Less stuff, more orangutans

 

Give the gift of RAN.

Forget Black Friday. It’s Non-Profit Tuesday! (No, we didn’t make that up.)

The holidays are coming up soon, and you’re probably starting to look for gifts for your loved ones. But—going out on a limb here—I’m willing to bet you don’t want to give a bunch of useless stuff to your friends and family. That’s why we’re excited to offer a variety of gifts that will make a world of difference without crowding our world with more disposable junk.

A Certificate of Action from RAN isn’t stuff—it’s a unique way to support our work to protect rainforests around the world and the people and wildlife that depend on them. You’ll be giving a meaningful gift to a loved one while at the same time doing something good for the planet.

Action Packed Gifts for 2012
	Found only in Malaysia and Indonesia, man’s closest relative is being threatened by rapid loss of rainforest habitat. Your gift will support efforts to stop the devastating expansion of paper and palm oil plantations into Indonesia’s tropical forests, saving the lush wild places that orangutans call home.
	Your gift directly supports the grassroots efforts of historically underfunded organizations and communities struggling to protect their rainforest homelands—known to be the best guardians of the forest. Help ensure that small local organizations and Indigenous federations across the globe are supported in their efforts to protect the world’s remaining rainforests for many generations to come.
	There are less than 400 Sumatran tigers remaining in the wild and habitat destruction by the pulp and paper industry is a primary cause of their decline. Your gift will support RAN’s campaign to stop the conversion of Indonesia’s stunning and diverse rainforests into a wasteland of single species pulp plantations to make cheap copy paper, books, tissue and toilet paper.
	The biggest banks are threatening to take us to the edge of an ecological catastrophe if they don’t stop funding coal, the primary driver of climate change. Coal is responsible for 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and poisons the world’s streams, rivers and oceans with mercury, arsenic and other dangerous chemicals. It’s long past time that U.S. banks start funding a renewable energy economy.

Celebrate the holiday spirit this year by giving a gift that makes a world of difference. Thank you for your ongoing support!

		For the rainforests,
		Scott Kocino Membership Manager

P.S. These creative gifts make it easier than ever to support RAN’s work for the environment.

Lafcadio Cortesi, Rainforest Action Network

Chip in to help hold paper villain Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) accountable.

Here are RAN, we are engaged in one of our largest campaigns yet in an emergency effort to save Indonesia‘s imperiled forests. We’re working in the U.S., Japan, and Indonesia to create the market leverage necessary to transform the corporate practices of APP, the largest paper company in Indonesia. And our campaign is working: major U.S. and European customers like Staples, Random House, Levi’s, and Gucci have stopped buying paper from controversial sources like APP.

Now is the perfect time to put more market pressure on APP, and that is directly where your support will go.
Make a tax-deductible donation to the Rainforest Action Network today.

Canadian donors, please click here.

Climate Movement is heating Up

As we face heat wave after heat wave and ever more frequent extreme weather events, the reality that global warming is not some far-off crisis is finally starting to be widely recognized. Perhaps it’s no wonder that the climate movement is heating up this summer, too. Activists and concerned citizens across the country are fed up with waiting for our political leaders to act and are taking action themselves. From Appalachia and Washington, DC to Texas and Montana, here are some of the major mobilizations against the fossil fuels that are cooking our climate, all part of what’s being called the Summer of Solidarity. Coal Export Action Coal is a dirty and dying industry—which is why King Coal is desperately searching for a life line in the form of coal export terminals from which it can reach markets in Asia. Climate and student activists have joined with Montana, Oregon and Washington residents for a series of rolling sit-ins against coal extraction and coal exports at the state capitol building in Helena, MT. Read more on the Understory, RAN’s blog Mountain Mobilization On July 28th, 50 activists entered the Hobet Mine in Boone County, WV, the largest mountaintop removal mine in the country, in an act of mass civil disobedience. Read more on the Understory, RAN’s blog Tar Sands Blockade The Keystone XLtar sands pipeline just won’t die. President Obama fast-tracked approval of the Southern leg of the pipeline, so activists with the Tar Sands Blockade have coordinated a series of peaceful protests along the pipeline route to stop this zombie pipeline once and for all. Read more on Truth-Out.org Stop the Frack Attack “Thousands of protestors gathered in the muggy heat on the National Mallin Washington, DC for the first-ever nationwide anti-fracking demonstration.” Read more on ThinkProgress.org

For more context on the Summer of Solidarity, check out this article by RAN’s own Scott Parkin: “How Quiet Environmental Uprisings Are Spreading Across the Country”. Thanks for all you do to make our planet a cleaner, greener place.

Cargill needs to come clean … Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

With palm oil in half of all products for sale in US grocery stores, we have the right to know the true cost of its production.

Cargill is the #1 importer of palm oil into the US, but the company refuses to be transparent about who it does business with. For instance: Is Cargill still sourcing from the notorious palm oil company Duta Palma even though this company is embroiled in severe social conflicts with communities near its destructive palm plantations?

Dozens of people are gathering outside Cargill’s offices today in Minneapolis to ask the company to come clean about its operations.

Will you help us amplify their voices by writing to Cargill now and demanding transparency around its “no-trade list”?

In the past, Cargill has said Duta Palma was on its “no-trade list,” but the company has never made this list public and RAN has reason to believe Cargill’s policy of sourcing from any company that pays membership dues to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil allows it to get palm oil from Duta Palma.

Please email Cargill CEO Greg Page now and ask him to come clean.

In 2009, Rainforest Action Network released a case study documenting illegal rainforest burning by Duta Palma on community lands used by the people of Semunying Jaya in Borneo. Duta Palma doesn’t have permits to operate these plantations and police refuse to do anything about this blatant land theft and environmental destruction.

So community members took action themselves.

A few weeks ago, members of the Semunying Jaya community seized several pieces of machinery, trucks, bulldozers and chainsaws, then barricaded the doors of Duta Palma’s palm nursery, shutting down operations. The community members are now facing possible criminal charges for standing up for the health and safety of their home.

We have the right to know: Is Cargill profiting from the oppression of the people of Semunying Jaya by buying palm oil from Duta Palma? Please demand transparency now.

For the forests,

Ashley Schaeffer

Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

Mike Gaworecki, Rainforest Action Network

Our friends at Environmental Action are holding a rally in Houston on June 30 to let Big Oil bigwigs know that we the people are fed up with our tax dollars subsidizing their enormously profitable and incredibly destructive industry.
Whether or not you can be in Houston on June 30, find out how you can stand with them by clicking here. Read below for more info.
For a cleaner future,

Mike G.

Environmental Action is on a mission to get America off oil, and on June 30 we’re going to take our fight to the doorsteps of the biggest oil companieson the planet. We’re staging an awesome rally in downtown Houston, the headquarters of Big Oil, and we need your help.We’ve teamed up with the Better Future Project, Texas Sierra Club, 350, the Rainforest Action Network and others to organize this event, and we want it to be big. We want to send Big Oil a strong message that America will no longer subsidize the most profitable and environmentally destructive industry on the planet. Together with our allies, we’ve collected more than a million signatures asking Congress to end all subsidies and tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry. But we need to make sure that the companies taking our money and messing up our planet get the message too. So we’re staging a bike-powered rally on the streets of Houston to deliver the message on June 30 — and you can be there, no matter where you live, just by signing the petition here. We’ve taken our message to D.C., to the campaign trail, and to thousands of Americans at their doorsteps. But the executives who run the oil companies destroying our planet are going unchallenged. While we’re fighting with politicians and worrying about whether there will be a planet left for the next generation to live on — they’re sitting in Houston getting rich. No more. We’re heading into the heart of Big Oil’s home turf and putting them on notice that this is our planet, and we’re ready to take action for it. And we’re doing it in a fun, peaceful way with no oil required to show that real alternatives are possible, if we’re willing to stop investing in pollution and bet on clean energy and healthy communities instead. If you live in the Houston area  and want to join the June 30 rally, you can RSVP for the event here. But even if you can’t be there in person, we need you to participate. If this event is going to get noticed by Congress and the media we need as many people to sign their support as possible, to show that America is tired of subsidizing one of th e most profitable and environmentally destructive industries on Earth. If you agree that America needs to get off oil and start using clean, green energy sources: Support us by signing the petition,  and let America see our strength in numbers. Thanks for all you do, Drew Hudson Director | Environmental Action

Extinction doesn’t get a second chance … Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

		Click on the photo above for even more info
		Extinction doesn’t get a second chance. Endangered orangutans are hovering on the very edge of extinction.  Palm oil companies have deforested so much of the forests orangutans depend on for survival, they literally have nowhere left to go. Mankind’s closest relative urgently needs our help. Wild orangutans are nearly extinct and need us to take a stand.  You can help this important work by chipping in just $10 today. The footage below, which I filmed in Borneo, shows a pregnant orangutan trapped inside an area of active palm oil development on the border of Tanjng Puting National Park.  Because orangutans cannot swim, she cannot reach the protected lands on the other side of this river, condemning her to inevitable death by starvation or at the hands of plantation workers. Watching her broke my heart. Palm oil companies prioritize profit over life. Horrific scenes like the one captured above must come to an end. RAN is pushing big industry buyers like Cargill to take responsibility for the very real impacts of their supply chains, their role in land conflicts affecting Indigenous communities, and the role palm oil is playing in species extinction. By donating just $10 today, you are joining with hundreds of other donors to make sure that we are saving orangutans, like the one above, from extinction. Deforestation in Indonesia has reached crisis proportions — but a narrow window of time remains to stop this historic tragedy before it is too late. During the past decade orangutan populations have decreased by about 50% in the wild. This means that without drastic intervention, orangutans may soon be extinct as biologically viable populations in the wild. RAN is working hard to pressure the Indonesian government and palm oil industry giants like Cargill to end this tragedy once and for all. Please be generous.  Extinct orangutans don’t get a second chance. For the forests, Ashley Schaeffer             Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

CEO John Watson … Wake Up

		Send Chevron CEO John Watson a wake up call now! RAN activists will be joining a large coalition of labor groups, community organizers, climate activists, and other environmentalists tomorrow at a protest outside of Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting. While protesters call out Chevron for putting profits ahead of people and planet outside, I’ll be going inside the meeting with people from communities impacted by Chevron operations from Nigeria to Brazil. Two of the brave Ecuadoreans suing Chevron to clean up of its massive oil contamination in the Amazon — Luz Trinidad Andrea Cusangua and Robinson Yumbo —  will travel to San Ramon, CA to take their calls for justice directly to the company. Chevron needs to know that for every person like Luz and Robinson inside the meeting and for every protestor outside the meeting, there are thousands more who stand with us. Can you call Chevron CEO John Watson and ask him to take responsibility for his company’s oily mess in Ecuador? We’ve set up a page that has everything you need to send a wake-up call to Watson: Phone number, sample call script, and a form so you can report back to us how the call went. Send Chevron’s CEO a wake up call now! Even a large number of Chevron shareholders feel the company’s executive team has badly mismanaged the Ecuador lawsuit. One recently wrote: “Chevron’s actions are hurting shareholders as well as the indigenous people of the rainforest.” You can be sure Chevron shareholders will make their voices heard at the meeting, just as Luz and Robinson will be making their calls for justice in Ecuador loud and clear. Chevron CEO John Watson needs to hear from you too. For a cleaner future, Ginger Cassady             Change Chevron

Victory … by Robin Averbeck, Rainforest Action Network

		Levi Strauss & Co. Takes a Stand for Rainforests and Excludes Asia Pulp & Paper Today, we have an exciting victory to announce. And we didn’t even have to climb a building to get it. Rainforest Action Network is known by most for our flashy banner drops and other creative ways of confronting corporations through non-violent direct action. What few people know is that RAN also spends countless hours behind the scenes in delicate negotiations with Fortune 500 companies. And sometimes, these comparatively mundane boardroom tactics lead to forest protections by some of the most influential companies in the world—like denim giant Levi Strauss & Co. In the fall of 2009, Levi’s received a letter from RAN asking it to cut any ties with notorious Indonesian rainforest destroyer Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and its affiliates. This was one of a hundred letters in RAN’s campaign to convince global fashion companies to stop buying from APP and choose responsible alternatives like recycled paper instead. The Levi’s team called us and immediately began working with us to create a comprehensive paper policy that maximized recycled fiber and barred paper suppliers connected to rainforest destruction, like Asia Pulp & Paper. We are pleased to announce today that Levi Strauss & Co. has implemented its new paper policy in its operations around the globe. This makes Levi’s the latest company in an ever-growing list of major corporate customers to exclude Asia Pulp & Paper for its human rights abuses and blatant rainforest destruction, and to take a stand to protect forests and the rights of communities that depend on them. Kudos to Levi Strauss & Co. for adding its powerful voice to the growing chorus of companies telling Asia Pulp and Paper, and logging companies like it, that rainforest destruction will not be tolerated. And thanks to all of you who support all of our work—from the thrilling direct actions to the tedious negotiations—we can’t do any of it without you. For the forests, Robin Averbeck Rainforest Free Paper Campaigner Twitter: @therightpaper

Beating Chevron to the punch: “We Agree” in DC

Uploaded by RANVideo on Oct 28, 2010

Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Watch and the Yes Men organized a counter-campaign to call out the greenwash in Chevron‘s new “We Agree” campaign. In this video, Washington, DC-based artist César Maxit explains how Chevron reached out to him to help with its campaign, and why he refused to help the company clean up its image while it refuses to clean up its toxic oil mess in Ecuador.

To get in on the Chevron-spoofing action, visit www.ChevronThinksWereStupid.org.

Before Chevron’s press release announcing the campaign could hit reporters’ inboxes, we sent out a press release of our own… on the company’s behalf. The company’s own press release was guaranteed to be full of greenwash. We wanted ours to be a bit more truthful. It featured quotes from real employees, but in this case they were describing a campaign we might actually be inclined to agree with:

“Chevron is making a clean break from the past by taking direct responsibility for our own actions,” said Rhonda Zygocki, Chevron vice president of Policy, Government and Public Affairs.

“Oil Companies Should Clean Up Their Messes,” reads one ad; the small print refers candidly to the damage done by oil companies around the world. “For decades, oil companies like ours have worked in disadvantaged areas, influencing policy in order to do there what we can’t do at home. It’s time this changed.”

Another ad, “Oil Companies Should Fix The Problems They Create,” is just as topical. “Extracting oil from the Earth is a risky process, and mistakes do happen. It’s easy to pass the blame or ignore the mistakes we’ve made. Instead, we need to face them head on, accept our financial and environmental responsibilities, and fund new technologies to avoid these mistakes in the future.”

Of course, before we sent out our press release, we put together a spoof website and a fake press page.

Punking Chevron’s We Agree Ad Campaign
http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?set_id=72157625076327405
View the set on Flickr: Punking Chevron’s We Agree Ad Campaign.

Some reporters got fooled by our spoof. Others managed to figure out it was a parody before they published their piece, but even still, we’d managed to derail much of the press about Chevron’s pricey new PR effort. Several pieces highlighted our spoof campaign instead of the real Chevron campaign. Here are a few examples:

• Reuters: Hoaxers target new Chevron advertising campaign
• NYT: Pranksters Lampoon Chevron Ad Campaign
• San Francisco Business Times: Protesters spoof Chevron ad campaign

A quote from a strategic communications professional in Advertising Age neatly sums up why it would have been stupid not to punk Chevron’s new ad campaign: “It’s like a thumb trap, the more the company tries to defend itself, the more it becomes part of the story and that makes it more interesting. The company being attacked can’t effectively fight back itself and that’s why these tactics are so effective.”

Our efforts to steal Chevron’s press about its new ad campaign worked better than we’d hoped. As the San Francisco Business Times put it: “You might think pesky protesters would bother a business that will have close to $200 [billion] in revenue this year like a tick fly bothers an elephant. But they seem to have found a tender spot on the big beast.”

We hit that tender spot, and we hit it hard — not just with our fake press release and website, but also with a second fake press release that we put out pretending to be Chevron responding to our first fake press release. We also created a fake AdAge article covering our own fake Chevron ad campaign. In other words, the real Chevron ad campaign never had a chance.

Meanwhile, activists were getting in on the action. So far, posters spoofing the new Chevron ads have gone up coast-to-coast, from San Francisco to LA to Washington, DC. Check out our Flickr set: Punking Chevron’s We Agree Ad Campaign.

Now it’s your turn to remix Chevron’s “We Agree” ad campaign!

from … Rainforest Action Network

		Wow, it’s been an incredible year and it’s time for us to say thank you. It’s activists like you that got us to the negotiating table with Disney to get rainforest destruction out of their supply chain. It’s activists like you that pushed President Obama to make the decision to delay (and possibly kill) the Keystone XL pipeline. Together, as Rainforest Action Network, we have amassed a lot of hard work, skill and passion to fight for thriving forests, the rights of Indigenous frontline communities and a stable climate. It is not easy work. Not even close. But the rewards of success are so great, it is worth every moment. So to thank you for everything—the emails, phone calls, rally support, financial contributions, direct actions, and all the events you showed up for—we put together this little video. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For the planet, Your friends at Rainforest Action Network