This morning my email inbox was full of advocacy groups commemorating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. As the ecological systems that support life are reaching their brink, there is certainly a good reason to use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on a range of issues and challenges. But activist organizations aren’t alone in commemorating today.

Today I was struck even more by corporations trying to capitalize on Earth Day to green their images. As Becky Tarbotton observed in the Huffington Post, the New York Times summarized the situation well: “So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins ‘to challenge corporate and government leaders’… Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.”

Photo by Diana Pei Wu

Against this backdrop, World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba today is a breath of fresh air.

The Indigenous Environmental Network celebrated today by explaining that “this morning Bolivian President Evo Morales was joined by representatives of 90 governments and several Heads of State to receive the findings of the conference on topics such as a Climate Tribunal, Climate Debt, just finance for mitigation and adaptation, agriculture, and forests. The working group on forests held one of the more hotly contested negotiations of the summit, but with the leadership of Indigenous Peoples, a consensus was reached to reject REDD and call for wide-scale grassroots reforestation programs.”

Jason Negrón-Gonzales of Movement Generation elaborated on how they do Earth Day in Cochabamba: “…from now I’ll be talking to my children and 2010 will be remembered as the year that Earth Day took on new meaning. It will be the year that humanity turned a corner in our relationship to Mother Earth and began struggling along a new course…more than politics, the conference in Cochabamba brought to the table humanity’s relationship with Pachamama. This question, raised most pointedly by the Indigenous communities present, was reflected in the project of creating a declaration of Mother Earth Rights, but also went way beyond it. Can we really reach a sustainable relationship with the Earth unless we stop looking at it as something to be conquered or fixed that is outside of us? How would it change our lives and our struggles if we thought, as Leonardo Boff of Brazil said, ‘Todo lo que existe merece existir, y todo lo que vive merece vivir (Everything that exists deserves to exist, and everything that lives deserves to live)’? Or if we understood the Earth as a living thing that we are a part of and that, ‘La vida es un momento de la tierra, y la vida humana un momento de la vida (Life is a moment of the earth, and the human life is a moment of life)’?”

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Congratulations to all our comrades in Black Mesa and the many many supporters who have worked on this issue throughout the year.

repost:

Black Mesa Wins! Peabody’s Coal Mining Permit Revoked

Peabody Coal’s massive coal mine project, on the traditional lands of the Hopi and Dineh People in northeastern Arizona, was dealt another major blow this week by an administrative judge in Salt Lake City..

On January 5, 2010, Judge Robert G. Holt revoked Peabody’s coal mining permit at Black Mesa, because the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) failed to provide a supplemental Draft Environmental Impact statement (EIS) when it issued the permit in December 2008.

“As a result,” Judge Holt states, “the Final EIS did not consider a reasonable range of alternatives to the new proposed action, described the wrong environmental baseline, and did not achieve the informed decision-making and meaningful public comment required by NEPA [National Environmental Protection Act].”

The permit was supposed to “guarantee” Peabody’s operation until 2026, or “until the coal runs out.” Now it’s on hold—-a welcomed turn of events in the decades-long struggle against the project, as Wahleah Johns, co-director of Black Mesa Water Coalition stated on January 8, 21010:

“As a community member of Black Mesa I am grateful for this decision. For 40 years our sacred homelands and people have borne the brunt of coal mining impacts, from relocation to depletion of our only drinking water source. This ruling is an important step towards restorative justice for Indigenous communities who have suffered at the hands of multinational companies like Peabody Energy. This decision is also precedent-setting for all other communities who struggle with the complexities of NEPA laws and OSM procedures in regards to environmental protection. However, we also cannot ignore the irreversible damage of coal mining industries continues on the land, water, air, people and all living things.”

“This is a huge victory for the communities of Black Mesa impacted by coal mining and proof that Peabody can’t have its way on Black Mesa anymore,” adds Sierra Club’s Hertha Woody, also a member of the Navajo Nation. “Coal is a dirty, dangerous and outdated energy source that devastates communities, jeopardizes drinking water and destroys wildlife habitats. This decision is yet another example of why it no longer makes sense to burn coal to get electricity.”

Just a few weeks ago, the EPA issued its own decision and withdrew Peabody’s water permit, after the Black Mesa Water Coalition, To’ Nizhoni Ani (“Beautiful Water Speaks”), Diné CARE and several other groups raised concerns the company was violating NEPA, as well as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The diverse group of defenders, some of whom were recently blacklisted for being “a threat” to the Hopi and Navajo Nations, also alleged the EPA did not fully consider the environmental impacts of Peabody’s waste ponds, and failed to provide opportunities for public involvement in their decision-making process.

“For three-and-a-half decades, Peabody’s coal mining operations on Black Mesa have been dependent on the sole source of drinking water for Navajo and Hopi communities. Between 1969 and 2005, Peabody pumped an average of 4,600 acre-feet of water annually from the Navajo Aquifer, causing significant damage to Navajo and Hopi community water supplies. The permit … would have allowed Peabody to continue discharging heavy metals and toxic pollutants into washes, tributaries and groundwater relied on by communities,” states the Sierra Club in a December Press Release.

Following the decision, Nicole Horseherder of To’ Nizhoni Ani, who lives about 20 miles away from
Peabody’s Black Mesa Complex, said “I am very happy about the EPA’s decision to withdraw the permit. I am glad to see a federal regulatory agency finally doing its job. In the course of our struggle to protect the water and bring awareness to the impacts of this coal mining operation, we have never had such a favorable decision by any agency charged with regulating the impacts of Black Mesa.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org

Did you catch that moment of unity last week in Singapore at the APEC summit? Leaders from across the Earth boldly stood, in their matching shirts, unified in their resolve to “walk back” expectations about the Copenhagen Climate Conference next month?

Sheesh.

But who needs to go summit-hopping over to Denmark when you can stay home and fight the largest and most destructive project on planet Earth? Right here in our very own back yard. That’s right–we’re taking about the Tar Sands. The dirtiest most carbon intensive oil on this here planet.

Check out our latest music video:  The Tar Sands Blow

If you ain’t ready to open up a big old can of Tar Sands Whuppass by the time it’s over, then we don’t deserve to call ourselves Popular Agitators no more.

Crank your speakers to 11 and click here:  The Tar Sands Blow

(cross-posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here)

During rush-hour commute this morning, two Indigenous Canadian women – Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, and Heather Milton-Lightening – scaled flagpoles in front of the main entrance of Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC’s) headquarters in Toronto, dropping a banner reading “Please Help Us Mrs. Nixon.com” – appealing to the bank to pull its massive investments in Alberta tar sands projects. Supported by RAN, the Ruckus Society, and their Indigenous People’s Power Project, they were joined by dozens of Toronto RAN activists, swarming entrances to ensure every RBC employee heard our appeal Mrs. Janet Nixon, the wife of RBC CEO Gordon Nixon, to lend her strong and influential voice to those fighting to protect Canada’s clean water and respect Indigenous rights by pushing RBC to stop bankrolling the tar sands. They handed out flyers, held banners, and even circled the building on bikes with “Please Help Us Mrs. Nixon.com” flags.

RBC is the ATM of the Tar Sands.

They are a leading investor in what has been called the dirtiest project on Earth and is one of the greatest social and ecological injustices of our time. Unless they’re stopped by grassroots pressure, oil companies will transform a boreal forest the size of Florida into an industrial sacrifice zone – complete with lakes full of toxic waste that are so big that you can see them from outer space. Tar sands projects poison First Nations Communities, pollute precious water resources, kill wildlife, and are the single biggest contributor to global warming from Canada.

At the same time as the banner was being unfurled, thousands of RAN supporters and allies began emailing a video to key RBC executives – in which RAN’s Michael Brune appeals to Mrs. Nixon to help RBC offer leadership by withdrawing its funding for the tar sands. (If you haven’t participated in this online action yet, it’s not too late! Click here to view the video and email it to RBC executives.)

You can also view the video on YouTube (be sure to go to PleaseHelpUsMrsNixon.com and take action when you’re done watching).

Check out ongoing news coverage that is just starting, from Bloomberg, CBC, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Canadian Press, Daily Kos, Financial Post, Canada.com, Brandon Sun, Stockhouse, KBS Radio, New Brunswick Business Journal, AM 1150, Canadian Business, Vancouver Sun, and much more.

See lots of photos of the action here.

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