You can’t be surprised, given that our Congress people seem completely mad (and not just because of NCAA basketball), but, yes, they really are attacking the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and a number of iconic animals.
Luckily, Earthjustice, a leading non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the Earth and its resources, is working hard to rally U.S. citizens and stop the assault. And it’s come up with a really innovative, fun way of doing so.
Earthjustice “is using social media to personify three animals that have been threatened by a number of anti-wildlife legislation tactics: the gray wolf, the salmon, and the polar bear.”
The campaign, called Save Our Skins, also includes a petition and some YouTube action. Seriously, this is fun stuff (and informative). Here are a few good lines from the profile pages above to give you a taste of the fun stuff:
The Wolf
How do you spell “AWESOME” in four letters? W-O-L-F.
I dominate the fairy tale market. I’m on every black t-shirt howling at the moon. And all those dogs you spend hours walking and picking up after? Guess who they’re descended from? That’s right, I’m your dog’s daddy.
The Polar Bear
Michael Phelps swims 400 meters and he gets a gold medal and the cover of a Wheaties box. An older gentleman jumps in the water at Coney Island for 1 minute in January and they call him a Polar Bear. No, I’m a Polar Bear.
The Salmon
Can anyone hear me? I’m just a normal salmon who’s made a terrible mistake. I just googled myself and the results were not good.
Check out more via the links above and on their Twitter accounts: @WolfSOS, @SalmonSOS, @PolarBearSOS.
And don’t forget to sign the petition.
What’s Happening in Congress?
On this front, here’s how Earthjustice aptly summarizes it:
It’s hard to understand how some in the new Congress think they were elected to sacrifice our wildest and most vulnerable creatures for political gain. In these early weeks of the congressional session, they’ve acted as if wolves, polar bears and salmon are barriers to progress. They tried, and failed, to transform a simple budget bill into a cudgel against the Endangered Species Act and the animals it protects.
But, this grim anti-environment faction isn’t quitting. They’ve just begun. In the next few weeks, we expect a new wave of legislative attacks on the ESA and other cornerstone environmental laws. And we will be there in the courts and in the halls of Congress, as we have all along, to defend against it.
Will you stand with us? We stand for keeping:
- Salmon abundant and healthy in rivers threatened by political water deals
- The haunting voice of gray wolves echoing throughout the Northern Rockies where for decades it had been silenced
- The polar bear’s Arctic Ocean homeland which already is feeling the impacts of climate change free from unsafe and risky drilling practices
One more time, help out now by signing Earthjustice’s petition.
Image via Earthjustice