Vote for the 2015 Rubber Dodo Award Winner -- Vote by Midnight, Oct. 30

[Submariner]

It's time to pick the most outrageous eco-villain of 2015 -- fill out the form at the bottom of the page to cast your vote. The Center for Biological Diversity established the Rubber Dodo award in 2007 as a way to spotlight those who do their very best -- that is, their worst -- to destroy wild places, drive species extinct and tear apart the cultural and biological diversity that's crucial to our survival. The award, named after one of the most famous extinct species on Earth, is given out every year. It does not come with a cash prize.

The 2015 nominees are (drumroll please):

Car with smokestacks



Volkswagen: For its far-reaching, criminal deception in cheating on vehicle pollution tests for six years -- a violation that led to the release of powerful greenhouse gases equivalent to adding at least 32.2 million tons of extra carbon pollution into the atmosphere -- similar to the annual emissions of 6.8 million cars.

John McCain

John McCain (R-Ariz.): For putting a rider into a military spending bill to trade away Oak Flat, sacred tribal land in Arizona's Tonto National Forest, to a multinational mining company, robbing the San Carlos Apaches of holy lands used to pray, gather food and hold coming-of-age ceremonies, and perpetuating a history of cultural atrocities against native people.

Exxon refinery

Exxon: For dismissing years of its own scientific research, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, on the destructive power of burning fossil fuels on the climate, instead putting "its muscle behind efforts to manufacture doubts about the reality of global warming its own scientists had once confirmed," according to InsideClimate News, and building "a vast edifice of misinformation that stands to this day."

Monsanto protest

Monsanto: For continuing to peddle Roundup and its deadly ingredient glyphosate (more than 250 million pounds are used in the United States every year) even though it's been classified as a "probable human carcinogen" by the World Health Organization and linked to the drastic decline of monarch butterflies.

Cliven Bundy

Cliven Bundy: For stealing tens of thousands of acres of public land, assembling an armed camp of violent rightwing thugs to threaten federal land managers with rifles, trashing critical endangered species habitat, and spewing racist slurs ... all while inspiring just slightly less crazy politicians around the West to try to seize America's greatest public lands and turn them over to ranching, development, oil, gas and coal interests.

Enter your name, email address and ZIP code, then vote below.

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http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/salsa/web/questionnaire/public/?questionnaire_KEY=1750

Previous recipients of our prestigious faux-accolade include the deadly wildlife-killing program known as Wildlife Services (2014), the infamous Koch Brothers (2013), climate denier Sen. James Inhofe (2012), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2011), BP CEO Tony Hayward (2010) and polar bear foe Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2008).

[longship]

1. I nominate "Rollin' Coal" idiots!

Sorry, my iPhone won't copy paste pics with the Google. Otherwise, I'd post a pic of these lunatics.