Three key environmental victories from this year

Here’s some good environmental news to share – and it’s all made possible when we work together.

USFWS/Lisa Hupp | Public Domain

Over the past year, Environment Ohio supporters have helped win important progress for our environment.

From winning progress to protect bees from deadly pesticides to convincing Amazon to phase out single-use plastic packaging and more, we couldn’t have done it without environmental activists nationwide.

Here’s a quick look at some of our biggest wins from the past year:

Stephen Rahn | Used by permission

Progress to protect bees from pesticides

Bees play a critical role in our ecosystems, but they’re dying largely due to the use of a deadly class of bee-killing pesticides called neonicotinoids, or “neonics” for short. We’ve helped alert the public and our decision-makers to the dangers these pesticides pose.

This spring, we helped save a critical pesticide tracking program that was set to expire this year. By convincing the U.S. Geological Survey to keep tracking pesticide use, we’ll now have a better handle on our country’s pesticide problem, and a better shot at protecting bees and other pollinators from their deadly effects.

Our national network helped convince 10 states to ban the worst uses of neonics to date — and as a result, 1 in 4 Americans now lives in a state with some restriction on pesticides that kill bees.

Rich Carey | Shutterstock.com

Progress to stop plastic pollution and put wildlife over waste

Plastic pollution is flooding our environment and threatening birds, turtles, whales and more. Much of this pollution is from plastics we don’t even really need, such as single-use plastic bags and bottles that get used once and thrown away.

Our supporters are helping raise a call to get rid of single-use plastic items — and in the past year, we delivered more than 130,000 petition signatures to Amazon urging it to do its part.

Amazon listened — and in June announced that it has already replaced 95% of the plastic air pillows it used to put in packages in North America, and plans to phase them out entirely by the end of the year.

Danielle Brigida/USFWS | Public Domain

Progress to protect wild spaces

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is one of the last truly wild places left on Earth. It makes no sense to disturb this peaceful place — home to polar bears and caribou — in pursuit of a little more oil.

Supporters joined us in calling on the U.S. Department of the Interior to protect this place from the threat of oil drilling — and the Interior Department did just that, canceling all remaining oil and gas drilling leases in the Arctic Refuge.

And we celebrated another victory in the Western Arctic when the Bureau of Land Management agreed to create maximum protections for 13 million acres of special areas — ensuring no new oil and gas drilling will disturb those fragile ecosystems.

These are just three of the victories from this past year – and of course, our work is far from done. We’re looking forward to another year of working to win lasting progress for our environment with our supporters.

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