An Ignoble Experiment: Ripple is dead, and now there are only 73 orcas in the Southern Resident pods

Friend, this is urgent.

Help power our work to save orcas, and the planet with your $27 gift, making twice the impact.

There are only 73 southern resident orcas left in the world, and they're slowly starving to death. This is all because Big Oil and the shipping industry are prioritizing short-term profits rather than protecting these precious animals. Even right now, two industrial megaprojects could spell THE END for the last remaining orcas -- spewing deadly pollution and disrupting their scarce food supply.

We're running out of time to act, which is why a generous group of donors is matching all Giving Tuesday donations up to $300,000 through midnight tonight to fight Big Polluters and protect orcas, our oceans and our only Earth. Will you donate $27 or more now and have your membership gift MATCHED to stand up to corporate greed, save endangered orcas, and protect our planet before it's too late?

Friend, these southern resident orcas are a struggling family, who have already suffered devastating blows. Two beloved members of their pods, Cappuccino and Marina, already died from starvation. Losing Cappuccino's playfulness and Marina's wisdom has plunged their surviving family members deep into grief and stress, worsening the impact of persistent starvation on all of the Southern Resident pods. Now, Ripple is gone, a young orca who brought so much hope for this endangered species when he was born. In this state, these precious creatures are even more vulnerable to the destructive impact of commercial megaprojects.

That's why we urgently need to step up our fight to protect them, and why we're counting on your support before Giving Tuesday is over. Please, donate $27 or more now to help us reach our all-important matching gift goal before Giving Tuesday ends and continue the fight to save orcas, our oceans, and our only Earth.

Orcas rely on migratory Chinook salmon as their main food source. But the salmon population is already dwindling due to massive overfishing, pollution, and river dams. Even worse, the proposed Roberts Bank T2 shipping terminal would significantly increase cargo ship traffic and disrupt Chinook salmon migration patterns -- driving them further away from the orcas' habitat. The resulting noise from all the additional ships will also disrupt the killer whales' sonar hunting methods, preventing them from finding the few salmon left in the region.

Big Oil's expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline would also add exponential threats to the Southern Resident orcas' survival. We know that with oil transportation projects, oil spills are not a matter of "if" but rather of "when." But this pipeline will result in a SEVENFOLD increase in oil tanker traffic in Southern Resident critical habitat, transporting millions of barrels per day of the world's dirtiest oil in tar sands oil tankers through this already delicate and impacted orca habitat.

Friends of the Earth is fighting to protect the Southern Resident orca pods, the ocean ecosystems they depend on, and our planet. But we need to raise $300,000 before Giving Tuesday ends in order to meet our matching gift challenge.

Unfortunately, right now we're falling short of our Giving Tuesday goal, and we need your help to get back on track before midnight TONIGHT. Will you donate $27 or more to help us fight back against destructive corporate greed and protect the last remaining orcas and our planet before it's too late?

If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

$27 donation + $27 match = $54 impact