The environment should be a top priority for all countries. Governments around the world need to work together to reduce their carbon footprint and pollution levels. The future of our planet is in jeopardy if we do not act now. We cannot continue to live on a planet where air pollution levels are increasing, where fresh water is scarce, and where natural habitats are threatened by human development. We need to improve upon our practices and technology in order to create a more sustainable future.
There are opportunities for each of us to campaign better future. To help you get involved we have put together some petitions from environmental activists that you can sign right now, because everyday is an opportunity to do something good.
1. Stop fake renewables: The EU must protect forests, not burn them for energy. (Europe)
he European commission published its “Fit For 55” legislative package 🗂 a basket of policy proposals that aim to reduce the EU’s emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels 🧚🏽♀️
🔌 However, the updates to the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) will actively work against this goal, and therefore threaten to work against any progress this package makes.
Currently, EU policies encourage more logging 🪓 including for biomass fuel ⛽️ that is burned in power plants 🔥 and counted as ✨ zero carbon ✨ renewable energy.
But in reality, burning wood emits more carbon pollution than burning coal 🏭 and even if new trees are planted 🌱 to replace old ones, they will take between 20 and 100 years to take up all the CO2 emitted by burning the old trees ⌛
This is a clear threat to the world keeping warming below 1.5 C 🌡 in the next few decades.
🌿 Preserving nature and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change will require an extraordinary commitment to PROTECT and RESTORE natural forests.
Forest and climate experts have put together a very simple message which you can help us pass on to the @EuropeanCommission : don’t burn forests and food for energy, and #StopFakeRenewables! 📢📢📢
What can you do? Sign the petition 🖋 “The EU must protect forests, not burn them for energy.”
2. Put an end to the flood of plastic (Germany)
Germany is the European champion in terms of packaging waste. Plastic waste makes up a large proportion of this waste at around 3 million tons per year. Our supermarkets and drugstores produce disposable products non-stop, and laws and regulations do not prevent this behavior. Much of this plastic packaging ends up in the environment, not just in the yellow can or public waste bins. This email campaign organized by the Deutsche Umwelthilfe, or Environmental Action Germany in English, calls on Chancellor Angela Merkel to introduce effective initiatives and clear regulations for less packaging and single-use products.
You can sign the petition here: https://www.duh.de/plastikflutstoppen/
3. Email campaign against single-use plastic bottles (Germany)
Vittel mineral water from Nestlé, imported from France and packaged in several layers of single-use plastic, is an embodiment of excessive throwaway culture. The bottles are especially harmful to the environment because they have to be manufactured anew for each time they are filled, which is both energy and resource intensive. And Nestlé overuse mentality extends beyond packaging. The company has bottled so much spring water in the eponymous town of Vittle, France that the groundwater reserves there are shrinking. On top of all that, Vittle water is unnecessarily transported a long distance from France to Germany despite the fact that there are more than a hundred springs and mineral fountains in our local regions.
To be more sustainable, drinks should be filled in reusable and returnable bottles. With this protest mailing campaign the Deutsche Umwelthilfe calls on Nestlé CEO Marc-Aurel Boersch to remove unnecessary single-use plastic bottles from the market.
Send your message here: https://www.duh.de/vittel-protest/
4. Say no to fracking gas: Help stop imports of dirty fracking gas from the US (Germany)
On the German coast the gas lobby wants to build liquefied natural gas terminals (LNG) at in Brunsbüttel, Wilhelmshaven, and Stade. This is intended to open up alternative import sources to Russian pipeline gas.
But how long can we use natural gas? In times of the climate crisis we cannot afford to make major investments in fossil fuels. In order to meet the German government's goal of being largely climate-neutral by 2050, we must phase out natural gas as soon as possible.
Sign the petition here: https://www.duh.de/fracking-protest/
5. Against state greenwashing: Close the fake foundation supporting the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline (Germany)
Just imagine: A "climate protection" foundation is set up to complete a fossil fuel mega-project launched by a state government, but then a fossil fuel company is handed majority control of said foundation. Does that sound unbelievable? Well that's exactly what the state government of Manuela Schwesig, minister-president of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is doing.
The foundation of Klima- und Umweltschutz MV, or Climate and Environmental Protection MV in English, is primarily financed by Nord Stream 2 AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Russian state gas company Gazprom. Nord Stream 2 AG is financing 99 percent of the long-term invest for the foundation with with 60 million euros.
Despite being called "climate protection", the real purpose of the foundation seems to be the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. This pipeline is set to transport natural gas to Germany well beyond 2050. The project will be responsible for 100 million tons of CO2 per year, in addition to climate-damaging methane emissions from natural gas production. This makes the pipeline one of the largest new fossil fuel projects in Europe.
With this petition you can call on Ms. Schwesig to dismantle this fake foundation and get involved in real climate protection.
Sign the petition here: change.org
6. Protect 30% of our one ocean by 2030 (Worldwide)
The ocean has absorbed more than 90 percent of the excess heat and one-quarter of the carbon dioxide (CO2) humans have generated by burning fossil fuels, helping to shield the planet from the worst ravages of climate change. But this has come at a cost we are only beginning to understand.
The ocean is now warmer than at any time since measurements began, more acidic than at any time in the last 14 million years, and is providing less oxygen. These changes are already affecting life in the ocean, from the tiniest plankton, to important fisheries, to the largest whales.
The single most important thing we can do for the ocean, besides cutting CO2 emissions, is to significantly reduce other major stressors like overfishing, offshore oil development, seabed mining and habitat destruction through the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) — parks in the ocean where human industrial activities are prohibited.
Demand the adoption of an international target that fully protects at least 30 percent of the global ocean by 2030, and strengthens conservation of the remaining 70 percent. This protection is imperative in the face of threats from all around the globe, and it is an incredible opportunity to boost and support the very solutions we need for a healthier ocean and planet, for us and future generations.
Sign the petition here: https://www.weareoneocean.org/
7. Actions on climate emergency (Europe)
A call for the European Commission to strengthen EU action on climate emergency to limit warming to 1.5°C implies more ambitious climate goals and financial support for climate action. In order to do so, Fridays for the Future ECI has the following objectives:
- The EU shall adjust its goals under the Paris Agreement to an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, to reach net-0 by 2035 and adjust European climate legislation accordingly.
- An EU Border Carbon Adjustment shall be implemented.
- No free trade treaty shall be signed with partner countries that do not follow a 1.5° compatible pathway according to Climate Action Tracker.
- The EU shall create free educational materials for all member curricula about the effects of climate change.
EU citizens can sign the petition here: https://eci.fridaysforfuture.org/en/
8. Stop Line 3 (North America)
Line 3 is a proposed pipeline expansion to bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. It was proposed in 2014 by Enbridge, a Canadian pipeline company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the US. Enbridge seeks to build a new pipeline corridor through untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples, through the Mississippi River headwaters to the shore of Lake Superior.
All pipelines spill. Line 3 isn’t about safe transportation of a necessary product, it’s about expansion of a dying tar sands industry. Line 3 would contribute more to climate change than Minnesota’s entire economy. Minnesota’s own Department of Commerce found our local market does not need Line 3 oil. We need to decommission the old Line 3 and justly transition to a renewable, sustainable economy. Line 3 would violate the treaty rights of Anishinaabe peoples and nations in its path — wild rice is a centerpiece of Anishinaabe culture, it grows in numerous watersheds Line 3 seeks to cross. It’s well-past time to end the legacy of theft from and destruction of indigenous peoples and territories.
Go to stopline3.org, get informed and take action. You can sign the petition to and tell president Biden to #StopLine3.
9. Save the Okavango Delta (Africa)
Last year, news that a Canadian oil and gas exploration company, ReconAfrica, planned the go-ahead with fracking in some of Africa’s most sensitive environmental areas sent shockwaves all over the world. The gas giant indicated that it planned to begin oil exploration in the Namibian headwaters of the Okavango Delta and the Tsodilo Hills, a World Heritage Site in Botswana.
Youth climate activists in the Namibian capital, along with several other environmental and human rights groups, reacted with international calls from all fronts to prevent the impending environmental catastrophe that not only impacts the Okavango Delta’s biodiversity – which includes a number of endangered species – but also communities who depend on the Kavango Basin to sustain their livelihoods.
Nature, biodiversity and the livelihood of many people will be destroyed if the oil production plans of the Canadian company ReconAfrica are implemented
Read this article published by Greenpeace to learn why the Okavango Delta is so important and why this oil project must be stopped.
Take action signing this petition.
10. Stand up for the women who protect the water (Chile)
"They have threatened to kill me", "they tried to run me over with my son", "unknown people have entered my house at dawn, but curiously they have never stolen anything". These are some of the stories of Verónica Vilches, Carolina Vilches and Lorena Donaire of Mujeres Modatima, an organization for the Defense of Water, Land and Environmental Protection in the Province of Petorca, Chile.
They spend their days amidst harassment, surveillance, threats and stigmatization for defending the right to water, in areas where drought has been dragging on for years with consequences for the health and lives of local communities.
Members of Mujeres Modatima not only endure attacks and harassment, but also encounter barriers when they try to report them. Even when they do file complaints, investigations are often not carried out.
Sign Amnesty international Petition to demand protection to these water defenders. Their work is as important as the water they defend. We cannot leave them alone.
11. Siona Survival (Amazon Rainforest, Colombia)
The Siona people of Buenavista, have always lived along the shores of the Putumayo river. Over the last few decades the violence of the armed conflict in Colombia has invaded their territory and lives. The threats they face prompted the highest court in Colombia to declare that Siona people are at risk of physical and cultural extinction.
Yet with their very existence at risk, the Colombian government has sold extraction rights over the only rainforest territory they have left to the British oil company Amerisur. In 2014, when Amerisur first arrived, the Siona people told them no. Today, after Amerisur sold their interest in the oil underneath their land to the Chilean company GeoPark.
Even though the Colombian Peace Accords were signed in 2016 the violence along the Putumayo River continues. The oil operations nearby are already inflaming that violence, causing division amongst neighbors, and putting the lives of their leaders at grave risk.
Go to AmazonFrontlines.org to get informed and sign this letter telling oil companies andand the Colombian Government to respect the Siona's right to keep their territory safe and oil-free.
Amazon Frontlines counts on a global community of committed supporters in order to build power with indigenous peoples to protect their lands, way of life, and our shared climate future for the long term. Learn more about their work and donate to support their causes.
