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Food? There’s already been a lot of concern over whether people will be able to feed themselves as the population continues to rise. Forget the human population increasing, though – it’s the decrease in some other species that might really cause a food shortage even more quickly~pollinators. Altogether, the scientific community credits 200,000 different species with transporting pollen and helping crops to grow. Unfortunately, new research finds that 40 percent of the world’s insect pollinator species are in danger of going extinct in the upcoming decades. Bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, ants and beetles all play a role in the critical pollination process, and their numbers are dwindling. While pollinators with vertebrae – like birds and bats – may not be struggling quite as much as the bugs, 16 percent of vertebrate pollinators are considered at risk for extinction as well. These figures come from research by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a group with ties to the United Nations. The organization’s report collected data from roughly 3,000 pre-existing studies on pollinator populations that were conducted throughout the world. In fairness, the majority of the research on this subject has focused on species in Europe and North America. Though the existing research in other parts of the world isn’t promising either, it’s a subject that will need to be explored more before declaring that the whole world is imminently doomed. Sadly, ending the pollinator decline isn’t as easy as fixing one thing. Pollinators face a number of threats including:Climate change,Disease,Pesticides,Invasive species,Unsustainable farming practices,Human construction destroying natural habitat. Losing pollinators to these factors has been devastating. Presently, pollinators play a role in growing as much as $577 billion worth of food. 75 percent of all crops are grown with the help of pollinators. From an economical standpoint, this pollinator decline should be a major concern for big agriculture. When it comes to growing crops, birds and insects essentially act as free labor, an invaluable asset that we humans don’t always factor into future costs. When we humans use harmful pesticides and engage in irresponsible farming practices that are correlated to pollinator declines, we aren’t doing ourselves any favors.

Two decades after the end of the Cold War, more than 17,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world. The usage of nuclear weapons would affect us all in ways we can begin to imagine. While it is unlikely that the U.S. and Russia would use their arsenals, nuclear powers like India and Pakistan pose a more likely threat, even if they possess less than .5% of the world’s nuclear arsenal. Climate researchers have concluded that the soot produced by a limited nuclear war in Asia would impact crop production as far away as America’s breadbasket. The resulting "nuclear famine" would last a decade and put up to 2 billion people at risk of starvation. Last year, 128 national governments sent delegations to the Oslo conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, but the United States government was conspicuously absent. Why? This February, Mexico is hosting the second such conference in Nayarit, Mexico. Please direct the President and State Department to send an official U.S. delegation to this important conference. The world is asking for a faster reduction in nuclear weapons. It is time for the United States to lead. Ban the Bomb!

At least eight Yellowstone National Park wolves have been shot and killed along the park boundary since hunting season began. Five of these animals were wearing radio collars and were the subjects of intensive conservation research study. Wolves roam widely in search of food or mates. It's natural for them to occasionally wander briefly outside the park's invisible borders, but that shouldn't make them fair game for hunters. The killing of Yellowstone wolves is unconscionable. Tell the governors of the surrounding states to shut down the wolf hunt immediately in lands adjacent to the park.

Animal testing is outdated and barbaric which has been the course of so much suffering for as long as modern history. Cell culture research has effectively made animal testing redundant. Help end animal testing and together we can move forward as a species.

Citing the “abhorrent” mass slaughter of millions of dogs and cats for their meat each year, including stolen pets, the House of Representatives committee on Wednesday adopted a resolution urging nine Asian countries to outlaw the practice. \\r\\nThe resolution “has tremendous bipartisan support,” fueled by “serious animal cruelty and public health concerns.” Public health officials have raised concerns about rabies or poison in the meat. \\r\\n“In American and most western cultures, we cherish dogs and cats as more than just random animals. They serve as therapy animals, search and rescue assistants, police dogs that aid with drug and bomb searches, they serve at airport security, they are companions, and they are often cherished family members. The extreme cruelty that these animals suffer is abhorrent and we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to these practices.” \\r\\nThe resolution, highlights the annual Lychee and Dog Meat Festival in Yulin — a perennial target for animal rights activists. In 2016, a petition calling on that Chinese city’s government to end the event attracted 11 million signatures. That same year, Hollywood stars including Matt Damon, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara condemned the festival. See video(Warning! Graphic!!!) \\r\\nHumane Society International and others animal protection groups put the number of dogs killed in Asia for meat every year at roughly 30 million. Rep. Titus said at the hearing that 10 million cats suffer the same fate. \\r\\nThe resolution says that “a considerable number of the dogs and cats in the dog and cat meat trade are stolen pets still wearing collars when they reach the slaughterhouses.” It also declares that eating dog or cat meat “is not part of mainstream Asian culinary practice,” pointing to a June 2016 poll by a Chinese animal welfare group that found 69.5 percent of Chinese respondents had never consumed it. \\r\\nThe measure calls on the governments of the countries listed to enforce laws banning dog or cat meat trade and to curb sales of “leather or fur byproducts” from that activity. It also calls on executive branch officials to raise the issue in talks with their foreign counterparts

Revered as deities amongst the Mayan and Aztec peoples, jaguars inspire through their grace and power. These agile hunters once roamed from South America through the southern and central United States, but lost habitat and were killed off as all large predators. After the jaguar was listed as endangered in the United States in 1997 in response to public outcry and petition campaigns. In early 2010, the Service announced it would grant the jaguar protected habitat in the United States as well as develop a recovery plan. It was proposed that the Government set aside more than 50 million acres of jaguar critical habitat in the Southwest. Free from government traps, snares and poisons; and without barriers between the U.S. and Mexico border to ensure that jaguars will always have access to the full extent of their range. Tragically, in March 2009, the Arizona Game and Fish Department euthanized the last then-known U.S. jaguar,Macho B after capturing and fitting him with a radio collar. An independent medical investigation, revealed that the jaguar’s death was at least in part due to agency mismanagement, and called on Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement to do an independent investigation, which it did. The Arizona Game and Fish was sued to prevent the killing of any more jaguars, and in January 2010, the Interior Department’s inspector general released a report concluding that Macho B’s capture had been intentional and that Game and Fish had no permit to capture jaguars, either intentionally or incidentally. In April 2010, A notice of intent to sue the predator-control branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its use of traps, snares and poisons that risk injuring or killing both jaguars and ocelots in the Southwest; two months later, a notice over the Fish and Wildlife Service’s permit authorizing Arizona Game and Fish to “take” jaguars with traps and snares. In 2011, though, a brand-new, 200-pound male jaguar was spotted roaming the southern Arizona’s Sky Island mountain ranges. He has now been photographed more than 100 times by remote trail cameras in the Santa Rita mountains, less than 30 miles from Tucson including at some locations less than half a mile from the proposed Rosemont Mine, a massive open-pit copper mine that would destroy thousands of acres of the new jaguar’s home range. The new jaguar’s home range is protected as critical habitat, In March 2014 the Fish and Wildlife Service finalized the designation of 764,207 acres as critical for the survival and recovery of jaguars in the United States, including the Rosemont Mine site and key movement corridors in the Santa Ritas and near the border, but unfortunately omitting the rugged Gila headwaters in New Mexico and the pine-clad Mogollon Rim in Arizona. In May 2015, a letter was sent to the Service objecting to its proposed biological opinion that the Rosemont mine wouldn’t compromise jaguar recovery in the United States, after which the Service withdrew its opinion and began to redo the analysis. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, it was learned that the Service issued the opinion despite four different draft opinions from its own scientists asserting the exact opposite conclusion that the mine would be a disaster for the Rosemont jaguar and recovery of the species in general. Is this any way to treat a big cat which is attempting to re-establish itself? We have seen what happens when an ecosystem is disrupted by the miscalculations of humans. SAVE THE ROSEMOUNT JAGUAR!