Tell your legislators about preventing extinctions & ecosystem loss

Copy and paste the following into your e-mail program, personalize, and send.  It's that easy.

Dear [if writing to U.S. Congress pick your legislator from this link:]

I urge you to vote ‘yes’ on legislation that protects endangered species and ecosystems.  Over the past century, hundreds of species have been driven to extinction by human activities.  As of now, more than 20,000 species are classified as vulnerable to extinction, and that number is growing.  Not since the dinosaurs went extinct have so many species died out so fast.

The losses are not restricted to individual species. People have now paved, plowed or otherwise changed nearly 40% of the planet’s lands, and remaining natural ecosystems are at high risk.  For example, deforestation each year clears an area the size of Massachusetts.  In the sea, bottom trawling annually destroys an area of the seabed twice as big as the continental United States.

Continuing on our present path of species extinctions and ecosystem loss will result in direct harm to people and to severe economic impacts that cost millions of jobs and billions of dollars.  In the United States alone, commercial fisheries, some of which rely on species that have been so decimated they are at risk of extinction, provide approximately one million jobs and $32 billion in income annually. Globally, at least 40% of the world’s economy and 80% of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources.

This is not speculation: it is overwhelmingly supported by scientific studies and agreed upon by thousands of scientists from throughout the world, as verified by recent reports from such as Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support Systems in the 21st Century: Information For Policy Makers and Recommendations to Advance the Scientific Foundation for Conserving Biological Diversity 2013-2017.

Thank you for voting to reduce loss of species and ecosystems, which will be an important consideration for me in choosing who to vote for in the next election.

Sincerely,

[Your name here]

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