home.social

#polluting — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #polluting, aggregated by home.social.

  1. From 2024: Locals Say #SpaceX Is #Polluting #SacredLand. This Project Aims to Preserve It.

    “This wasn’t just something we wanted to do,” said 35-year-old Monica Sosa, who grew up in #BrownsvilleTX, a short drive from #BocaChica Beach. “We felt like we needed to do it.”

    by Cat Cardenas October 30, 2024

    "Among the #CarrizoComecrudo people of Texas, it is said that the state’s rivers are like ancestors. As they flow toward the sea, they bring their abundance, their beauty, and their knowledge with them. In South Texas, the place where these rivers meet and empty into the Gulf of Mexico is a sacred life source — the location they believe to be the birthplace of the first woman. Today, most Brownsville locals know it as #BocaChicaBeach — a public stretch of sand located at the end of #Highway4, along the southernmost edge of the Texas coast. But to many people outside of the #RioGrandeValley, that land, its name, and its history have largely been swallowed up by the operation of the #RocketLaunch facility just up the road: SpaceX’s #Starbase.

    "Growing up a short drive from Boca Chica Beach in Brownsville, 35-year-old Monica Sosa told The Barbed Wire she still remembers it as an escape: a piece of unspoiled coastline that was free for everyone to enjoy. On lazy summer weekends, she and her siblings would hop into her mom’s blue Chevrolet Astro van. The back seats pulled down to make room for more passengers as they stopped to pick up more family. Once there, they’d look forward to hours and hours of endless sunshine, and a cooler packed full of ham and cheese sandwiches, sodas, Cheetos, and fruit.

    "As an adult, many of those happy memories have turned bittersweet. The beach, while still free to the public, is frequently plagued by the closure of Highway 4 each time there’s a rocket launch or other 'space flight activities.' And even when it’s open, the construction has fundamentally changed the landscape: There’s a tall metal SpaceX launch and catch pad towering over the once-untouched sand dunes.

    " 'Boca Chica was bliss,' Sosa said earlier this month. 'I came from a working class family, and being out there was one of the only times we would come together and play. We’d be in the water, sitting in the sun, running through the lomas (hills), or burying each other in sandcastles. You could spend the whole day out there. But now there’s someone who has the right and the ability to privatize a beach that people have used for decades and decades.'

    "SpaceX’s operation in the Rio Grande Valley has been far from smooth. In recent years, they’ve been cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for multiple violations of #wastewater regulations and been the subject of multiple legal complaints. The company has disputed these claims as 'factually inaccurate' and has been allowed to continue their operations.

    "In April of this year, multiple Valley-based environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department over a proposed land swap that would grant 43 acres of #BocaChicaStatePark to #SpaceX in exchange for land near Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. In addition to their concerns about #pollution, the groups also argued that the land proposed in the swap was sacred to the #CarrizoComecrudoTribe.

    " 'SpaceX has always been polluting,' Christopher Basaldú, a member of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe told the Texas Tribune, which first reported on the allegations. 'And I think people are kind of brainwashed into thinking that rockets — constructing rockets, testing rockets and blowing up rockets — that somehow that’s not causing pollution.' "

    Read more:
    thebarbedwire.com/2024/10/30/l

    #ProtectTheSacred #Colonialism
    #CorporateColonialism #OccupySpaceX #TwoHeartedPeople #GarciaPasture #EndangeredSpecies #EnvironmentalRacism #AncestralLand #ElonSucks #StarbaseCity

  2. End #Toxic #Greed

    Our global #food system is broken; #CorporateGreed is to blame

    Families, communities, local farmers face devastating impacts of #ClimateChange from extreme weather to higher food costs; handful of #billionaires running #BigAg profit

    They expand cruel, #polluting factory farms, #poison #waterways, eat up forests

    Politicians let corporate destroyers & billionaires off the hook

    Time to choose people over #profit

    greenpeace.org/international/a

    #PeopleNotProfits #starvation

  3. Old rules hurting #Thai #economy
    🧐"Tariffs r only part of te prob. Other trade barriers, such as a quota system, often do more harm.. under #Thailand–China #FTA, fully built EVs fr #China enter duty-free, while key components face tariffs. Tt discourages local production.. Lax #environmental & #health rules hv turned🇹🇭 into a destination for #polluting #factories relocating fr countries w stricter controls.. #Competition #law is weak esp'ly in telecoms & digital platforms"
    bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinio

  4. Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers

    #Mexico’s lagging energy grid is forcing companies, including #Microsoft, to use generators.

    By Daniela Dib and Pablo Jiménez Arandia, 15 September 2025

    Excerpt: "That Mexico’s electric grid is struggling does not bode well for a country trying to position itself as a data center hub, and which is already home to 150 #DataCenters, including from Microsoft, #AmazonWebServices, and #Google. Together, they have invested over $7 billion in the country since 2020.

    "Like Mexico, countries around the world are scrambling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers, spurred by a boom in #ArtificialIntelligence and #CloudComputing. Like Microsoft, some companies have tapped alternative — and sometimes more #polluting — energy sources. Mexico’s power grid faces a deficit of 48,000 megawatt-hours by 2030, which is more than half the country’s output in 2023, according to the Mexican Institute For Competitiveness, a research center. As the country lures more data center-related investments, more companies may follow in Microsoft’s footsteps.

    " 'This case is part of a broader global pattern, particularly in areas where the rapid deployment of #DigitalInfrastructure is outpacing the #EnergyGrid’s capacity,' Marina Otero Verzier, a visiting professor at Columbia University who researches data centers, told Rest of World. 'In some cases, corporations frame fossil-fueled generators as temporary solutions, which, over time, become normalized.'

    "Microsoft set up its data center last year in #ColónMexico, an industrial hub with a population of over 67,000 people, but was unable to plug into the country’s energy grid, which is itself largely powered by #FossilFuels. In documents filed to Mexico’s environmental secretariat in 2023, Microsoft said the grid would not be fully operative to the company until mid-2027 due to 'long construction times required in [Microsoft’s] contract with CFE,' referring to the Federal Electricity Commission. The following year, the secretariat approved Microsoft’s request to use seven generators to temporarily power its data center.

    "A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to comment on how the company is powering its data centers in Mexico now, and whether it will continue using generators.

    "Worldwide, nearly 60% of the electricity used by data centers comes from fossil fuels including #NaturalGas. #Renewables including #solar and #wind meet more than a quarter of the demand, according to the International Energy Agency. But while the share of renewable energy is increasing, the rapid growth in the demand for data centers is outpacing the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure, posing a challenge to the climate goals of countries and tech companies alike."

    Read more / listen:
    restofworld.org/2025/ai-energy

    #EnergyUsage #AIDataCenters #AISucks #CoPilot #CorporateGreed #CorporateColonialism #WaterIsLife #Polluters #BigOilAndGas #BigData #CorporatePolluters #AI

  5. I waited for the details, before to talk.
    Results:

    #USA - #UE
    15 - 0 (TARIFFS)

    IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL #RECIPROCITY ?

    NO. NOT AT ALL. SORRY BUT I'M NOT OK.

    I THEREFORE CALL #EUROPEANS , #REAL #EUROPEANS, THAT CARE ABOUT OUR #SOVEREINGTY AND #INDEPENDANCE, TO A #GLOBAL #BOYCOTT OF #ALL #AMERICAN #PRODUCTS

    MORE ESPECIALLY, WE DO NOT WANT :

    * #BLEACHED CHICKEN
    * #HORMONE #TREATED MEAT
    * #POLLUTING #CARS
    * 4TH #REICH #CARS
    * NON #SOVEREIGN #DIGITAL #TOOLS WHOSE CORPORATIONS SHARE #TOXIC #VALUES

  6. Surprise! #London's tax on #polluting #vehicles made everyone much healthier
    Two of the most dangerous aspects of vehicle #emissions – nitrogen oxides, which are responsible for #smog formation, and PM2.5, which are tiny particles that irritate the lungs – have dropped by almost a third compared to if #ULEZ hadn’t been implemented, in only the few years that the policy has been in place.
    99% of air quality monitors around London have showed a reduction in #pollution!
    electrek.co/2025/03/15/surpris

  7. '#InsatiableGreed': Richest 1% Have Already Burned Through Their #CarbonLimit for 2025

    "The #SuperRich continue to squander humanity's chances with their lavish lifestyles, polluting stock portfolios and pernicious political influence. This is theft—pure and simple."

    Jake Johnson, Jan 10, 2025

    "An #Oxfam analysis published Friday shows that the richest 1% of the global population has already blown through its global carbon budget for 2025—just 10 days into the New Year. The figures, which arrive amid catastrophic fires in Los Angeles that may turn out to be the costliest in U.S. history, highlight the disproportionate role of the #UltraWealthy in fueling a #ClimateEmergency that is causing devastation around the world.

    "Oxfam calculates that in order to keep critical climate goals in reach, each person on Earth must have a CO2 footprint of roughly 2.1 tons per year or less. On average, each person in the global 1% is burning through 76 tons of planet-warning carbon dioxide annually—or 0.209 per day—meaning it took them just over a week to reach their CO2 limit for the year.

    "By contrast, the average person in the poorest 50% of humanity has an annual carbon footprint of 0.7 tons per year—well within the 2.1-ton budget compatible with a livable future.

    "'The future of our planet is hanging by a thread,' Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International's climate change policy lead, said in a statement Friday. 'The margin for action is razor-thin, yet the super-rich continue to squander humanity's chances with their lavish lifestyles, polluting stock portfolios and pernicious political influence.'

    "'This is theft—pure and simple―a tiny few robbing billions of people of their future to feed their insatiable greed,' Dabi added.

    "'Rich polluters must be made to pay for the havoc they're wreaking on our planet.'

    "Oxfam's new analysis came as the @CopernicusEU Climate Change Service confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record and 'the first calendar year that the average global temperature exceeded 1.5°C above its #PreIndustrial level.'

    "'All of the internationally produced global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850,' Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement. 'Humanity is in charge of its own destiny, but how we respond to the climate challenge should be based on evidence. The future is in our hands—swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate.'

    "Oxfam called on governments to move urgently to curb the emissions of the rich, including by implementing #WealthTaxes, banning #PrivateJets and #Superyachts, and imposing strict new regulations on #polluting companies.

    "'Governments need to stop pandering to the richest,' Dabi said Friday. 'Rich polluters must be made to pay for the havoc they're wreaking on our planet. Tax them, curb their emissions, and ban their excessive indulgences—private jets, superyachts, and the like. Leaders who fail to act are effectively choosing complicity in a crisis that threatens the lives of billions.'"

    commondreams.org/news/rich-car
    #EatTheRich #YeetTheRich #Oligarchy #CorporateColonialism #CorporateGreed #TechBros #CEOSeason

  8. Well then, I found a story about "ink jet solar panels -- put them anywhere! Will solve energy crunch!", and had to dig past the hype (but of course). It turns out that the spray-on solar panels are made from perovskite, which degrades quickly, and is lead-based and is toxic! Bzzzzzt! Try again, #Greenwashng corporations. Whenever some new miraculous technology appears, I always ask these questions... How long will it last? What is involved in its manufacture? What kind of pollution will it leave behind? We need to come up with technology that doesn't pollute when manufactured or after its usefulness is over, and that is long-lasting! Otherwise, we're just creating more problems and not real solutions.

    Razor-thin solar panels could be ‘ink-jetted’ onto your backpack or phone for cheap clean energy

    msn.com/en-us/news/other/razor

    Biological impact of lead from halide perovskites reveals the risk of introducing a safe threshold

    nature.com/articles/s41467-019

    #SolarSunday #SolarEnergy #Perovskites #LeadPoisoning #Hype #Polluting #Greenwashing

  9. It’s no surprise that big #polluting companies are not happy about annual #CarbonTax increases. But it is #unfair that #BritishColumbians must pay the full carbon tax when the #OilAndGas industry, whose production is responsible for more than one-quarter of #BritishColumbia #CarbonEmissions, gets a carbon #TaxBreak.

    The new system will also have a negative impact on B.C.’s carbon #TaxRevenues. In 2024-25, carbon tax revenues will be about $500 million lower than they would have been under the old system. This #RevenueLoss means fewer dollars to pay for #ClimateAction.

    These changes point to a #BCgovernment that is far too cosy with the oil and gas #industry. And they make no sense given the urgency of acting on #ClimateChange. #Disasters in 2021 alone caused between $11 billion and $16 billion in damage to the #BCeconomy.

    If B.C. really wants to be a #climate leader, the government must stop pandering to lobbying by the oil and gas industry that is causing climate change and act in the interests of all British Columbians

    thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/08/09/

    @thetyee

    #BCNDP #Ecocide #BanCorporateLobbyists #BCpoli #ConflictOfPublicInterest #EcoJustice #environmental #BCNewDeathParty #BCNDPLegacyoOfDeath #CrimesAgainstHumanity #EcocidalManiacs #CapitalistCrimes #CorporateGreed #GreedKills #SuperSelloutBCNDP #SuperCorruptBC #PNW #PollutedPoliticians #EndCorporateWelfare #EbyTheEnabler #DavidEby #HorganizedCrimesContinue #JustStopOil #DivestFromFossilFuels

  10. Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

    #CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

    By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
    July 17, 2024

    GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    "In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
    'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

    "An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

    "'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

    "'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

    "'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

    "'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

    "'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

    Read more:
    bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07

    #WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
    #HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
    #StopIndigenousGenocide
    #Environmental #ClimateCrisis
    #StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
    #FirstNations #Colonialism
    #CorporateColonialism
    #Mining #CulturalGenocide
    #IndigenousSovereignty
    #LandBack #WaterIsLife
    #Canada #LandDefenders
    #sovereignty

  11. Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

    #CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

    By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
    July 17, 2024

    GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    "In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
    'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

    "An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

    "'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

    "'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

    "'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

    "'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

    "'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

    Read more:
    bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07

    #WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
    #HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
    #StopIndigenousGenocide
    #Environmental #ClimateCrisis
    #StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
    #FirstNations #Colonialism
    #CorporateColonialism
    #Mining #CulturalGenocide
    #IndigenousSovereignty
    #LandBack #WaterIsLife
    #Canada #LandDefenders
    #sovereignty

  12. Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

    #CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

    By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
    July 17, 2024

    GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    "In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
    'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

    "An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

    "'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

    "'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

    "'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

    "'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

    "'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

    Read more:
    bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07

    #WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
    #HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
    #StopIndigenousGenocide
    #Environmental #ClimateCrisis
    #StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
    #FirstNations #Colonialism
    #CorporateColonialism
    #Mining #CulturalGenocide
    #IndigenousSovereignty
    #LandBack #WaterIsLife
    #Canada #LandDefenders
    #sovereignty

  13. Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

    #CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

    By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
    July 17, 2024

    GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    "In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
    'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

    "An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

    "'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

    "'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

    "'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

    "'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

    "'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

    Read more:
    bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07

    #WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
    #HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
    #StopIndigenousGenocide
    #Environmental #ClimateCrisis
    #StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
    #FirstNations #Colonialism
    #CorporateColonialism
    #Mining #CulturalGenocide
    #IndigenousSovereignty
    #LandBack #WaterIsLife
    #Canada #LandDefenders
    #sovereignty

  14. Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

    #CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

    By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
    July 17, 2024

    GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    "In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
    'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

    "An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

    "'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

    "'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

    "'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

    "'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

    "'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

    Read more:
    bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07

    #WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
    #HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
    #StopIndigenousGenocide
    #Environmental #ClimateCrisis
    #StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
    #FirstNations #Colonialism
    #CorporateColonialism
    #Mining #CulturalGenocide
    #IndigenousSovereignty
    #LandBack #WaterIsLife
    #Canada #LandDefenders
    #sovereignty

  15. #LandBack at #Barnhart:
    Contextualizing the Re-occupation of #BarnhartIsland in Shared Legacies of Struggle

    From #TurtleIsland to #Palestine, the struggle at #Akwesasne is rooted in the shared struggle of all #OppressedPeoples of the world who are opposing the illogic of #SettlerCapitalism and the endless violation of the #lands and #waters that our current economic system necessitates.

    By Jennifer Lee
    June 25, 2024

    "On May 21, 2024, a group of eight Kanien’kehá:ka (#Mohawk) community members from Akwesasne were arrested at Niionenhiasekowa:ne (Barnhart Island). Certain individuals among the '#Akwesasne8' had originally gone to Barnhart to exercise their right to build a hunting and gathering shelter on their own territory, in part to protest an ongoing land claim settlement that threatens to hand over Kanien’kehá:ka title to this island, among other traditionally held territories, to New York State. The settlement is being negotiated between New York entities and three Akwesasne government councils.

    "Presently, the settlement negotiations would require the extinguishment of Mohawk title to Barnhart Island, which would be effectuated through an act of Congress. By asserting their right to the land, the #Akwesasne8 have sent a clear message to both negotiating parties. Barnhart Island, like all other territories illegally stolen and swindled from their community, is not for sale—particularly not by collaborationist band and tribal council entities that purport to represent the full community but that were in fact historically imposed upon it at gunpoint.

    "The fact that a group of eight community members was surrounded within just a few hours by approximately 35 police agents (including both border patrol agents and state troopers) is a clear indication of the strategic significance of this island to the interests of settler-capital. As Taiewennahawi (Marina Johnson-Zafiris), one of the eight arrestees, explains in her article 'Akwesasne and the History of #Hydropower,' the Moses-Saunders #hydrodam, located at the east end of Barnhart Island, is one of the many dams along the St. Lawrence Seaway that has supplied 'cheap' electricity to an unending procession of heavily #polluting factories since the 1950s.

    "For decades, dirty plants like #Alcoa, #GeneralMotors, and #ReynoldsMetals harnessed the immense power of the #Kaniatarowanenneh (#SaintLawrenceRiver) at the Moses-Saunders dam to manufacture aluminum, a cheap, abundant, and malleable building material that requires vast amounts of power to extract and process. Not only was hydropower-fueled aluminum production critical to New York’s economic development, it was central to the national pride and independence of so-called #Québec. Eager to assert its autonomy from Anglophone capital in the 1960s, the province began damming rivers on #Indigenous land in a frenzy of hydropower nationalism.

    "Upstream on the St. Lawrence, the aluminum plants at Akwesasne used a #toxic #sludge containing polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs) as a hydraulic fluid during the production process. These PCBs were manufactured by the infamously litigious #corporation #Monsanto, which continues to evade public #accountability for discharging this known #carcinogen into the St. Lawrence River and onto Kanien’kehá:ka soil. The #carcinogenic soup was left exposed on the very grounds where the children of Akwesasne played and where families grew their vegetables. Today, Akwesasne sits downstream and downwind of three heavily #polluted #superfund sites, and residents of Akwesasne report that almost everyone they know has a friend or family member suffering from a rare #cancer, #MetabolicSyndrome, or #autoimmune disorder. Rare, life-threatening illnesses exist at Akwesasne at rates that the public would never consider normal or acceptable in any non-Indigenous community.

    "Dana-Leigh Thompson, one of the Akwesasne 8, lived about 3,000 feet from the PCB #dumpsite of the #GeneralMotors (#GM) factory for a decade. She calls what is happening to the community nothing short of an '#environmental #genocide.'"

    Read more:

    magazine.scienceforthepeople.o

    #EnvironmentalRacism #Ecocide

  16. #LandBack at #Barnhart:
    Contextualizing the Re-occupation of #BarnhartIsland in Shared Legacies of Struggle

    From #TurtleIsland to #Palestine, the struggle at #Akwesasne is rooted in the shared struggle of all #OppressedPeoples of the world who are opposing the illogic of #SettlerCapitalism and the endless violation of the #lands and #waters that our current economic system necessitates.

    By Jennifer Lee
    June 25, 2024

    "On May 21, 2024, a group of eight Kanien’kehá:ka (#Mohawk) community members from Akwesasne were arrested at Niionenhiasekowa:ne (Barnhart Island). Certain individuals among the '#Akwesasne8' had originally gone to Barnhart to exercise their right to build a hunting and gathering shelter on their own territory, in part to protest an ongoing land claim settlement that threatens to hand over Kanien’kehá:ka title to this island, among other traditionally held territories, to New York State. The settlement is being negotiated between New York entities and three Akwesasne government councils.

    "Presently, the settlement negotiations would require the extinguishment of Mohawk title to Barnhart Island, which would be effectuated through an act of Congress. By asserting their right to the land, the #Akwesasne8 have sent a clear message to both negotiating parties. Barnhart Island, like all other territories illegally stolen and swindled from their community, is not for sale—particularly not by collaborationist band and tribal council entities that purport to represent the full community but that were in fact historically imposed upon it at gunpoint.

    "The fact that a group of eight community members was surrounded within just a few hours by approximately 35 police agents (including both border patrol agents and state troopers) is a clear indication of the strategic significance of this island to the interests of settler-capital. As Taiewennahawi (Marina Johnson-Zafiris), one of the eight arrestees, explains in her article 'Akwesasne and the History of #Hydropower,' the Moses-Saunders #hydrodam, located at the east end of Barnhart Island, is one of the many dams along the St. Lawrence Seaway that has supplied 'cheap' electricity to an unending procession of heavily #polluting factories since the 1950s.

    "For decades, dirty plants like #Alcoa, #GeneralMotors, and #ReynoldsMetals harnessed the immense power of the #Kaniatarowanenneh (#SaintLawrenceRiver) at the Moses-Saunders dam to manufacture aluminum, a cheap, abundant, and malleable building material that requires vast amounts of power to extract and process. Not only was hydropower-fueled aluminum production critical to New York’s economic development, it was central to the national pride and independence of so-called #Québec. Eager to assert its autonomy from Anglophone capital in the 1960s, the province began damming rivers on #Indigenous land in a frenzy of hydropower nationalism.

    "Upstream on the St. Lawrence, the aluminum plants at Akwesasne used a #toxic #sludge containing polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs) as a hydraulic fluid during the production process. These PCBs were manufactured by the infamously litigious #corporation #Monsanto, which continues to evade public #accountability for discharging this known #carcinogen into the St. Lawrence River and onto Kanien’kehá:ka soil. The #carcinogenic soup was left exposed on the very grounds where the children of Akwesasne played and where families grew their vegetables. Today, Akwesasne sits downstream and downwind of three heavily #polluted #superfund sites, and residents of Akwesasne report that almost everyone they know has a friend or family member suffering from a rare #cancer, #MetabolicSyndrome, or #autoimmune disorder. Rare, life-threatening illnesses exist at Akwesasne at rates that the public would never consider normal or acceptable in any non-Indigenous community.

    "Dana-Leigh Thompson, one of the Akwesasne 8, lived about 3,000 feet from the PCB #dumpsite of the #GeneralMotors (#GM) factory for a decade. She calls what is happening to the community nothing short of an '#environmental #genocide.'"

    Read more:

    magazine.scienceforthepeople.o

    #EnvironmentalRacism #Ecocide

  17. #LandBack at #Barnhart:
    Contextualizing the Re-occupation of #BarnhartIsland in Shared Legacies of Struggle

    From #TurtleIsland to #Palestine, the struggle at #Akwesasne is rooted in the shared struggle of all #OppressedPeoples of the world who are opposing the illogic of #SettlerCapitalism and the endless violation of the #lands and #waters that our current economic system necessitates.

    By Jennifer Lee
    June 25, 2024

    "On May 21, 2024, a group of eight Kanien’kehá:ka (#Mohawk) community members from Akwesasne were arrested at Niionenhiasekowa:ne (Barnhart Island). Certain individuals among the '#Akwesasne8' had originally gone to Barnhart to exercise their right to build a hunting and gathering shelter on their own territory, in part to protest an ongoing land claim settlement that threatens to hand over Kanien’kehá:ka title to this island, among other traditionally held territories, to New York State. The settlement is being negotiated between New York entities and three Akwesasne government councils.

    "Presently, the settlement negotiations would require the extinguishment of Mohawk title to Barnhart Island, which would be effectuated through an act of Congress. By asserting their right to the land, the #Akwesasne8 have sent a clear message to both negotiating parties. Barnhart Island, like all other territories illegally stolen and swindled from their community, is not for sale—particularly not by collaborationist band and tribal council entities that purport to represent the full community but that were in fact historically imposed upon it at gunpoint.

    "The fact that a group of eight community members was surrounded within just a few hours by approximately 35 police agents (including both border patrol agents and state troopers) is a clear indication of the strategic significance of this island to the interests of settler-capital. As Taiewennahawi (Marina Johnson-Zafiris), one of the eight arrestees, explains in her article 'Akwesasne and the History of #Hydropower,' the Moses-Saunders #hydrodam, located at the east end of Barnhart Island, is one of the many dams along the St. Lawrence Seaway that has supplied 'cheap' electricity to an unending procession of heavily #polluting factories since the 1950s.

    "For decades, dirty plants like #Alcoa, #GeneralMotors, and #ReynoldsMetals harnessed the immense power of the #Kaniatarowanenneh (#SaintLawrenceRiver) at the Moses-Saunders dam to manufacture aluminum, a cheap, abundant, and malleable building material that requires vast amounts of power to extract and process. Not only was hydropower-fueled aluminum production critical to New York’s economic development, it was central to the national pride and independence of so-called #Québec. Eager to assert its autonomy from Anglophone capital in the 1960s, the province began damming rivers on #Indigenous land in a frenzy of hydropower nationalism.

    "Upstream on the St. Lawrence, the aluminum plants at Akwesasne used a #toxic #sludge containing polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs) as a hydraulic fluid during the production process. These PCBs were manufactured by the infamously litigious #corporation #Monsanto, which continues to evade public #accountability for discharging this known #carcinogen into the St. Lawrence River and onto Kanien’kehá:ka soil. The #carcinogenic soup was left exposed on the very grounds where the children of Akwesasne played and where families grew their vegetables. Today, Akwesasne sits downstream and downwind of three heavily #polluted #superfund sites, and residents of Akwesasne report that almost everyone they know has a friend or family member suffering from a rare #cancer, #MetabolicSyndrome, or #autoimmune disorder. Rare, life-threatening illnesses exist at Akwesasne at rates that the public would never consider normal or acceptable in any non-Indigenous community.

    "Dana-Leigh Thompson, one of the Akwesasne 8, lived about 3,000 feet from the PCB #dumpsite of the #GeneralMotors (#GM) factory for a decade. She calls what is happening to the community nothing short of an '#environmental #genocide.'"

    Read more:

    magazine.scienceforthepeople.o

    #EnvironmentalRacism #Ecocide

  18. #LandBack at #Barnhart:
    Contextualizing the Re-occupation of #BarnhartIsland in Shared Legacies of Struggle

    From #TurtleIsland to #Palestine, the struggle at #Akwesasne is rooted in the shared struggle of all #OppressedPeoples of the world who are opposing the illogic of #SettlerCapitalism and the endless violation of the #lands and #waters that our current economic system necessitates.

    By Jennifer Lee
    June 25, 2024

    "On May 21, 2024, a group of eight Kanien’kehá:ka (#Mohawk) community members from Akwesasne were arrested at Niionenhiasekowa:ne (Barnhart Island). Certain individuals among the '#Akwesasne8' had originally gone to Barnhart to exercise their right to build a hunting and gathering shelter on their own territory, in part to protest an ongoing land claim settlement that threatens to hand over Kanien’kehá:ka title to this island, among other traditionally held territories, to New York State. The settlement is being negotiated between New York entities and three Akwesasne government councils.

    "Presently, the settlement negotiations would require the extinguishment of Mohawk title to Barnhart Island, which would be effectuated through an act of Congress. By asserting their right to the land, the #Akwesasne8 have sent a clear message to both negotiating parties. Barnhart Island, like all other territories illegally stolen and swindled from their community, is not for sale—particularly not by collaborationist band and tribal council entities that purport to represent the full community but that were in fact historically imposed upon it at gunpoint.

    "The fact that a group of eight community members was surrounded within just a few hours by approximately 35 police agents (including both border patrol agents and state troopers) is a clear indication of the strategic significance of this island to the interests of settler-capital. As Taiewennahawi (Marina Johnson-Zafiris), one of the eight arrestees, explains in her article 'Akwesasne and the History of #Hydropower,' the Moses-Saunders #hydrodam, located at the east end of Barnhart Island, is one of the many dams along the St. Lawrence Seaway that has supplied 'cheap' electricity to an unending procession of heavily #polluting factories since the 1950s.

    "For decades, dirty plants like #Alcoa, #GeneralMotors, and #ReynoldsMetals harnessed the immense power of the #Kaniatarowanenneh (#SaintLawrenceRiver) at the Moses-Saunders dam to manufacture aluminum, a cheap, abundant, and malleable building material that requires vast amounts of power to extract and process. Not only was hydropower-fueled aluminum production critical to New York’s economic development, it was central to the national pride and independence of so-called #Québec. Eager to assert its autonomy from Anglophone capital in the 1960s, the province began damming rivers on #Indigenous land in a frenzy of hydropower nationalism.

    "Upstream on the St. Lawrence, the aluminum plants at Akwesasne used a #toxic #sludge containing polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs) as a hydraulic fluid during the production process. These PCBs were manufactured by the infamously litigious #corporation #Monsanto, which continues to evade public #accountability for discharging this known #carcinogen into the St. Lawrence River and onto Kanien’kehá:ka soil. The #carcinogenic soup was left exposed on the very grounds where the children of Akwesasne played and where families grew their vegetables. Today, Akwesasne sits downstream and downwind of three heavily #polluted #superfund sites, and residents of Akwesasne report that almost everyone they know has a friend or family member suffering from a rare #cancer, #MetabolicSyndrome, or #autoimmune disorder. Rare, life-threatening illnesses exist at Akwesasne at rates that the public would never consider normal or acceptable in any non-Indigenous community.

    "Dana-Leigh Thompson, one of the Akwesasne 8, lived about 3,000 feet from the PCB #dumpsite of the #GeneralMotors (#GM) factory for a decade. She calls what is happening to the community nothing short of an '#environmental #genocide.'"

    Read more:

    magazine.scienceforthepeople.o

    #EnvironmentalRacism #Ecocide

  19. #LandBack at #Barnhart:
    Contextualizing the Re-occupation of #BarnhartIsland in Shared Legacies of Struggle

    From #TurtleIsland to #Palestine, the struggle at #Akwesasne is rooted in the shared struggle of all #OppressedPeoples of the world who are opposing the illogic of #SettlerCapitalism and the endless violation of the #lands and #waters that our current economic system necessitates.

    By Jennifer Lee
    June 25, 2024

    "On May 21, 2024, a group of eight Kanien’kehá:ka (#Mohawk) community members from Akwesasne were arrested at Niionenhiasekowa:ne (Barnhart Island). Certain individuals among the '#Akwesasne8' had originally gone to Barnhart to exercise their right to build a hunting and gathering shelter on their own territory, in part to protest an ongoing land claim settlement that threatens to hand over Kanien’kehá:ka title to this island, among other traditionally held territories, to New York State. The settlement is being negotiated between New York entities and three Akwesasne government councils.

    "Presently, the settlement negotiations would require the extinguishment of Mohawk title to Barnhart Island, which would be effectuated through an act of Congress. By asserting their right to the land, the #Akwesasne8 have sent a clear message to both negotiating parties. Barnhart Island, like all other territories illegally stolen and swindled from their community, is not for sale—particularly not by collaborationist band and tribal council entities that purport to represent the full community but that were in fact historically imposed upon it at gunpoint.

    "The fact that a group of eight community members was surrounded within just a few hours by approximately 35 police agents (including both border patrol agents and state troopers) is a clear indication of the strategic significance of this island to the interests of settler-capital. As Taiewennahawi (Marina Johnson-Zafiris), one of the eight arrestees, explains in her article 'Akwesasne and the History of #Hydropower,' the Moses-Saunders #hydrodam, located at the east end of Barnhart Island, is one of the many dams along the St. Lawrence Seaway that has supplied 'cheap' electricity to an unending procession of heavily #polluting factories since the 1950s.

    "For decades, dirty plants like #Alcoa, #GeneralMotors, and #ReynoldsMetals harnessed the immense power of the #Kaniatarowanenneh (#SaintLawrenceRiver) at the Moses-Saunders dam to manufacture aluminum, a cheap, abundant, and malleable building material that requires vast amounts of power to extract and process. Not only was hydropower-fueled aluminum production critical to New York’s economic development, it was central to the national pride and independence of so-called #Québec. Eager to assert its autonomy from Anglophone capital in the 1960s, the province began damming rivers on #Indigenous land in a frenzy of hydropower nationalism.

    "Upstream on the St. Lawrence, the aluminum plants at Akwesasne used a #toxic #sludge containing polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs) as a hydraulic fluid during the production process. These PCBs were manufactured by the infamously litigious #corporation #Monsanto, which continues to evade public #accountability for discharging this known #carcinogen into the St. Lawrence River and onto Kanien’kehá:ka soil. The #carcinogenic soup was left exposed on the very grounds where the children of Akwesasne played and where families grew their vegetables. Today, Akwesasne sits downstream and downwind of three heavily #polluted #superfund sites, and residents of Akwesasne report that almost everyone they know has a friend or family member suffering from a rare #cancer, #MetabolicSyndrome, or #autoimmune disorder. Rare, life-threatening illnesses exist at Akwesasne at rates that the public would never consider normal or acceptable in any non-Indigenous community.

    "Dana-Leigh Thompson, one of the Akwesasne 8, lived about 3,000 feet from the PCB #dumpsite of the #GeneralMotors (#GM) factory for a decade. She calls what is happening to the community nothing short of an '#environmental #genocide.'"

    Read more:

    magazine.scienceforthepeople.o

    #EnvironmentalRacism #Ecocide

  20. #Nestlé is without a doubt one of the most #evil #corps in the #world:
    ✔ Killing Babies with #melamine & more
    ✔ Making packaged products & sending them to regions without #waste management
    ✔ Increasing #food prices around the 🌎
    ✔ Giving people E. coli infections
    ✔ Poisoning their "food" with #lead
    ✔ Buying up #water & selling it for a crazy price to the poor
    #Polluting the #environment
    ✔...
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestlé#C

    A merry #FCKnestlé by the Madeindex.org Team!

    #BoycottNestlé #Satire

  21. No Toxic Rockets for Maine

    Who We Are

    "#NatureLovers opposed to building #polluting #RocketLaunch sites in #Maine. We monitored & resisted the rush to pass 'emergency' legislation to create a public-private partnership for rocket launch sites in our state. In April, 2022, #LD1923 was signed into law by Gov. #JanetMills after passing the House 'under the gavel' i.e. without a voice vote.

    Military Use

    "LD 1923's sponsor Rep. Daughtry insists that no military uses are planned for rocket launch sites in Maine. But in every location we've studied, the same promises were made and not kept.

    "In# Kodiak, #Alaska 20 years ago one launch site was built with developers claiming it was only for civilian purposes. There are now multiple sites there being used by the #Pentagon and the #IsraeliMilitary. Meanwhile, the jobs that were promised for the project never developed. Sites are staffed when launches happen by outsiders who leave after the event. Only custodial and security staff jobs are available to the local community.

    "Recently a #SpaceX launch of satellites saw 40 of them fall out of the atmosphere due to a #SolarStorm. In their statement about their response to the incident, SpaceX stressed their close cooperation with the Pentagon:

    "The #Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag — to effectively 'take cover from the storm' — the #SpaceForce’s 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.

    #Toxic Fallout

    "When rocket launches go wrong -- as they frequently do -- #chemicals rain down on land and sea as highly toxic materials burn up.

    "In case of fires at the rocket launch site, large scale storage of #PFAS foam is to be expected. Maine already has a severe #PFASContamination problem on #Agricultural land across the state."

    Learn more about their mission:
    notoxicrockets4me.org/

    #NoToxicRocketsForMaine #SpaceCorporations #Pollution #MilitarizationOfSpace #ToxicRockets #SpacePollution #SpaceIndustry

  22. #MaineTribes and Leading #Environmental Organizations Join Forces To Oppose Proposed #Mine in Shadow of #Katahdin

    Proposed #ZincMine at #PickettMountain being pursued by virtually unknown Canadian company

    June 28, 2023

    "Two Tribes in Maine today joined forces with leading environmental groups and a national public interest environmental law organization to oppose a proposed mine that would be located in the shadow of #BaxterStatePark and the #KatahdinWoods & Waters National Monument.

    "The proposed zinc mine at Pickett Mountain is being pursued by a virtually unknown Canadian company, #WolfdenResources, that has never operated a mine before. A previous version of Wolfden’s request was widely opposed because the region holds enormous cultural and natural significance to #Wabanaki Tribes, outdoor recreation businesses, and Maine people.

    "The #HoultonBandOfMaliseets, the #PenobscotNation, and the #NaturalResourcesCouncilOfMaine [#NRCM], represented by #Earthjustice and #Brann&Isaacson, joined the #ConservationLawFoundation in petitioning to intervene in the review of Wolfden’s permit application to the Land Use Planning Commission (#LUPC) to rezone the area for #industrial uses.

    "'The Penobscot Nation strongly opposes the rezoning of this #ecologically important area. We share significant concerns over impacts to the #water quality and f#isheries of the area, which our members rely upon,' said #ChiefKirkFrancis of the Penobscot Nation. 'The West Branch of the #MattawamkeagRiver contains abundant, high-quality, cold-water fish habitat and Designated #CriticalHabitat for #endangered #AtlanticSalmon, identified as necessary for the recovery of Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot River. This mine would impact our traditional territories and forever alter our ability to maintain our relationship to this place.'

    "The area Wolfden wants to mine is next to three State Heritage Fish Waters and is a centerpiece of the region’s growing outdoor economy. It contains the headwaters of the West Branch of the Mattawamkeag River, which is sacred to the Penobscot Nation and provides key, federally designated critical habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon.

    "'The Katahdin region’s wild beauty and clean water are extraordinary. One look at this landscape demonstrates that this is no place to put a mine,' said Nick Bennett, staff scientist at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. 'Wolfden’s claims that it will treat #wastewater more effectively than any mining company on earth are not credible. This is too big a risk for #Maine.'

    "'The legacy of metallic mineral #mining in Maine is one of empty promises of economic development, acid mine drainage #polluting waters and killing fish, and multi-million dollar c#leanups funded by taxpayers and not the fly-by-night mining companies like Wolfden,' said #SeanMahoney, vice-president and senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation. 'Rezoning this area to allow mining would fail to recognize the cultural and spiritual importance of the land to the #WabanakiTribes and threaten the natural resources and experiences valued by generations of Maine citizens.'

    "After withdrawing its initial request because it was riddled with errors, Wolfden submitted a second rezoning petition in January that sparked another review by the LUPC. Comments by Wolfden’s CEO disrespecting Maine tribes and #MininLlaws have prompted outrage from the Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and #conservationists. The company has lost tens of millions of dollars over the past decade.

    "'This is one of the absolute worst areas to rezone for a mine,' said Aaron Bloom, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. 'The region is known for its vast contiguous forest, pristine streams, high-quality lakes, and aquatic species like wild brook trout and landlocked salmon. Why would we risk that, along with the outdoor economy that depends on it, on a half-baked proposal from an unproven mining company? The Commission must put Maine’s unique natural resources, and the well-being of the people of Maine and Maine’s Wabanaki Tribes, before short-term industry profits.'

    "More than 700 hundred Mainers and local businesses, including Bradford Camps, Chandler Lakes Camps and Lodge, and the #MaineWildernessGuidesOrganization, have spoken out against Wolfden’s plans. In May 2022, residents of #Pembroke voted overwhelmingly to ban industrial-scale metallic mineral mining in their town in response to Wolfden’s plans to develop a mine there."

    Source:
    earthjustice.org/press/2023/ma

    #WaterIsLife #Maine #WabanakiNations #Environment #Mining #CorporateColonialism #NoMining

  23. Opinion: #GorhamConnector plan threatens river #Ecosystem, #HeritageTrout

    Building a new road along the banks of #RedBrook will render barren a unique stretch of riparian #shoreline – with all the adverse consequences you might expect.

    by C. Ian Stevenson
    February 27, 2024

    "While proponents tout the toll-road Gorham Connector as promising to shorten commutes and relieve traffic pressure in #GreaterPortlandMaine, there has already been substantial pushback to the concept. Regardless of how much (or for how long) travel-based advantage the new roadway might bring, as proposed it will have pronounced, unambiguously negative effects to the area.

    "Maine is known for its sense of place. Many components contribute to what makes the state unique and desirable. Among these is the built environment, such as the 13th-generation Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, which the proposed route threatens to erode, if not entirely extinguish, as an economically viable vestige of Maine’s once robust agricultural heritage. Others have amply sounded the alarm about this issue.

    "But the route introduces other threats to the more naturalistic landscape. Starting at #SmilingHillFarm and running south-southeasterly to I-295 is a five-mile section of Red Brook that mostly nestles in #DenseForest. Between County Road and Running Hill Road, in particular, Red Brook occupies one of the few contiguous #undeveloped #Riverine stretches in #SouthernMaine. While unassuming in scale, Red Brook is nevertheless remarkable for supporting one of the last remaining native populations of #BrookTrout in this part of the state.

    "The proposed road will immediately abut the river, sitting nearly on its banks, for as much as a mile south of the County Road Interchange. This will degrade habitat, destroying the trees whose overhanging foliage provides shade and cooling effects for these temperature-sensitive fish and creates shelter from predators. It will make barren riparian shoreline that supports the aquatic and terrestrial insects that provide the primary trout food sources. The road itself will also contribute oil, salt and other #runoff to the river, #polluting the water. As a result of these factors, this connector will likely #exterminate this population of brook trout.

    "Why should we care about a small river and its brook trout? Although this is not the official state fish, the fishing community widely considers it the prize species to catch, with so-called wild populations assuming even more cherished status. Brook trout provide a link across generations and cultural traditions and belong to everyone. Human inhabitants of Maine – from the original #Wabanaki to European colonists to modern Americans – have been catching these 'native' fish for millennia. Other parts of Maine, especially further north and west, have healthy native brook trout fisheries, making Maine highly regarded nationally as a destination to catch them.

    "The fact that Red Brook, in the heart of #GreaterPortland, belongs to this orbit is no small feat. Most of the area’s waterways have already succumbed to habitat loss, development, predatory introduced species, warming temperatures and increased flooding due to #ClimateChange. Red Brook provides an opportunity for future #Mainers who might not have access to brook trout streams further afield to enjoy this natural amenity. Even if you do not care about fishing, this road promises to annihilate a population of one of our state’s heritage species, as well as its scenic habitat that also contributes to #Maine’s sense of place.

    "#PeterMills, the executive director of the #MaineTurnpikeAuthority, claims his organization has 'gone to great lengths to minimize impacts to Red Brook,' but clearly it hasn’t gone far enough under the current proposal. There are yet solutions.

    "Citizens can express concerns at a hearing planned for March or via the Maine Turnpike Authority’s online portal. If the connector is to be built, planners need to re-route to establish a buffer zone between the connector and river – even a few hundred feet would have a positive impact. While less ideal than a complete reworking of the route, this would at least retain the primary shoreline flora and fauna and allow for run-off infrastructure. And we could re-route the road to save Smiling Hill Farm at the same time. Or better yet, we could re-consider the whole project’s merit entirely."

    Source:
    pressherald.com/2024/02/27/opi

    MTA website (make your opinion known!):
    maineturnpike.com/Projects/Pla

    #WorkingFarms #Sprawl
    #GorhamSpur #InducedDemand #GorhamConnector
    #Wetlands #Meadows
    #EnvironmentalImpact #Extinction #Ecosystem
    #SaveSmilingHillFarm
    #SaveTheWoods #SaveTheFarms #Maine #Wetlands #Woods #LessCars #MoreLightRail

  24. #Exemplary👍
    #Norway #pensionfund blacklists Gulf cos
    "firms excluded this week by #KLP incl'd cos in #realestate, where it says migrant workers fr Africa & Asia hv faced discrimination & human rights violations .. The fund also targeted the telecoms sector, where it cited e development of #AI as reinforcing e risk of surveillance .. it has targeted #Adani on concerns e Indian co might hv helped finance #polluting activities; & cos tied to #Israelisettlements in #WestBank"
    bangkokpost.com/business/inves

  25. How #corporate #SLAPP lawsuits endanger our rights and the #planet

    by Chris Greenberg
    25 April 2023

    "Hope creates the conditions for #ClimateAction. And climate action nurtures hope. Just as hope and action have a reinforcing relationship, so do fear and silence.

    "The #polluting #corporations who put #profits over people and the planet know this and they use their resources to intimidate, to instill fear, and ultimately to silence the people directly impacted by their short-sighted, extractive greed.

    "#SLAPPs, a type of abusive lawsuit, are a key tool used by corporate power to suppress #FreeSpeech and people power. These cynical lawsuits can force non-profit organizations like #Greenpeace International to divert precious resources away from campaigning for a more just and sustainable society. Perhaps even worse, SLAPPs can intimidate targets from challenging powerful corporations in the future.

    "Every SLAPP, regardless of the defendant, is an attack on everyone who believes in the power of free speech and the right to #PeacefulProtest. No one should be bullied for speaking up on behalf of people and the planet.

    "But CorporateBullies beware!

    "In a massive win for free speech, a US federal court recently dismissed a seven-year lawsuit brought by #ResoluteForestryProducts against a number of Greenpeace staff members and entities, including #GreenpeaceInternational and #GreenpeaceUSA. The #Canadian #logging company sued the Greenpeace defendants for CA $100 million in an attempt to silence and bankrupt them, after criticism of its #unsustainable #forestry practices.

    "Let’s take a closer look at SLAPPs so you can recognize them when you see them:

    "What does #SLAPP stand for? SLAPP stands for '#StrategicLawsuitAgainstPublicParticipation '. These lawsuits are used by #corporations attempting to diminish or even stop public participation in civil society. SLAPPs often lack any kind of merit, and don’t need to result in a legal victory to achieve the outcome desired by corporate bullies.

    "SLAPPs waste time and cause financial and sometimes #PsychologicalHarm to targeted individuals and organisations who have to hire #lawyers and engage in costly #LegalBattles, sometimes to the point of facing bankruptcy. These lawsuits attempt to silence free speech and limit peaceful #dissent by using litigation as a tool for deterring non-violent protest and even documenting and bearing witness."

    Read more:
    greenpeace.org/international/s

    #DigitalFreeSpeech #DirectAction #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #ForestDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas

  26. So, apparently, this #Lithium project didn't pan out because the brine was so corrosive, it destroyed the equipment used to process it. YIKES! #Exxon is planning on using a similar process (closed loop extraction) in #Arkansas.

    General Motors looks to California for its next lithium supply

    The US automaker is investing in closed-loop extraction from the Salton Sea.

    Jonathan M. Gitlin - 7/2/2021,

    "CTR's Hell's Kitchen project will extract lithium salts from geothermal brine in the Salton Sea. By using heat from the brine to power the processing, it hopes to produce 15,000 tons of lithium carbonate and 49.9 MW of energy in 2023."

    arstechnica.com/cars/2021/07/g

    #LithiumExtraction #LithiumMining #Corrosive #Polluting
    #EVs #Green or #Greenwashing?

  27. #Chemical companies’ #PFAS payouts are huge – but the problem is even bigger

    #3M, #DuPont, #Chemours and #Corteva have agreed settlement in the billions for #polluting drinking #water with ‘forever chemicals’

    by Tom Perkins, Aug 3, 2023

    "“When the chemical giant 3M agreed in early June to pay up to $12.5bn to settle a lawsuit over PFAS contamination in water systems across the nation, it was hailed by attorneys as 'the largest drinking water settlement in American history', and viewed as a significant win for the public in the battle against toxic 'forever chemicals'.

    “A second June settlement with the PFAS manufacturers DuPont, Chemours and Corteva tallied a hefty $1.1bn. But while the sums are impressive on their face, they represent just a fraction of the estimated $400bn some estimate will be needed to clean and protect the nation’s drinking water. Orange county, California, alone put the cost of cleaning its system at $1bn.

    “‘While over a billion dollars is real money, it is a virtual drop in the bucket of potential utility costs to monitor, remove and dispose of these contaminants in accordance with anticipated federal regulations,' the American Municipal Water Association trade group said in a statement.

    “Moreover, the two settlements include just over 6,000 water systems nationwide. Utilities that were not part of the suits but have PFAS in their systems can claim some of the settlement money, or they can sue the chemical manufacturers on their own.

    “That means the settlements only represent the first wave of utility lawsuits to hit #ChemicalManufacturers, legal observers say. Because PFAS are so widely used and the scale of their harm is so great, chemical makers will get hit from a range of legal angles, and some suspect the industry’s final bill could exceed the $200bn paid by #BigTobacco in the 1990s.

    “The number will be 'very large', said Kevin McKie, an attorney with the Environmental Litigation Group who represented a water management company in the 3M case. Though the 3M settlement does not cover all the nation’s costs, it is a strong start, he added.

    “‘A good settlement is one where both sides walk away a bit frustrated’ is the old saying,' McKie said. 'Of course I would have liked a bit more money but I do believe they got as much as they could at this time, and there’s a lot more to go.'

    “PFAS are a class of about 15,000 compounds used to make products across dozens of industries resistant to water, stains and heat. They are called 'forever chemicals' because they do not naturally break down, and are linked to #cancer, #KidneyDisease, #liver conditions, #immune disorders, #BirthDefects and other health problems.

    “The chemicals are thought to be contaminating drinking water for over 200 million Americans. Tens of thousands of contaminated #PrivateWells are not included in the settlement. The chemicals are also widely used in thousands of consumer products from #DentalFloss to #cookware to #clothing, and have been found to #contaminate #food, #soil and #air.

    “PFAS constantly cycle and accumulate throughout the environment, and removing them from water is costly. The highly mobile chemicals can slip through most utilities’ filtration systems. Granular activated carbon and reverse osmosis are considered the best options.

    “Leaders in Stuart, Florida, which was the bellwether case in the 3M settlement, chose to take what they could get without further litigation. Bellwethers are cases that represent all the other plaintiffs in a multi-district lawsuit. Stuart estimated damages at up to $120m, and the city acknowledged the settlement would fall short.

    “‘I don’t think we’ll ever get close to that much net to the city, so I think there is no making us whole,' Stuart’s city manager told the New York Times.

    “Among those utilities going at it alone is the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) near Wilmington, North Carolina, which sits on the #CapeFear River about 75 miles downstream from a Chemours PFAS manufacturing plant. It cost the utility about $46m to develop a granular activated carbon system to remove PFAS, and officials estimate an additional $5m in annual operational costs.

    “The utility declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation, but in a late June op-ed, the CFPUA director Kenneth Waldrop explained the motivation for not joining the settlements: 'The information currently available suggests that the proposed settlement, when divided among thousands of other utilities with similar needs, would be insufficient to meet the needs of our community.'

    “The utility has a 'strong case' against Chemours which has the reserves to cover the full cost, Waldrop added. There is generally support for that approach among Wilmington-area residents, said Emily Donovan, a public health advocate who lives in the region.

    “‘This is not our fault, but it has been made our problem, and the community mostly understands what’s going on,' she said.

    “The settlements also drew unlikely opponents in 22 state attorneys general who urged the judge to reject the 3M settlement because it 'does not adequately account for the pernicious damage that 3M has done in so many of our communities', said the California attorney general, Rob Bonta.

    “Beyond water utility settlements, chemical makers face personal injury suits. Most US states will also probably sue over #contamination of #lakes, #rivers and other #NaturalResources #Minnesota alone found eliminating PFAS contamination from its wastewater could run to $28bn.

    “Local water systems that are not made whole will need help from the federal government, which 'basically abandoned public water infrastructure a long time ago', said Oday Salim, director of the Environmental Law and Sustainability Clinic at the University of Michigan.

    “‘Any amount of money that gets shifted to the victims is helpful,' he added.
    “The government could implement an excise tax on PFAS to help cover costs, McKie said, and he noted the chemical manufacturers are taking a significant hit. By some estimates, 3M’s PFAS liabilities may soar to as much as $30bn as claims roll in.
    “‘That’s a pretty big chunk of the total size of their corporation,' McKie said."

    theguardian.com/environment/20

    #EPA #EPAFail #PFOS #WaterIsLife #ToxicWaste #ChemicalIndustries #ForeverChemicals

  28. #OilRefineries release lots of water pollution near communities of color, data show

    by Rebecca Hersher, January 26, 2023 4:38 PM ET

    Most of the pollution is happening near communities of color

    "In the #USA, people with less power have consistently been exposed to more pollution, whether it's excess #AirPollution from #highways and #factories, drinking water #contamination, exposure to #lead paint or polluted #lakes and #rivers.

    "That trend shows up clearly in the new report, which finds that the majority of the worst-#polluting refineries are located near communities that have lower-than-average #income and a higher-than-average proportion of #NonWhite residents.

    "A further NPR analysis of the data finds even more stark inequities: some types of water pollution are concentrated overwhelmingly in communities where people of color live.

    "For example, about three-quarters of the nitrogen, selenium and dissolved solid #pollution from #oil refineries came from facilities that are surrounded by neighborhoods that are home to people of color.

    "The #EPA declined to comment on the report or on NPR's findings."

    npr.org/2023/01/26/1151464514/

    #BigOil #Exxon #AHexOnExxon #ExxonKnew #EnvironmentalRacism #EPAFail #WaterIsLife #PeopleOfColor #BIPOC

  29. > and sometimes produce byproducts that are also harmful and require additional steps to remove.

    SOURCE (I2P): http://sciencedaily.i2p/releases/2022/08/220818163721.htm

    Meanwhile the #transnationals are being allowed to continue #polluting our environment with them — just so a few can get non-stick #frypans and other toxic products.

    Clearnet: siliconrepublic.com/innovation

    #nonStick #firefighterFoam #militaryBases #cooking