Earthjustice

Campaigns

• Save Bees from a Highly Toxic Pesticide

  Bee populations are plummeting! Yet the Environmental Protection Agency recently sided with Dow AgroSciences to approve a new, highly toxic bee-killing pesticide called sulfoxaflor. And now the EPA is considering expanding the number of crops this pesticide can be sprayed on to include corn, alfalfa, oats, and several other significant and widely grown crops. Will you help us fight back? Tell the EPA to deny Dow AgroScience’s application to expand the registration of the bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor now. Nearly one-third of our crops—including many vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds—depend on bees for pollination. But bees in our country are dying at unprecedented rates, and scientists are pointing to pesticides like sulfoxaflor as a cause. A world without bees is unimaginable. Earthjustice is doing everything we can to fight back, using the law and the power of the courts. But we need your help to stop this latest proposal. Help us ensure that sulfoxaflor does not become the final straw for bees. Take action now to save bees!

  41,874 of 45,000 Signatures

  Created by Greg Loarie, Earthjustice
• Tell Secretary John Kerry: Reduce Aviation Pollution

  As a former senator, John Kerry frequently spoke out on behalf of the environment. Now, as the new Secretary of State, he has the opportunity to make immediate progress on climate change. In backlash to pollution reduction measures enacted by the European Union (EU), airlines pushed for and Congress passed legislation giving the government the authority to prohibit U.S. airlines from complying with the EU's new rules. Now, the EU program has been suspended for one year to allow for an international body to put together an agreement to reduce global emissions from the sector. The aviation sector should not be exempted from attempts to combat climate change. Technologies are available to build better engines and lighter materials. Such measures will not only decrease the emissions of harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide but will also save costs on fuel. Secretary Kerry can advance President Obama’s mission to create solutions that mitigate climate change and ultimately keep our environment safe. Please tell Secretary Kerry to act now.

  42 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Earthjustice
• COMMENT PERIOD CLOSED: We must defeat this proposal to build the nation's largest coal export ter...

  Your urgent help is needed to defeat a proposal to build the nation’s largest coal export terminal. The Millennium coal export terminal would ship 44 million tons of coal annually to Asia via Longview, Washington, putting the local community at risk. It would also generate more greenhouse gas pollution in Asia, contributing to climate change. For the last six years, Earthjustice’s legal team has represented local communities opposed to the project. Now we have just a few weeks left to submit public comments on the draft environmental impact statement for this massive project. Make your voice heard today. Say NO to the largest coal export terminal in the United States. The transportation of this coal poses a risk for everyone in its path. The coal would be sourced from mines in Montana and Wyoming, then loaded into uncovered boxcars to be transported by rail to the proposed terminal on the Columbia River. Coal dust from the mile-long coal trains would pollute nearby communities along the rail route. Once the coal arrived at the Longview terminal, it would sit in enormous open-air piles, where winds would blow coal dust into the city of Longview, creating a public health hazard. Coal’s future is bleak—Millennium backer Arch Coal filed for bankruptcy in January, and its dreams of mining in Montana’s Otter Creek are over. But Big Coal still wants to have a dirty coal chute to Asia as its last hope for keeping this unhealthy industry. Fortunately, the movement to stop dirty coal from polluting our towns and rivers is bigger and stronger than ever. Now is the time to raise our voices and lock out dirty coal once and for all. Please stand up to Big Coal today. Let’s make sure this proposal is stopped in its tracks once and for all.

  7,731 of 8,000 Signatures

  Created by Jan Hasselman, Earthjustice
• Protect The Endangered Species Act From Congressional Attacks

  December 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, one of the world's strongest and most effective wildlife protection laws. Unfortunately, just at this time when we celebrate four decades of success with the ESA, a bill that could rightly be called the “Extinction Act” has been introduced by anti-environment lawmakers in the House and Senate (H.R. 3533 / S. 1731). This bill would gut the ESA and put imperiled species at greater risk. This bill would harm imperiled species by: - Automatically removing them from the lists of endangered and threatened species after five years, whether or not they've recovered. - Letting politics win over science by requiring that state governors give their consent before species in their states can be listed under the ESA, and requiring a joint resolution of Congress to approve the listing of species as threatened or endangered. - Undermining citizens' ability to enforce the ESA in court and to help protect imperiled species by filing citizen listing petitions.

  36,190 of 40,000 Signatures

  Created by Marjorie Mulhall, Earthjustice
• Reject the Next Generation of GMO Crops and Pesticides

  The USDA is poised to allow farmers to plant 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) resistant corn and soy. This would allow farmers to plant these crops wherever they please without any government oversight, disregarding the harms they will cause. 2,4-D is a toxic herbicide associated with serious health impacts. Dow AgroScience created these 2,4-D resistant crops so farmers could spray the herbicide without killing their corn and soy. But when the same herbicide is sprayed on a field repeatedly, a few naturally resistant weeds survive, reproduce and eventually take over. Because farmers did this with Monsanto’s Roundup-resistant crops, fields across the U.S. are now choked with Roundup-resistant weeds. Industry’s solution is to genetically engineer crops to resist a different, more toxic herbicide, to kill those resistant weeds but not the crops. But make no mistake, these GMO crops will, like their predecessors, lead to much greater use of even more dangerous chemicals, the development of more herbicide-resistant weeds, destruction and genetic contamination of neighboring crops, and severe economic impacts on other farmers. USDA projects approval of these crops will result in an up to 600 percent increase in 2,4-D use on crops, to as much as 176 million pounds per year, while independent scientists believe much greater increases are likely. Drifting 2,4-D already causes more crop injury events to neighboring farms than any other herbicide. Please tell the USDA to deny approval use of these crops.

  56,389 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Paul Achitoff, Earthjustice
• Tell the EPA to Address Civil Rights Violations

  Earthjustice is heading to court to demand environmental justice for five communities that have been disproportionately exposed to toxic contamination. Take action now to tell the EPA to address these injustices by enforcing the Civil Rights Act. The suit we’re filing argues that the EPA has failed to complete open investigations of civil rights violations filed more than a decade ago. Each of the complaints charged that state agencies, in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, granted permits for polluting facilities in predominantly low-income, African-American, or Latino neighborhoods, including: * A hazardous waste facility in Chaves County, NM * A landfill in Tallassee, AL * Two gas-fired power plants in Pittsburg, CA * A wood incinerator power station in Flint, MI * An oil refinery expansion in Beaumont, TX Will you join me by asking EPA Administrator McCarthy to act on these civil rights violations? It’s unacceptable that the racial composition of a community continues to be a critical factor in predicting exposure to toxic contamination. Like all agencies of the federal government, the EPA has a responsibility to ensure that the states, local governments and private entities to whom it awards grants and financial assistance don’t discriminate. This has been the law of the land since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the EPA’s record on civil rights enforcement has been notoriously poor. Tell the agency to enforce the law.

  427 of 500 Signatures

  Created by Marianne Engelman Lado
• COMMENT PERIOD CLOSED: Oppose the largest crude oil-by-rail terminal ever proposed in North America

  THE COMMENT PERIOD FOR THIS ACTION IS CLOSED However, you can still sign this petition to express your support for this issue. It only took a few sentences on page 1,865 of the massive 2016 budget bill to repeal a decades-old ban on domestic crude oil export. This move will lead to more drilling, more climate-disrupting emissions, and more reckless transport of oil. The oil industry has set its sights on the Pacific Northwest as a gateway for transporting more and more crude oil, and we’re fighting its plans on several fronts at once. Tesoro-Savage’s unprecedented and reckless proposal for an oil terminal in Vancouver, WA has drawn broad opposition, with Columbia River Tribes, a local longshoremen’s union, firefighters, business leaders, health professionals, climate activists, neighborhood associations, faith leaders, the City of Portland, the City of Vancouver itself, and a clear majority of local voters already speaking against it. By itself, Tesoro-Savage’s proposed facility would ship over 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day—almost half as much as the Keystone XL Pipeline. This “pipeline on rails” would bring four or more mile-long trains carrying explosive crude oil across western states, through Spokane, along the Columbia River, and into Vancouver every day. We must stop it. When these oil trains derail, they can spill, explode and ignite. We’ve already seen these devastating accidents across North America. When oil tankers crash and spill, fish and wildlife die, the harm lasts for decades, tribal economies and cultures suffer, and local river and fishing jobs are lost. Let’s work together to make sure this doesn’t happen. Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council just released its draft environmental review. Comment now to make sure this project—the largest oil-by-rail terminal proposed in North America—is rejected.

  12,496 of 15,000 Signatures

  Created by Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice
• Protect Northwest Orcas

  The critically endangered population of Pacific Northwest orcas has been reduced to only 84 individuals. Now, they face a new threat from anti-environmental groups seeking to strip away their Endangered Species Act protections. Tell the National Marine Fisheries Service that this unique population deserves full protection under the law. These unique marine mammals have been decimated by the decline of salmon—their primary prey—and by toxic pollution and habitat degradation from shipping, sonar and other human activities. They need more, not less, protection. Please voice your support for continuing vital protections for the Pacific Northwest's irreplaceable killer whales.

  61,963 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Alex Vanderweele
• TAKE ACTION: Get these hormone-disrupting chemicals out of our food!

  No matter how careful you are about what you eat, your food could be loaded with toxic chemicals called phthalates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering a petition, filed by Earthjustice and several partner organizations, asking the agency to withdraw its approval of all 30 phthalates currently allowed as food additives. Please tell the FDA that phthalates don’t belong in our food. Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are a class of hormone-disrupting chemicals that have been linked to severe genital birth defects in baby boys and to other reproductive health problems. They’re also linked to deficits in child IQ, developmental delays, and other learning disabilities. It’s hard to avoid phthalates because they’re used in many of the materials that come into contact with our food—from the plastic gloves that food workers wear to plastic equipment used in processing food to the plastic packaging our food is sold in. Phthalates leach out of these materials and seep into our food, ending up in all of our bodies. Despite powerful scientific evidence of the harmful health effects of these chemicals, the FDA still allows the use of 30 different toxic phthalates as “food additives,” meaning that they can be used in food-handling equipment and food packaging. Please tell the FDA to keep toxic phthalates out of our food!

  22,608 of 25,000 Signatures

  Created by Eve Gartner, Earthjustice
• Stop Industrial Trawlers From Threatening The Ocean System

  Currently, the limits on the number of Atlantic herring that can be caught are benefiting industrial fishing operations but threatening the Northeast’s ocean ecosystem. We need you to come to the rescue by taking urgent action now. The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) is in the early stages of developing a policy to change the way catch limits are set for Atlantic herring, a keystone species in the marine ecosystem and an important food source for whales, seabirds, and bigger fish, such tuna and cod. The Council needs to hear from people who care about the ocean ecosystem, not just from the herring fishing industry. Earthjustice has been fighting for more than a decade to protect our oceans from irresponsible fishing practices, pollution, and habitat destruction. Today, we need your help. Act now: Tell New England fisheries managers that Atlantic herring are critically important to the ocean, not just to the fishing industry’s bottom line. Other councils have recognized that forage fish need to be managed differently than other fish. Many marine species that depend on herring for food are struggling after long periods of overfishing and ecosystem disruption. New England managers must ensure that enough herring are left in the ocean—at the right time and in the right locations—to give these herring predators enough to eat and sustain their populations. Herring predators aren’t just ecologically important; they also have economic value. Tuna fishing, commercial and recreational fishing for cod and striped bass, whale and seabird watching—all these activities contribute to the Northeast’s economy. The NEFMC should consider this economic value and recognize that these activities depend on an abundant source of Atlantic herring. Take action: Urge the New England Council to protect herring for the long-term health of the ecosystem and the Northeast economy!

  520 of 600 Signatures

  Created by Erica Fuller