The Alarm Bell Sounds on Extreme Heat |
From Stephanie Feldstein, Population and Sustainability Program Director |
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Summer officially begins on June 21, but for many in the United States summer-like temperatures have been around for weeks. This climate-crisis-induced warming trend isn’t anything new, but it is getting worse. A new study from the University of Oxford shows just how profound the impacts of our warming climate can be.
Researchers found that almost half the global population will be living with extreme heat by 2050 if the world reaches 2 degrees Celsius of global warming over preindustrial levels, a scenario climate scientists think is increasingly probable. About fifteen years ago, 23% of the world’s population lived with extreme heat. That’s expected to grow to 41% over the next decades. The heat will have profound effects on people’s health, the way we grow food, and the energy required to cool our homes and buildings. The Center for Biological Diversity will never stop fighting for a livable planet for all living things. Read on to learn about our fight to save dunes sagebrush lizards, help pressure grocery stores to carry deforestation-free avocados, and find out how to make reuse the default option. |
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Crowded Planet: Climate change and known toxic chemicals are likely working together to harm fertility across species, according to a new scientific review of 177 studies. Researchers found that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and climate shifts like warming temperatures may harm not just the reproductive health of humans but also fish, birds, reptiles, rodents, and other animals.
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Demand Anti-Deforestation Avocados |
The United States consumes 3 billion pounds of avocados a year, most of which are imported from Mexico. To meet the skyrocketing demand, avocado plantations have been gobbling up Mexican forests where imperiled monarch butterflies migrate to spend the winter.
Now there’s a program to prevent avocados grown on recently deforested land from reaching U.S. markets. The Pro-Forest Agriculture (PFA) program, administered by an independent nonprofit, uses satellite data to screen orchards tied to deforestation and environmental violations. So far it’s blocked 2,900 deforestation-tied orchards from certified supply chains. Costco has already committed to reducing deforestation in its avocado supply chain and engaging its suppliers with the PFA program. It’s time for other grocery stores to follow suit.
Here’s one thing you can do: Urge top U.S. grocery stores to protect monarchs, forests, and local communities by adopting the PFA program for their avocado supply chains. |
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Feminist Organizing Matters |
When women are involved in climate planning, our communities are healthier, democracies are more stable, economies are stronger, and people are more resilient to climate change. The Center’s friends at the National Organization of Women just celebrated their 60th anniversary, and they asked experts like our own Kelley Dennings to weigh in on why feminist organizing matters.
In a video shared with their Facebook followers, Kelley explains why it’s so important for women to have an equal seat at the table — especially as we fight existential threats like the climate and extinction crises. “Reproductive health, rights, and justice are threatened by the same systems of oppression that exploit the environment and drive the extinction crisis,” Kelley said. “We must keep fighting for feminist solutions.”
Here’s one thing you can do: Read our report about how to incorporate gender equity into climate planning and encourage your community to incorporate gender-based strategies into its climate plan. |
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Help Squash Supermarket Plastic |
Grocery stores offer more than the ingredients in our favorite meals — they often serve up a heaping side of plastic. But supermarkets have influence over how brands package their products and a huge opportunity to help reduce plastic pollution.
Through the end of June you can help play a role in reducing plastic waste at the grocery store. #BreakFreeFromPlastic — a global movement working to achieve a plastic-free future — is hosting a worldwide supermarket audit to determine how grocery stores are either increasing plastic pollution or reducing it and identifying the best practices already taking place in the grocery store aisles. Here’s one thing you can do: Learn more about how to help reduce supermarket plastic pollution and audit the aisles in your neighborhood. |
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Cyanide Bombs Have No Place on Public Lands |
Inhumane, wildlife-killing M-44 devices — aka “cyanide bombs” — are used on public lands to kill animals suspected of preying on livestock. The spring-loaded metal cylinders lure foxes, coyotes, birds, and others with a sweet-smelling scent. As soon as an animal sniffs close, one of these traps sprays sodium cyanide, causing a slow and agonizing death. In 2024 alone cyanide bombs killed at least 4,664 animals, including many by accident. They’ve also killed family pets and injured kids. In 2023 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management banned the use of these devices on the lands it manages. But the Trump administration has quietly walked back that ban, saying the poison traps can be used on a “case-by-case basis.” Here’s one thing you can do: Tell the BLM to reinstate its ban on cyanide bombs now. |
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People have understood humanity’s environmental impact for a long time. The challenges we face today aren’t because we lack knowledge but because we’ve failed to implement government and corporate policy-level changes to make sustainable choices like reuse the default — not the exception.
In a conversation with Jennifer Carrigan, Upstream’s director of strategic initiatives, Kelley Dennings dug into the role behavioral science has in making reuse inevitable. If we make a desired behavior like reuse the easy and convenient choice for individuals, whole communities can be improved.
Here are two things you can do: Read the full conversation and then learn more about our work to ensure reuse is allowed in the federal food code. |
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Wildlife Spotlight: Dunes Sagebrush Lizards |
Dunes sagebrush lizards live in a tiny area of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The 2.5-inch-long species has the second-smallest range of lizards in North America, inhabiting a rare ecosystem where they hunt insects and spiders in windblown dunes. They burrow into the sand beneath low-lying shinnery oak shrubs for protection from extreme temperatures. But more than 95% of that ecosystem has been destroyed by oil and gas extraction and other development, as well as herbicide spraying to support livestock grazing.
Originally identified as a candidate for Endangered Species Act protection way back in 1982, dunes sagebrush lizards waited until May 2024 for federal safeguards. But Texas challenged the decision. Earlier this month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to settle the challenge rather than defend it, asking the court to strip the listing. The Center has filed a request in federal court to oppose the appalling plan, which puts the oil and gas industry ahead of these endangered creatures.
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States
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