their shareholder meeting addressing the issue. Recently, the bank convened a high-level meeting with more than a dozen international banks for a “day of learning” about the reputational risks associated with the tar sands. In addition, according to information the bank provided to RAN during a February meeting in San Francisco, RBC is currently evaluating new lending criteria that would apply to the oil and gas sector, in particular to the tar sands. However, the bank has been reticent to include Free, Prior and Informed Consent in its policy, which would ensure that First Nations communities are respected in lending practices.

“RBC’s significant financial relationship with companies pursuing tar sands development activities within our traditional territory and without consent warrants close attention,” said Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation. “RBC should update their policies to include a recognition of Free, Prior and Informed consent for Indigenous communities; this globally recognized concept was adopted by TD Bank Financial Group in 2007 and is endorsed by Indigenous communities across the political spectrum.”

activists disrupt the RBC shareholder meeting inside

Internationally, tar sands financing is gaining tremendous negative attention. An increasingly vocal group of shareholders and environmentalists turned last month’s BP, Shell and Royal Bank of Scotland annual meetings into a referendum on the oil extraction projects.

Today’s marches, rallies, and actions were a triumphant roar of grassroots power from across the spectrum. The day concluded with an apt chant to RBC Headquarters, foreshadowing the growing flame of tar sands resistance across Canada, “Native communities under attack! We won’t stop until you act!”