WASHINGTON (June 18, 2010) – Senators from both parties yesterday introduced the Global Conservation Act of 2010 S. 3508 that would, for the first time, place the strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide. Companion legislation (H.R. 4959) was introduced on March 26 in the U.S. House of Representatives.

• Protect millions of square miles of land and sea,
• Address illegal and unregulated fishing around the world,
• Safeguard the natural sources of fresh water to several major population centers around the world,
• Stop the worst wildlife trafficking operations, and
• Stabilize environmental destruction trends in areas vulnerable to conflict and instability. The bill identifies a coordinator in the executive branch to ensure action and encourages the administration to secure additional funding and support for a global conservation strategy from other countries—including European nations, Japan, China, and India.

  “Thanks to the work of Senators Udall and Brownback, this landmark bill represents a major step forward in efforts to address worldwide resource destruction and species loss,” said Wise. “The legislation lays out a common-sense strategy that will help protect the world’s most ecologically and economically important wilderness and marine areas and promote global security.”

  Healthy terrestrial and marine ecosystems are critical to food security and disaster prevention. An analysis by David Pimentel at Cornell University concludes that wild species such as birds and insects provide US$100 billion worth of pest control services to world agriculture every year. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, healthy coral reefs reduce the impact of large storms on coastal populations, a protective function valued at US$9 billion a year.

  The destruction of natural areas can come at a tremendous cost. Research by the World Resources Institute has found that medicines derived from natural sources, including 10 of the world’s 25 top-selling drugs, have a market value of US$75-$150 billion per year. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, current extinction rates could eliminate at least one prescription drug from entering the market every two years.

  “Fields, trees, streams, and wildlife are essential for rich and poor countries alike,” according to Kenneth Arrow, Professor of Economics Emeritus, Stanford University and Nobel Laureate in Economics. “Wealthy societies depend on clean water, recreation, and storm and flood control. And the poorest communities in the world rely on nature for their livelihoods and sometimes their very survival.”

  The Alliance for Global Conservation—a coalition of some of the world’s major conservation organizations including Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, the Pew Environment Group, Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wildlife Fund—is working to prevent the destruction of the world’s remaining natural ecosystems for the species and human communities that depend on them.

On the heels of his efforts just one year ago to inspire global policy makers to make positive changes on behalf of the environment during the Copenhagen Climate Conference of 2009, Cheadle is now attempting to propel America to the ‘forefront of the environmental movement’ by drawing attention to the latest eco-bill making the rounds.

The aptly named Global Conservation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4959) – which “places the strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide” – calls for preventing species extinction, reducing billions of tons of carbon emissions, sustainably developing sea and land while conserving when at all possible, protecting freshwater supplies and applying $1.1 trillion in yearly disaster mitigation and eco-protection services.

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In the new movie “Iron Man 2,” Don Cheadle plays James (Rhodey) Rhodes, a tough military officer who is one of the superhero’s closest confidants and who becomes an armor- clad hero himself known as the War Machine. In real life, Cheadle is a polite and mild-mannered advocate for preserving the global environment, a role he believes fits perfectly with his ongoing campaign against genocide in Africa.

The 45-year-old, who has played everything from drug-addicted Washington disc jockey Petey Greene to Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr. was on Capitol Hill last week to lobby for the Global Conservation Act, a bill introduced in March calling for an international strategy to protect natural resources and biodiversity.

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Actor Don Cheadle is back on Capitol Hill, this time advocating for the environment.
The “Iron Man 2” star is set to appear with scientist Jane Goodall on the Hill today for a lunch discussion supporting the Global Conservation Act, which funds the effort to fight extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.

Read the full article (see 4th headline in “Heard on the Hill”)

The similarities between Hollywood and Capitol Hill are well-documented, and for at least one A-list actor, this makes it easy to come to D.C.

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By Kiki Ryan

Actor Don Cheadle sees protecting the environment as more than a case of preserving natural beauty: It’s integral to our national security.

“We need a War Machine to [protect us],” Cheadle told POLITICO on Tuesday, referring to the name of his character in “Iron Man 2.” Natural resources are “the next thing to fight and kill over,” he said.

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Don Cheadle isn’t invited to tonight’s state dinner at the White House, but, joked the “Iron Man 2″ star, he may show up anyway…

Cheadle is in town to lend his celebrity heft to Global Conservation Act of 2010, a recently introduced bill making its way through the House of Representatives that hopes to push the U.S. to the forefront of the environmental movement.

Read the full story at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2010/05/chatting_up_don_cheadle_enviro.html

Contact:

Brandon MacGillis, 202-887-8830
Jamie Shor and Holly Cowan, (202) 339-9598

Lunch with Oscar nominated actor Don Cheadle and legendary scientist Dr. Jane Goodall to discuss protecting species and ecosystems around the world

WASHINGTON – On Thursday, May 20 at noon the Alliance for Global Conservation will host a lunch time briefing with actor Don Cheadle, Dr. Jane Goodall, Representative Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) about the rapid loss of species and ecosystems around the world. The focus of this lunch will be the recently introduced the Global Conservation Act of 2010, H.R. 4959, a bill that places the full strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.

The destruction of natural areas, like rainforests and coral reefs, comes at a tremendous cost. Research by the World Resources Institute has found that medicines derived from natural sources, including 10 of the world’s 25 top-selling drugs, have a market value of US$75-$150 billion per year.

WHO:
– Don Cheadle, Oscar-nominated Actor
– Dr. Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace; Founder, Jane Goodall Institute
– The Honorable Russ Carnahan (D-MO)
– The Honorable Jeff Fortenberry (R- NE)
– Jeff Wise, director of the Alliance for Global Conservation and the Pew Environment Group’s Global Conservation Initiative, moderator

WHAT:
Briefing on the importance of protecting species and ecosystems around the world. Lunch will be served.

WHERE:
2200 Rayburn House Office Building

WHEN:
Thursday, May 20 at Noon

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Read about the Congressional briefing on the Global Conservation Act, featuring Oscar-nominated Actor Don Cheadle and Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Winner of TV’s “Survivor: Africa” beat cancer with chemo from African plant
• Ethan Zohn’s brush with death spurred him to save natural habitats
• Zohn urges Congress to pass bill that outlines strategy to protect natural habitats

Editor’s note: Ethan Zohn is the winner of “Survivor: Africa” (2001), co-founder of Grassroot Soccer, a featured columnist for Tonic.com and a survivor of a rare form of cancer — CD 20+Hodgkins Lymphoma. He works with the Alliance for Global Conservation to raise awareness of the links between international conservation and treatments for deadly diseases.

(CNN) — When I won the reality show competition “Survivor: Africa” in 2001, I never dreamed that an obscure African flower would provide the drug that later helped me survive cancer. But that’s the way my life has unfolded.

One day I was battling opponents for a million dollars, the next I was battling lymphoma for my life.

I couldn’t have won either fight without having nature on my side. Now I’m working hard to protect natural areas that will provide the source of future drugs that could save millions of lives.

On the show we were expected to live off the land. I learned very early that survival would mean figuring out how to work with, rather than against, nature.

We used thorny acacia plants to keep predators away from our camp. We drank from the same watering hole as elephants and giraffes, learning the best times to drink and how to stay out of their way.

Nature was a good teacher. I won $1 million and the confidence that I could survive just about any challenge.

In 2009, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and it turned out that the confidence I gained on “Survivor” proved even more valuable than the million dollars. But not even the trials of the show could have prepared me for the greatest struggle of my life.

Chemotherapy drugs wracked my body for months. But as they worked I found some comfort when I learned that one of them was derived from an African flower, the rosy periwinkle.

The drug born of this flower, vincristine, was part of the regimen that saved my life. My cancer is now in remission and once again I owe my survival to working with nature.

My case is not an isolated one. It turns out that dozens of plants in nature manufacture anti-cancer agents as chemical defenses. Scientists figured this out years ago, and 80 percent of all anti-cancer drugs possess an active ingredient from the natural world.

This promise extends to other diseases as well, with half the new drugs created in the past 25 years derived from nature.

According to a recent study, natural drugs and related products are used to treat 87 percent of all known diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and HIV.

Yet this pharmaceutical pipeline is in danger.

Researchers unraveled the biochemistry of the snakeroot plant to improve the treatment of hypertension, but the plant is now threatened by deforestation in Indonesia.

Scientists derived a compound for treating severe chronic pain from a cone snail found in Pacific coral reefs, though its habitat is now threatened by destructive fishing practices and marine pollution.

The first antiviral medication approved for the treatment of HIV/AIDS came from a marine sponge, yet marine habitats around the world are threatened by pollution, overfishing and climate change.

Given the accelerating destruction of rainforests, reefs and other natural habitats around the world, we must take action today — as there’s no telling how many useful undiscovered natural compounds we could lose for tomorrow.

Right now, there’s a bipartisan bill in Congress, the Global Conservation Act of 2010, that seeks to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide by laying out a strategy for helping other countries protect millions of square miles of natural habitat.

President Obama must put his weight behind this bill and the Congress must pass it soon.

According to the World Conservation Union, more than 16,000 species, plant and animal alike, are in danger of extinction, largely because of human activities.

Indeed, scientists warn that two-thirds of the planet’s 10 million species could face extinction by the end of the century. Time is not on our side.

I won “Survivor: Africa,” and I’ve won my battle against cancer. But in each case, I didn’t do it alone. I had the most unlikely of partners: a small watering hole and, later, a flower.

I don’t know what I’ll need from nature next or where the newest nature-based medicines will come from, but I’m not willing to risk losing any of them.

The rosy periwinkle saved my life. Who knows what could save yours?