The EarthJustice 2016 Legal Docket

With the generous investment of our members, Earthjustice is taking on some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. In the new year, we will be pursuing nearly 400 active legal cases.

PRESERVING THE WILD

“The legal issues are challenging, and the opposition is daunting. 

But our track record of winning is remarkable, given the political and 

economic power that we go toe-to-toe against in court every day. 

Everyone connected with Earthjustice should take great pride in that.”

– DREW CAPUTO 

VICE-PRESIDENT OF LITIGATION FOR LANDS, WILDLIFE & OCEANS

PROTECTING OUR HEALTH

“Many communities still live with high levels of pollution and 

excessive toxic risk. We can do a better job. 

We have the technology and innovation—

and we have the wherewithal to reduce those burdens.”

– LISA GARCIA 

VICE-PRESIDENT OF LITIGATION FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

ADVANCING CLEAN ENERGY

“What we excel at is forcing action. We’ve stepped into the vacuum of the 

policy debate and forced meaningful action to begin the shift away 

from fossil fuels. At Earthjustice, we have the opportunity to wield 

the law as a powerful force for good.”

– ABIGAIL DILLEN 

VICE-PRESIDENT OF LITIGATION FOR CLIMATE & ENERGY

Click here to read the highlights:

6 Easy Ways to Live a More Zero-Waste Life

We do the best we can - we dutifully sort and recycle our trash each week don't we? It seems there's still too much being hauled into the mammoth trash cans each week. You scratch your head and wonder where it all comes from!

Have you ever wished to reduce that landfill-bound trash and lower what's in your recycling bin, too? Here are 6 simple ways to live a more zero-waste life.

1. Ditch the Disposables at Your Table

2. Paper or Plastic? Neither!

3. Repurpose Items to a New Life

4. Learn to Make It Yourself

5. Cook From Scratch

6. Compost, Compost, COMPOST!

Click here to read more about these 6 simple ways...

A New Year of Action for the Sound

As you make your New Year's resolutions, you can make a difference for Long Island Sound.

 

In addition to healthier eating or reading more, consider adding a resolution for Clean Water to your 2016 list!

Resolution 1: Reduce Nitrogen Pollution

Resolution 2: Find Solutions to Bacterial Pollution 

Resolution 3: Restore Rivers and Healthy Marshes

Resolution 4: Save Plum Island  

Resolution 5: Become a member 

Become a part of our network of citizens saving the Sound.

Click here to read more about the resolutions...

Repair, Reuse, Reduce at the Connecticut Repair Café

Whether the value is sentimental or practical, most of us have something kept in a corner of the basement, the attic, in the back of a closet, that falls into the “they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore” category.  Unfortunately, “they” also don’t fix those anymore, either.

Well, except at the Connecticut Repair Café.

Organized by the Access Community Action Agency in Willimantic, CT, and with support from the Town of Mansfield, CT, the “café” is a meeting place for repairable items and community members skilled in repairing electrical items, electronics, bicycles and books, sharpening knives and mending clothing to make things useful again. 

Click here to read more...

Teachers changing culture at middle school through Sustainable Living course

Because of Vermont’s Act 250, Mount Anthony Union Middle School has been tied to agriculture even before its doors opened a decade ago.

MAUMS was in desperate need to relocate its 600 students and the only land available for a new school was on a farm. In order to use farmland for the school, MAUMS agreed to include agriculture in the school’s curriculum and recycle and compost 80 percent of its outflow.

And because of two people and the support they have developed throughout the school and the community over the past several years, MAUMS is a leader in building the connection between agriculture and education for children.

Click here to read more...

Honeybees Face Global Threat: If They Die, So Do We

“There is one masterpiece, the hexagonal cell, that touches perfection. No living creature, not even man, has achieved, in the centre of his sphere, what the bee has achieved in her own: and were some one from another world to descend and ask of the earth the most perfect creation of the logic of life, we should needs have to offer the humble comb of honey.”— Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee, 1924

What is the most important animal to humans? In prehistoric times, the dog helped transform early hunter-gatherers into apex predators. Later, human civilization was built on the backs of horses. But starting around 11,500 years ago, when humans began making permanent settlements and invented agriculture, bees emerged as the most critical animal to human survival.

By pollinating crops around the world, honeybees feed more than 7 billion people today. Most of the food that we eat (and all of our cotton) is produced in part by the hard work of bees. In her 2011 book The Beekeeper’s Lament, journalist Hannah Nordhaus described honeybees as “the glue that holds our agricultural system together."

....

Sadly, in recent times, we have not treated our bee friends well. The use of pesticides — neonicotinoids in particular, which are commonly used on corn, soybean, canola and cereal, as well as many fruits and vegetables — have killed an estimated 250 million bees in a just a few years. Applied to plants, neonics travel through the plant's vascular system and appear in roots, pollen and nectar that then are tranferred to bees and their colonies, as well as other untargeted and vulnerable species, from earthworms to birds and even bats.

Click here to read more...

D.I.Y. Fridays – Helping the Bees with our Plants and Gardens

There has been a lot of buzz about saving the bees lately. Beekeepers, environmental groups, farmers (who rely on the bees to pollinate up to 80% of their flowering crops), and even mainstream media outlets are all reporting a shocking decline in the bee population, especially honeybees, in North America and many regions of Europe.

Click here to read more....

Equal Exchange: Fair Trade & Our Environment

At Equal Exchange, we believe in the power of authentic Fair Trade to make the world a better place. Here are 3 ways that Fair Trade supports environmental stewardship.

Video:

https://youtu.be/xYzl_YwTULk?list=PLXPcCPkwqAvhn2-_t55XJ3kNcSi-Vzl5L

The Importance of Fair Trade

Equal Exchange is a worker-owned fair trade company, founded in 1986, that offers consumers fairly traded gourmet coffee direct from small-scale farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Equal Exchange seeks to establish an alternative model of trade, one that benefits small farmers directly through the following fair trade standards that apply to all Equal Exchange products:

• Always pay a guaranteed minimum price to the farmer.
• Work directly with democratic cooperatives of small scale farmers.
• Provide vital advance credit to farmers.
• Encourage ecologically sustainable farming practices.
• Develop long-term trade relations based on trust and respect.
• Offer consumers the finest gourmet, certified organic, shade-grown coffees.

Video: Equal Exchange: Fair Trade & CommunityAt Equal Exchange, we believe in the power of authentic Fair Trade to make the world a better place. Here are 3 ways that Fair Trade supports healthy, vibrant communities.
https://youtu.be/VB8WYvimu7w
 

Your Fair Trade Purchase Counts Twice: UCC Small Farmer Fund

Equal Exchange contributes $0.15 to the UCC Justice & Witness Ministries Small Farmer Fund for every pound of fairly traded products sold through the UCC Coffee Project. Since the Coffee Project began in 2004, Equal Exchange has nearly $100,000 to the UCC Justice & Witness Ministries Small Farmers' Fund. 

Small Farmer Fund contributions totaled $7,309.32 in 2014. This money is used to support the Small Farm Project at the UCC Franklinton Center at Bricks. This is one component of the Just Food Project which supports a farmers' market held at FCAB where local small farmers sell their produce and local residents purchase affordable fresh vegetables and fruits. FCAB is located in eastern North Carolina in an area where many people are in poor health, experience food insecurity, and have poor access to healthy foods.  The Small Farm Project is part of a comprehensive approach to comm unity economic development, environmental education, social justice, and health.

Equal Exchange: Who We Are and What We Believe In

The UCC Fair Trade Project (formally the UCC Coffee Project) allows your congregation to partner with the UCC and Equal Exchange in building fair trade for small farming communities by serving fairly traded coffee, tea and cocoa, and chocolate, snacks, and olive oil for justice at fellowship hour on Sundays.

The UCC Coffee Project is a way for your congregation to join hands with communities in the developing world. As Christians we can address a consumer dilemma by buying coffee and other commodities that are fairly traded. Through the project, small farmers and their families gain more control over their lives, earn a fairer share of income, have access to credit and technical support, and gain a trading partner they can trust, a fair trade organization called Equal Exchange. And, through the project, members of your congregation can learn about consumption habits that support small scale farmers and workers throughout the world and encourage careful stewardship of God's creation. At fellowship hour, you will be taking action in a spirit of love.

What does it mean to create change with your everyday choices? We believe that something as simple as the coffee you drink has an effect on the planet and our global community, and you have the power to make that effect a positive one.

(See the video Equal Exchange: Who We Are and What We Believe In.) https://youtu.be/H3Cx5Jn9hgA