U.S. Earth Overshoot Day Has Come and Gone |
From Stephanie Feldstein, Population and Sustainability Program Director |
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Every year a country’s overshoot day marks the date when the planet’s annual ability to regenerate would be surpassed if all of humanity consumed at the same level as people in that country. By the time this newsletter hits your inbox, we’ll have just passed U.S. Earth Overshoot Day for 2025, which fell on March 13. The United States is the ninth country to hit overshoot this year.
The Center sees population and consumption as two sides of the same coin. Together they contribute to the single-largest threat to biodiversity: human impact. Read on to learn more about how our Population and Sustainability program takes on the systems of oppression that cause the most environmental damage and feed off endless growth. |
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Crowded Planet: A long-term study found that male chimpanzees’ unique gestures during mating requests may reflect different dialects. But human activities like poaching can leave chimpanzee groups without adult males or reduce competition for female mates, resulting in a cultural loss: groups’ mating gestures.
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It’s the Cow — Not the How |
In articles from op-eds to documentaries, a lot of voices proclaim that cattle can save the planet. A recent opinion piece in The Washington Post even claimed that if people really want to save the world, we should stop eating organic, grass-fed, free-range meat and embrace factory farms. That thinking is dead wrong, wrote Jennifer Molidor, the Center’s senior food campaigner, in a rebuttal published in the Post.
While free-range beef does substantially harm wildlife and the environment, Jennifer explains in her letter, we can’t let ourselves get distracted by pretending there’s a sustainable way to produce harmful foods or that corporations have our best interests at heart. Americans eat beef at rates four times greater than the global average. The solution isn’t factory-farmed or free-range meat — it’s reducing our consumption overall.
Here’s one thing you can do: A great way to support more sustainable food production is through local policies. Tell your city to adopt an Earth-friendly food resolution. (If you can't take action via our alert, just email your mayor this example resolution.)
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Devastating Consequences of Global Aid Cuts |
The Trump administration’s attacks on international aid are a devastating blow to justice and the reproductive health and rights of millions of women; they will have far-reaching consequences for people and the planet. The administration has forced the United Nations Population Fund, aka UNFPA, to terminate 48 grants providing critical, lifesaving services that have prevented more than 17,000 maternal deaths, 9 million unintended pregnancies, and nearly 3 million unsafe abortions by expanding access to voluntary family planning over the past four years.
Meanwhile the president’s Day One executive order to freeze funds to thousands of foreign aid programs resulted in immediate threats to medical care, disease prevention, food distribution to children, and small businesses around the world. In a narrow March 5 ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the government to resume payments to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The fight to protect healthcare programs and access to family planning at home and abroad is far from over, but the Center continues to stand with our allies for reproductive freedom around the world.
Here’s one thing you can do: Learn about how U.S. agencies affect sexual and reproductive health and rights. |
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CDC Urged to Release Bird Flu Data |
Avian influenza continues to surge across the United States, infecting at least 162 million poultry and wild aquatic birds since 2022. In the past year alone, it has been detected in several mammals, including cows, goats, pigs and federally protected polar bears. At least 70 people have also contracted the virus, and one person has died.
Yet under the Trump administration, the Center for Disease Control stopped publishing regular reports on its bird flu response activities and has reportedly omitted numerous studies on the outbreak from its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The administration also withheld information from the public indicating that housecats may be transmitting the virus to humans. The Center and other public-interest groups recently called on the CDC to release updated public information critical to tracking and combatting bird flu.
Here’s one thing you can do: Check out our new webpage on how bird flu affects wildlife and the role animal agriculture plays in the spread of disease. |
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Webinar: Best Practices in Plant-Based City Food |
With the lack of federal plant-based food policy, it’s more important than ever that local food policies reflect the environmental and social needs of our time. That’s why the Center is hosting a webinar about best practices in plant-based city food policy — and you’re invited.
The webinar will feature a panel of experienced leaders who’ve successfully passed and implemented plant-based food policies across the United States. It’s designed for city officials, policymakers, and fellow advocates who are interested in implementing plant-based city policies, but anyone interested is welcome to attend.
Here’s one thing you can do: RSVP to join the webinar via Zoom on Wednesday, April 9, at 4 p.m. Eastern/ 1 p.m. Pacific Time.
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Study: World’s Richest Nations Export Extinction |
The world’s wealthiest nations are driving extinction in other countries by outsourcing food and timber production, according to new research out of Princeton University. The study found that high-income countries are destroying 15 times more biodiversity outside their borders than they do domestically. Nations tend to have the biggest impact on species living in nearby tropical regions. For example, the study showed, U.S. consumption had the largest effect on Central American wildlife.
“Global trade in food and timber is not going to stop,” said Alex Wiebe, the study’s lead author. “What’s important is for the importing nations to recognize the environmental impacts this trade has on the exporting countries and to work with those countries to reduce those impacts.”
Here’s one thing you can do: U.S. demand for avocados is gobbling up vast swaths of Mexican forest where imperiled monarch butterflies spend the winter. Tell U.S. grocery stores to adopt avocado-sourcing policies that prevent deforestation and protect monarch habitat.
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California Defines Regenerative Agriculture |
The term “regenerative agriculture” isn’t standardized in the marketplace, leaving it open to misappropriation and greenwashing. In a first-of-its-kind move, California recently approved an official definition for regenerative grazing. The definition has been sent to the secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, who’s expected to sign it. Adopting an official definition is an important step toward combating corporate greenwashing, but unfortunately there’s still no clarity on how regenerative producers will be responsible for promoting biodiversity.
“We need to make sure that food defined as regenerative meets consumer expectations about regenerative farming, with strong standards and accountability,” said the Center’s Senior Food Campaigner Jennifer Molidor. “That’s especially important when it comes to so-called regenerative grazing.”
Here’s one thing you can do: Check out our regenerative ag policy primer, factsheet, and webpage.
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Wildlife Spotlight: Diamondback Terrapins |
Diamondback terrapins are known for their stunning diamond-patterned shells and speckled skin. They live in coastal marshes, tidal creeks, and mangroves along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and are the only turtles in the world to live exclusively in coastal estuaries. Those estuaries are also home to blue crabs, trapped in crab pots that also inadvertently trap and kill 60,000 to 80,000 diamondback terrapins each year.
There’s a simple and low-cost way to prevent the deaths of diamondback terrapins: bycatch-reduction devices. When installed on a crab-pot entrance funnel, they stop most terrapins from entering the pot. That’s why the Center and other conservation groups filed a petition last month asking the Virginia Marine Resource Commission to require these devices on all licensed recreational and commercial blue crab pots in waters where terrapins are frequently found.
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States |
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