Nature and WildernessAlaska Wilderness League leads the effort to preserve wild lands and waters in Alaska. I’ve served on their board and worked with them on many campaigns to keep oil drilling out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Their work is particularly important right now, as the Trump Administration has set its sights on opening the refuge to drilling, which would destroy habitat for millions of animals, including calving caribou and denning polar bears.

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has successfully helped protect wilderness lands in the heart of the Colorado Plateau. I worked with them to help create the 2.3 million acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Now they’re battling to keep that region off limits to development, along with the gorgeous Bears Ears National Monument. If you love the wild, wild West, support SUWA!

Center for Biological Diversity proclaims their mission simply but boldly: Saving life on Earth. Right now, the group is fighting to protect elephants, wolves and bears, and make sure the effective Endangered Species Act is not abolished.

The Jane Goodall Institute works to inspire people to “conserve the natural world we all share,” thereby improving the lives of people, animals and the environment. “Everything is connected–everyone can make a difference.” I should note that Jane Goodall inspired me to become a conservationist when I was just a young girl. She continues to inspire and motivate me!

Climate Change

Moms Clean Air Force is mobilizing one million parents, especially moms, to help stop climate change, advance clean energy, and protect the air we breathe. I’m proud to say I’ve been a member for years, and have written dozens of articles for them on climate science, plastics and toxic chemicals, and more.

By the way, Moms Clean Air Force made my list of “5 Trustworthy Climate Change News Sources You May Not Know About.” What are the others?

Chesapeake Climate Action Network has devoted the last 10 years to fighting global warming, mountaintop removal, coal mining, and fracking while advocating for solar and wind power. They’re doing a great job protecting the nation’s Chesapeake Bay region and one of the most important estuaries in the United States.

Toxic Chemicals

Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families is leading the charge to protect families from toxic chemicals. In a recent major victory, they persuaded seven major retailers to commit to reduce their use of toxic chemicals in products and packaging. Yay!womens

Womens Voices for the Earth researches the impact that toxic chemicals in women’s hygiene and home cleaning products have on women’s health, then mounts campaigns to pressure manufacturers to clean up those products. They’re tackling some of the most toxic chemicals in the everyday products we buy – and helping to get rid of them!

Savvy Women’s Alliance is creating a national network of community chapters for people who want to live non-toxic lives. The group offers regular healthy living tips and many other resources to help you get off the bad stuff and onto the good stuff.

Family Planning

Planned Parenthood is on the list because they provide essential reproductive services and birth control that help limit population growth. Population growth has huge environmental impacts – more people mean greater demand for natural resources which leads to more consumption and waste. Climate change, water scarcity, air pollution are all linked to population growth. Planned Parenthood directly benefits women and Mother Nature both.

Environmental Justice

Dig Deep brings an essential natural resource to thousands of Americans who don’t have it: clean water. As hard as that is to believe, it’s true. Families living across the western US don’t have indoor plumbing or clean water to drink. Dig Deep is changing that by helping these communities dig wells and create low-cost systems that bring safe, hot and cold water into homes, schools and community centers.

I took Dig Deep’s 4 Liters Challenge and lived on 4 liters of water – only 1 gallon- for just one day. Could you do it? Read all about it here. 

Plastic Free

The Plastic Pollution Coalition is on a mission to stop plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, and the environment. It’s mobilized a coalition of 500 member organizations, plus many individuals, that is working to find sustainable solutions to stop plastic pollution and empower you and me to list plastic-free.

Want to consider other organizations for Giving Tuesday? Check out Great Non Profits, a non-profit itself that makes it easy to find organizations doing good work on the issues you care about most.

You can skip to their list of environmental groups by clicking here.

Once you’re on the site, you can also easily find charities working to stop fracking, protect animals, safeguard clean water, and more.

Thanks for giving!

The post Can You Give to Just One of These 12 Eco Charities On Giving Tuesday? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

For me, Earth Day is a time to reflect on what I am grateful to Mother Nature for. Here’s my “short list.”

* I’m grateful for the abundance of inspiring flowers and trees that add beauty to the world.

* I’m grateful for the planet’s soul-expanding wild places and the chance they provide to experience Nature in the raw.

* I’m grateful to the Sun and the vital solar energy it sends down to Earth each and every day (now, if only we would take advantage of it!).

* I’m grateful that a planet called “Earth” is actually covered with so much water. We could not survive without it.

* I’m grateful for the community of friends I have and with whom I share a passion for hiking, camping, and exploring the outdoors.

* I’m grateful for the network of environmental activists to which I belong, and who magnify my voice when we join together to protect the world we love.

* I’m grateful for the changing seasons and the way they remind me that, when all is said and done, Mother Nature is still in charge.

* I’m grateful for singing birds, chirping crickets, blowing wind, and all the other elements that create a natural soundtrack in my day-to-day world.

* I’m grateful for the power I have to make a difference. As insignificant as it sometimes seems, I know what I do can change my life, help change the lives of others, and contribute to a better legacy for my kids and yours, too.

What are you grateful for? Please share your thoughts and comments!

Happy Earth Day!

Related articles

Earth Day or Any Day, Don’t Toss Your Cash With Your Trash

#EarthDay Insights: 13 Ways to Make Your Food More Eco

The post Why Are You Grateful for Earth Day? Please Share. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

In Donald Trump’s world it is. Trump is in the process of trying to bulldoze one of Britain’s very last stretches of wilderness and turn it into not one but two golf courses. You’ve Been Trumped, a powerful new film shown on opening night of the D.C. Environmental Film Festival, tells the tale from the moment Trump’s jet lands in Aberdeen, Scotland with the Donald and his coterie on board, to the sorry affair that exists today: wilderness gone, wildlife habitat destroyed, and the lives of local villagers irreparably harmed by the development.

Here’s the back story, taken from the movie’s synopsis: Billionaire Donald Trump has bought up hundreds of acres on the northeast coast of Scotland, best known to movie-lovers as the setting for the 1983 classic film Local Hero. And like the American oil tycoon played by Burt Lancaster, Trump needs to buy out a few more locals to make the deal come true. In a land swimming with golf courses, Trump is going to build two more – along with a 450-room hotel and 1,500 luxury homes. The trouble is, the land he has purchased occupies one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive stretches of coast, described by one leading scientist as Scotland’s Amazon rain forest. Local residents don’t want it destroyed.

Initially, the project was rejected by the region’s government. But mysteriously, the national Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light. Bulldozers spring into action. Water and power are cut off; it takes some homeowners ten days to get the developers to restore these basic amenities. Land disputes erupt while the developers destroy the homeowners’ private property. In one mind- boggling incident, bulldozers pile up thousands of tons of dirt next to the homes of private citizens who oppose the project.

The local police ignore citizens’ complaints and instead arrest the film’s director, Anthony Baxter. Donald Trump is awarded an honorary doctorate from a local university while his tractors turn wild, untouched dunes into fairways.

Donald Trump could not appear less sympathetic, especially in this “Occupy” era. He insults local residents like Walter Forbes, right, calling them “pigs” and worse, while claiming his project will bring strong economic growth to this part of Scotland – even though the region is prospering and has less than a 2% unemployment rate. He worries far more about his helmet of hair, which is getting blown about in the wind, than about the women and men whose heritage the development is destroying. He ogles Miss Scotland, who is on hand for a press event, embarrassing her by telling her how pretty she is, as if he has sized her up for a job in one of his casinos.

It takes a long time for the citizens to mount a community protest against the project. “It’s not in their blood,” said Anthony Baxter, when he spoke with the audience after the screening. Baxter is appealing to Americans to help raise awareness that will stop further development by helping him get the film into more theaters. He’s also posted links on the film’s Take Action page that make it easy to tweet the Donald or send a letter to the Scottish minister who approved the project.

This being Washington, D.C., the audience offered some additional ideas to Baxter. One person suggested that people write to the Scottish ambassador to the U.S. and urge the project to be shut down. Another suggested Baxter organize and “Occupy Trump Tower” in New York.

Baxter appreciated the suggestions while warning Washingtonians to beware: Donald Trump has just gotten the contract to redevelop the historic Old Post Office in D.C. It’s located on Pennsylvania Ave, right in between the U.S. Capitol building and the White House.

“You could be Trumped yourselves,” he cautioned.

Don’t miss other great films in the D.C. Environmental Film Fest.
Here’s a calendar of showings between now and March 25.

The post “You’ve Been Trumped” – the Donald Occupies Wilderness appeared first on Big Green Purse.

This year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will make some big decisions about the future of America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For the first time, a new management plan for the Arctic Refuge could include a recommendation for Wilderness protection for the Refuge’s critical Coastal Plain – the strongest level of protection  for the Arctic Refuge’s polar bears and natural areas – and the place that that has been in Big Oil’s sights for decades.

This plan will guide how the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be managed for the next 15 years or more. The Obama administration has asked for input from all Americans on this plan.  To make sure the final version includes this important recommendation, we must demonstrate overwhelming support for protecting the Refuge’s Coastal Plain. If we speak with a loud and united voice, we’ll be sending a strong message that the Fish and Wildlife Service can’t ignore.

The Alaska Wilderness League is working on your behalf to achieve that goal. How? by collecting one million signatures on a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Salazar in support of protecting America’s wilderness in the Arctic Refuge. Can you add your name and help Alaska Wilderness League meet its goal?

What it means to be an American…

There are some places in this country that define what it means to be American – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska is one of those places. For the past 50 years our country has remained committed to protecting one of our last wild places.

Some places are just too extraordinary to drill, and the Arctic Refuge is one of them.

A Wilderness recommendation could protect this unparalleled area and the abundant wildlife that depends on it – including polar bears, musk oxen, caribou and millions of birds from around the globe.

So please, speak out!

If we all speak out, we can make sure that the critical Coastal Plain is given the strongest possible protections from Big Oil and harmful development.

Please take a minute RIGHT NOW and write to Secretary Salazar of the U.S. Department of Interior. He is the one who will recommend to President Obama whether YOUR wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be protected – or degraded by oil production and development.

Thank you!

The post Protect America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge appeared first on Big Green Purse.

The Wilderness Act, signed by President Lyndon Johnson on September 3, 1964, created a National Wilderness Preservation System so that wild lands, including national parks, national forests, and lands overseen by the federal Bureau of Land Management, would be managed “for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness…”

Today, 45 years later, this prescient legislation seems more essential than ever. Though 109 million acres of land in Alaska and the lower 48 have been protected under the Act, many exquisite regions of forests, prairies, coastlines, mountains, and wetlands remain threatened simply because they haven’t yet been classified as federal wilderness.

Fortunately, citizens and concerned members of Congress are working to protect as much of America’s remaining wild lands as possible. The Alaska Wilderness League (on whose board I served for six years) is striving to secure federal wildernesss status for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Campaign for America’s Wilderness is spearheading wilderness protection campaigns in a dozen states. President Obama recently declared September 2009 “National Wilderness Month” and signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which designated over 2 million acres of wilderness from coast to coast.

But that is not enough. Wild lands clean our air and filter our water. They protect open space from sprawl, and provide much needed wildlife habitat, especially for endangered species.  And increasingly in this shell-shocked, post 9/11 era, people are using wilderness to escape the stress of modern-day life.

Americans are losing 6,000 acres of open space every day, acreage we can ill afford to lose. If we want to protect the environment and the lands that restore our bodies and souls, we need to legislate more land as wilderness, and the sooner the better.

You can help.

* Make time to explore the nation’s wild lands. Become a strong advocate for the untamed nooks and crannies of our country that have helped define our natural heritage for centuries.

* All wilderness must be created by an act of Congress. Tell your local official to vote for wilderness legislation being proposed by the Campaign for America’s Wilderness, the Alaska Wilderness League, and other environmental and consumer groups.

*  Use your purse. Donate to local and national organizations like the Campaign for America’s Wilderness and Alaska Wilderness League that are working on your behalf to protect America’s wilderness.

For more essays on the importance of conserving our natural resources, read this month’s Green Moms Carnival conservation posts; you’ll find a directory to them at Mindful Momma.

The post “In Wildness is the Preservation of the World” appeared first on Big Green Purse.

I admit this acknowledging that climate change is probably the pre-eminent environmental issue of our time. Melting ice caps, catastrophic hurricanes and droughts, rising sea level, and changing weather patterns are altering the very nature of Nature. By and large, scientists agree that the window of opportunity to reverse the atmospheric build-up of hothouse gases like carbon dioxide is rapidly closing. Predictions for an overheated future grow more dire every day.

Still, moment to moment, our lives are affected in a more immediate way by other environmental threats that have been completely ignored by the Bush Administration. Will the next president have the foresight to tackle them sooner rather than later?

Consider our exposure to toxic substances. From the water we drink to the soaps and lotions we slather on our skin to the toys that entertain our children, we face a daily assault from chemicals that wreak havoc on our reproductive system, cause cancer, and increase our likelihood of contracting diseases like asthma, blood poisoning and heart failure. Right now, the cosmetics industry regulates itself, which is why many manufacturers of lipstick, make-up, shampoo and perfume continue to include phthalates, parabens, synthetic fragrances, and unnecessary antibacterial agents in their formulations. What should the next presidential administration do? Making the “precautionary principle” a keystone of its approach to environmental health and safety would be a first important step in the right direction. At a minimum, the new president should require the Food and Drug Administration to restrict the use in personal care products of any ingredients that have not proven to be safe.

Protecting wilderness is another area of critical concern. Both candidates Barack Obama and John McCain would safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling. But what about other sensitive ecosystems? Any serious presidential environmental agenda should embrace proposals like creation of the Yellowstone-to-Yukon wilderness corridor and the addition of several million acres to the national wilderness system.

Now take a minute to consider the migratory songbirds in your backyard, along with the tropical plants that provide the basis for 25% of all disease-fighting pharmaceuticals. I’ve just returned from a trip to the Amazon basin, and I can tell you, the rainforest is still being burned down to make way for cattle ranches that supply fast food restaurants and soybean plantations that power ethanol distilleries. It should be at the top of the next administration’s agenda to lead a global campaign to ramp up protection for rainforests and biological diversity worldwide.

As for what you eat, despite the demand for healthier food, only 3.5% of fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products are organic. One way the next president can accelerate the transition to safer food production is by using the power of the government’s annual Farm Bill to switch federal subsidies away from conventional, pesticide-using growers and towards the thousands of farmers who want to raise livestock and produce without insecticides, herbicides, antibiotics and synthetic hormones but who can’t afford to do so on their own.

Finally, consider the confusion you face each time you want to use your purse to purchase the safest, most environmentally friendly product available. The challenge of distinguishing “green” from “greenwash” impedes environmental progress, as it discourages consumers  from deploying their shopping carts as green “carrots” to encourage industry to adopt more eco-friendly practices. The next administration could revolutionize green manufacturing – and make tremendous strides in energy conservation, pollution control, and environmental health and safety – by advocating for certified sustainable standards that make eco-friendly choices clear for shopper and manufacturer alike.

All these actions are within reach. The question is, will the next president aspire to such ambitious goals?

Clearly, it will depend on who is elected. If you examine the voting records of both Barack Obama and John McCain, Obama emerges as the most likely environmental champion hands down.

According to the watchdog League of Conservation Voters, McCain’s lifetime LCV record is 24% compared to Obama’s 86% and running mate Joe Biden’s 83%.  Says LCV of John McCain, “he repeatedly clings to outdated policies and flip-flops on core environmental issues.  In his 25 years in Congress, McCain has faced 294 crucial environmental votes and he voted in favor of the environment only 71 times.”

Still, it is unlikely that even the Obama administration will tackle many of these issues without active encouragement from concerned Americans. As the old saying goes, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Right now, the only wheel squeaking is the one advocating to control climate change. Unless it’s a unicycle, most vehicles have more than one wheel. To keep moving forward, the other wheels need a little grease, too.

The post Will the next president do more for the environment than focus on energy? appeared first on Big Green Purse.