Nature's Voice Winter 2022

WINTER 2022

’ NATURE SVOICE For the 3 million Members and online activists of the Natural Resources Defense Council

IN THIS ISSUE

An oil company wants to drill in one of the few remaining wild refuges for endangered Florida panthers.

Members Rally to Save Big Cypress Neonics Imperil Far More Than Bees, EPA Says Talking With Manish Bapna, NRDC’s New President 10 Big Environmental Victories, Thanks to You!

NRDC works to safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Victory

FLIPPING FOR THE BIRDS

The Biden administration announced that it is restoring vital protections for more than a thousand species of birds. Once the move takes effect, it will reverse the last-minute attempt by the Trump administration to gut the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, one of the country’s oldest conservation laws.

Whereas the Trump-era action granted broad immunity to industry for indiscriminate killing of birds—resulting from an oil spill, for example—the reversal will revoke that free pass and could usher in a critical new era of bird protection.

Victory

MONUMENT-AL WIN IN UTAH

Two treasured national monuments in Utah are once again fully protected, a tremendous victory for Indigenous peoples and for the millions of others across the country who rallied in support, including countless NRDC Members and online activists. President Biden’s decision to restore protections to Bears Ears and Grand StaircaseEscalante national monuments reverses the attempt by former president Trump to slash them by nearly two million acres, the largest rollback of public lands protections in U.S. history and one that was swiftly challenged in court by NRDC and our allies.

Victory

ILLINOIS WOWS ON CLIMATE

Catapulting Illinois to the forefront of bold, equitable climate action, state lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which Governor J. B. Pritzker swiftly signed into law. The historic legislation promises to grow renewable energy in the state fivefold and to put Illinois on a path to achieve a 100 percent zeroemissions power sector by 2045, a first for a Midwest state, while at the same time investing heavily in expanding economic opportunities in the clean energy sector for disadvantaged communities.

C OV E R A RT I C L E

MEMBERS RALLY TO SAVE BIG CYPRESS

E

mbattled Florida panthers got a tremendous boost of support as tens of thousands of NRDC Members and online activists rallied to stop new oil drilling in one of the big cat’s last wild sanctuaries. The massive public outcry is part of NRDC’s campaign to prevail on the Biden administration to block Texas-based Burnett Oil from tearing apart Big Cypress National Preserve in its pursuit of climate-wrecking fossil fuels.

“I think a lot of folks assume that because it’s a national preserve, Big Cypress is already protected from drilling and other development,” says Alison Kelly, a senior attorney with NRDC’s Nature Program. “The fact is, much of the oil that lies beneath the preserve is privately owned. But Burnett Oil still needs to secure access permits from the National Park Service.”

Even as the Biden administration has moved to reverse the previous administration’s fossil fuel– driven assault on federal lands and signaled its

commitment to protecting wilderness, so far it has remained silent on whether it intends to reject Burnett Oil’s permit applications. “We need the administration to see that there is overwhelming public support for stopping any more destructive fossil fuel development in Big Cypress,” Kelly says. (Make your own voice heard—see Take Action, below.)

With its lush sawgrass prairies, mangrove forests, and namesake cypress swamps, the preserve is a one-of-a-kind natural treasure, a critical refuge not only for Florida panthers—of which just 200 are estimated to remain in the wild—but for a host of other endangered or threatened species, including Florida manatees and wood storks. In addition, there are hundreds of known cultural and archaeological resources located in Big Cypress, and Indigenous communities continue to rely on it for customary and traditional uses. The preserve also provides 40 percent of the freshwater flowing into Everglades National Park.

“As we face the double-barreled threats of biodiversity loss and climate change,” says Kelly, “it makes no sense to sacrifice a place as special as Big Cypress for the sake of more fossil fuels.”

An oil company wants to drill in one of the few remaining wild refuges for endangered Florida panthers.

TAKE ACTION

nrdc.org/panthers

S P E C I A L R E P O RT

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Neonics Imperil Far More Than Bees, EPA Says Extensive research has shown that the world’s most heavily used class of insec­ti­cides, known as neonics, are a leading factor in the alarming disappearance of bees.

Now new analysis by the U.S. Environmental Pro­tection Agency (EPA), prompted by NRDC legal action, signals that their impacts extend far wider. One of the most widely used neonics, imidacloprid, likely harms 80 percent of all threatened and endangered species, the re­­port says—including nearly 70 mammal species, 77 bird species, and scores of others. “The EPA’s long-overdue analysis confirms what we already knew: the widespread use of neonics is devastating for wildlife and is helping to fuel the ongoing biodiversity crisis,” says Lucas Rhoads, an attorney with NRDC’s Pollinator Initiative.

For decades, the EPA has allowed pesti­cides to be sold without first assessing their impact on wildlife protected under the Endangered Species Act, in violation of the law.

Back in 2017, NRDC sued to force the agency to conduct

this assessment for pesticides containing imidacloprid and other neonics. “The new findings underscore the urgent need to protect vulnerable wildlife from these toxic agrochemicals,” says Rhoads. “The EPA has all the information it needs to crack down on neonic pollution that’s rampant in waterways and other ecosystems across the country.”

An endangered Karner blue butterfly

PANTHER © LYNN M. STONE/MINDEN; BUTTERFLY © JILL UTRUP/USFWS

G O O D N EWS

CA M PA I G N U P DAT E A CONVERSATION WITH

MANISH BAPNA: NRDC’S NEW PRESIDENT How did you put those values into action?

A: I started at the World Bank, working on global A: Poverty, hunger, inequality, environ­men­tal degra-

M

anish Bapna joins NRDC as the fifth president in our 51-year history. He takes the reins at a pivotal moment: the world’s top climate experts agree that we now have only a very narrow path to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the most extreme impacts of climate change. But Bapna, who previously led the World Resources Institute (WRI) and possesses an unshakable faith in the power of people, believes humanity holds the keys to solving this global crisis. Here are excerpts from his recent conversation with NRDC’s Brian Palmer.

“ Bold climate action is the foundation of a more efficient, high-growth future.”

dation, the climate emergency . . . I’ve always felt these problems are inseparable.

Like many Indian immigrants of their gen­er­ation, my parents scraped money to­­gether to take us back every summer to see our family. Udaipur is on the edge of the desert in western India, a very arid part of the country. Going there year after year, I saw how inextricably linked nature and human well-being are.

I saw trees being cut down around the edges of the city, water diverted from villages for agricultural use, extractive industries devastating the land. And I saw how this impacted the rich and poor differently.

The rest of my life was in Chicago, the city of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club.

Going back and forth between the United States and India gave me a unique perspective—the stark inequities I witnessed in India were more noticeable to me than to my family, who had grown up with them.

When I came home to Chicago after one of those childhood trips, something interesting happened. I started to notice similar inequities—environmental racism, injustice, and poverty—converging right here at home.

poverty issues. After seven years I hit a wall. The bank had a siloed, narrow approach to alleviating poverty. It was all about stimulating private sector– led economic growth. So I left to run a scrappy little nonprofit called the Bank Information Center, which pressured banks to apply sustainability standards to projects they financed. It was scary.

Really scary. I was young and had just gotten engaged. I instantly took a 60 percent pay cut, and we didn’t have revenue to carry us more than six months. But that leap of faith was the catalyst that committed me to a career of seeking transformative, global change.

I eventually moved to the World Resources Institute, where I worked for 14 years and helped to grow sixfold. Much like NRDC, it’s an organization dedicated to advancing the transformation of key economic systems such as energy, cities, food, and industry. Only by reimagining these systems will we be able to tackle the dire crises facing us today: climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequity.

Why move to NRDC at this moment?

A: We are in the fight of our lives. The next five years

will determine whether we can keep the world below 1.5 degrees of warm­ing. If we fail, the consequences will be like noth­ing human civilization has ever seen.

NRDC has the arsenal we need to win this fight: rigorous science, policy expertise, legal firepower, and the impassioned advo­cacy of millions of supporters.

There’s also an edginess to NRDC that is so rare in mature organizations. This place is full of energy and fight. You can feel it, and it’s contagious.

What does an economist bring to the climate fight?

A: To build the political will for bold action, we have

It sounds like you began this work at an early age!

to make the economic argument. We’ve seen a revolution in economic think­ing around climate action.

Ten years ago peo­ple thought you could either choose the environment or choose growth. Five years ago people realized it’s possible to both protect the environment and grow the economy. Today people recognize that growth is possible only with environ­ men­tal protection.

A: In some ways it’s part of my heritage. My family

practices Jainism, which places an extremely high value on the sanctity of life in all its forms. My parents brought that with them when they immi­grated.

Our vacations were always out in nature, camping around Lake Michigan. As an adult, I often wonder at the strength my parents had—coming to a new country with so little, helping their kids through school while struggling with English themselves, working to make ends meet, and trying to combine the values they carried from their homeland with those of a new place.

“There’s an edginess to NRDC that is so rare in mature organizations.

This place is full of energy and fight.”

That said, though, how can we balance the imperative to stop climate change with the need to close the gap between the developing and developed world?

Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Protecting forests is good not just for biodiversity but also for the climate and for supporting local communities.

[Continued on next page.]

MANISH BAPNA © CHERISS MAY FOR NRDC; TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST © ELLIOTT HURWITT/ISTOCK

You’re an economist by training. What inspired you to pursue a career focused on sustainability?

A: A zero-carbon, climate-resilient, nature-positive

world is a more inclusive and economically pro­ ductive world. We know now that solar and wind are already more cost-competitive than fossil fuel power in most places. We know public transit is a safer, more effective, and low-carbon way to move people around. We know protecting forests is good not just for biodiversity but also for the climate and for supporting the communities that live in and around the forests. Bold climate action is the founda­tion of a more efficient, high-growth future.

That’s what developing countries are looking for: inclusive and durable growth.

What does bold climate action look like?

A: Solving the climate emergency will require the

Your Membership Support of NRDC Made a World of Difference in 2021

Thanks to your generous donations, here are some of the landmark environmental victories we won, in and out of court, over the past year.

ARCTIC REFUGE GETS REPRIEVE

RESIDENTS WIN IN NEWARK

PEBBLE MINE PERMIT DENIED

DANGEROUS PESTICIDE BANNED

CLIMATE ACTION IN ILLINOIS

MARINE MONUMENT SAVED

BOLD U.S. CLIMATE PROMISES

UTAH MINE EXPANSION HALTED

LANDMARK FRACKING BAN WON

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland suspended Trump-era drilling leases in the refuge and ordered a comprehensive environmental review of the oil and gas program.

A major court settlement ensures that Newark, New Jersey, will remove all remaining identifiable lead service lines, a big win in residents’ fight for safe drinking water.

The Army Corps denied a key permit for the proposed copper and gold mega-mine, which threatens to destroy Alaska's Bristol Bay wilderness and its wild salmon runs.

transformation of key economic systems, from transportation and energy to buildings and agriculture.

We must leverage this moment to build back better: create jobs, stimulate growth, and build a zero-carbon, nature-positive future. A future that’s better for the next generation of children, no matter where they’re growing up—Chicago or Udaipur or anywhere in between. And together, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

The EPA banned the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops. The neuro­ toxic pesticide has been linked to worker poisonings and learning disabilities in children.

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE KO’D

President Biden revoked a crucial permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, and the company behind the massive climate-wrecking project canceled it for good.

President Biden committed to slashing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and to ensuring that 40 percent of benefits go to highly vulnerable communities.

Landmark legislation makes Illinois the first Midwest state to require carbon-free energy, by 2045, and a national leader in equitable clean-energy policy.

A federal court ruled that the government acted unlawfully in rubber-stamping its approval of a sprawling expansion of an open-pit coal mine near Bryce Canyon National Park.

Please help us win even more victories in 2022 by making a special, tax-deductible contribution at NRDC.ORG/VICTORIES.

Northeast Canyons and Seamounts will remain off-limits to destructive commercial fishing, reversing President Trump’s attempt to dismantle the first Marine National Monument in the Atlantic.

The Delaware River Basin Commission voted to ban fracking in the river basin, helping to protect the source of drinking water for 17 million people.

KXL PROTESTERS © DANIEL SLIM/AFP/GETTY; POLAR BEARS © VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS/ISTOCK; PRODUCE © ISTOCK; SOLAR PANELS © LOGAN CYRUS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY; CHILD AT FOUNTAIN © BRYAN ANSELM FOR NRDC; WIND TURBINES © PHILIP LEWIS/ALAMY; BRYCE CANYON © ISTOCK; INDIGENOUS WOMAN © KEVIN SMITH/ALASKA STOCK VIA AGEFOTOSTOCK; WHALE © ISTOCK; DELAWARE RIVER © AMY THOMERSON/ALAMY

[Continued from previous page.]

Stripped of Vital Protections, Gray Wolves Targeted With Cruel Hunts States across the Northern Rockies have unleashed an epidemic of senseless violence against gray wolves, igniting a massive public backlash that includes more than 40,000 NRDC Members and online activists who have called on the Interior Department to issue emergency federal protections for the iconic species. In response, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a 12-month review to determine whether to restore endangered species protections to wolves in the West, where states have resurrected aggressive wolf killing policies that hark back to the ex­­termination campaigns of more than a century ago.

“State leaders can’t pretend this is wildlife management, and it’s completely out of step with modern hunting ethics,” says NRDC wildlife advocate Jennifer Sherry. “This is unjustified and unfettered killing, and it must stop.” In Idaho, for example, hunters are now allowed to kill an unlimited number of wolves, including pregnant wolves and litters of pups; run down wolves with ATVs and snow machines; and capture wolves in violent, strangulating snares. In Montana, state legislators have effectively

legalized wolf bounties by allowing private groups to reimburse hunters and trappers for their costs associated with killing wolves. “Wolf recovery was on track to be one of the greatest conservation success stories,” Sherry says. “The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to act quickly before 25 years of progress is lost.”

As NRDC wages a pitched bat­tle to save Northern Rockies wolves from brutal hunting, we con­tinue to fight in court to re­­ verse the Trump administra­tion’s de­­cision to delist gray wolves na­­tionally under the Endangered Species Act. In issu­ing its premature—and unlawful—deci­sion, the Fish and Wildlife Service

under Trump ignored the threats to wolves in places where they are just beginning to gain a foot­ hold, leaving them at the mercy of state management plans that treat wolves as vermin, not the critical keystone species we now know them to be.

As Sherry points out, decades of science has shown wolves play a unique and valuable role in maintaining ecological balance: for example, elk move more frequently when wolves are around, which allows ripar­ ian habitats to regenerate and other native wildlife to thrive.

“We won’t stop fighting until science and ethics are restored to wolf management nation­ wide,” Sherry says.

How to Reduce Our Risk for the Next Pandemic

By Elly Pepper, Deputy Director, and Zak Smith, Director, International Wildlife Conservation

NRDC has petitioned the Biden administration to ban all U.S. imports and exports of wild mammals and birds to help prevent future zoonotic pandemics, like COVID-19. Indeed, the United States ranks as one of the world’s top importers of wildlife, importing an average of 225 million live animals each year, many of which go to the pet and aquarium industries. This not only contributes to the world’s ongoing biodiversity crisis but also leaves us vulnerable to pandemics that jump from wildlife to people.

Zoonotic pandemics have plagued us for centuries—­ some relatively recent examples being HIV, Ebola, avian and swine flus, and SARS—and are expected to become far more common. Wildlife trade, a leading contender as the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak, is one of the most likely pathways for zoonotic pandemics. Animals in wildlife trade are captured in their

habitats or bred in unsanitary conditions, forced into close quarters, placed near other species they might never interact with in the wild, and subjected to stressful, dirty conditions that weaken immune systems and increase the likelihood that diseases will spread, mutate, and eventually spill over to people.

Birds and mammals pose the greatest risk due to their genetic proximity to humans. They have been the most common hosts of zoonotic viruses and are likely to remain so because of the frequency with which they are traded. Legal and illegal wildlife trade is estimated to affect one in four mammal and bird species globally.

The horror of the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept our planet and the ecosys­tem collapse that will result from massive biodiversity loss make an overwhelming argu­ment that there is absolutely no need for the United States to continue importing wild birds and mammals. It’s simply not worth the risk. To help prevent future zoonotic pandemics and biodiversity loss, the United States must demonstrate leadership and ban all imports of wild mammals and birds. We hope other countries will follow suit.

ELLY PEPPER AND ZAK SMITH © REBECCA GREENFIELD FOR NRDC; PINE NEEDLES © IRIS IMAGES/ISTOCK; PENGUIN © ISTOCK; GRAY WOLF © VINCE BURTON/ALAMY PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED, 100% POSTCONSUMER WASTE PAPER WITH SOY INKS.

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Gentoo penguin