Dear Center Supporter,

In under two weeks, we'll have used up all the resources the planet can renew in a single year. That means we'll be living in debt for the next five months, with our increasing demands driving climate change, drought, pollution, habitat loss and other pressures on endangered species and the environment.

Earth Overshoot Day comes earlier each year as our population and rampant overconsumption grow. This year we partnered with the Global Footprint Network to make sure that human population growth is part of the conversation. There's a #MoveTheDate pledge dedicated to the issue and a special-edition Endangered Species Condom design that reads "Before your seduction, think Footprint reduction" that will be given away at Earth Overshoot Day events and in the U.S. cities with the highest carbon footprints.

Take action to help push back Earth Overshoot Day and read on for the latest progress — and obstacles — to creating a more sustainable world.

For the wild,

Crowded Planet / Companies and cities across the country have announced plastic-straw bans in an effort to reduce the plastic pollution that's choking wildlife and our oceans. Ditching single-use plastic is a first step to solving the problem, and with researchers predicting that plastic will outweigh fish in the sea by 2050, the renewed attention on plastic is urgently needed.

Population / Trump's Dangerous Supreme Court Pick

Trump made it clear from the beginning that his priority in a Supreme Court nominee was someone who would "automatically" overturn Roe v. Wade. The right to safe, legal abortion is a critical part of reproductive freedom and protecting women's health. Nominee Brett Kavanaugh not only has a track record of ruling against access to abortion, he's also ruled to limit access to contraception.

Unsurprisingly, Trump's Supreme Court pick isn't just a threat to reproductive rights — he's also bad news for the environment. Center Senior Counsel Bill Snape said that Kavanaugh "has a long, troubling record of being on the wrong side of issues like clean air and water, including a 2015 decision in a pollution case that would have had deadly consequences for people and wildlife."

Tell your senators they must vote no on Kavanaugh.

Shades of Green / The Bare Necessities

We're constantly under pressure to buy more stuff. And the hunger for the new, when we desire things that might be nice but aren't necessary, isn't just a problem for our bank accounts. With each new unnecessary purchase, we're hurting the planet. Especially in America, our consumption habits are supersized and our purchases more disposable than most. But what can we do about it?

This month in Shades of Green, Jess Herrera staves off temptation for the new by remembering the advice of Baloo the sloth bear and tries to stick to the bare necessities.

Earth-friendly Diet / Victory Over Oregon Mega-dairy

In late June Oregon agencies revoked Lost Valley Farm's water-pollution discharge permit under intense pressure from family farm, environmental, animal-welfare and public-health organizations. Without this permit, the mega-dairy can't operate.

Lost Valley had hoped to put 30,000 cows near the Columbia River, which would have made it one of the nation's largest dairy factory farms and put water, air and public health at risk. The project had been plagued with violations from the beginning, from overflowing manure lagoons to cows standing ankle-deep in their own waste. The Center and our allies will be monitoring Lost Valley to make sure it's permanently shut down.

Read more in The Oregonian.

Wild Energy / Distributed Solar Saves Money for Utilities

Distributed solar has already proven to have many benefits, from savings for homeowners to climate change mitigation to avoided habitat loss. Yet some utilities and fossil fuel interest groups continue to fight against distributed solar progress, claiming that people generating their own electricity will add up to lost profits for the utility.

But a new report from Carnegie Mellon and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is helping debunk that idea. The research showed that from 2013 to 2015, utilities in California avoided costs of $650-730 million because of distributed solar alone. This research helps make the case that it's not just communities and wildlife that benefit from increased distributed solar, but the utilities themselves, as long as they stop blocking progress and work toward creating a more wildlife-friendly energy future.

Endangered Species / Help Save Yellowstone Grizzlies

Starting Sept. 1 trophy hunters in Idaho and Wyoming will be able to take aim at grizzly bears that wander out of Yellowstone National Park. More than 20 grizzlies could be shot and killed this fall. Yellowstone's grizzly bears used to be safe until Trump stripped their Endangered Species Act protection away last summer. The Center is mobilizing to restore that protection immediately and save the bears from being cruelly gunned down.

You can join the fight to save Yellowstone's iconic grizzlies by signing up at Ignite Change to attend or host an event, making a donation or starting a fundraiser, and signing and sharing the petition calling on the Trump administration to #StopTheGrizHunt.

Five Wild Picks / Songs About Endangered Species

MTV News recently ran a story about artist Childish Gambino's new musical release, which includes a song about the anxiety many of us feel about the decline of bee populations, water scarcity and climate change.

Other songwriters have also written about the loss of endangered species and wild places. Here are five songs to add to the soundtrack of your fight for the future of our planet:

1) Childish Gambino, "Feels Like Summer": Gambino sings about "7 billion souls" and the pain of an increasingly hotter world without birds and bees.

2) Neko Case, "Last Lion of Albion": Case's song released earlier this summer is about extinction as the cost of wildlife exploitation.

3) J. Ralph and Sia, "One Candle": Featured in the film "Racing Extinction," this song is a call to action to save orangutans and other endangered species before it's too late.

4) Antony and the Johnsons, "Another World": This soulful ballad to the wildlife and wild places we're losing is an inspiration to save this world.

5) The Wind and The Wave, "Grand Canyon": "You haven't lived til you've been to the Grand Canyon" shows that all of our public lands deserve their own theme song.