Category Archives: environment

Water Cut-off in Detroit Violates Human Rights, Say Activists | Inter Press Service

“This is unprecedented,” said Maude Barlow, founder of the Blue Planet Project, a group that advocates water as a human right.

“I visited the city and worked with the Detroit People’s Water Board several weeks ago and came away terribly upset,” she told IPS.

“Water bills are regressive, so low-income households pay a disproportionate amount of their income for water service.” — Mary Grant, researcher at Food & Water Watch

She pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people, mostly African Americans, are having their water ruthlessly turned off.

Families with children, the elderly and the sick, cannot bathe, flush their toilets or cook in their own homes, she added.

“This is the worst violation of the human right to water I have ever seen outside of the worst slums in the poorest countries in failed states of the global South,” said Barlow, a one-time senior advisor on water to a former President of the U.N. General Assembly.

Last March, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced plans to shut off water service for 1,500 to 3,000 customers every week if their water bills were not paid. And on Tuesday, the City Council approved an 8.7-percent water rate increase.

According to a DWSD document, more than 80,000 residential households – in a city of 680,000 people – are in arrears, with thousands of families without water, and thousands more expected to lose access at any moment.

via Water Cut-off in U.S. City Violates Human Rights, Say Activists | Inter Press Service.

Celebrating the Introduction of Bill to Protect San Gabriel Mountains and Rivers | Ramya Sivasubramanian’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains, I joined supporters at Peck Water Conservation Park along the Rio Hondo River on Saturday, June 14th to celebrate Congresswoman Judy Chu’s recent legislation to permanently protect over 615,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains, rivers, and parks. Co-sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Tony Cárdenas, supporters include local governments, school districts, water agencies, businesses, residents, and organizations like San Gabriel Mountains Forever. And it’s easy to see why.

via Celebrating the Introduction of Bill to Protect San Gabriel Mountains and Rivers | Ramya Sivasubramanian’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.

Oil/gas/fracking b4 land/people/animals – Text of H.R. 4866: To reverse the Department of the Interior’s listing of the lesser prairie chicken as

Totally weird – area covered is one that gas and oil developers hope to frack – guess they must think they will be done ruining the land and water by 2020?

Notwithstanding any prior action by the Secretary of the Interior, the lesser prairie chicken shall not be treated as a threatened species or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) before January 31, 2020.

via Text of H.R. 4866: To reverse the Department of the Interior’s listing of the lesser prairie chicken as … (Introduced version) – GovTrack.us.

Both sides cry foul over prairie chicken decision – Albuquerque Business First

(

Rep. Pierce has filed a House Bill to take authority over Lesser Prairie Chickens away for USFWS. It’s all about fracking, campaign donations, and trashing the ground water needed for drinking and for crops!)

“I support Chaves County in its decision to stand up to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service against its destructive decision to list the prairie chicken,” Pearce said. “The FWS’s decision to cater to environmental groups and disregard science will devastate New Mexico’s way of life. New Mexicans will pay the price in lost jobs, industry, ranching and oil and gas production. This is a federal government that is out of control. The only way change can occur is when local citizens and their leaders, like those in Chaves County, start standing up and demanding it.”

via Both sides cry foul over prairie chicken decision – Albuquerque Business First.

Caribbean chikungunya cases top 170,000 | CIDRAP

The number of chikungunya cases in parts of the Caribbean continued to surge last week, pushing past 170,000 cases, with the first cases confirmed in El Salvador, west of the main outbreak area, and more imported cases detected in the United States and other countries. {Will not be long before all of Central America is effected and then Mexico, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida – all from people visiting the currently effected areas – coming home infected and getting bitten by local mosquitoes!}

The outbreak has grown to 170,566 suspected or confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease, which is 35,139 higher than the 135,427 cases reported the previous week, according to a Jun 13 report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The number of deaths remained the same, at 14.

Over the past few weeks, most new cases are suspected infections reported from the Latin Caribbean countries, such as the Dominican Republic, where suspected cases rose from 52,976 to 77,320 last week. Guadaloupe and Martinique also reported thousands of new cases, but no new case totals were given for Haiti, another country that has recently been hard hit by the outbreak.

In the non-Latin areas that were mainly affected earlier in the outbreak, new cases were reported by Dominica, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.

via Caribbean chikungunya cases top 170,000 | CIDRAP.

President & First Lady Make Historic Trip to Standing Rock Sioux Reservatio Today

Presidential visits to Indian reservations are extremely rare. President Bill Clinton was the last sitting U.S. president to visit an Indian reservation when he did so in 1999 to the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Prior to President Clinton’s visit, President Franklin Roosevelt visited the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina in 1936.

via President & First Lady Make Historic Trip to Standing Rock Sioux Reservatio Today.

Dip of the week! Hates Prairie Chickens and loves campaign payoffs! To reverse the Department of the Interior’s listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, to prevent further consideration of listing of such species as a threatened species or endangered species under that Act pending implementation of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Conservation Plan and other conservation measures, and for other purposes. (H.R. 4866) – GovTrack.us

H.R. 4866: To reverse the Department of the Interior’s listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the …

… Endangered Species Act of 1973, to prevent further consideration of listing of such species as a threatened species or endangered species under that Act pending implementation of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Conservation Plan and other conservation measures, and for other purposes.

via To reverse the Department of the Interior’s listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, to prevent further consideration of listing of such species as a threatened species or endangered species under that Act pending implementation of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Conservation Plan and other conservation measures, and for other purposes. (H.R. 4866) – GovTrack.us.

Missouri Firm Recalls Ribeye and Carcass Products That May Contain Specified Risk Materials

SRMs are tissues that may contain the infective agent in cattle infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), as well as materials that are closely associated with these potentially infective tissues. Therefore, FSIS prohibits SRMs from use as human food to minimize potential human exposure to the BSE agent.

via Missouri Firm Recalls Ribeye and Carcass Products That May Contain Specified Risk Materials.

Chile rejects Patagonia wilderness dam project | News | DW.DE | 11.06.2014

There were scenes of jubilation in the capital city Santiago’s Plaza Italia as opponents of the dam heard the news.

“This is a historic day,” Juan Pablo Orrego, international coordinator of the Patagonia Without Dams campaign, told IPS news agency after the decision was announced.

“I am moved that the citizens… managed to finally inspire a government to do the right thing in the face of a mega-project,” he added.

“We did it. We won. Viva Chile!” and “Goodbye HidroAysen!” were among the messages tweeted on the group’s Twitter account.

The company may still appeal the project. The dam project, one of numerous schemes around the world that have sparked protests, would generate a about a third of Chile’s current energy needs. Experts say that Chile, which has a heavy reliance on a energy-intensive mining industry, will have to triple its current 18,000-megawatt power generation capacity within 15 years.

However, since being elected last year, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet had said the plan was not viable.

via Chile rejects Patagonia wilderness dam project | News | DW.DE | 11.06.2014.

Ebola update | Sierra Express Media

Ebola was officially confirmed in Sierra Leone on Sunday May 25th this year and only one (1) woman was confirmed having the disease.

Below are official up dates of Ebola suspected cases, confirmed cased and death rates respectively

Date

Suspected cases

Confirmed cases

Dead

Monday 2nd June 2014

36

15

5

Thursday 6th June 2014

71

24

6

Monday 9th June 2014

109

42

12

via Ebola update | Sierra Express Media.