TIME2STANDUP

     It’s the last place on Earth where endangered orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants roam free together. Right now in one of Indonesia’s most pristine and untouched forests, a local Governor wants to let mining and palm oil companies move in to decimate areas the size of a million footall fields.

     This place holds the largest biodiversity in all of the Asia Pacific region, and parts of it are classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. But this new mining company-backed plan would lay waste to much of it, and would also threaten local communities with deadly landslides and flash floods and if their habitat is destroyed, it could decimate the last few orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos.

     We need to act fast — sign the urgent petition and tell everyone about this mortal threat to our majestic forest. If a million people sign in the next 3 days, the President will hear us. We dont’ have long before the mining company invasion. Please sign the petition below.

SIGN THE PETITION 

(May 2013, Jongno, Seoul, Korea)

     One week before the Buddha’s Birthday, Korean hold a festival with lanterns called ‘Lotus Lantern Festival’ in Seoul. They make lanterns with papers and celebrate the Buddha’s coming into this world. There are some performances to sing and dance along with, as well as parades and exhibitions to see. The majestic parade of lanterns in unimaginable shapes and colors will bring the hearts of both participants and spectators together as one.

     Read more

     We’ve all seen the horrific images of hundreds of innocent women burned or crushed to death in factories while making our clothes. In the next few days we can get companies to stop it happening again.

     Big fashion brands source from hundreds of factories in Bangladesh. Two brands, including Calvin Klein, have signed a very strong building and fire safety pact. Others, led by Wal-Mart, have been trying to wriggle out of signing by creating a weak alternative that was pure PR. But the latest disaster has triggered crisis meetings and massive pressure to sign the strong version that can save lives.

     Negotiations end in days. H&M and GAP are most likely to flip first to support a strong agreement, and the best way to press them is to go after their CEOs. If one million of us appeal directily to them in a petition, Facebook pages, tweets, and ads, their friends and families will all hear about it. They’ll know that their own and their companies’ reputations are on the line. People are being forced to make *our* clothing in outrageously dangerous buildings — sign on to make them safe, and forward this widely.

     Again, if 1 million of us get the CEOs of H&M and GAP to back a life-saving code, the rest will follow. Let’s now take a stand to stop the deadly race to the bottom in factory safety.

SIGN THE PETITION

Apr. 2013

Kyung Hee University

Apr. 2013

Kyung Hee University

     It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to exclusively ‘own’ something that freely belongs to us all — our food! They’re trying to patent away our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, forcing growers to pay them and risk being sued if they don’t.

     But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Campanies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to get away with this, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent.

     Many farmers and politicians are already against this — we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food.

     Once a patent exists in one country, trade agreements and negotiations often push other countries to honour it as well. That’s why these food patents change everything about how our food chain works: for thousands of years, farmers could choose which seeds they’d use without worrying about getting sued for violating intellectual property rights. But now, companies launch expensive legal campaigns to buy patents on conventional plants and force farmers to pay exorbitant royalty fees.

     Monsanto and Co. claim that patents drive innovation — but in fact they create a corporate monopoly of our food. The situation is dire already — Monsanto alone owns 36% of all tomato, 32% of sweet pepper and 49% of cauliflower varieties registered in the EU. With a simple regulatory change, we could protect our food, our farmers and our planet from corporate control — and it’s up to us to make it happen.

     Help build the biggest food defense call ever.

SIGN THE PETITION

From Avaaz on Facebook.

WE DID IT!!! The Thai prime minister just pledged to end the ivory trade after nearly 1.4 million of us Avaazers and WWF supporters joined Leonardo DiCaprio in this important campaign. A source in the Thai government said the announcement was a direct result of our campaigns. Thousands of us sent her emails and left so many comments on her Facebook Page that they temporarily shut her page down! Huge thanks to everyone who took part. Now we will need to keep up the pressure to make sure she follows her pledge up with real action, so this announcement can help stem the global poaching crisis.

[Leonardo DiCaprio, with the Avaaz team]

Dear friends,

     Across Africa, elephants are being slaughtered by poachers in record numbers to make luxury items, statues and trinkets in Asia. But in days, Thailand will host a key global summit on illegal trade in endangered species, giving us a rare chance to stop this futile massacre.

     Thailand is the world’s largest unregulated ivory market and a top driver of the illegal trade. But Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has just announced that she is considering a full ivory ban. That’s why we started a global petition on the Avaaz site, to give this campaign the last push it needs to win.

     This is the best chance we’ve had in years to have a meaningful victory for Africa’s elephants — we just need to put people power behind it. Join me now to stop the bloody ivory trade. Help me reach 1 million before the meeting with PM Shinawatra in days. Together we can win this.

With hope and determination,

Leonardo DiCaprio, with the Avaaz team

SIGN THE PETITION

humanrightswatch:

Tumblr, how do you stop a weapon that does not yet exist? Human Rights Watch has detected a new threat to civilians. We need your help to build the momentum needed to stop it. Use the next 24 hours to share this post widely. Check back tomorrow to see how together we can work to tackle this challenge.