From Stephanie Feldstein, Population and Sustainability Program Director |
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It’s been a tough few weeks, and I’m not going to pretend the election results aren’t hard to bear. Here at the Center for Biological Diversity, we’re worried about what the misogynist, racist, hate-filled platform Trump ran on will mean for our families, communities, human rights, and planet.
In the face of such threats, the ways in which we come together matter more than ever. Even as we hold the next administration accountable, there’s so much inspiring work being done at the state and local levels to protect people and the wild, and that’s where the heart of our country lives.
The Center has always fought hard for what we love. We’ll keep fighting, every step of the way, for reproductive rights, gender equity, access to healthcare, a just and sustainable food system, and a future where both people and wildlife can thrive.
Read on to learn about five ways we’re fighting to save wildlife by creating a more just and equitable world. |
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Wolf supporters held a rally before the New Mexico State Game Commission meeting on Nov. 8. They urged the commission to work to restore lost genetic diversity in wolves by releasing well-bonded wolf families into the wild. The Center will continue to use advocacy and our country’s strong environmental laws to protect species.
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COP29, the global climate conference, kicked off in Azerbaijan this week. Trump’s re-election is a blow to climate action, but it’s far from the end of the story. The Center is calling on the Biden administration to do everything in its power to protect the climate before the inauguration, including supporting a strong finance goal and drafting ambitious targets for the United States to phase out fossil fuels.
Addressing food-related emissions will also be on the table this week for the United States and global allies. The need for a just transition away from industrial animal agriculture has been gaining traction and will be the focus of several side events and actions at the conference. In the coming months, we’ll be working with global partners to advocate for strong country-level targets to reduce food system emissions and with local communities around the world to advance food and climate policies.
Here’s one thing you can do: Learn more about the movement for a just food transition. |
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Connecting Repro Rights and the Environment |
For 15 years now, as the Center's Malia Becker writes on Medium, the Center has run the Endangered Species Condom project to help people make the connection between human population pressure and the wildlife extinction crisis. Since its founding the project has given away over 1.5 million free condoms.
The condom packages feature artwork of endangered species; facts about endless growth and its link to the extinction crisis; and solutions like universal access to contraception, reproductive healthcare, education, and gender equity.
We aren’t slowing down. In the upcoming year, we’ll reach more people with this vital resource to build bridges between movements.
Here’s one thing you can do: Sign up to distribute free Endangered Species Condoms to your community. |
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Advocating for Plant-Forward Diets |
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans shape more than $40 billion in annual federal spending, with sweeping impacts on public health and food-related greenhouse gas emissions. Soon the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will publish its latest scientific report, which will be used by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to draft the 2025-2030 guidelines.
We’ll continue to push for plant-forward diets and integrating sustainability into the guidelines. And while we defend federal policies that increase access to healthy foods and hold factory farms accountable from Trump administration rollbacks, we’ll keep fighting for advances in food policy at state and local levels. Here’s one thing you can do: Check out our recent analysis that shows most G20 nations’ dietary guidelines already include sustainability goals and recommendations to shift toward plant-rich diets. Spoiler alert: The United States isn’t one of them.
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Building Community With Libraries of Things |
The Center, along with Shareable and the University of North Florida, recently launched our very first Library of Things on the University of North Florida campus. A "library of things" is a shared community resource where useful items can be borrowed just like books, reducing the demand to produce new goods that destroy habitat, generate greenhouse gases, create pollution, and harm wildlife.
Sharing also supports community members by making tools, appliances, and other items accessible to more people while disrupting the capitalist economic model that demands endless growth through the constant purchasing of new things. And it challenges the consumerism that drives overproduction and waste created by stuff getting thrown away after only a few uses.
Here’s one thing you can do: Learn more about our Library of Things initiative by tuning in to a free webinar about the subject hosted by AASHE on Dec. 4. |
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Creating Meaningful Celebrations |
Customs and traditions are a foundation of our lives — and these moments of joy are especially important during hard times. But too often, meaningful opportunities to express our love and gratitude to family and friends get gobbled up by the pressure to buy, buy, buy. We know that the true spirit of the holidays is about much more than gift-giving, but we also know it feels good to give to people you love.
That’s why we’re supporting Secondhand Sunday. Secondhand Sunday, which takes place the weekend after Thanksgiving, is a day to embrace secondhand gift-giving, support resellers, and highlight the environmental benefits of shopping secondhand. We hope you’ll consider joining the movement to give secondhand gifts this year. Together we can reduce the environmental footprint of the holidays, ease the stress on our pocketbooks, and get back to what really matters.
Here’s one thing you can do: Learn more about Secondhand Sunday and check out our digital toolkit to help us spread the word about making secondhand your first choice this holiday season. And check out our other tips and resources for simplifying the holidays.
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Wildlife Spotlight: Cascade Red Fox |
Cascade red foxes come in three color phases: red, black, and a cross between the two. They have bushy tails with white tips and are uniquely adapted to winter conditions, with a dense coat and fur-covered paws that facilitate travel over snow. Once found throughout high-elevation areas of Washington’s Cascades, these foxes have been lost from the North Cascades, or about half their range. A small population survives in the state’s southern Cascades.
These beautiful animals are threatened by climate change, predation and disease, habituation to humans, poisoning, incidental hunting and trapping, and habitat destruction and fragmentation due to logging, development, and vehicle collisions. That’s why the Center recently filed a petition urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect them under the Endangered Species Act.
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States |
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