EARTH ACTION IN THE NEWS - February 11, 2021
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Emerald
Feb 11, 2021, 7:56:12 AM2/11/21
to Earth Action Campaign
EARTH ACTION IN THE NEWS
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BREAKTHROUGH!
Could We Pay Back The Earth For What It Provides? A New Report Offers A Roadmap
"The Economics of Biodiversity report calls for national and
corporate accounting systems to estimate the value of "natural capital"
and compensate nature for what it provides through investment in
environmental stewardship."
LOCAL REPORTS
Research project to investigate potential pesticide contamination in Graton
Bitter Brew: The Stirring Reality of Coffee
Food Empowerment Project makes several recommendations for brands of coffee in this excellent article.
California Utilities to Spend Billions to Cut Wildfire Risk
https://www.kqed.org/news/11859069/california-utilities-to-spend-billions-to-cut-wildfire-risk?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=20210208_News_News%20Daily_Newsletter&mc_key=00Q1Y00001xsPQmUAM
https://www.kqed.org/news/11859069/california-utilities-to-spend-billions-to-cut-wildfire-risk?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=20210208_News_News%20Daily_Newsletter&mc_key=00Q1Y00001xsPQmUAM
PG&E had the money to make these safety upgrades years ago.
Bay Area Community Power Providers Team Up in Quest for Cheaper Clean Energy
PG&E outlines $6 billion in spending on wildfire safety and grid upgrades over two years
Let's spend this money on microgrids to decentralize our power system. Put solar panels on churches, businesses, rooftops, and garages to create neighborhood-based energy. When PG&E says that they are "trimming trees" are they selectively removing branches hanging over power lines or are they collaborating with the logging industry for big profits? Should PG&E be publicly owned?
'This has to end peacefully': California's Punjabi farmers rally behind India protests
Sonoma County residents sending less trash to landfill
Sonoma County looks to entrepreneurs to help with forest management
Heavy logging is what made our forests vulnerable to climate change-driven extreme wildfires in the first place. More logging just makes this worse. Nature-caused fires contribute to the health of the forest. Forests regenerate quickly and are teaming with life within days after a wildfire. Opportunistic loggers, CALFire and PG&E have dollar signs in their eyes instead of respecting the cycles of nature and our precious, beautiful trees. A "nurse log" is not "waste", "debris", or "fuel". It is a decomposing nursery for new bugs that bring new birds that bring new animals, and new trees. Mother Nature is amazing and powerful in recovering our forests after a fire. Go see this for yourself.
GMOs, GLYPHOSATE & TOXINS
New York State Bans Glyphosate Use on Public Property
Court Settlement Requires EPA to Review How Bee-Killing Pesticide Harms Endangered Species
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2021/02/court-settlement-requires-epa-to-review-how-bee-killing-pesticide-harms-endangered-species/
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2021/02/court-settlement-requires-epa-to-review-how-bee-killing-pesticide-harms-endangered-species/
Bayer announces agreement with plaintiffs’ counsel on class plan
http://www.press.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Bayer-announces-agreement-with-plaintiffs-counsel-on-class-plan
http://www.press.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Bayer-announces-agreement-with-plaintiffs-counsel-on-class-plan
"Bayer also announced that progress has been made with plaintiffs' class counsel on a revised class plan to manage and resolve potential future Roundup™ claims. The details of the revised class plan will be finalized over the coming weeks and a motion for preliminary approval will be filed upon completion of the formal agreement."
FOSSIL FUELS
Whistleblower Accuses Exxon of 'Fraudulent' Behavior for Overvaluing Fracking Assets For Years
Bakken Oil Trains Unsafe at any Speed due to Volatile Oil
New Mexico Families in Oil and Gas ‘Waste Zone’ Seek Help
Oil Industry Inflates Job Impact From Biden’s New Pause on Drilling on Federal Lands
Evidence Shows Oil Industry Flaring in Texas Being Done Without Permits
PIPELINES
Water Protectors Hold Their Ground in Wild Rice Country by Winona LaDuke
"We have been fighting this pipeline for seven years.
And so far we’ve held it off in the courts and through the permitting
process. The carbon output would be equivalent to opening 50 new coal plants—more carbon emissions than the entire current Minnesota economy. And all this for a dying industry."
Living with natural gas pipelines: Appalachian landowners describe fear, anxiety and loss
Australia's proposed gas pipelines would generate emissions equivalent to 33 coal-fired power plants
PLASTIC & POLLUTION
Reusable Cups Are Slowly Returning to Coffee Shops
https://www.treehugger.com/reusable-cups-returning-coffee-shops-5101523?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=shareurlbuttons
https://www.treehugger.com/reusable-cups-returning-coffee-shops-5101523?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=shareurlbuttons
WAKE UP CALL
Chicago’s Bike Lane Efforts Have Fallen Short For Decades. Can Lightfoot Help The City Catch Up?
Indiana Senate approves bill to deregulate wetlands
https://www.ibj.com/articles/indiana-senate-approves-bill-to-deregulate-wetlands
"The Indiana Senate has passed controversial legislation that would repeal state oversight of wetlands. The Senate approved Senate Bill 389 by a vote of 29-19 on Monday afternoon. Nine Republicans joined 10 Democrats in opposing the measure. The bill moves to the Indiana House for consideration. The bill, authored by Republican Sen. Chris Garten of Charlestown, would eliminate any state regulation of wetlands."
"The Indiana Senate has passed controversial legislation that would repeal state oversight of wetlands. The Senate approved Senate Bill 389 by a vote of 29-19 on Monday afternoon. Nine Republicans joined 10 Democrats in opposing the measure. The bill moves to the Indiana House for consideration. The bill, authored by Republican Sen. Chris Garten of Charlestown, would eliminate any state regulation of wetlands."
Economics' failure over destruction of nature presents ‘extreme risks’
"The world is being put at “extreme risk” by the failure of economics to
take account of the rapid depletion of the natural world and needs to
find new measures of success to avoid a catastrophic breakdown, a
landmark review has concluded."
Mark Carney: Climate crisis deaths 'will be worse than Covid'
"Mr Carney, who was the Bank of England governor up until last year, and
the head of the Bank of Canada before that, is now the United Nations
envoy for climate action and finance."
Brazil’s BR-319: Politicians capitalize on the Manaus oxygen crisis to promote a disastrous highway
Climate change "may have played a key role" in coronavirus pandemic, study says
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-coronavirus-bats-study/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-coronavirus-bats-study/
THINK TANK & STRATEGY
Economics of biodiversity review: what are the recommendations?
"Instilling an appreciation of nature through education is vital in a
rapidly urbanising world, Dasgupta argues: “The discipline to draw on
nature sustainably must, ultimately, be provided by us as individuals.
Many people have grown distant from nature. Our education systems should
introduce nature studies from the earliest stages of our lives, and
revisit them in secondary and tertiary education.”
Can Geothermal Power Play a Key Role in the Energy Transition?
https://e360.yale.edu/features/can-geothermal-power-play-a-key-role-in-the-energy-transition
https://e360.yale.edu/features/can-geothermal-power-play-a-key-role-in-the-energy-transition
How to Move America to Electric Vehicles
The push for standing forest protections in US climate policy
"Researchers say "proforestation" policies are the fastest and most effective way to draw excess CO2 out of the atmosphere... while tree planting campaigns can play a role in climate change
mitigation, it is the forests that are standing now that can sequester
carbon most effectively in the near term.
Older trees are typically more efficient carbon extractors than younger
trees (in comparable environmental conditions) because, as trees get
larger, they add more carbon rich mass each year than the year before... "Industry wants people to think that people who want to protect forests
[are] out to stop all logging, [that] we're against all wood products,"
said Smith. "That's not true, but we do believe that the 21st century
requires us to be a lot more discerning and careful about the resources
that we are consuming." ..."Not that planting trees isn't a good idea. Of course it is. Everybody is for that. But what about the ones we've already got?"
DIRECT ACTIONS
India cuts internet around New Delhi as protesting farmers clash with police
Rihanna, Greta Thunberg Lend Support to Plight of Indian Farmers
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-03/indian-farmers-win-support-from-unlikely-allies-rihanna-greta?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business
"Pop star Rihanna and environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg have drawn global attention to Indian farmers’ fight against the government’s new agriculture laws, shining a spotlight on its suspension of internet services at protest sites around New Delhi."
"Pop star Rihanna and environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg have drawn global attention to Indian farmers’ fight against the government’s new agriculture laws, shining a spotlight on its suspension of internet services at protest sites around New Delhi."
Campaigners Claim 'Historic Win' as France Found Guilty of Climate Inaction
Oil Company Caves Under Pressure to Cut ‘Draconian’ Injunction
https://www.desmog.co.uk/2021/02/05/oil-gas-company-injunction-weald
https://www.desmog.co.uk/2021/02/05/oil-gas-company-injunction-weald
SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Agroforestry may be just what Maine needs for agricultural growth
"Some of the more creative agroforestry approaches involve alley cropping (interspersing annual and perennial plants), forest farming,
where potentially lucrative shade crops are grown in woodland settings,
and silvopasture, which incorporates trees with pasture and forage."
'Shift' to plant-based diets is key to saving world's wildlife
"The report, supported by the UN environment programme, focused on three solutions. First is a shift to plant-based diets because cattle, sheep and other livestock have the biggest impact on the environment. More than 80% of global farmland is used to raise animals, which provide only 18% of calories eaten. Reversing the rising trend of meat consumption removes the pressure to clear new land and further damage wildlife. It also frees up existing land for the second solution, restoring native ecosystems to increase biodiversity."
How creating wildlife crossings can help reindeer, bears – and even crabs
ENDING ON A POSITIVE
Take a plant, leave a plant on Elphick
"Located west of Sebastopol at the corner of Elphick Road and Archer Way,
about a block away from the Pleasant Hill Memorial cemetery. The Elphick Road Plant Stand has its own Instagram, which you can see @elphickroadplantstand."
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
https://OccupySonomaCounty.org
(en español)
https://OccupySonomaCounty.org
(en español)
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.
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