Welcome to the online version of Earth Share's 2008 Sharing News newsletter. You can view and print a PDF of the complete 2008 newsletter by clicking here, or you can read the main article, below.
When Earth Share began its mission twenty years ago, the world’s population was 5.1 billion people. Today, it is more than 6.5 billion and growing by more than 70 million people each year. Recent reports show that meeting the demands of our expanding human population has placed a greater strain on the world’s natural resources than ever before. We are already seeing the consequences.
Fifteen of the 24 major ecosystems that support human life and commerce are already degraded or approaching their sustainable limits. Fresh water is one of the most threatened resources, and more than 1.1 billion people lack access to proper water supplies. The concentration of carbon in the atmosphere – a major contributor to global warming – is at its highest level in 600,000 years, primarily due to human activity. Accordingly, Arctic sea ice has declined by 27 percent over the past 50 years. If this trend continues, hundreds of millions of coastal residents face displacement.
There is good news. Earth Share’s member organizations are making headway in slowing and solving these problems, and people like you are making it possible.
Earth Share joined forces with strong new supporters and work-place partners in 2007, including United Airlines and Intercontinental Hotel Group. You can learn more about these dedicated people inside in our “Campaign Trail” section. We share a common goal: to help the world’s most respected environmental and conservation organizations continue program work that is guarding our health, preserving our natural resources and protecting our quality of life.
Here are just a few examples of environmental accomplishments achieved by some of Earth Share’s member charities last year:
Global Warming & Climate Change
In 2007, Environmental Defense and others successfully challenged the U.S. EPA’s decision to deny implementation of a landmark law limiting global warming pollution from new automobiles. At stake were standards to lower global warming pollution from passenger cars and trucks, the first binding program in the nation to strictly limit global warming pollution. Seventeen states have since adopted or committed to the standards.
In the east, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) helped finalize the precedent -setting Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an effort conceived byNRDC energy staff and designed to get firm commitments from Northeast states to cap greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. This major achievement paved the way for NRDC to launch a similar effort in the Pacific Northwest and Mid-West.
Meanwhile, the Trust for Public Land conserved a 1,974-acre addition to the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, 1,420 acres of which were reforested with native trees.
Energy and Sustainability
Earth Share members led the way in the ongoing effort to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources and pursue sustainable options. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) was a leading partner in the successful “Plug-in Partners Campaign” led by Austin Energy to convince automakers that there is a viable market for flex-fuel, plug-in hybrid vehicles. EESI’s hard work to show Congressional offices how plug-in vehicles could revolutionize the transportation sector may eventually result in energy bills that include provisions for plug-in hybrids.
Rocky Mountain Institute’s (RMI) cofounder, chairman and chief scientist, Amory Lovins, received recognition in 2007 for his work to make businesses more efficient. One of RMI’s breakthrough ideas is the Hawaii Gateway Energy Center in Kailua-Kona. The Center’s efficient design includes a thermal chimney that allows sun-heated air to flow up and out of stacks in the roof, and pulls air cooled by 45-degree seawater into the work space below. The “net-zero energy” facility requires no fans or conventional air conditioning.
Human Health
From developing watershed protection plans for Delaware’s Chesapeake Bay, to educating communities about safe solutions to storm water pollution around the Great Lakes, the Clean Water Fund (CWF) continued efforts to preserve fishable, swimmable and drinkable waters. Last year, CWF championed a plan to ensure the eventual cleanup of the San Francisco Bay. The plan will hold polluters accountable, reduce the bleeding of new mercury into the watershed, and protect subsistence fishing communities that face higher health risks.
Thanks to efforts by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, several major U.S. companies and retailers agreed to phase out PVC from their products and packaging. Sometimes called the “poison plastic,” PVC has been shown to release chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects. Meanwhile, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund sponsored a toy safety report that resulted in at least 100 recalls and alerted the Federal Trade Commission about deceptively-labeled toys containing toxic chemicals.
Striving to get the nation on its feet and exercising outdoors, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy launched its “2010 Campaign for Active Transportation.” The program will mobilize nationwide grassroots support for a doubling of federal investment in trails, walking and biking, and assisting local communities in their efforts to provide healthy, safe trails for recreation and transportation.
In its efforts to protect the nation’s food supply, American Farmland Trust championed an improved Farm Bill to strengthen American agriculture and better address environmental, health and hunger challenges. Thanks to these efforts, bills passed by both the House and Senate in 2007 include new programs and increased funding priorities for farmland protection and conservation, healthy and local foods, and nutrition.
Wildlife & Habitat Conservation
More than 16,000 species are now threatened or facing extinction, which is more than 1,000 times the natural rate. Earth Share members rose to the challenge. In 2007, The Nature Conservancy secured 161,000 acres of privately owned timberland in New York's Adirondacks. This acquisition is safeguarding the home of more than 186 species of plants and animals. Equally noteworthy, the transaction will allow sustainable timber cutting to continue for 20 years, helping to preserve 850 jobs at the nearby paper mill.
Out west, The Ocean Conservancy celebrated the culmination of seven years of effort when California formally adopted a visionary network of marine protected areas to safeguard parts of the state’s scenic Central Coast. The area is home to sea otters, whales, sea turtles, schools of fish and some of the world’s most spectacular underwater treasures.
In other parts of the world, Conservation International in Brazil worked with partners to improve the conservation of several threatened species by expanding the Atlantic Forest Central Biodiversity Corridor. Brazil’s President signed a decree creating three protected areas and expanding the Biological Reserve in the Southern Bahia region – the first step in a plan for even more ambitious conservation efforts in this biodiversity-rich region. After years of advocacy by World Wildlife Fund, the Russian government created the first national parks in the Russian Far East. Zov Tigra and Udege Legend national parks will provide an area more than twice the size of Shenandoah National Park for Siberian tigers.
Also overseas, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) launched a new strategy with the government of southern Sudan to safeguard the region’s wildlife and wild places. In Iran, WCS and an international team of biologists outfitted two Asiatic cheetahs with Global Positioning System collars to aid conservation of the species – fewer than 100 of these big cats survive today.
At home, the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) launched its “Clean Boats Campaign,” educating boaters about how to properly clean their equipment to help stop the spread of harmful invasive species. IWLA reached more than 1.7 million people through public service announcements about this topic, and signed up approximately 3,300 people to take their online “Clean Boats Challenge.”
Education
Several Earth Share members worked to gain environmental education the standing and attention it deserves in our schools. The National Wildlife Federation championed the “No Child Left Inside Act of 2007,” aimed at amending the No Child Left Behind law to include funding to train teachers in environmental education, including outdoor learning, and re-establishing the Office of Environmental Education within the U.S. Department of Education.
Meanwhile, a Sierra Club Foundation -sponsored program called “Inner City Outings” is providing low-income, inner-city youth with opportunities to experience wilderness. A dedicated core of leaders located in dozens of cities across the U.S. are working with local social service agencies and schools to give young people the chance to develop an active relationship with the outdoors. Such programs are a critical antidote to recent studies indicating that our children are spending an average of six hours each day in front of the computer and T.V., but less than four minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play.
A World of Possibility
Earth Share is proud to have raised more than $200 million nationally on behalf of environmental health since its inception in 1988. Most of those funds were donated by regular working people who share our belief that we can make a difference, and that we have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to leave them a healthy planet. Together, it is possible to build a sustainable, livable world.
