Home
Donate Sign up for e-network
CENTER for BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Because life is good
ABOUT ACTION PROGRAMS SPECIES NEWSROOM PUBLICATIONS SUPPORT

Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Get Adobe Flash player

Action timeline

June 6, 2013 – St. Petersburg, Fla., joined more than 60 other U.S. communities in passing a resolution asking President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Air Act to cut greenhouse gas pollution that is drastically changing the climate, driving up sea levels and raising the risk of killer storms. In doing so, St. Petersburg became part of the Center for Biological Diversity's Clean Air Cities campaign.

June 27, 2013 The Center filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect four Florida species under the Endangered Species Act, all threatened by sea-level rise. The Center petitioned for protection for the animals — a bird, a lizard, a crayfish and a mussel — in 2009, but the Service had failed to make a final decision on their protection.

September 23, 2013 As part of the Center's historic 2011 settlement with the Service, the agency committed to making Endangered Species Act findings on whether protections are warranted for the MacGillivray’s seaside sparrow and the Florida Keys mole skink, both species are threatened by sea levels projected to rise by as much as 3 to 6 feet in Florida by the end of the century.

October 10, 2013 Becoming part of the Center's Clean Air Cities campaign, Hawaii joined more than 70 other U.S. communities in passing a resolution calling on Obama and the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to cut the greenhouse gas pollution that is increasing Hawaii’s risk of extreme weather events and sea-level rise.

October 23, 2013 – As part of our 2011 settlement, the Service announced Endangered Species Act protection for three Florida plants threatened by sea-level rise: the aboriginal prickly appleFlorida semaphore cactus and Cape Sable thoroughwort.

December 10, 2013 – The Center released a historic report on 233 species threatened by sea-level rise.

Hawaiian monk seal banner photo courtesy Flickr Commons/Robin Wendler; Key deer photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons/IanareSevi