Earth2Trump rally
Center for     Biological     Diversity   

Thousands of People Resist at #Earth2Trump Shows

The first half of the cross-country #Earth2Trump tour has been inspiring. More than 2,500 people attended our first nine shows -- some driving hours to be there, others braving snow and ice, and still more bringing their family and friends to add their voices of resistance.

Over the past week, we've stopped in Reno, Tucson, Silver City, Salt Lake City, Denver and Houston. Every show has been standing-room-only, with lines out the doors. Our huge globes are filling up with #Earth2Trump messages that will be delivered to Washington, D.C.

We've got Center for Biological Diversity staff on both tours -- one going through the central United States and the other through the South -- along with amazing musicians and local partners. People are fired up and ready to resist Trump and protect wildlife, the planet, equality and civil rights.

Learn more at our Earth2Trump website. And if you can't make it to one of the shows, deliver your message on social media right now with the #Earth2Trump hashtag, sign our Pledge of Resistance and check out our Trump Action Toolkit.

Wolf

New Congress Is Pushing to End Wolf Protections

The incoming Congress is wasting no time going after gray wolves. On Tuesday a bill was introduced to strip Endangered Species Act protections from wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes region. If that happens, hundreds of wolves would be vulnerable to state-sponsored hunting and trapping.

The bill's architects also included a poisonous provision that would exempt the new law from any legal challenges.

"This bill promises to undo hard-earned progress toward gray wolf recovery that has taken years to achieve," said the Center's Collette Adkins. "Without federal protection hundreds of wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming will once again suffer and die every year."

Read more in The Wisconsin Gazette and consider making a donation to the Center's work to protect wolves.

Suit Filed to Protect California Species From Massive Sprawl

San Joaquin kit fox

The 8,000-acre Grapevine development, planned for California's San Joaquin Valley, will create a new city of 12,000 housing units -- and destroy habitat for 36 rare species, including San Joaquin kit foxes and antelope squirrels. So last week the Center and allies sued over the project's approval.

"This project will also pollute Kern County's air, worsen the climate crisis and drain billions of gallons of water from the overstressed Kern River," said J.P. Rose, a Center attorney.

Read more in our press release.

Polar bears

Ineffective Polar Bear Plan Downplays Climate Action

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at last finalized the polar bear's recovery plan -- the species' official roadmap to getting off the endangered species list -- on Monday. But while the plan acknowledges that climate change is driving polar bears toward extinction, it fails to make aggressive reductions in greenhouse gases a core part of the strategy for saving the species.

In fact the plan's recovery goals are so weak they allow for an 85 percent drop in polar bears' numbers, meaning the possible disappearance of Alaska's only two populations.

"Polar bears are starving and drowning as their sea ice melts away, but this toothless plan shrugs off the one solution that will save them -- carbon pollution cuts," said the Center's Shaye Wolf.

Read more in The Washington Post.

Jeff Sessions

Say No to Trump's Dangerous Pick for Attorney General

On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee held its nomination hearing for one of Trump's most dangerous cabinet picks. U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has a disastrous record of voting against environmental protections and civil rights -- yet he'd be responsible for enforcing and upholding our nation's laws, including the Endangered Species Act and Clean Air Act, and prosecuting the most egregious crimes committed by corporate polluters.

Throughout his career as Alabama's attorney general and as a U.S. attorney under President Reagan, Sessions has a history of making racist comments, denying climate change and voting against almost every piece of environmental legislation since 1997. For example, he actually voted to defund solar-energy development and against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Every cabinet nomination must be approved by the Senate. Act now to call your senators today and tell them to oppose Sessions' appointment.

Public Records Ordered on EPA's Approval of Toxic Pesticide

Munz's onion

The Center has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request demanding the release of public records on the Environmental Protection Agency's sudden decision to expand its approval of Enlist Duo, a highly toxic pesticide -- despite its earlier decision to revoke approval after deeming the pesticide too harmful.

Specifically, a "synergistic" interaction between the pesticide's two main components can greatly increase its harm to nontarget plants, like neighboring crops and endangered species. Read more in our press release.

And the Winner of the 2016 Rubber Dodo Is... Rob Bishop

Rubber Dodo Award

U.S. Congressman Rob Bishop is the recipient of the Center's annual Rubber Dodo Award for aggressively seeking to destroy America's natural heritage and drive endangered species extinct. Bishop (R-Utah) is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

"Rob Bishop has fanatically pursued an extremist agenda to give away America's public lands and kill off its endangered species," said Kierán Suckling, the Center's executive director. "He's so far outside the mainstream that even Donald Trump has rebuked him for his positions."

In the past few weeks alone, Bishop has called for repealing the Endangered Species Act and rescinding the recently created Bears Ears National Monument.

Read more in our press release.

Ask Dr. Donley

Ask Dr. Donley

What Are the Safest Flea Treatments for Pets?

Speak Up for Southern African Leopards

South African leopard

What has spots, enjoys afternoon naps... and is losing its habitat, prey and possibly its very existence due to human activities? The southern African leopard. Ranging from South Africa to Kenya and Gabon, this cat needs your help.

The Center and allies recently petitioned to upgrade the status of southern African leopards from threatened to endangered, and the Fish and Wildlife Service just acknowledged that this may be necessary.

Help these spotted feline beauties now by telling the feds to give them the fullest protections possible.

Trumpapillar

Wild & Weird: The Trumpapillar

The flannel moth caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis) looks so much like Donald Trump's coif scuttling across the forest floor that researchers have dubbed it "the Trumpapillar." Found from Florida to Peru, the moth larva is kind of cute -- in a roguish, runaway-hairpiece kind of way -- but also extremely dangerous.

The hairs of the Trumpapillar contain venomous spines that can, if touched by humans, cause the following reactions: severe radiating pain, swelling, nausea, headache, abdominal distress, rashes, blisters, chest pain, numbness and difficulty breathing.

Check out our new video on Facebook or YouTube of this hairy doppelgänger.

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Photo credits: Earth2Trump roadshow event courtesy Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity; wolf by bkoger/Flickr; San Joaquin kit fox courtesy B. Peterson/USFWS; polar bears by AWeith/Wikimedia; Sen. Jeff Sessions by Gage Skidmore/Flickr; endangered Munz’s onion by Ileene Anderson; 2016 Rubber Dodo award courtesy Center for Biological Diversity; Ask Dr. Donley logo courtesy Center for Biological Diversity; southern African leopard by arnolouise/Flickr; flannel moth caterpillar by Olly Boon.

Center for Biological Diversity
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