May is American Wetlands Month

May is American Wetlands Month, and as such it provides an opportunity to explore these amazing places. For too long, wetlands were perceived as wastelands, whose value came only once they were drained and converted to other uses. This was the prevailing view for centuries. In the 1600s, in the area that would later become the lower 48 United States, there were approximately 220 million acres of wetlands. Today, there is less than half that amount remaining.

And yet wetlands are the link between land and water, where the flow of water, the cycling of nutrients and the energy of the sun combine to create a unique ecosystem sometimes called a “nursery of life.” In addition to their importance for the sustainability of terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals, wetlands replenish and clean water. They provide needed rest places for migratory birds, and help reduce the risk of floods. They provide opportunities to get away from our cities and get in touch with the natural world. They are precious resources.

American Wetlands Month was first established in 1990, and it signifies a recognition that wetlands are not wastelands — that they are important to life and to the health of the larger ecosystem. But still more needs to be done to educate about their importance and encourage respect for them. The sad fact is that the United States loses approximately 80,000 acres of wetlands per year.

This alarming figure needs to be turned around. Required is more respect for the natural world, not less. If you can, this month pledge to do your part in protecting America’s wetlands.

One place to start is the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/573485811.

If you would like to learn more about wetlands, Wikipedia has very thorough article, although be warned that it’s slanted towards the biologists among us.

 

Care2 and ThePetitionSite “Going Green”

As you might’ve heard, Care2 and ThePetitionSite will be “going green” at our data center this weekend.

By upgrading our facilities, we’ll be able to improve the site’s performance while reducing our carbon footprint at the same time. How much of a reduction? The equivalent of 30,149 gallons of gasoline consumed!

The other bit of good news is that ThePetitionSite will remain available during the upgrade. There will be some limitations however — you will still be able to sign petitions, but information will not be pre-populated in the forms.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause, and if you have any questions or concerns, you should contact Care2’s Customer Support.

Once the upgrade is complete, we’ll continue to make a difference — except faster and greener!

 

Newest Campaigner

Graduates usually dread that inevitable question asked by well-meaning family members and friends: “What are you doing with your life now?” As a Master’s degree graduate this spring, I’m actually looking forward to the question, because I have an answer. I’m the newest member of Care2’s campaign team.

In my first two weeks, I jumped right in with campaigns on issues like shark finning, Medicare doctor payment cuts, fighting global poverty and closing the digital divide in America. Working with the other members of the campaign team to communicate with Care2 members about issues that are important to me has been incredible.

Not only do I get to work on progressive issues I support, I also get to explore online communication practices, an area of personal fascination and the subject of my Master’s program. Care2’s members demonstrate every day how the Internet has the power to bring people together for common causes. As a native Oregonian, I was particularly excited to see a campaign to protect the Columbia River Gorge collect public testimony that will make a difference in the place I still consider home.

I am thrilled to be a part of the Care2 team and look forward to helping members make a difference in our world.

 

Care2 Questions: The Canadian Seal Hunt

The campaigners frequently receive questions related to the actions posted on Care2, and this blog is a good opportunity to occasionally share the responses. Hopefully, it will be of interest to those looking to go deeper into the issues.

For a first outing, we have a question from Naomi about the seal hunt in Canada:

I know very little about seal hunting in Canada, but it is my understanding that, at least in part, this issue is closely tied with treaties and negotiations on aboriginal rights, and that just ending it, or worse declaring culturally different practices unacceptable, would move the problem into a different area of social disresponsiblity.

Can you clarify for me who these demonized seal hunters are?

-Naomi

You ask a great question, but the reality of the seal hunt in Canada is that it is a commercial operation. The allowable catch of harp seals in 2007 was 270,000. That’s well beyond the needs of the aboriginal groups in the area. The commercial quota for hooded seals and grey seals are much lower, but still relatively high. (8,200 hooded seals and 2000 grey seals.)

Aboriginal groups and non-Aboriginal coastal residents who reside north of 53 degrees N latitude can continue to hunt seals for subsistence purposes without a license outside of this limit. And residents adjacent to sealing areas throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec are allowed to hunt up to six seals for their own use.

So really, the big hunt is an entirely commercial operation and done for profit, at least in Canada. The situation in Greenland is a bit different, but that’s a topic for another day.

Sign a petition to stop the seal hunt in Canada at http://go.care2.com/14954663.

 

New PetitionSite Features

I was up very late last night as we rolled out a bunch of new features for the PetitionSite. It was touch-and-go at a few points as the engineers squashed a few bugs that showed up once the code was on the live site. There were lots of advocacy actions to check over, to make sure everything was okay. I finally left the office at about 2am.

We’ve released new advocacy, pledge, and petition templates. We also released a much-improved tell-a-friend feature, and a tool for promoting actions on social networks. The next release will focus on new tools for activist petition authors.

 

“The Nuclear Option” - Mother Jones

I just read an incredibly insightful story on Mother Jones about nuclear power. From the get-go, Judith Lewis pinpoints the problems many Americans have, which is that they are either dramatically for or against nuclear power, but they don’t know why.

“When we talk about nuclear power these days, we talk about environmentalists for nukes, and about people posing as environmentalists for nukes. We talk about Dick Cheney’s energy bill defibrillating a faltering industry with $12 billion worth of incentives and tax breaks. We talk about who is for and who is against, and whether we can trust them.

But no one talks about fission. No one talks about the letter Albert Einstein wrote to FDR in 1939, advising the president that “it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium” to produce enormous amounts of power.”

Her article talks about the waste problem, the benefits as far as emissions, the risk of accidents, environmentalists who support and don’t support nuclear power, France’s embrace of nuclear power back in the ’70s and what that’s brought them, and many more fascinating and informative parts of the nuclear equation. It’s a fascinating read, and everyone who wants to have an informed opinion of nuclear power should read it.

Read the story here on MotherJones.com >>

 

Simplifying the 2008 Farm Bill

Take Action on Care2>> http://go.care2.com/14823610

The 2008 Farm Bill has been a hot topic among our nonprofit partners and the news media for months now. But one common complaint among us average folk is that the bill is overly complicated and hard to understand. I’ve had my share of question marks hovering over my head as I read petitions or news stories about the Farm Bill, so I myself was anxious to do some demystifying.

So, with the risk of over-simplifying the issue, I did some research, and I thought I would try to explain at least the two issues that are important to our nonprofit partners, which are commodity payments (and their repercussions for our economy, global hunger and poverty) and conservation programs.

First, a general summary. The Farm Bill is a gigantic bill that affects agricultural business and trade, rural development, research, conservation, food assistance, nutritional programs and more. It’s basically one big bill that has lots of separate laws having to do with either policy issues or budget. Some of these laws need to be renewed (ie - go through a Congressional approval process) every year and others are larger-scale laws that do not need to be approved every year, though these can be changed with subsequent legislation.

Basically, this is one large beast to tackle. Our current Farm Bill passed in the Senate on Dec. 14, 2007. Now, the bill needs to travel through a conference committee that includes House and Senate members. They face many challenges in this process. There are many amendments to this bill that were debated heavily, but President Bush has threatened to veto the bill due to its lack of reform and its reliance on taxes to pay for conservation, nutrition programs, etc. According to many of our nonprofit partners, a veto would be a very bad thing, as that would mean that they bill would return to the debates, and conservation programs would likely be cut to balance the budget further. The best scenario at this point would be for the committee to agree on a reformed bill that includes strong conservation programs, and that would be signed by the President.

Even as we drill down to the details of commodity payments, the issue remains complicated. Commodity payments are cash payments that the government gives farmers for certain crops, namely corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans. Though these payments were initially intended as a safety measure to protect farmers from falling prices, they currently allow large farms to sell these items at a price lower than what it costs to produce them. This causes smaller American farms and farmers in other countries (such as Senegal, Mali, Chad, etc.) to be completely unable to compete with the extremely low prices, driving them out of business and further into poverty.

This is just one of the areas of the farm bill that drastically needs to be reformed, and you can see already that it is an enormous task. Also, many organizations have made it clear that just getting rid of these payments is not going to solve the problem - it’s going to take a comprehensive model of supply management and price stabilization. To go into detail here would be excruciating, so I’ll leave it at that.

On the conservation side, it’s really a matter of funding. There are some great conservation programs available, but the truth is that two out of three farmers who apply for these voluntary programs get rejected because there is just not enough funding. There are 20 programs in the conservation section of the farm bill, which provide incentives for farmers to better manage their land, reduce chemical use and emissions and meet environmental laws on clean air, water and habitat for endangered species. These are all great things, and what environmental groups are pushing for is that all farmers at least have the opportunity to participate in these programs without being turned away.

So, while that’s a rapid-fire summary of some of our hopes for the farm bill, hopefully some of the links included will help you get a better grasp on the issue. Here are a few more very helpful resources:

Oxfam’s Farm Bill 101

2008 Senate Farm Bill (Environmental Defense)

In the meantime, you can take action and make sure the committee knows that you want conservation programs in the Farm Bill to remain intact: http://go.care2.com/14823610

The bill is back in debate, and a vote could happen any day…although, the timing in itself is up for debate.

 

Waiting for the Torch in San Francisco

As you may have seen from the news, the Olympic torch made a rather ignominious appearance in San Francisco this week. I was there along with the contingent of folks from Care2.com and Amnesty International to protest the Chinese human rights record in Tibet.

In many ways it was a surreal experience - a mixture of festival atmosphere, protesters, pro-Chinese supporters, and the curious. According to the New York Times, the Chinese consulate had bussed people in for the event. On the protester side, there were a wide range of organizations represented. I saw signage for Tibet, Darfur, Burma, and even a couple addressing animal rights issues in China and the war in Iraq. It was quite colorful with all the flags waving and signs with competing messages.

Part way through the afternoon, I became separated from the group and ended up chatting with a middle-aged Chinese couple and a small group of out-of-town visitors. All of us were busy trying to track down the torch’s location, and thanks to the power of the cellular telephone, we found out about its detours through the city.

The torch never did make it to where we were, but I didn’t mind too much. I was there to help highlight to the Chinese government the cost of its realpolitik games. The government planned for the Olympic games to highlight China’s new standing on the world stage. What they didn’t take into account, however, was that a reckoning was due as a result of decades of human rights abuses. And not just in Tibet. How many read about Hu Jia’s recent arrest?

I’m actually a big fan of the Olympics, and I would be disappointed by a boycott. There’s no reason to punish the athletes who’ve worked so hard for their moment under the Olympic rings. But China is clearly trying to make a political and economic statement by hosting the Olympics, and the opening ceremonies are sure to be a reflection of that. After all, that’s where a host country shows off its culture, politics, and technical/artistic ability. As such, I consider the ceremonies fair game for boycott.

Chinese officials, of course, don’t see themselves as villains. I’m sure they justify their actions as necessary for the development of Chinese prosperity. (Sudanese oil anyone?) But this “progress” at any cost… well, it has a cost. And as I mentioned, there’s a reckoning to be had.

Karma - works for people, works for governments.

 

Care2 at the San Francisco Torch Relay

IMG_1914, originally uploaded by joebakerdc.

On Wednesday, several members of the Care2 Campaigns Team (Emily, Robyn, Samer and me) joined with Care2 members and Amnesty International to bring human rights concerns to the San Francisco Torch Relay.

There was an enormous crowd along the announced route - people just out to see the torch, large numbers of Chinese students and Chinese Americans, and groups raising lots of different issues. There were many, many Tibetans and supporters of Tibet. Uighurs. Burmese monks. People protesting China’s support of the Sudanese government.

Although the torch route was moved at the last minute, it was a great opportunity to get a human rights message out to a large crowd and to an enormous collection of media outlets.

It was a great chance for the Campaign Team to meet some of our members face-to-face.

 

Welcome to the Care2 Campaigner Blog!

Hello! Thanks for checking out the new Care2 Campaigner blog. This blog will serve as a space for the Care2 campaign team to post our thoughts and ideas about various issues, petitions, campaigns, etc. that we care about, and hopefully introduce you to some issues you will care about as well. Please comment and let us know what you’d like to see! Hope you enjoy reading.