Your Membership Support of NRDC Made a World of Difference in 2016 Here are a few of the landmark environmental victories your donations made possible over the past year:
SAVING YELLOWSTONE’S BISON
PUTTING COAL ON HOLD
POWERING UP NEW YORK
We put pressure on Montana to give Yellowstone’s wild bison more room to roam — and won. This year, Montana expanded year-round habitat for bison.
Following years of NRDC advocacy, President Obama put a hold on new coal leasing on public lands, protecting our wild places and our climate.
A bold new mandate from Governor Andrew Cuomo, backed by NRDC, calls for 50 percent renewable electricity in New York State by 2030.
WINNING BIG FOR ELEPHANTS
PROTECTING POLLINATORS
FORGING CLIMATE CONSENSUS
Our push for a crackdown on the U.S. ivory trade resulted in tough new federal rules and state laws that will help stop elephant poaching.
We went to court for the rusty patched bumblebee, prompting a proposal from the Obama Administration to list this vanishing pollinator as endangered.
America, China and 73 other nations have signed on to the breakthrough Paris Agreement, a big step forward in addressing climate change.
REPELLING SHELL IN ARCTIC
HALTING ATLANTIC DRILLING
SAVING THE WILD FROM BIG OIL
DEFENDING SALMON AND ORCAS
Vexed by protests, our dogged legal action and volatile markets, Shell and other oil majors gave up drilling leases in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea.
NRDC helped spur a wave of protest that pushed the Obama Administration to shelve plans for new oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic.
We went to court and stopped an oil and gas development project in Utah’s Upper Desolation Canyon, one of the West’s largest unspoiled areas.
TAKE ACTION
nrdc.org/obamalegacy
NRDC and our partners won a major court victory that could finally restore endangered salmon in Oregon’s Columbia Basin — and save orcas.
Please help us win even more victories in 2017 by using the enclosed envelope to make a special tax-deductible contribution. NRDC.ORG/VICTORIES
BISON © SHANNON FOREHAND/ISTOCK; MOUNTAIN © TED ZUKOSKI/EARTHJUSTICE; SOLAR PANELS © RAYMOND FORBES LLC/STOCKSY; ELEPHANTS © CHRIS WERNER/STOCKSY; BEE © DAN MULLEN/FLICKR; PRESIDENTS © MA ZHANCHENG/XINHUA NEWS AGENCY; WALRUS © JONATAN HEDBERG/STOCKSY; BEACH © SHERRY SMITH/ISTOCK; DESOLATION CANYON © DREW RUSH/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
[Continued from previous page.] devastating losses during the past several years, and mounting scientific evidence points to a deluge of agrichemicals as a primary culprit. The president and first lady have brought attention to the issue, but despite an urgent warning issued last year by the White House Pollinator Health Task Force, the Environmental Protection Agency has largely failed to stem the onslaught of these toxic chemicals. “With the populations of bees and monarchs in free fall, we really can’t wait for the next administration to take action,” says Sylvia Fallon, director of NRDC’s Wildlife Conservation Project. “The president should step in now and direct the EPA to crack down on beetoxic neonics and rein in the industrial herbicides that are wiping out the milkweed that monarchs need to survive.” Half a world away and on the other end of the wildlife spectrum, Africa’s elephants are suffering their own population crisis as poachers slaughter them for their tusks. “President Obama has taken major steps toward ending the ivory trade in America,” says NRDC Wildlife Advocate Elly Pepper. “Now we’re calling on him to finish the job and designate Africa’s elephants as endangered, which would trigger the most stringent possible restrictions on the import of elephant trophies under federal law.”