In recent years, many wine producers have switched from corks to synthetic stoppers like rubber plugs and aluminum screw caps. While the change makes it less likely for wine to spoil and saves producers some dough, it comes at the cost of the world's cork oak forests.

Cork is one of the most sustainable industries. Harvesting the substance only requires shaving off a tree's bark, which then regenerates. If the demand for wine corks further diminishes, there's little economic incentive to protect these forests. Folks may plow them down to plant eucalyptus trees, an environmentally devastating move.

Each cork tree supports more than 100 species, including rare animals like the Iberian lynx and short-toed eagle. Cork oak forests sequester about 10 million tons of CO2 every year. Plus, the cork oak industry is crucial to the livelihoods of laborers - eliminating the need for wine corks would put more than 100,000 people out of work.

Choosing what stoppers to place in bottles is literally a life and death situation for the countless species that depend on cork oak forests. Tell Casella Wines, one of the world's leading wine producers, to commit to using only real corks in its wines.