Your Signature is Needed: Plastic is destroying our oceans, harming people, and killing sea turtles

Our precious oceans are being decimated by rampant plastic waste. [TAKE ACTION NOW: Sign the petition to demand an END to plastic pollution! >>]( It’s no secret that oceans play an integral role in our planet’s ecosystem -- absorbing massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, providing us with HALF of the world’s oxygen, and storing 90% of additional heat caused by global warming. And, of course, our oceans serve as an epicenter of biodiversity, home to beloved wildlife like coral reefs, sea turtles, whales, and dolphins. But our oceans are in PERIL, Friend. Every minute, an entire garbage truck of plastics is washed into the ocean -- KILLING OVER A MILLION MARINE ANIMALS each year. Scientists predict that at this rate, we’ll have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050! [Will you stand by and let plastic corporations profit off of the destruction of our oceans? Or will you speak up and demand an END to plastic pollution right now?]( [SIGN THE PETITION]( While you’re reading this email, imagine a baby sea turtle reaching the water for the very first time. *SPLASH* The excited creature swims around and is happy to find something fresh to eat. Oh no! The helpless animal tried to swallow plastic thinking that it was a jellyfish! Now, the helpless youngling could CHOKE TO DEATH. With the millions of tons of plastic in the ocean, it’s no wonder that animals like baby sea turtles are frequently mistaking plastic for food. The dangers of plastics don’t stop with our oceans, Friend. Tiny microplastics are contaminating our food, water, and air supply at this very moment. Plastic production itself burns through dirty fossil fuels that worsen the climate crisis, and these industrial-size factories emit harmful pollutants that pose serious health risks to nearby residents who are most often low-wealth people of color. Meanwhile, the federal government has FAILED to stand up to Big Plastic and Big Oil, allowing these powerful corporations to profit off their reckless environmental destruction. If we don’t take steps at the federal level NOW, it will soon be too late to STOP THE PLASTIC APOCALYPSE. [Friend, we aren’t exaggerating when we say that the future of our oceans and our entire planet is on the line. We’ve set an ambitious goal of getting 2,980 grassroots signatures on our petition: DEMAND federal solutions to the environmental plastic crisis NOW>>]( [SIGN THE PETITION]( Thanks for protecting our oceans, people, and the planet from plastic, Friends of the Earth Contact Us: Friends of the Earth U.S. Washington, D.C. | Berkeley, CA 1-877-843-8687 [Contact us](foe.org/about-us/contact/) Email Preferences: [Click here to unsubscribe]( Learn more: www.foe.org/news www.foe.org/about-us www.foeaction.org Connect: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Flickr]( © 2021, Friends of the Earth. All Rights Reserved. [supporter]