EARTH ACTION IN THE NEWS - June 18, 2020

[Emerald]

​EARTH ACTION IN THE NEWS  

Welcome to the people who have joined recently.  This is a simple weekly newsletter.  Your participation is encouraged.  Please share information and actions about climate change, climate justice, GMOs, toxic chemicals, and Earth-related topics.
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This newsletter is focused on Earth-related topics within the context of intersectionality recognizing that the same capitalist system responsible for environmental harm is the white supremacist system perpetrating oppression and brutality.  Each of us is doing our part to uphold or dismantle this system in our daily choices.  We also create a collective reality by envisioning a world that we choose and live within that: a world of equality, love, and reverence for the sanctity of all life.

BREAKTHROUGH!

Fast-growing mini-forests spring up in Europe to aid climate

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/13/fast-growing-mini-forests-spring-up-in-europe-to-aid-climate?CMP=share_btn_tw

"Often sited in schoolyards or alongside roads, the forests can be as small as a tennis court. They are based on the work of the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who has planted more than 1,000 such forests in Japan, Malaysia and elsewhere."

Danny Schechter Award for Journalism and Activism Goes to Winona LaDuke

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/06/15/danny-schechter-award-journalism-and-activism-goes-winona-laduke?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=twitter

Nant Helen opencast mine to close after licence rejected over climate

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-52992868

"A licence for the extraction of fossil fuels in Wales has been refused by the Welsh Government for the first time."

GMOs, GLYPHOSATE & TOXINS

Dogs (Canis familiaris) – Research Tracks Dogs’ Exposure to Contaminants in the Home, Serves as Sentinel Species for Chemical-Induced Human Diseases

https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2020/06/dogs-canis-familiaris-research-tracks-dogs-exposure-to-contaminants-in-the-home-serves-as-sentinel-species-for-chemical-induced-human-diseases/

Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton

https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2020/06/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton/

Milkweed in Western Monarch Habitat Found to be Completely Contaminated with Pesticides

https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2020/06/milkweed-in-western-monarch-habitat-found-to-be-completely-contaminated-with-pesticides/

FOSSIL FUELS

Too Sacred To Drill

https://earthjustice.org/features/badger-two-medicine
"The Blackfeet believe that their people were created among the mountains and springs that rise from where Badger Creek and the Two Medicine River trace their headwaters. But the Blackfeet aren’t the only ones who value the region. The oil and gas industry also have their eyes on the area — and for more than 30 years, they’ve been fighting to drill the hell out of it."

Chevron’s #BlackLivesMatter Hypocrisy

https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/06/10/hypocrisy-chevron-blacklivesmatter-richmond-police

"The oil giant funds both civil rights groups and police, saying “Black Lives Matter” while committing acts of environmental racism all over the world."

Warning: some adult language

Oregon fights Jordan Cove approval in federal court

https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2020/06/12/oregon-fights-jordan-cove-approval-in-federal-cour.html

We analyzed Big Oil's tweets over six months. Turns out, they're full of it.

https://exxonknews.substack.com/p/we-analyzed-big-oils-tweets-over?r=2rorw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy

Why crude oil trains keep derailing and exploding in Canada — even after the Lac-Mégantic disaster

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/lac-megantic-crude-oil-train-canada-guernsey-saskatchewan-rail-1.5608769

PIPELINES

Expand the DAPL? Only Illinois Stands in the Way

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/expand-dapl-only-illinois-stands-way

Another pipeline setback, another blow to Alberta government finances
https://calgarysun.com/opinion/letters/guest-opinion-another-pipeline-setback-another-blow-to-alberta-government-finances

PLASTIC & POLLUTION

Iron Range board tables Fond du Lac water treatment funding over band’s 'anti-mining' stances, band responds

https://www.pinejournal.com/business/energy-and-mining/6530734-Iron-Range-board-tables-Fond-du-Lac-water-treatment-funding-over-band%E2%80%99s-anti-mining-stances#.XuKAJhuwX-J.twitter

"The Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation's advisory board tabled a grant Wednesday for a new water source, tower and treatment plant on the Fond du Lac Reservation after board members said the band is “anti-mining.”

Formosa Plastics Opponents Ask Louisiana Governor to Veto Bill Over Harsh Sentencing Concerns

https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/06/11/mandatory-minimum-hb197-louisiana-formosa-plastics

"Formosa’s future plastics plant is slated on top of slave cemeteries and near Louisiana’s Black communities long burdened with pollution. Activists worry the state’s pending mandatory minimum sentencing bill could criminalize efforts to visit those sites."

How hard-to-recycle plastic is being made as good as new

https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/how-hard-recycle-plastic-being-made-good-new.html

Plastic Rain Is the New Acid Rain

https://www.wired.com/story/plastic-rain-is-the-new-acid-rain/

"Researchers find that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastic fall on 11 protected areas in the US annually, equivalent to over 120 million plastic water bottles."

WAKE UP CALL

Researchers in the Arctic Ocean map undersea methane pockets distributed across a 250-million-year-old 'fault zone' that could accelerate ice sheet withdrawal with future ruptures

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8423039/Researchers-Arctic-Ocean-map-undersea-methane-pockets-250-million-year-old-fault-zone.html

Pandemics result from destruction of nature, say UN and WHO

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/pandemics-destruction-nature-un-who-legislation-trade-green-recovery

No Oversight of $1.5 Billion Electric Project Raises Alarm over Privatization of Puerto Rico’s Power (video)

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/17/puerto_rico_power_project_privatization?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=ab8518cd7c-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-ab8518cd7c-191276697

Renewables Booming But Not Enough To Meet Climate Targets: UN

https://www.ibtimes.com/renewables-booming-not-enough-meet-climate-targets-un-2991389

"The world added 12 percent more clean power capacity in 2019 than the year before, but new renewable energy planned over the next decade falls far short of what is needed to forestall dangerous global warming, the UN warned on Wednesday."

Antarctica has just had its first recorded heatwave

https://www.newsweek.com/heatwave-antarctica-recorded-first-time-1495206

A War Against Climate Science, Waged by Washington’s Rank and File

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/climate/climate-science-trump.html

"Efforts to block research on climate change don’t just come from the Trump political appointees on top. Lower managers in government are taking their cues, and running with them."

THINK TANK & STRATEGY

There Is No Climate Justice Without Racial Justice

https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/06/12/climate-justice-racial-justice/?link_id=9&can_id=7a5e06f628128af1cda6e58f09ec9690&source=email-stand-up-for-black-rights-and-block-driling-in-brentwood&email_referrer=email_833603&email_subject=stand-up-for-black-lives-now

Economic Recovery And Climate Change

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/jun/16/economic-recovery-and-carbon-emissions/

Gender, Climate and Security: Sustaining inclusive peace on the frontlines of climate change

https://www.climate-diplomacy.org/publications/gender-climate-and-security-sustaining-inclusive-peace-frontlines-climate-change

"Grounded in a series of case studies from research and programming experience, this report offers a comprehensive framework for understanding how gender, climate and security are inextricably linked. The report assesses entry points for integrated action across existing global agendas and suggests concrete recommendations for how policymakers, development practitioners and donors can advance three inter-related goals: peace and security, climate action and gender equality."

We Don't Have To Halt Climate Action To Fight Racism

https://consent.yahoo.com/collectConsent?sessionId=3_cc-session_76a841b2-9808-4a99-8ee7-b9ac1bd51498&lang=en-us&inline=false

As Virginia Beach prepares for sea level rise, officials avoid climate change and punt on carbon emissions

https://www.pilotonline.com/news/environment/vp-nw-virginia-beach-climate-change-20200614-ovm4gidp6rbqlluh6ei6v6pf4q-story.html

Carbon Pricing And The Energy Transition

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/06/14/carbon-pricing-the-energy-transition/

By paying attention, tribes in the Northwoods are leading the way on climate change

https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/06/by-paying-attention-tribes-in-the-northwoods-are-leading-the-way-on-climate-change/

"Anishinaabe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan are adapting to climate change by prioritizing relationship-building and observation of the land."

Inside Clean Energy: The Racial Inequity in Clean Energy and How to Fight It

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10062020/inside-clean-energy-racial-inequity-solar?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

"The industry is growing, but jobs and financial benefits are not distributed equally."

Black environmentalists are organizing to save the planet from injustice

https://grist.org/justice/theyre-back-black-environmentalists-are-rising-to-save-the-planet-from-injustice/

How the US power grid could go on a 90% carbon-free diet

https://grist.org/energy/how-the-us-electricity-grid-could-go-on-a-90-carbon-free-diet/

Making a Planet Worth Saving

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/making-a-planet-worth-saving
by Bill McKibben

DIRECT ACTIONS

BHP to destroy at least 40 Aboriginal sites, up to 15,000 years old, to expand Pilbara mine

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/11/bhp-to-destroy-at-least-40-aboriginal-sites-up-to-15000-years-old-to-expand-pilbara-mine

450 Environmental, Energy Justice Groups Urge Federal Commission to Reject Threat to Solar Net Metering
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/450-environmental-energy-justice-groups-urge-federal-commission-reject-threat-solar-net-metering-2020-06-15/

SUSTAINABLE LIVING

Group Helps Turn Abandoned Shrimp Farms Into Carbon-Storing Mangrove Ecosystems
https://www.ecowatch.com/mangrove-ecosystems-2646162196.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=13a1a60223-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-13a1a60223-86095421

ENDING ON A POSITIVE

64K endangered turtles spotted on the edge of Great Barrier Reef (Video)

https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/animals/video-64k-endangered-turtles-spotted-on-the-edge-of-great-barrier-reef/amp/

Call To Action! 
We urge all groups including schools, neighborhood associations, organizations, clubs and groups of any kind to adopt a Climate Declaration.  Adopt ours or write your own.  Share your Climate Declaration with local governments, the media, write articles, and share information. 
Occupy Sonoma County Climate Declaration

Occupy Sonoma County, along with concerned, forward thinking people all over the world, declares that climate change has reached catastrophic proportions as evidenced by the current level of CO2 in the atmosphere, the melting of polar ice caps, and the continual rising of global temperatures.  This is a global emergency, and we must act immediately.​  We invite all forces of life to join together for our survival.  We stand up for life.

We recognize that the root of climate change is a capitalist system run by money greedy corporations and the governments that they control.  We actively oppose greenhouse gas producers, nuclear power investors, and fossil fuel companies by boycotting their products, developing alternatives, divesting from corporations that endorse them and insisting that governments at all levels take action.  We call on all governments and corporations to adopt life-sustaining practices immediately.

The people must act now to stop this destruction from continuing and reverse the damage this has caused​.  The future is in our hands.  We are the 99%!

What Earth Actions are you taking?

707-877-6650
http://OccupySonomaCounty.org
http://OccupySonomaCounty.org/es ​ (en español)
http://www.facebook.com/OccupySonomaCounty
https://twitter.com/OcSoCo
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmJoCP-ePUTPWNgHZwtBelg

Occupy Sonoma County embraces the egalitarian, deep democracy principles of the Occupy Movement with a regional strategy for effectively organizing countywide social justice campaigns that are globally relevant.