Groundswell: CLCV Blog

I am thrilled to share with you that the bill to ban the ivory trade and protect African elephants just passed the state Senate! I’m so grateful for the unprecedented outpouring of support from you and thousands of CLCV members like you who called, wrote, and even visited their elected representatives in the state Capitol to demand they stand up for elephants and stop the illegal ivory trade in California.

I was in bad shape.

A few weeks back, I started having trouble breathing. Just allergies, I told myself. But as the days went on I started coughing, and I couldn’t stop. I was up all night coughing, and the next day was even worse. And the next day.

“Mommy just has a really bad cold.” My son Finn is 4 years old. Suzy is 2. The only ailment they understand is the common cold.

“I think I’m getting better,” I assured them. But I wasn’t getting better. On the fourth day of non-stop coughing I got the diagnosis.

The recent release of an independent, state-funded study on fracking shows that our long-standing concerns about the risks are justified. This latest revelation comes on the heels of months of scandal involving oil companies and the state agencies that are supposed to regulate them but, by their own admission, have failed to protect Californians' health and safety.

Californians have heard a lot about fracking over the past few years. Our concerns have only grown into outrage as more evidence of its risks to our communities, our water, our health and safety has come to light.

On May 28, 2015, CLCV presented the Environmental Leadership Award to Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President for Environmental Initiatives and the former Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. California Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols introduced Jackson, who could not be present due to a last-minute conflict.