EARTH ACTION IN THE NEWS - August 16, 2018

[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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1) Monsanto Loses Landmark Roundup Cancer Trial, Set to Pay USD 289 Million in Damages
https://sustainablepulse.com/2018/08/11/monsanto-loses-landmark-roundup-cancer-trial-set-to-pay-usd-280-million-in-damages/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monsanto_loses_landmark_roundup_cancer_trial_set_to_pay_usd_289_million_in_damages&utm_term=2018-08-10#.W3FHvLjLezZ
AND
Historic Ruling Against Monsanto Finds Company Acted with “Malice” Against Groundskeeper with Cancer (video)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/14/historic_ruling_against_monsanto_finds_company?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=61226378b6-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-61226378b6-191276697
AND
Monsanto Cancer Ruling Sparks Backlash Around the Globe
https://www.ecowatch.com/monsanto-glyphosate-lawsuits-2595806398.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=4b0a46e39e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-4b0a46e39e-86095421
"Germany's Bayer, which purchased Monsanto this year for $63 billion, also purchased a potential mountain of legal costs. Shareholders are certainly spooked. Bayer's stock tumbled as much as 14 percent on Monday, losing about 12 billion euros ($14 billion) in market value, Reuters reported."
AND
Jury Awards $289 Million to Man Who Blames Monsanto's Roundup for Cancer
http://time.com/5364686/roundup-cancer-jury-289-million/

Time Magazine: "Johnson, 46, alleges that heavy contact with the herbicide caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The state Superior Court jury agreed that Roundup contributed to Johnson’s cancer and Monsanto should have provided a label warning of the potential health hazard."

2) Court Slams EPA Failure To Protect Children And Farmworkers From Toxic Pesticide
https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2018/court-slams-epa-failure-to-protect-children-and-farmworkers-from-toxic-pesticide?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter

Earthjustice: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must ban a widely used organophosphate pesticide linked to brain damage in children, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today.  The appellate court ordered EPA to finalize its proposed ban on chlorpyrifos based on undisputed findings that the pesticide is unsafe for public health, and particularly harmful to children and farmworkers."

3) Wildfire Smoke Spreads Across Majority of U.S. States
https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-smoke-states-noaa-2593913754.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=c0b022db8b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-c0b022db8b-86095421
AND
Experts: If We Don’t Stop Climate Change, CA Fires “Will Seem Mild In Comparison to What’s Coming” (video)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/9/experts_if_we_don_t_stop?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=ec29dcdc47-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-ec29dcdc47-191276697

Democracy Now!: "The Mendocino Complex Fire in Northern California is now the largest wildfire ever recorded in California’s history. It started burning in July—the state’s hottest month on record. Of the 20 largest wildfires in California history, 15 have occurred since 2000. This year’s fires have already burned nearly three times as many acres as the same time last year. Experts say climate change has increased the length of fire season. In Oakland, California, we speak with Michael Brune, the director of the Sierra Club. We also speak with Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University.”

4) Regulatory ‘Burden’? A Mere $2,000 Would Have Saved This Man’s Neighborhood
https://www.ecowatch.com/oil-refinery-jesse-marquez-explosion-2593339618.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=f7436ebe01-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-f7436ebe01-86095421

Earthjustice: "The explosion occurred just a few miles down the road from the explosion he had lived through 46 years earlier. The blast narrowly missed a tank of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid, which if released, would have lethally gassed thousands of people. Shaken by news of this new explosion and many others over the years, Marquez began researching steps the oil refinery could have taken to avert it. His research disclosed that if the refinery had spent just $2,000 on a gas leak detector, ExxonMobil could have found the gas leak that triggered its explosion and the explosion at the Fletcher Oil refinery in Carson could have also been prevented."

5) Dirty Feed, Done Dirt Cheap: Are Consumers Who Shell Out for Organic Meat Eating a Bunch of Bull?
https://www.ecowatch.com/are-consumers-who-shell-out-for-organic-meat-eating-a-bunch-of-bull-2594493480.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=f7436ebe01-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-f7436ebe01-86095421

Whether the meat is imported or the feed, there is a lot of mislabeling of USDA organic meat.  If you eat meat, buy local grass-fed, grass-finished, organic meat from a farm with sustainable, carbon sequestering practices.  USDA organic is not a label you can trust.  Do your own research and learn about the farms you buy from. 

6) Solar Geoengineering Could ‘Fail to Prevent Damage to Crop Yields’
https://www.ecowatch.com/solar-geoengineering-crop-damage-2594218102.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=f7436ebe01-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-f7436ebe01-86095421
Carbon Brief: "Scientists have suggested that intentionally releasing aerosols into the atmosphere—a type of "solar geoengineering"—could help to limit global warming by reflecting away incoming sunlight in a similar way to a volcanic eruption. The new research uses historical data to investigate how past major volcanic eruptions have impacted global crop yields... However, the new research is "limited" and does not take into account the differences that are likely to exist between volcanic eruptions and solar geoengineering, other scientists tell Carbon Brief. Therefore, they say, it should not be used to draw "solid conclusions."

7) Settlement Reached for Largest Methane Leak in U.S. History
https://www.ecowatch.com/methane-leak-lawsuit-california-2594248435.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=0d2f3d0908-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-0d2f3d0908-86095421

Climate Nexus: "A major California utility has agreed to pay nearly $120 million in a civil settlement over a huge methane leak that forced thousands to flee their homes in 2015. The settlement between Southern California Gas Co. and the city of Los Angeles will pay for emissions mitigation, a long-term health study, and increased safety measures from the 2015 leak at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field, the largest single release of methane in U.S. history."

8) Researchers Use Technology and Nature to Save Hawaii’s Coral Reefs From Invasive Algae
https://www.ecowatch.com/hawaii-coral-reefs-algae-2595561167.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=4b0a46e39e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-4b0a46e39e-86095421
AND
Forecasting Coral Disease Outbreaks Could Buy Time to Save Reefs
https://www.ecowatch.com/coral-reefs-disease-2593908771.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=c0b022db8b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-c0b022db8b-86095421

Oceana: "Hawaii's knobbies have done well in captivity. This autumn, Gulko will reintroduce a few healthy specimens to Kaneohe Bay, "exactly where we got it," he said. "We're hoping that, lacking another large bleaching event, these will survive and expand." And if they don't, Gulko still has more fragments back in the nursery. "My gut feeling," he said, is "because we did this, we probably have a good chance of keeping the species from going extinct."

9) How Monsanto Plants Stories, Suppresses Science & Silences Dissent to Sell a Cancer-Linked Chemical (video)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/14/how_monsanto_plants_stories_suppresses_science?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=347e330707-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-347e330707-191276697

10) Meet the Two Protesters Who Confronted Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke over Corruption & Climate Change (video)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/13/meet_the_two_protesters_who_confronted?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=10b0b63f06-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-10b0b63f06-191276697

AND
Interior Sec. Zinke Blames “Radical Environmentalists,” Not Climate Change, as 100+ Wildfires Rage (video)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/13/interior_sec_zinke_blames_radical_environmentalists_not?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=10b0b63f06-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-10b0b63f06-191276697

AND
Ryan Zinke: Climate Change Has 'Nothing to Do' With California Wildfires
https://www.ecowatch.com/zinke-climate-change-wildfires-2595539458.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=88eec4dc10-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-88eec4dc10-86095421

11) DNC Will Take Fossil Fuel Money After All
https://www.ecowatch.com/dnc-fossil-fuel-donations-2595481111.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=88eec4dc10-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-88eec4dc10-86095421
"That was fast. Just two months after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) unanimously prohibited donations from fossil fuel companies, the DNC voted 30-2 on Friday on a resolution that critics say effectively reverses the ban, The Huffington Post reported."

12) Long-Term Risks of GE Trees Remain Unanswered
https://www.ecowatch.com/genetically-engineered-trees-2594502148.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=67c85820cb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-67c85820cb-86095421

Indigenous Environmental Network: ""This study confirms what we've known all along," said Anne Petermann, executive director of Global Justice Ecology Project and coordinator of the international Campaign to STOP GE Trees. "Trees are extremely complex, and fertility, which is one of the most important functions of any living organism, has been evolving in trees for millions of years. It is incredibly arrogant and dangerous to think that through genetic engineering we can override such a fundamental function as reproduction. Far from allaying fears, this research opens up serious new concerns."

13) France: Non-Recycled Plastic Will Cost 10 Percent More
https://www.ecowatch.com/france-plastic-recycling-tax-2595454633.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=88eec4dc10-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-88eec4dc10-86095421
"Recycling is necessary but not sufficient. We absolutely must cut off the flow and have more stringent measures against over-packaging and disposable objects."

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%!

 

Take Action - Get Involved!

Monday, August 20, 7-9 PM

Our next Earth Action Campaign meeting will be replaced by our monthly decision-making meeting from 6-9 PM due to circumstances beyond our control that caused us to cancel our regular meeting last week
Peace & Justice Center, 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa
For more information go to http://OccupySonomaCounty.org or call 707-877-6650.

Wednesday, August 23, 7pm
350 Sonoma
For more info go to Facebook350 Sonoma or webpage 350sonoma.org. Email 350Sono...@gmail.com

Saturday, September 8, 10 AM
Embarcadero Plaza, San Francisco
RISE March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice

Get on the bus in Sonoma & Marin County: http://bit.ly/sonmarinrise

Let's mobilize EVERYONE for this important march!

For more info contact 350Sono...@gmail.com

Tuesday, September 11 - Thursday, September 13, 9am-9pm

The National Heirloom Expo

Sonoma County Fairground, Santa Rosa

$30 for 3 days, $15 for 1 day, kids free

The "World's Fair of Pure Food" - exhibits, speakers, vendors, workshops, food, and fun!

For more info: http://theheirloomexpo.com/ (check the website close to the event for the schedule)

(Editor's note: Don't miss this awesome event!)

September 17, 2018 6-8pm – Potential Strategies for Zero Waste
October 22, 2018 6-8pm - Draft Zero Waste Plan
Finley Community Center, Person Senior Wing, Room 1
2060 West College Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95401

For more info contact 350Sono...@gmail.com

December 6, 5-8 PM

Holiday Networking Party &  Awards for Leadership in Post-fire Ecosystem Regeneration

Sebastopol Grange

Sonoma County Conservation Council: sc...@sonic.net

Volunteer Opportunities

• We need a list of Mexican restaurants and taquerias for a mailing about GMOs in corn products.

* Please help promote and attend the RISE march on September 8: http://CA.RISEFORCLIMATE.org
 for bus info: http://bit.ly/sonmarinrise

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.