Hurricane Sandy destroyed crucial habitat for imperiled piping plovers. Photo: Richard Seeley

Ready, Set, Vote!

Voting for wildlife-friendly candidates is bigger than any one race on November 6th. It means looking at your ballot before you go to the polls, researching candidates’ positions on key issues for wildlife, and making sure you have a plan to vote in person on November 6th or by absentee ballot.

Know Who and What You’re Voting For

Look at your ballot and compare candidates’ positions at Vote411.org. You can take notes with you into the polls on which candidates and proposals you plan to vote for.

In addition to voting for pro-wildlife candidates, residents in a number of states will have the opportunity to vote for ballot initiatives that have potential to shape the future of our wildlife and wild places. For example, residents of Michigan can vote YES on proposal 3 to help more of the state’s energy come from renewable sources such as wind and solar.

Know When and Where to Vote

Locate your polling place for voting and make a plan for what time you will vote on Nov. 6th.

Help Pack the Polls

Studies have shown that people are more likely to vote if they hear that their friends and neighbors will be voting, too. So please encourage your friends and family to vote, and make sure they have rides to the polls!

Defeat Big Polluters at the Polls

This past July, I saw record fires blaze through communities near my home in Colorado and severe droughts leave local black bears desperate for food. And just last week, Hurricane Sandy devastated not only communities across the East Coast, but also wildlife–crossing more than one hundred National Wildlife Refuges and destroying crucial habitat for imperiled piping plovers and many more shorebirds.

Yet, as these record-breaking extreme weather events–all with clear links to climate change–become more and more common, the fossil fuel industry continues to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into attacking pro-environment candidates and pushing a reckless agenda that puts their profits before the safety of communities and wildlife.

By researching candidates’ positions and voting, people like us who care about wildlife and vote can fight back against Big Polluters whose reckless behavior is increasingly putting wildlife in harm’s way.

Please SHARE with your friends to make this the largest voter turnout for wildlife ever!

Thanks for making your voice heard for wildlife this election!

Get ready to cast your ballot by:
1. Finding out WHERE to vote: http://bit.ly/QCSyUc
2. Looking at your ballot and deciding WHO to vote for: http://bit.ly/T5NV9J
3. Deciding WHEN and HOW you will get to the polls to VOTE on November 6th.

Dr. Sylvia Earle interviewed by NWF's Bob Serata at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Prk, Key Largo, Fla. Photo: Belinda Serata/NWF

Movie and TV stars don’t do it for us. But when my wife Belinda and I met Dr. Sylvia Earle as she came ashore from a dive boat, walking the narrow deck in her wet suit, still dripping, still smiling, we both felt the power of one person’s life’s work. I think we were a bit star-struck.

Sylvia Earl, NWF Conservation Achievement Award Honoree, has been an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society since 1998, the year Time magazine named her the first “hero for the planet.” She has spent most of her professional life under water, leading more than 70 expeditions. She was nicknamed “Her Deepness” after setting the solo diving depth record of 3,300 feet. She calls the oceans the “blue heart” of all humans.

As the first female chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sylvia was a central figure in establishing the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument (aka Papahānaumokuākea), the largest single fully protected area in the United States and the world’s largest fully protected marine area — 140,000 square miles of protected ocean (larger than all of the nation’s national parks combined) that is home to more than 7,000 kinds of marine life. The monument was created by President George W. Bush via presidential proclamation in 2006.

Sylvia came up to us, hand outstretched in greeting, a 75-year-old version of the pioneering marine botanist who broke with tradition by studying marine plants in the plants’ environment, instead of breaking off pieces and carrying them back to the lab.

In town to give the keynote speech at the 50th anniversary celebration of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, Fla., Sylvia took some time to talk to NWF about conservation, caring and science.

Bob Serata snorkels above a young whale shark (about 12 feet long). Photo: Belinda Serata/NWF

NWF / BS [interviewer’s initials, by the way]: You were in the Gulf of Mexico in June 2010 studying whale sharks. Tell us about that.

Dr. Earle: The expedition in June 2010 was in part a response to the oil spill. What scientists were really concerned about was what the oil spill might be doing to the whale sharks because among other things they eat right at the surface. They open their big mouths and whatever’s there comes in.

We’d spent a day looking at patches of sargassum and hoping to see whale sharks but we didn’t sign of a whale shark. We did see some big mats of floating sargassum. We stopped at an oil rig and swam with some of the great collections of fish that tend to gather around the rigs.

We went to sleep that night 70 or 100 miles offshore and when we woke up in the morning, the crew of the ship we were on was yelling, “You gotta get up, whale sharks, whale sharks.” So we all tumbled out of our bunks and we were surrounded by whale sharks. An airplane that Dr. Eric Hoffmayer had engaged counted 91 whale sharks in just one frame.

We went in the water and there weren’t just whale sharks up at the surface, there were layers of whale sharks.

NWF / BS: How could the Gulf oil disaster affect whale sharks?

Dr. Earle: In a single gulp, a whale shark might get a cross section of 12 to 15 different animals. From polychaete worms to jellyfish, arrow worms, flat worms, copepods, anthropods, larvae of shrimp and crabs. And whale sharks feed at the surface where there was a lot of oil.

NWF / BS: It’s also thought that a lot of sargassum was destroyed by the oil and dispersants. Why should we care about seaweed?

Dr. Earle: Sargassum is like a rain forest. It’s a little wetter than a rain forest. But it’s a golden floating forest. It floats in the ocean, it’s like a floating island of life out there; it doesn’t stay anchored.

When you see a big mat of sargassum instead of saying “oh yuk,” say “oh fantastic,” because if you get a mass and look closely at it, you’ll see little eyes looking back. Or if you gently scoop a little bit and put it in a bucket of water or a dish pan and you just watch you’ll see little filefish, you’ll see baby sargassum fish, baby flying fish all the color of the sargassum, and little snails because that’s their only home.

Baby turtles find a home there. And with the loss of sargassum it’s a loss of habitat, it’s bad news for the baby fish that seek haven there, for young turtles for a whole suite of organisms that absolutely require this as a nursery a safe haven in the open sea.

Green Sea Turtle. Photo Credit: Philippe Guillaume

NWF / BS: The ocean seems such a huge concept, what can an individual do to help conserve it as a resource?

Dr. Earle: The best answer about solutions is exactly what you’re [NWF is] doing. You’re communicating what the issues are, encouraging people to think and to understand why it matters to us, why taking care of the ocean relates to our everyday lives. With every breath we take, every drop of water we drink we’re connected to the ocean, not everybody knows that.

Everyone can consume fewer wild animals from the sea. We’re taking far too much ocean wildlife and it has an impact. It’s hard to find a shark or to find a big grouper, so let’s just stop killing them. Or if you do, make sure that you treat it with great respect and don’t do it every day or every week or every month, just make it a special treat. A special treat for me today is seeing one alive out there. I only saw one grouper in a dive of about an hour out at Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. There should be dozens of them everywhere.

Everyone can lend their support to ocean protection. Part of it means supporting those efforts to have places like Pennekamp Park or to really expand the fully protected areas as safe havens for fish.

If you really want fish to eat in the future you’ve got to save them now. Only about 10 percent of the large species we like to consume – tunas, swordfish, marlin, sharks, grouper, snapper – are still there from where they were 50 years ago.

A fraction, less than one percent, of the ocean is protected and all the rest is open for fishing and not just casual fishing, I mean large-scale fishing that is taking the heart out of the ocean. We just need to think differently. We don’t go out and make a meal out of songbirds, we don’t find them in our supermarkets. We think nothing of seeing wild fish, wild shrimp, wild lobster, wildlife from the sea in large quantities pouring into us and out of the ocean. It doesn’t mean we should stop eating wildlife from the sea, we’ve just overdone it, it’s not sustainable.

The message is the same wherever a person lives – you’re dependent on the ocean. The ocean generates 70 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere; 97 percent of earth’s water is out there in the ocean. Yes, it’s salt water and we don’t drink salt water but where does rain come from? It comes from water that goes up in the atmosphere forming clouds and sending fresh water back to the land, restoring rivers, lakes and streams. Without the ocean, earth would be a lot like Mars.

We are all sea creatures in a way. We’re all dependent on the ocean, even if you’ve never seen the ocean or thought about the ocean, the ocean keeps you alive and the ocean needs your help at this point in history. It needs your vote. Fish don’t vote.  It needs you.

If you’re a kid if you’re grownup it doesn’t matter. You have power and part of it comes of making your voice heard. When I served as the chief scientist at NOAA, the letters that people would send really counted and it counts now on the local level and the state level and the national level, and even international. Write to the United Nations if you have an issue about the atmosphere or the high seas or about policies that affect the whole world, whatever it is. Your voice counts. It counts when you’re silent every bit as much. Lack of expressing yourself suggests that you don’t care. So inaction is a vote. Inaction is a decision just like action is a conscious decision.

I think the biggest problem today is complacency. People who just don’t do what they could do to make a difference when we really need as much help as we can get to give voice to the voiceless — all those in the future who aren’t here to express themselves or vote, and all of the wild creature who can’t vote and can’t express themselves.

Many of you wrote letters and placed phone calls to your members of Congress in support of the American Clean Energy and Security Act to protect wildlife from global warming, create clean-energy jobs and improve the nation’s energy security. As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill on the eve of the 4th of July weekend. It was a close fight, and every letter and call counted.

While letters were pouring in from real voters like you who want a new energy future, a surprising number of calls and faxes were being sent to undecided lawmakers from phone numbers outside of their districts urging a vote against the bill. Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello received a letter that supposedly was sent from a local chapter of the NAACP, asking him to oppose the measure. On further investigation, Perriello discovered that this letter along with five others purportedly sent from different organizations were all forgeries. It was a fraud that corrupted the very heart of America’s democracy—the connection between members of Congress and their constituents.

In reality, the NAACP recently joined in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation to support passage of the legislation. During their Centennial Convention in July, NAACP delegates recognized the economic opportunities that will flow from global warming solutions, stating in a resolution that “solving the climate crisis can create 5 million ‘green’ jobs that will be in places where they are needed most.”

The fake NAACP letter and other phony messages sent to lawmakers were products of outright deception created by companies such as Bonner & Associates, a lobbying group known to create “strategic grassroots”—an artificial version of grassroots lobbying known in Washington, D.C., as “Astroturf.”

In recent years, large corporate interests have successfully deceived Congress and the public by paying for such Astroturf campaigns. Here is how it’s done: Corporations hire firms like Bonner & Associates, which in turn make up fake organizational names or borrow real organizations’ letterheads, hire professional callers who improperly identify themselves with made-up groups and urge unsuspecting residents to call their members of Congress to oppose important reform legislation that they misrepresent as bad. Bonner & Associates refused to reveal its corporate clients that funded their deception, but the firm has represented a number of big energy companies in the past. Congress is now investigating their activities.

This is merely the latest fraud by the major energy companies to mislead the public. On a recent visit to Prince William Sound in Alaska, I saw scientifically-collected samples that demonstrate much of the oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill remains where it went when it was washed off the surface of the rocks. It continues to damage fish and wildlife habitat and contaminate our food chain. The oiled sound is no longer the pristine place it once was and most of the canneries in the town of Cordova are gone.

When the pipeline and port in Prince William Sound were built, the oil industry promised President Nixon they would have a response team, oil booms and other equipment ready to address any spill that might occur. They didn’t.

In the days after the accident, as the oil spread more than 800 miles through the sound and along the Alaska Coast, Exxon promised to clean it up and make the 30,000 people living in the region’s fishing villages “whole.” They did neither. Instead, Exxon cheated innocent people of their livelihoods. For the next 20 years, the company fought bankrupt fishermen, cannery owners and other innocent victims all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the end, Exxon paid only pennies on the dollars lost. Many of the original victims died waiting; others lost everything dear to them.

There is an often-repeated quote, first attributed to President Abraham Lincoln, that says, “You may fool all of the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Well, the executives of big oil along with the dirty coal industry believe they can fool all Americans all the time.

Oil companies will do everything they can to stop the clean energy and climate legislation passed in the House from advancing in the Senate. Once again, we expect a close vote. Call your two U.S. Senators, tell them that you are a real constituent and urge them to pass the bill to protect our world, create millions of new jobs and restore a strong economy built on a domestic energy future. Let’s work together to prove President Lincoln right.

On behalf of National Wildlife Federation, I want you to know how important all your work has been and how much we deeply appreciate all your good work for us and on behalf of wildlife and our children’s future.  See this video of our rally. Thank you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are two quick, but critical actions you can take right now to help ensure that this unprecedented legislation reaches the finish line today:

1. Even though you’ve already emailed your Congressmember, making a direct phone call to his/her office right now will ensure s/he hears just how important this legislation is to you as a constituent: http://online.nwf.org/site/R?i=023FjFbuoQgaKt45RWeCZQ.

2. For your friends, family members and followers online, encourage them to speak up today for one of the most critical pieces of legislation of our time: http://online.nwf.org/site/R?i=eedetTiY-RoSPVxxQAp33w.

Thank you for the critical role you’ve played in conservation history by helping get this legislation across the finish line today.

Please make sure your representative will help pass this groundbreaking legislation today.

Here are the top 3 reasons this bill is good for our nation’s wildlife, wild places, and you.

1. The American Clean Energy and Security Act Will Prevent Deforestation in Developing Nations.The American Clean Energy and Security Act includes a large-scale program to secure agreements from developing nations to prevent tropical deforestation. This program will not only protect beautiful tropical rainforests from destruction, but also reduce global emissions by an amount equivalent to 10% of U.S. emissions (720 million tons CO2) annually as of the year 2020.
2. The American Clean Energy and Security Act Increases Our Energy Security and Reduces Our Dependency on Oil.When we invest in America’s clean energy economy, we’ll be able to safeguard the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling. Arctic caribou and other wildlife will be thanking you.
3. The Act Protects Natural Resources and Wildlife from Global Warming.The American Clean Energy and Security Act establishes the national policy framework and initial funding stream necessary to begin tackling the impacts of climate change on our natural resources. That means help will soon be on the way for moose, the American pika, and the whooping crane–wildlife that are already feeling the heat from rising global temperatures.

Excited? Today our country has a critical opportunity to take decisive action to safeguard wildlife for our children’s future. It’s going to be a close vote! So, please take just a few seconds to speak up for wildlife right now.

This historic plan to protect America’s public lands provides the largest expansion of wilderness in fifteen years!

The Omnibus Public Lands Management Act will conserve critical public lands and waters, which provide important wildlife habitats and innumerable recreational opportunities for America’s outdoor enthusiasts.

Specifically, the Act will secure wilderness designation for more than two million acres of public lands, protect thousands of miles of rushing rivers and establish a 26 million acre conservation system – the first new system of conservation lands in the United States in more than 50 years.

Congratulations everyone and thanks so much for all you’ve done to help achieve this historic victory for your public lands!

To learn more about the National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to protect and restore public lands, check out ourpubliclands.org

A green recovery package has passed the U.S. House of Representatives– with great provisions to create clean energy jobs while protecting wildlife and natural resources.

Great work from the thousands of you that demanded the House’s economic recovery legislation work for the future of people and wildlife. Now a similar bill is up for a vote in the U.S. Senate.

There can be no doubt, we will soon have our economic recovery plan.

The Senate bill has some great provisions, including investments in green education, public land management and clean water restoration projects. But, it also includes support for coal-to-liquid programs, and as we all know: there’s no such thing as clean coal.

Today we’re sending some positive encouragement to the Senate, and letting our leaders know that we support a truly green economic recovery plan. News reports are saying that there are more jobs in the wind industry these days than in coal mining. So obviously, the time for a clean energy future is now.

Got a minute? Send a message to your Senators today, asking them to pass a green stimulus package. Let them know you care about environmental education, green technology jobs and tax incentives for homeowners to make their homes energy-efficient. Let them know they should leave out the coal-to-liquid provision, because that’s not going to help our economy or our wildlife.

If not for your own job future (and you might do well to consider one of the millions of jobs that are opening up in the green sector), do it for the polar bears!

Over the last five years, it’s been one thing after another threatening to take the character and beauty from our public lands. From fossil fuel development occurring at an unprecedented rate and conducted rashly and irresponsibly to dirty mining and threats to sell-off public lands for short term gains, public lands have been abused and all but forgotten as the national treasure they truly are.

Almost 1/3 of the United States is public lands — lands held in trust by all Americans that provide vital habitat for our wildlife, clean water and open space for recreation. They are also lands we will pass on to our children, and our children’s children to experience.

Last week the senate passed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, which contains more than 160 separate public lands bills, most of which will expand the protection of our public lands. The Act will provide the largest expansion of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 15 years, designating 2.1 million acres of permanent wilderness in nine states — California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Michigan, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Another one of the bills in the package — the National Landscape Conservation System Act — will provide permanent protection for the first new system of conservation lands in the United States in more than 50 years. Under the National Landscape Conservation System Act, over 850 federally recognized areas covering 27 million acres of the Bureau of Land Management’s most spectacular land and waters will be protected permanently.

The Act now moves to House of Representatives, which is expected to consider it in the coming weeks. Visit www.OurPublicLands.org for more information.