Can you believe it’s only been twelve months since January! Let’s break down eleven successes that Greenpeace USA community members helped make happen in that time.
1. You said goodbye to Donald Trump and cranked up the pressure asking President Biden to be a climate champion.
how it started how it's going pic.twitter.com/NinVmMpOcO
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) January 20, 2021
On January 20th we breathed a collective sigh of relief. Following an election in which people from all walks of life turned out in record numbers, and organized across the country to keep our democracy intact and ensure a peaceful transfer of power, voters made Joe Biden the President and put Democrats in charge of Congress.
The people spoke and voted Donald Trump — his racism, his willingness to cheat, and eagerness to line the pockets of polluting corporations — out of office.
Then, our movement immediately went to work pressuring President Biden to act for justice and the climate. This led to some big successes, including rejoining the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office!
2. KXL is canceled!
A decade of organizing paid off in June when the Keystone XL pipeline was officially canceled. Over that decade Greenpeacers like you sent hundreds of thousands of messages to the political and financial decision-makers behind the pipeline. You protested, created art, and persistently opposed this fuse line to the tar sands climate bomb.
And here’s the thing, Greenpeace was just one small player in a massive movement to cancel the pipeline. Huge respect and appreciation must be given to the Indigenous and frontline leaders that worked tirelessly to build the movement and stop the pipeline.
3. Protection for the Tongass National Forest
Greenpeacers have also been demanding protections for America’s largest temperate rainforest — the Tongas — for years. Biden took initial steps to reinstate the roadless rule on the Tongass National Forest after Trump gutted these protections for our country’s largest national forest, critical temperate rainforest, traditional territory for Native Alaskans, and immense carbon storehouse.
Restoring the Roadless Rule, ending large-scale old-growth logging, and committing to meaningful consultation with Alaska Native Tribes were remarkable advancements toward protecting this magnificent place. We need forest protections more than ever if we are to avoid the worst impacts of our growing climate emergency. A healthy Tongass is also essential to the wellbeing of Alaska Natives, the local economy in Southeast Alaska, and an abundance of wildlife!
4. Protections for the Arctic were established
President Biden suspended oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! This would not have been possible without the Gwich’in and Iñupiat Indigenous leaders and hundreds of thousands of people like you who have spoken out, submitted public comments, called their elected representatives, got out the vote for climate leadership, and fought tirelessly to protect the Arctic from oil drilling.
This is a huge moment, but this is not the end of the fight to stop harmful oil and gas extraction on public lands. We need to ramp up the pressure on President Biden to keep his promise to phase out fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewable energy.
Pressuring the Biden administration cemented a climate victory when it decided not to appeal a federal district court decision halting ConocoPhillips’ Willow Master Development Plan. Willow would be the largest oil-and-gas drilling project in the Alaskan Arctic and would be located in a vast and biodiverse landscape in the Western Arctic. Greenpeace USA was part of the legal fight led by Earthjustice and joined by Friends of the Earth, and the Center for Biological Diversity to make this happen.
5. President Biden supported action on plastic pollution
The Break Free From Plastic movement won a huge step in the right direction when the Biden Administration endorsed a Global Plastics Treaty!
More than 23,000 of you raised your voices, and now we need to amplify that people-power to push the United States to make the treaty as strong as possible at the UN meetings in February 2022. The US needs to not only support the treaty. We need to see real leadership, and that means initiatives at all geographic scales that will swiftly move us away from our reliance on plastic and facilitate a transition to package-free options and systems of reuse. Plastic is a problem that must be addressed at the source. Until we stop making so much plastic, the damage to our oceans, our climate, and our health will only get worse.
6. President Biden supported ocean sanctuaries
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced a new global partnership with the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Chile, and France today that will advance ocean sanctuaries in the fight against climate change. The countries formed the partnership in advance of the United Nations climate change and biodiversity conferences
It is incredibly significant that the US and other countries are now partnering to advance the role of ocean sanctuaries in the fight against climate change. Our oceans are under constant threat — whether from climate impacts, overfishing, plastic pollution, deep-sea mining, or oil drilling — and protecting at least 30 percent of them by 2030 is our best hope to help safeguard wildlife and tackle the climate emergency.
Next we need a strong Global Ocean Treaty to create a network of sanctuaries around the world. By signaling to the rest of the world that ocean sanctuaries are critically important in the fight against climate change, the United States has shown that it is willing to take a leadership role in making that happen.
7. Our movement won protections for Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons & Seamounts
Trump’s illegal rollback of Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons & Seamounts is history.
Thank you @POTUS & @SecDebHaaland for restoring our national monuments and safeguarding our nation’s treasures for all Americans! 👏https://t.co/TJQyhkzBUv
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) October 8, 2021
For years our movement flooded the federal government with comments demanding protections for important national monuments and marine sanctuaries. In 2021, that work helped with lasting achieving protections for Bears Ears, the Grand Staircase-Escalante, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments. We thank the many Indigenous leaders — like the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition — for making this happen.
8. Deb Haaland became the first Indigenous Secretary of the Interior
Deb Haaland — a progressive water protector, Green New Deal-supporting advocate for environmental justice — faced strong opposition from entrenched oil, gas, and coal interests, who tried to derail her nomination to protect the destructive status quo while continuing to profit off of their toxic business model. But in the face of their opposition — powered by Indigenous movements and leaders such as our allies at NDN Collective and Native Organizers Alliance — you and thousands of others took action, pressured your Senators, raised your voices, and people power prevailed.
The Department of Interior has a long and sordid history of hostility to Indigenous peoples. And to have an Indigenous woman — who has seen firsthand how communities on the frontlines of extraction and the climate crisis have suffered — poised to sit at the helm of this agency is a groundbreaking opportunity for much-needed transformative change.
This incredibly historic win for Indigenous-led movements, our country, and the planet showed what is possible when we rise up against fossil fuel interests and the politicians they’ve corrupted.
9. The EPA moved forward with phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons
Greenpeace has been campaigning to phase out an incredibly potent greenhouse gas, hydrofluorocarbons, since the 1980s.
And this year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “phase down [in the] production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years.” The EPA estimates that “the total emission reductions of the proposal from 2022 to 2050 are projected to amount to the equivalent of 4.7 billion metric tons of CO2 – nearly equal to three years of U.S. power sector emissions at 2019 levels!”
10. California took action to protect public health, establish setbacks, begin the transition off of fossil fuels
In October, the Newsom administration took its initial step in banning the permitting of new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals, and other sensitive sites. The draft rule pushes forward a directive made by Governor Newsom nearly two years ago to take action on dangerous fossil fuel extraction in California’s neighborhoods.
Now, we’re taking action with a coalition that submitted over 50,000 public comments — with over 6,500 of those coming directly from Greenpeace supporters like you — demanding public health protections and safety setbacks of 3,200 feet be made permanent. This is the largest buffer zone distance in the nation and promises to finally begin addressing the legacy of fossil fuel racism and the issue of neighborhood oil and gas drilling
California Governor Gavin Newsom also announced an end date for oil production in California. Although his administration’s goal of 2045 is not urgent enough and is non-binding, it’s a huge deal that the fifth largest economy in the world and a large oil-producing state took this first step to recognize the need to phase out fossil fuels.
11. Ebony Twilley Martin became the first Black woman Executive Director of Greenpeace USA
In September, Ebony Twilley Martin became Greenpeace USA’s new co-Executive Director. She is the first Black woman ED of a national legacy environmental organization in the United States — a historic moment for us and for the movement.
As a Black woman and a leader, Ebony has had an active role in advancing justice in our organization. One of her goals as ED is to be a bridge between Greenpeace and communities of color. That means working together to advance climate solutions that don’t just replace our polluting energy systems, for example, but build a healthier, safer, and more just future for all.
Ebony joined Annie Leonard as Co-Executive Director to better serve the organization’s employees and supporters, as well as the creation of a greener, more peaceful world.
We can’t wait to see what successes 2022 will bring. ONWARD!
Note: To maintain independence, Greenpeace USA does not endorse or oppose any political party, candidate, or elected official. We work to hold all candidates for office to the standard that science says is necessary to avert the climate crisis, which means supporting a Green New Deal and ending fossil fuels.
