G O O D N EWS
C OV E R A RT I C L E
Victory
The following message from NRDC President Rhea Suh was emailed to our Members the morning after the election.
CALIFORNIA LEADS ON CLIMATE Governor Jerry Brown has signed historic legislation requiring California — the world’s fifth-largest economy — to cut carbon pollution to at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. This is the most aggressive carboncutting target in North America and puts California ahead of the pack once again on climate change. NRDC and our allies pushed hard for the new legislation, which passed despite strong opposition from Big Oil. It will help address climate impacts such as drought, dirty air and raging wildfires while ensuring that California communities reap the benefits of clean energy.
Victory
ATLANTIC MARINE MONUMENT In a bold move to protect one of our greatest seascapes, President Obama has established America’s first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean. With its Grand Canyon– like depths and soaring peaks, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, about 150 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is a treasure of ocean biodiversity. Some 300,000 citizens, including NRDC Members, voiced support for creation of the monument, which will safeguard habitat for sperm whales, dolphins, seabirds and centuries-old corals by putting the area off-limits forever to commercial exploitation, including oil drilling and fishing.
Victory
SAVED FROM OIL TRAINS After a years-long fight, NRDC and our local partners won a major victory over Big Oil when the city council of Benicia, California, unanimously rejected a massive crude-by-rail terminal that would have allowed Valero — the nation’s largest refiner and the town’s biggest employer — to import explosive Bakken crude and dirty tar sands into the San Francisco Bay Area on 50-car “bomb trains.” The landmark win sends a message to communities nationwide that they have the power to say no to dangerous oil train projects.
A MESSAGE ABOUT THE ELECTION
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hock and profound disappointment. Like you, that’s how all of us here at NRDC are feeling after witnessing last night’s election results. Hillary Clinton, a climate champion, lost. Donald Trump, who has embraced fossil fuels, vowed to roll back the Paris accord and called climate change a hoax, has won. Feeling shell-shocked is an appropriate response. But we will not let that shock linger or, worse yet, turn to despair. We are going to transform it into concrete, planet-affirming action. Know this: NRDC will come out fighting for our environment — harder than we have ever fought before. Donald Trump ran on one of the most stridently anti-environment platforms of any recent major-party nominee, but now he is the President-elect. Analysts will sort out why people pulled the lever for him. But this much is clear: whatever Americans voted for, it was not to turn back the clock on the progress we’ve achieved under President Barack Obama.
It was not to continue allowing big polluters and their climate-denying allies in Congress to pillage our natural heritage and our planet for profit. And it certainly was not to deny our fellow Americans their basic right to safe drinking water, clean air and healthy communities simply because of their income or skin color. It’s time for every American — Republican, Democrat and Independent alike — to stand united in defending our environment. Yes, for today, shock will prevail. But prepare yourself, because tomorrow the battle for all the values we hold dear will begin. And we must be ready. You can take heart from this: over the past 45 years, thanks to support from Members like you, NRDC has fought — and won — uphill battles before. We succeeded in stalling, blocking or sinking the worst attempts by past presidents like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, senators like Mitch McConnell and congressmen like Newt Gingrich to dismantle some of our nation’s most cherished environmental laws … to privatize our public
lands … and to open our treasured wild places to destruction at the hands of the oil, mining and logging industries. And let me tell you, the Trump Administration will have to contend with an NRDC that wields a far more potent combination of grassroots activism, courtroom power, lobbying expertise and media outreach than we ever have had before. We will not tolerate selling out our environment and our children’s future for profit and extreme ideology. In the weeks ahead, I will report back to you in more detail on NRDC’s action plan for defending our environment during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency — and beyond. But I can share one key element of that plan right now: You. We’re counting on you to stay the course with NRDC. We need your outrage. We need your passion. We need your support. Can I count on you? — Rhea Suh, President NRDC is already drawing up plans to hold the Trump Administration accountable to our laws and aggressively defend our environment on all fronts. Please consider donating today so that we’re ready come January to fend off the coming attacks. Go to www.nrdc.org/defense to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you.
S P E C I A L R E P O RT
The environmental campaigns and victories featured in Nature’s Voice are all made possible through your generous support. You can help NRDC defend the environment by making a special contribution. NRDC.ORG/JOINGIVE
Nations Act in Concert to Rein In Wildlife Trafficking NRDC’s global campaign to defend imperiled wildlife from rampant poaching won several milestone victories this fall, as we fought to secure muchneeded international protections for some of the world’s most threatened animals. The stakes were high in Johannesburg, where the 183 countries that are parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) convened for their summit, typically held only once every three years. NRDC advocates were on the ground to help win a strong resolution calling on countries to shut down their domestic ivory markets, which are fueling the slaughter of Africa’s elephants. We also helped defeat
a potentially disastrous proposal to open up trade in rhino horn. World leaders approved more stringent, NRDC-backed protections for silky sharks, thresher sharks and mobula rays, as well as new safeguards for the endangered totoaba fish, the decline of which has led to a simultaneous plunge in rare vaquita dolphins in Mexico’s Gulf of California. And in a dramatic move, CITES nations banned the trade in all eight species of pangolin, a scaly anteater native to Asia and Africa whose scales are considered medicinal in some Asian countries. “This ban gives the world’s most-trafficked mammal a fighting chance at survival,” says Elly Pepper, deputy director of NRDC’s wildlife trade initiative.