Category: Environment,

Federal prosecutors say they can’t find files on investigation into Rocky Flats nuclear arms plant

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Environment,Leave a comment

The U.S. Department of Justice has lost track of more than 60 boxes of documents from a 27-year-old criminal investigation into safety and environmental violations at a former nuclear weapons plant in Colorado, officials said Tuesday.

…Seven groups representing environmentalists, former nuclear workers, nearby residents and public health advocates filed a motion in federal court in January asking that the files be made public. The groups say the documents could show whether the government did enough to clean up the site before turning part of it into a wildlife refuge and opening it to hikers and bicyclists.

Government attorneys are fighting the request.

Federal prosecutors say they can’t find files on investigation into Rocky Flats nuclear arms plant – The Colorado Sun

Jeezus…

Mauna Kea protests: what’s at stake for Native Hawaiians – Vox

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Environment,, Hawaii,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

After statehood, the lands were turned over to Hawaii, and it was required to hold these lands in trust for specific purposes, including “betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians,” under the 1959 Statehood Act.

In 1964, the state issued a lease to the University of Hawaii for 13,321 acres of ceded lands at the summit of Maunakea for $1 per year. The university was authorized to build “an observatory” but proceeded to build multiple observatories without prior approval, a violation of the lease.

…Environmental groups like the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, along with Native Hawaiians, continually fought to stop the development of observatories and require the state and university to better manage the area’s resources. In 1995, the Sierra Club forced the university to airlift large amounts of accumulated waste from the mountain. In 1998, the first of numerous state audits was released documenting the poor management of the area’s natural resources by the state and university.

…Hawaii had long been a tinderbox of colonial tensions; Maunakea simply lit the flame. Hawaiians began organizing in the 1970s to combat the institutionalized racism and prejudice they had been subjected to for generations. The movement to regain control of their lands and resources only grew from there, as Hawaiians retaught themselves their language and restored their cultural practices on a mass level, which had been largely outlawed and condemned by the provisional and territorial governments after the overthrow.

The result of the modern Hawaiian rights movement is a population of Hawaiians and allies who are educated, conscious of, and combating settler colonialism and its influence in Hawaii, and ready to regain control of their lands, their resources, and their government.

…Maunakea is considered an origin of Hawaiian cosmology, a Hawaiian equivalent to Christianity’s Garden of Eden. It is the meeting place of Earth Mother, Papahānaumoku, and Sky Father, Wākea.

…When asked, the protectors will quickly explain they are not against science and have little opposition to the TMT project itself — they just firmly believe it does not belong on the sacred lands of Maunakea. 

…TMT proponents claim that because there are no historic structures within the project area, cultural resources will not be as severely affected. Yet they fail to understand that built historic structures are not a prerequisite for cultural significance. 

…Inseparable from Hawaiian culture is a love of the land, ’āina. For Hawaiians — who thrived in the islands before foreigners arrived at the end of the 18th century — care and attachment to the land is central to their identities. The term “aloha ’āina,” literally meaning love of the land, has long been a rallying cry for Hawaiians.

..A line of elders, known as kūpuna, positioned themselves in the roadway leading up to the summit of Maunakea. Each elder was assigned a caretaker to tend to their health and nutritional needs while they awaited and blocked access to the construction trucks. Farther up the road, a group of seven Native Hawaiian protectors chained themselves to a cattle guard as a second line of defense in case law enforcement arrested the kūpuna.

…Despite pleas from younger activists to protect the kūpuna, the elders insisted on remaining on the front line and being the first arrested, asking the younger protectors to stand down and remain silent while they were taken.

Some elders forced officers to physically remove them, and they were picked up and carried down the road. Some were wheeled off in their wheelchairs. Others walked, sometimes with the help of walkers, if they could. Many of the 35 arrested were in their 70s or 80s.

The younger protectors openly wept and prayed as the kūpuna were taken in custody. Law enforcement, most of them Hawaiians themselves, moved slowly and respectfully, looking pained and conflicted as they arrested the kūpuna. The interaction remained peaceful, but the heartbreak was palpable.

…Based on footage released by the state, law enforcement officers, many Hawaiians and some related to kia’i, continue to struggle emotionally with being forced to stand opposite to the Hawaiian community gathered at the mountain. The use of Native Hawaiian law enforcement has been met with harsh criticism. Many consider it an intentional decision by government leaders, who are primarily non-Hawaiian, to create division and trauma within the Hawaiian community.

…It is estimated that the camp area now includes 2 miles of highway along the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, locally known as Saddle Road. The pu’uhonua is highly organized, with each new occupant undergoing an orientation upon arrival. Among the rules are no drugs, no smoking of any kind, no alcohol, and no weapons. Occupants are also required to hold themselves in “kapu aloha,” a spiritual edict of restraint and self-control where one acts only with compassion, love, and care for others.

Security, organized and run by the kia’i and the Royal Order of Kamehameha, is present 24 hours a day. There are 32 portable toilets that are pumped twice daily. All materials are sorted and recycled when possible. Trash is removed daily. There is a highly organized food service that feeds all present.

Despite the overwhelming evidence of the safety and order present in the refuge, including photos and video footage widely circulated on social media and local news, the state and project proponents continue a well-funded campaign of misinformation that aims to undermine the credibility of the protectors.

…Ige and his administration are also quickly losing support among local elected officials. His own lieutenant governor, Josh Green, a Big Island physician seen as a champion of humanitarian causes, has publicly cautioned the governor against the use of the National Guard and even visited the pu’uhonua on July 22, meeting with leaders and taking medical supplies to the camp. Similar statements, appearing to back away from the governor’s position, were issued by federal, state, and county leaders.

…University of Hawaii faculty are also calling for the removal of university president David Lassner, unhappy with his leadership throughout this ordeal.

With more and more supporters arriving at the camp daily, it is becoming clear that construction on Maunakea will not take place short of a significant and aggressive police action against the peaceful demonstrators. Yet with each step toward increased militarized force, the resistance to the state and the project grows.

For a project that claims to be for the benefit of mankind, TMT is quickly becoming synonymous with human rights violations, excessive police force, and a misinformation campaign that embodies all the worst acts of trauma against indigenous peoples. The protectors, bearing only aloha and compassion, are becoming a symbol of peaceful resistance and steadfast commitment to restoring indigenous self-determination.

Mauna Kea protests: what’s at stake for Native Hawaiians – Vox

Mahalo Kia’i, Aloha to all of you

EPA on chlorpyrifos: Pesticide will remain in use

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Modern Parenting,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Scientists say studies have shown that chlorpyrifos damages the brains of fetuses and children. The pesticide has been used nationally on dozens of food crops, but California – the nation’s largest agricultural state – and a handful of other states have recently moved to ban it.

EPA on chlorpyrifos: Pesticide will remain in uses

The Cheeto wants your starving child get brain-damage from toxins in their environment

Half of dead baby turtles found by Australian scientists have stomachs full of plastic

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In recent years, scientists have [realized] that animals ranging from plankton to whales are regularly consuming plastic, since around 10 million tons of it ends up in the sea every year.

…Very little [has been studied] about the overall effect plastic is having on ocean animals.

While some plastic can pass harmlessly through animals’ digestive systems, it can also accumulate and kill them by either blocking or tearing their guts.

There is also some evidence to suggest that plastic can leach toxic chemicals into their surroundings.

…While the number of plastic pieces in the reptiles’ guts varied wildly from one to over 300, the scientists were able to deduce that turtles have a 50 per cent probability of death after consuming 14 pieces.

The work emerges as another study documents the global decline of turtles and tortoises that has left over 60 per cent of the world’s species either extinct or facing extinction.

Half of dead baby turtles found by Australian scientists have stomachs full of plastic | The Independent

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EPA expands use of pesticide that can be toxic to bees – CNNPolitics

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The insecticide, called sulfoxaflor, will be allowed for use on some crops for the first time and in areas that were prohibited under the Obama administration. An EPA report this week notes that some forms of the pesticide can be “very highly toxic” to bees.

…Last week, the Trump administration announced that it will suspend data collection for its annual Honey Bee Colonies report. The move, which robs researchers and the honeybee industry of a critical tool for understanding honeybee population declines, comes as the Department of Agriculture is also curtailing other research programs.

In 2014, the Obama administration launched a program to address honeybee population losses, directing federal agencies to work toward preserving bee pollinator populations. The Trump administration has gone the other way, reversing an Obama-era rule meant to protect bees from a chemical family that can cause colonies to collapse.

EPA expands use of pesticide that can be toxic to bees – CNNPolitics

The cheeto does not want your children to have food to eat.

There’s An Environmental Disaster Unfolding In The Gulf of Mexico

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Gulf Coast Region,, Military,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

First came Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 monster storm that devastated [the] small fishing community in Plaquemines Parish before roaring up the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people and destroying $125 billion in property. Five years later, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded 40 miles offshore, spewing nearly 200 million gallons of crude. The fisheries have not fully recovered more than nine years later.

But this year may be worse. A historic slow-moving flood of polluted Mississippi River water loaded with chemicals, pesticides and human waste from 31 states and two Canadian provinces is draining straight into the marshes and bayous of the Gulf of Mexico — the nurseries of Arnesen’s fishing grounds — upsetting the delicate balance of salinity and destroying the fragile ecosystem in the process. 

…The torrent of river water pushing into Gulf estuaries is decimating crab, oyster and shrimp populations. The brown shrimp catch this spring in Louisiana and Mississippi is already down by an estimated 80%, and oysters are completely wiped out in some of the most productive fishing grounds in the country, according to state and industry officials.

…It’s not just fisheries that are suffering. Dolphins have been dying in huge numbers across the region — nearly 300 this year already, which is three times the number in a normal year, according to federal and state officials. Fishermen report finding dead dolphins floating in water near shore or beached in the marshes, covered in painful skin lesions that scientists have linked to freshwater exposure. One fisherman reported finding a mother dolphin pushing her dead baby along in the water.

…Dolphins are particularly vulnerable to incursions of river water, he said. “Every time they open the Bonnet Carre spillway, we see a spike in deaths.” 

“Dolphins are like the black box found on airplanes,” Solangi said. “They tell you what’s happening in the environment. When dolphins are doing well, the environment is doing well.”

…Officials say higher-than-normal dolphin strandings spiked in May, when there were 88 discovered along the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts. That’s nearly eight times the average monthly number of dolphin mortalities during the BP spill from 2010 to 2014.

…Many fishermen who have worked in these areas for generations suspect something else is threatening their future: politics. As part of a plan to save Louisiana’s rapidly sinking coastline, state agencies want to pump in more sediment-heavy river water to help rebuild the disappearing land. Fishermen question the efficacy of freshwater diversions and worry about the dangers to fisheries and marine life posed by these projects. They question why NOAA would grant waivers to Louisiana last year to bypass the Marine Mammal Protection Act and allow the freshwater diversion construction to proceed.

…[Acy Cooper, a fourth-generation fisherman and president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association] blames the Army Corps for not adequately managing the river and controlling and dredging the river passes that empty into the Gulf, making the effects of freshwater worse. 

There’s An Environmental Disaster Unfolding In The Gulf of Mexico | HuffPost

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AOC’s Chief of Staff Admits the Green New Deal Is Not about Climate Change

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Chakrabarti said that addressing climate change was not Ocasio-Cortez’s top priority in proposing the Green New Deal during a meeting with Washington governor Jay Inslee.

…“Do you guys think of it as a climate thing?” Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing,” he added.

AOC’s Chief of Staff Admits the Green New Deal Is Not about Climate Change

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Moving Away From Plastic In Food Delivery With New Packaging

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Despite efforts to increase recycling, most of the plastic still ends up in landfills or in the water. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, single-use plastic packaging is a large contributor to the 269,000 tons of plastic in the oceans.

…The company recently launched Zume Source Packaging that uses plant-based materials to create a cost-competitive alternative to plastic when at scale. 

…”With the acceleration of on-demand food, single-use food packaging is not going away. At the same time, there is an increase in demand for sustainable solutions as plastic clogs our oceans and rivers, and food companies are actively seeking better packaging solutions.”

…With the acquisition of Pivot and their expertise with molded fiber packaging, Zume plans to create solutions that have the performance characteristics of plastic but at a lower cost than plastics and corrugate paper when manufactured at scale. The company plans to use bagasse (sugarcane fiber), wheat, bamboo, straw and other fibers.

Ending Plastic In Food Delivery With New Packaging

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Corona Beer Trials Interlocking Cans To Replace Plastic Six-Pack Rings

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

A short video showing the concept states that the beverage industry produces over 16.5 million tons of plastic packaging every year and …8.8 million tons enters the ocean every year. Moreover, only 9% of all plastic waste generated actually gets recycled.

…Each can has a thread on the top and bottom so that the top of one be screwed into the bottom of another. 

…According to Ranero, the design will be “opensource” so that anyone interested in the innovation can use it.

…The concept is actually one of several that Grupo Modelo is experimenting with. “About seven months ago, we launched a plastic-free ring made of biodegradable material – a plant-based material,.” 

…Last year, Carlsberg introduced what they called a “snap pack” in the UK and Norway. Cans in four, six, or eight-packs are held together by tiny blobs of a strong glue, which is designed to withstand the rigors of transportation and even varying temperatures. The cans audibly snap when they’re pulled apart and the glue is recycled along with the aluminium can.

Corona Beer Trials Interlocking Cans To Replace Plastic Six-Pack Rings

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Where women lead on climate change

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Environment,, Media and Culture,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Last summer, dozens of women from across the country gathered to share strategies about water and forest conservation and improving crop yields, and they got a crash course in social auditing, a way for them to understand their rights and get involved in decisionmaking.

…At the meeting in Guatemala, where much of the population depends on subsistence farming, the women spoke different languages and came from different ethnic groups, but all could share stories of how the soil was less fertile, the seasons increasingly unpredictable, and the rainfall more erratic.

…As in many places, problems here often revolve around water scarcity and soil degradation, conditions that increase the workload for women responsible for providing water, food, and fuel for their homes. When those resources are scarce, they must travel farther, sometimes walking for hours to reach the nearest water source.

Because women’s work is often connected to the land, women have long fought to protect their natural environments, often from extractive industries and agribusinesses that compete for access to resources. Now, some are linking this activism to the impacts they feel from a changing climate.

…Pressures from climate change have worsened poverty, food insecurity, human trafficking, and child marriage, activists argue.

….“Women have always been leaders at all levels, it’s just not been recognized in the same way,” Ms. Blomstrom says. Part of that is a broader recognition that the effects of climate change are so varied and widespread, as well as stronger efforts to recognize women as human rights defenders.

Where women lead on climate change – CSMonitor.com

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Canada plans to ban ‘harmful’ single-use plastics by 2021 – CNN

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Canada will ban many single-use plastic items by 2021, including bags, straws, cutlery and stirring sticks.

…It comes after the European Parliament passed a similar ban on single-use plastic items in late March, including a target to recycle 90% of plastic beverage bottles by 2029.

…”Less than 10 per cent of plastic used in Canada [is sent to be] recycled. Without a change in course, Canadians will throw away an estimated $11 billion worth of plastic materials each year by 2030.”

…A report by the European Commission found that 80% of litter in the world’s oceans is plastic.

…Plastic has been found inside marine animals including [thing we eat seems like a reasonably conclusion but somehow is not listed in the animals the quote names.]

Canada plans to ban ‘harmful’ single-use plastics by 2021 – CNN

hmmm

You probably are swallowing a credit card’s weight in plastic every week

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

This plastic contamination comes from “microplastics” — particles smaller than five millimeters — which are making their way into our food, drinking water and even the air.

…The average person consumes as many as 1,769 particles of plastic every week just by drinking water — bottled or from the tap. But there could be large regional variations. It quotes a 2018 study that found twice as much plastic in water in the United States and India than in European or Indonesian tap water.

…Shellfish is the second biggest source of plastic ingestion, with the average person consuming as many as 182 microparticles — 0.5 grams — from this per week. The report says this is because “shellfish are eaten whole, including their digestive system, after a life in plastic polluted seas.”

…Globally, more than 330 million metric tons of plastic is produced each year, and global plastic production is expected to triple by 2050.

…[When] microplastics are shown to damage human health, it will be very difficult to remove them from the environment.

“Therefore we need to tackle plastic pollution at its very source [and] stop it from getting into the nature in the first place,” [Kavita Prakash-Mani, global conservation director at WWF International] told CNN, stressing that the priority should be reducing plastic production [emphasis: peanut gallery].

You could be swallowing a credit card’s weight in plastic every week – CNN

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Microplastics Have Invaded The Deep Ocean — And The Food Chain

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,Leave a comment

“We found that most of the plastic is below the surface.” More, he says, than in the giant floating patches.

And also to their surprise, they found that submerged microplastics are widely distributed, from the surface to thousands of feet deep.

Moreover, the farther from shore they sampled, the more microplastics they found. That suggests it’s not just washing off the California coast. It’s coming from all over.

…The deep ocean is filled with sea creatures like larvaceans that filter tiny organisms out of the water. …”We found small plastic pieces in every single larvacean that we examined from different depths across the water column,” Choy says. Another filter feeder, the red crab, also contained plastic pieces — every one they caught.

…”Anything that humans introduce to that habitat is passing through these animals and being incorporated into the food web” — a web that leads up to marine animals people eat.

Microplastics Have Invaded The Deep Ocean — And The Food Chain : The Salt : NPR

yup