SUMMER 2015
’ NATURE SVOICE
IN THIS ISSUE
WHALES © BRANDON COLE/OFFSET.COM
For the 2.4 million Members and online activists of the Natural Resources Defense
Judge Stands up to Navy for Whales NRDC in Court to Keep Shell Out of the Arctic Campaigning to Save Pollinators From Pesticides Fracking Threatens Chaco Canyon Region Fighting for African Elephants Here at Home
NRDC works to safeguard the earth — its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
Victory
COMPUTING THE SAVINGS California is proposing bold new standards for the energy efficiency of computers, monitors and signage displays, some of the very biggest energy guzzlers. The standards, proposed by NRDC in 2011, will be the first of their kind in the nation and could help Californians cut their electric bills by $430 million annually. Once adopted in California — home to one-eighth of all Americans — it only makes economic sense for manufacturers to start selling more efficient computers nationwide, helping everyone save money and the environment.
HOLD THE GMOS The fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill recently announced it is banning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from its tacos, veggie bowls and other menu items. A storm of media criticism followed — charging Chipotle with being “anti-scientific” — but missed the main point. Even if GMOs are safe to ingest, that does not necessarily make them safe to grow. The proliferation of Monsanto’s “Roundup-ready” GMO crops has fueled the skyrocketing use of toxic weed killers that has produced new generations of super weeds, requiring the application of ever more powerful and dangerous herbicides. [See the Campaign Update inside this issue.]
CORN © JOE BIAFORE/ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
AN AWARD-WINNING READ Joshua Horwitz’s War of the Whales, which tells the true story of NRDC’s fight to save whales from high-intensity U.S. Navy sonar, has won the prestigious PEN award for literary science writing. The PEN judges said the book “produces a powerful narrative about the collision of technology in the name of national security” and “raises crucial questions about how, as humans, we should regard our relationship to other intelligent, socially complex mammals.” The paperback edition will be out in July.
C OV E R A RT I C L E
Judge Stands up to Navy for Whales I n a big win for whales and other marine mammals, a federal court has sided with NRDC and other wildlife advocates and ruled that the Obama Administration broke the law when it approved a sweeping plan by the U.S. Navy to blast the ocean with dangerous levels of noise during training and testing exercises off the coasts of Southern California and Hawaii. The Navy’s five-year plan to conduct high-intensity sonar exercises and underwater detonations across an area of ocean larger than the continental United States would cause an estimated 9.6 million instances of harm to more than 60 separate populations of whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions.
Although the National Marine Fisheries Service is charged with ensuring that war games do not violate federal wildlife protections, the agency instead rubber-stamped the Navy’s plan. Searching in vain for any lawful basis for this approval, Judge Susan Oki Mollway wrote in her decision, “This court feels like the sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ who, trapped for days on a ship becalmed in the middle of the ocean, laments, ‘Water, water every where, Nor any drop to drink.’” Under the Navy’s now-illegal plan, its use of powerful sonar alone would have assaulted ocean habitats with blasts of up to 236 decibels for a total of 125,000 hours, the equivalent of 14 years’ worth of
maneuvers using extreme and dangerous noise. Such intense sound can disrupt marine mammal feeding and calving and cause internal hemorrhaging, permanent hearing loss and even death. “This decision should be a resounding wake-up call for the Navy and the Fisheries Service,” says Zak Smith, an attorney with NRDC’s Marine Mammal Protection Project. “Instead of downplaying the egregious impacts on marine mammals — including endangered blue, fin and humpback whales — the government should be putting common-sense safeguards in place to protect them. In the next phase of this legal battle, that’s exactly what we’ll be fighting for.”
S P E C I A L R E P O RT
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NRDC Back in Court to Keep Shell Out of the Arctic The U.S. Interior Department has given the green light to Shell Oil’s exploration plan for the Arctic Ocean. The plan was approved despite Shell’s appalling record of mishaps and mayhem that forced the company to retreat from the Arctic in 2012. That failure included a nowinfamous episode in which Shell’s enormous, 260-foot drill rig carrying 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel ran aground, wrecked beyond repair. In response to the newest threat from Shell, NRDC is heading back to court to stop a company that doesn’t seem
to have learned its lesson about drilling in rugged Alaskan waters. “Shell’s oil spill response plan is a fantasy,” says Niel Lawrence, an NRDC senior attorney. “In the event of a major spill, there is no proven method for cleaning up oil in ice-filled waters.” The government itself estimates there is a 75 percent chance of a major spill if oil development proceeds. A blowout could go unchecked all winter long, endangering wildlife including whales, walruses and polar bears. “We aim to hold Shell and the
Interior Department accountable under federal environmental law before this disaster can come to pass,” says Lawrence. “And given President Obama’s pledge to tackle climate change, closing the Arctic to drilling should be a nobrainer. Burning the Arctic’s supply of oil will drive more climate chaos for decades to come.”
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G O O D N EWS
CA M PA I G N U P DAT E
use of the chemical herbicide glyphosate — marketed by Monsanto as Roundup — which kills the native milkweed that monarchs need to survive. Already, 150 million acres of milkweed-filled monarch habitat have been destroyed, an area more than 1.5 times the size of California. When the EPA failed to respond to an urgent petition filed by NRDC to address the monarch crisis, we hauled the agency into court, prompting it to finally agree to act on our petition by the end of July. “EPA has been standing on the sidelines while Monsanto’s and Dow’s products wreak havoc on our environment,” says Sylvia Fallon, director of NRDC’s Wildlife Conservation Project. “We’re turning up
ONLY 56 MILLION MONARCHS MADE THE MIGRATION TO MEXICO LAST WINTER.
NRDC Escalates Campaign to Save Pollinators From Deluge of Pesticides T he sleepy drone of bees, the flitting of a monarch butterfly through the garden... They may call to mind a lazy summer afternoon, but these insects are actually hard at work, playing a vital role in one of the most fundamental, life-sustaining processes in nature. Yet our pollinators are in crisis, awash in a dangerous tide of pesticides unleashed by agri-tech giants like Monsanto, Bayer CropScience and Dow Chemical.
“A generation ago, it was unthinkable that monarchs and bees would ever be in such dire straits,” says NRDC President Rhea Suh. “We can’t afford to let this toxic onslaught continue when we know it is a leading factor in driving pollinators to the brink.” Indeed, even as the population of monarch butterflies has plummeted more than 90 percent since the mid-1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency has virtually ignored overwhelming scientific evidence linking this massive die-off to the explosion in Big Ag’s
HONEYBEE.
the heat on EPA to do its job while at the same time targeting the chemical makers themselves.” Last October NRDC filed suit to block Dow from rolling out its nextgeneration herbicide, Enlist Duo, which combines glyphosate with another potent weed killer, toxic 2,4D. After the EPA expanded its approval of the chemical combo for use across nine more states, NRDC swiftly countered by filing a new lawsuit to block the agency’s action and mounted a media campaign to ratchet up public pressure on Dow, including a full-page print ad in The New York Times. We’re also building international pressure to stem the tide of milkweed-destroying chemicals: in April NRDC petitioned UNESCO to declare that the butterfly’s winter refuge in Mexico — a World Heritage Site — is “in danger,” largely owing to the chemical assault in the United States and Canada that has pushed the monarch’s 3,000-mile annual migration to the verge of collapse. Last winter, just 56.6 million butterflies struggled to make the journey to Mexico. That’s a precipitous drop from the longterm average of 350 million, and a mere fraction of the 1 billion butterflies that were recorded in Mexico in the mid-1990s. As industrial farming and its arsenal of powerful pesticides have come to dominate American agriculture, [Continued on next page.]
MONARCHS © JOHANNA MEDJEDI/ FLICKR.COM; BEE: © GUILLERMO OSSA/NATGEOCREATIVE.COM
EPA has been standing on the sidelines while Monsanto’s and Dow’s products wreak havoc on our environment.
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nrdc.org/savemonarchs
Another Tar Sands Pipeline Hits Wall of Opposition Thanks to growing public opposition, TransCanada has announced it is delaying by two years its plans for the proposed Energy East tar sands pipeline. If built, the pipeline would stretch from the Alberta tar sands to the coast of New Brunswick and carry 25 percent more oil than the proposed
A RUPTURED ENBRIDGE PIPELINE IN MICHIGAN, 2010.
Keystone XL. Its oil would be offloaded to supertankers that would carry the crude south along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Energy East is a key element in Big Oil’s plan to dramatically escalate the production and export of tar sands — a plan that NRDC is challenging through our campaign to Stop the Tar Sands Invasion. In another setback for TransCanada, the company was forced to abandon plans to build an oil export terminal on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec because of serious impacts to the river’s endangered beluga whales. Still, a planned export terminal on the Bay of Fundy threatens another iconic East Coast species: the extremely endangered right whale. Given this looming threat to people and wildlife, we will continue partnering with Canadian groups to defeat Energy East once and for all.
Scientists Ask President to Abandon East Coast Drilling Leading ocean scientists from around the world have sent a letter to President Obama urging him to shelve plans for seismic oil and gas surveys off the East Coast. The scientists say that the blasts from underwater air guns used in exploration — firing about every 10 seconds for weeks and months on end — are nearly as loud as conventional explosives and can mask whale calls over thousands of miles. Such “shots” are potentially disastrous for entire populations of marine animals, interfering with their ability to feed, communicate and mate. “People are rightly concerned about offshore oil spills, but seismic blasting is likely to have a terrible impact before the first well is even drilled,” says Michael Jasny, director of NRDC’s Marine Mammal Protection Project.
GREEN TURTLE.
The path to East Coast seismic exploration was opened to oil and gas companies by the Interior Department last year. Nine applications are pending to begin seismic blasting in waters from Delaware to Florida. NRDC is calling on President Obama to reverse the Interior Department’s decision and will go to court if necessary to protect our East Coast marine habitats.
CHACO CULTURE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK.
Fracking Threatens Chaco Canyon Region In northwestern New Mexico, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved more than 240 fracking proposals that would unleash a new wave of oil and gas development around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a World Heritage Site considered sacred by local Native Americans. NRDC and a coalition of regional environmental groups are fighting back in federal court, charging that the agency has illegally authorized the fracking without serious regard for its far-reaching impacts on the environment, health and cultural heritage of the surrounding communities. “The Obama Administration is turning a blind eye to the harm that fracking in the Chaco region would cause this priceless national treasure,” says NRDC attorney Matthew McFeeley. The region is already besieged by truck traffic, pipelines, flares and fracking equipment. But the massive scale of the newly proposed operations could cause irreversible damage to ancient buildings, ceremonial roads and archaeological sites as well as threaten Chaco Canyon’s designation as an International Dark Sky Park. The government has also failed to address the global warming impacts of the methane produced by increased oil and gas development. A recent NASA study found that methane emissions in northwestern New Mexico are already the highest in the country. “Sacrificing Chaco Canyon may be great for oil and gas companies,” says McFeeley, “but it would inflict a heavy cost on local communities, our nation’s public lands and our global climate.”
PIPELINE © NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD; TURTLE © WORLDSWILDLIFEWONDERS/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM; CHACO CANYON © WILSILVER/BIGSTOCK.COM
[Continued from previous page.] they have exacted a high cost, the true extent of which continues to unfold. Recently, the World Health Organization announced that glyphosate probably causes cancer in humans, raising alarming questions about the impact its widespread use may be having on farm workers and agricultural communities. Meanwhile, the skyrocketing use of a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, or “neonics,” is putting the very future of our nation’s food supply in jeopardy by helping to drive massive declines in America’s populations of honeybees and wild bees. Over the past two decades, Big Ag’s use of bee-killing neonics has risen from virtually zero to nearly six million pounds per year, with devastating results. Some areas of the country have reported the overwinter collapse of 50 percent of bee colonies, or more. “The scientific evidence linking neonics to the tragic loss of bees continues to grow,” says Jennifer Sass, an NRDC senior scientist. “The latest studies show just how insidious neonics really are. Bees seem attracted to this poison because of its nicotine-like effect on their brain cells. The neonics then impair their ability to navigate and to build nests, if it doesn’t kill them outright.” NRDC has been working hard to raise a nationwide public outcry to ban neonics in the United States, an urgently needed step already taken by the European Union. We recently carried our campaign all the way to the White House, joining other conservation groups in calling on President Obama to direct his EPA to rein in the pesticide overuse that is wiping out bees. “Bees and monarch butterflies are resilient,” says Suh, “but they cannot withstand the torrent of pesticides that has been unleashed by industrial farming — and they can’t recover without our help. This is a pivotal moment for our Members to make their voices heard.”
Fighting for African Elephants Here at Home Pressure is mounting at the federal and state levels to protect African elephants killed for their ivory tusks. An average of 96 African elephants die every day at the hands of poachers. From 2010 through 2012, more than 100,000 were killed — a catastrophe fueled in part by demand from the United States. Last year President Obama promised to help stem the slaughter with rules cracking down on domestic sales of ivory. One rule would tighten limits on the export and interstate trade of ivory; another would, for the first time, curb how many elephant trophies hunters are allowed to bring back to the United States annually. But his administration has yet to release those rules. NRDC Members have sent 125,000 petitions to the president, calling on him to crack down on the domestic trade in elephant ivory — a message echoed in a full-page print ad we recently ran in Washington’s Politico newspaper.
Meanwhile, in California — the second-largest ivory market, after New York — a bill to ban ivory sales is advancing, thanks in part to strong support from thousands of NRDC’s California members. Vendors in the state can currently sell ivory items imported prior to 1977. Unfortunately, it’s easy to make ivory from
recently killed elephants look like vintage material, and the amount of illegal ivory for sale in the state has doubled in the last eight years, according to a recent report commissioned
by NRDC. To combat the problem, the State Assembly’s wildlife committee approved an NRDC-sponsored bill in March outlawing the vast majority of ivory sales. Similar to bills passed in states like New York, California’s law, if enacted, would also increase penalties for wildlife traffickers. “It’s absolutely astonishing how much ivory is being sold in California, in large part illegally,” says Elly Pepper, an NRDC wildlife advocate. “If people realized that the pieces being displayed on store shelves most often come from elephants that were killed in recent years, they’d be shocked and outraged.” Across the Pacific, China recently announced a one-year ban on ivory imports, an important first step by the world’s largest importer. The Chinese government has also committed to phasing out the legal sales of ivory in the country, a major policy change that would go a long way toward reducing the poaching of African elephants. China’s state-approved ivory market has also fueled and camouflaged the illegal flow of ivory.
A Banner Day for Reducing Pollution in China By Linda Greer, director, Health Program
Greetings from Shanghai, where NRDC is hosting a big award ceremony for 33 Chinese textile mills that completed NRDC’s Clean by Design program in 2014. Our new report summarizes the awesome achievements this group of factories delivered to planet Earth as well as to their own bottom lines. The poor quality of industrial manufacturing in China has led to immense pollution and wasted resources, presenting a great opportunity to reduce environmental impacts through
efficiency improvements that would also save factories money. More than five years ago, we embarked on a plan to capitalize on that opportunity, and today four prominent apparel retailers and brands are participating in the program: Target, Gap Inc., Levi Strauss and Co. and H&M. Why did we pick the apparel industry? Textile manufacturing, particularly the dyeing and finishing of fabric, is incredibly water and energy intensive, and China produces more than 50 percent of the world’s fabric. As a result, the textile industry ranks as the third-largest discharger of industrial wastewater in China and the second-largest user of chemicals. Clean by Design developed a blueprint for change — our Ten Best Practices — that has delivered incredible results for our partners. The proof is in the numbers. In the first year, the 33 participating mills saved 3 million tons of water and 61,000 tons of coal, cutting costs by
$14.73 million. That’s as much water as used in 122 million showers, and as much CO2 as emitted by 45,000 cars on the road in China in a year. The mills also cut their chemical use by 400 tons and their electricity use by 36 million kilowatts. Given that there are an estimated 55,000 textile mills in China — well, you can do the math. More and more major apparel brands are facing increasing public concern about their environmental impacts and realizing that greening their supply chain is not only crucial for global pollution reduction but good for business too. (They also need to address workers’ rights issues, which are concentrated in the garment factories where fabric is cut and sewn, not where it’s manufactured.) We’ll be greening the next class of Chinese textile mills starting this summer and hope to soon replicate this success across the entire industry.
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