With 2016 behind us, and President-elect Trump's inauguration around the corner, now is the time to reflect on some good news we received over the holidays.
Your actions and Earthworks' global community of activists creates change and helps protect special places, wildlife and communities. If you aren't already a member, sign up here. In the past month alone:
- Earthworks members helped protect vast areas of wild Alaska from mining by supporting a new Resource Management Plan that protects pristine landscapes.
- Letters from Earthworks members in support of extending the mineral withdrawal for the sacred Sweet Grass Hills in Montana helped push the Bureau of Land Management to extend protections for twenty years.
- Over 14,000 Earthworks members wrote in support of protecting 100,000-acres of Southwest Oregon wild rivers from mining. As a result, the Interior Deparment recently approved a mineral withdrawal that will protect the area from new mining for 20 years.
- The federal district court based in Washington, D.C. blocked Idaho’s participation in a suit designed to undermine a proposal by the Interior Department to safeguard crucial sage grouse from mining – a plan that Earthworks and our partners are supporting.
- The Romanian government applied for UNESCO protections for Rosia Montana, a historic village on top of a much sought after gold deposit. Earthworks activists have supported the town in opposing the mine for more than a decade. The Romanian government at one point supported the mine.
- In California, the state oil and gas regulators took an important step toward protecting scarce water resources by ordering oil and gas companies to stop injecting wastewater into Central Valley aquifers.
- While the fight continues in North Dakota to stop the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline, financiers decided to hold off on investing $2 billion in the project.
- The Piñon Pipeline in New Mexico, which threatened sacred cultural sites in Chaco Canyon, withdrew its right-of-way permits, suggesting that the project is not moving forward anytime soon.
Every action you take makes a difference in the fight to protect communities and the environment from the harmful impacts of mining, drilling and fracking. I hope these victories remind you of your power. When we raise our voices together, we can create change.
In the year ahead we will be asking you to do more. When environmental protections are under attack we cannot sit idly by. Together we will make our voices heard.
Are you ready to act now? Please consider stepping up your commitment by joining Earthworks' Sustainability Circle. Your monthly support of $5 or more will ensure we are ready to defend communities and the earth from the unprecedented threats we face now and in the future.
Thank you for your continued commitment to our planet, families and Earthworks.