While the Gulf Coast disaster continues apace, three small tribes and several groups and individuals focused on rescue and remediation need additional support. New legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to require more rigorous testing of chemicals; the Environmental Defense Fund wants your help in improving it. You can join several efforts currently under way to save sacred lands in Northern Arizona from pollution by sewage effluent, and to help promote aggressive action on climate change. And how would like to know that, when you "walk on," you're doing so in an environmentally friendly manner? It's now possible.
Tonight's EcoAdvocates edition includes posts by Aji on The Gulf Tribes: Rescuing Coastline and Cultures, Meteor Blades on The Safe Chemicals Act of 2010, Ojibwa on Green Burials, Boatsie with Take Action Alerts, and Oke with a special "Save the Peaks" Action Alert. |
The Gulf Tribes: Rescuing Coastline and Cultures
By Aji
Three tiny Indian tribes on Louisiana's Gulf Coast, trapped in the vortex of BP's environmental destruction, now face the real possibility of their own cultural annihilation as a result.
The Chitimacha, the Houma, and the Pointe-au-Chien tribes depend upon the coastal waters and their resources for their livelihoods, for spiritual sustenance, and for their very existence. Already reeling from the devastation wrought by 2008's Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, tribal members now fear the literal demise of their people.
Oil and gas companies began destroying these tribal lands some 80 years ago, digging 10,000 miles' worth of canals that routed salt water into the marshes. Their drilling and extraction obliterated plant and wildlife habitats; greatly accelerated coastal erosion; contaminated both land and water with brine, chemicals, and acids; and by some estimates have caused 1,000 square miles of land loss. According to USGS scientists, the rate of extraction also likely caused the land's sinkage – a half-inch per year in some areas.
Three weeks ago, the effect on tribal areas was already ruinous:
On Saturday, oil released into the Gulf of Mexico from the spill that began April 20 was three miles inside Bayou Pointe-Aux-Chenes. It has already ruined oyster plots, soiled crab traps and cut off shrimp trawlers from some of this area's best fishing grounds.
"The oil has locked us in," said Jamie Dardar, a crabber and Houma Indian. "Everyone is on top of each other now and you can't even drive a boat through there for all the traps.
"But it's only a matter of time before they shut it completely down. It's only a matter of time. This oil is just going to finish us."
As Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse noted in an earlier diary, the tribes have not been waiting around for someone else to help: From the beginning, they've offered their centuries'-worth of expertise to help with cleanup and remediation, and took booming matters into their own hands immediately.
Complicating matters is the fact the only the Chitimacha are a federally recognized tribe. The state of Louisiana recognizes both the Houma and the Pointe-au-Chien, but without federal recognition, they are ineligible for certain types of much-needed disaster and other aid. The Pointe-au-Chien have been seeking recognition since 1996; the Houma filed their initial application in 1985. Both applications have languished at various stages of the process, and have been continually hampered by long delays and a lack of urgency on the part of the federal government. And while Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has made repeated requests for National Guard assistance and for economic aid for commercial fisheries, and for Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes, it appears that he has failed to do so for Terrebonne Parish, where most tribal lands are located.
Take action: Help rescue both the Gulf coastline and three vulnerable tribal cultures.
- Contact Kimberley Teehee at the White House and the members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to request that they fast-track the federal recognition process for the Houma and and Pointe-au-Chien tribes. Also urge them to work with federal agencies to expedite disaster assistance and economic aid to all three tribes, despite the absence of current federal recognition for two of them. E-mail me for a detailed list of all local and DC contact information for each member. The lists will also be posted in comments below.
- If you have legal expertise in the area of tribal recognition, or fundraising contacts that would help pay for the legal counsel needed, please contact the Houma and Pointe-au-Chien tribes to offer assistance.
- Contact Governor Jindal and ask why he has not issued a disaster declaration, nor requested federal disaster aid, for Terrebonne Parish and tribal lands, and urge him to do so immediately. CC your request to members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, the White House, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Homeland Security.
- Contact media nationwide. To my knowledge, this story has so far appeared in only one large media outlet, The Miami Herald; that same story has been picked up and reprinted by smaller outlets and Native media, but I've seen virtually no other original reporting on this issued. E-mail me for a detailed list of national media contacts; a version of the list will also be posted in comments below.
If that's not incentive enough, let me leave you with a few words from Houma tribal chair Brenda Dardar Robichaux and Pointe-au-Chien member Charles Verdin:
"I shudder to think how this is going to affect us in the long term. We are a resilient people, but this is different than anything we’ve had to face. We haven’t seen the worst yet," Robichaux said.
"We expect the oil will reach the canals and will infiltrate water supply. The unknown is agonizing. Heaven forbid a hurricane comes, that’s too devastating to even think about.
. . .
"It’s hard to imagine or see our future," Verdin said. "We just don’t know."
Diarist's Note: A version of this post appeared in Sage and Sweetgrass in the June 10 edition of SheKos.
The Safe Chemicals Act of 2010
By Meteor Blades
Our planet is bathed in tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals that have not been tested for safety. Some of these can cause hormonal changes and diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, leukemia and various kinds of cancer. They can have ill effects on the kidney, breast, liver and brain. They can lead to low birth weight, and endocrine and reproductive disorders as well as learning and developmental disabilities.
But in the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, 62,000 chemicals were grandfathered in, meaning most of them were excluded from testing. Most of the chemicals now on the market are part of these original thousands. They're still being sold even though nobody knows for sure how many disorders, diseases and deaths they may be causing. Moreover, to test new chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency must provide a reasonable assumption that harm is being caused. It's practically an insurmountable obstacle. The EPA only has resources to test a tiny fraction of the new chemicals coming onto the market each year. In fact, over the past three decades, it's only tested 200 chemicals, and TSCA has only allowed the EPA regulate limited use of five chemicals.
Then, too, because of trade secret terms built into TSCA, the identities of some 20% of the commercially available chemicals are kept completely secret from everyone, not just consumers, but also scientists and government regulators.
In April, Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Rep. Henry Waxman of California introduced companion measures in the Senate and House, the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010. This would run some fixes on TSCA that "could finally turn our 'innocent until proven guilty' approach to regulating toxic chemicals on its head," according to Pesticide Action Network's Senior Policy Analyst Kristin Schafer at TakePart.com.
The bill would require manufacturers to develop and provide the EPA with all the data it needs to determine the safety of a chemical. The EPA would quickly use the data to categorize and prioritize chemicals according to their hazards and exposure aspects. All chemicals would have to be proved safe to remain or enter the marketplace. A database about chemical information submitted to and acted upon by the EPA would be made available to the public.
All well and good as far as it goes. But the Environmental Defense Fund seeks additional changes. These include:
• Ensuring that new chemicals prove they are safe before entering the market.
• Giving EPA authority to restrict the most dangerous chemicals already on the market, especially those that have already been studied and restricted by other governments around the world.
• Requiring the best science be used to test chemicals instead of only recommending this, as the current Senate bill does.
You can help get these companion bills amended and moving through Congress by contacting your Senator or Representative.
Green Burials
By Ojibwa
Humans have faced the problems of how to dispose of dead bodies for thousands of years. More than 35,000 years ago, Homo neanderthalensis (a distant relative of the modern Homo sapiens) buried their dead in a pit in Shanidar Cave located in Kurdistan (northern Iraq). They placed the body in a fetal position, covered it with seven different kinds of flowers, and placed a stone slab over the grave. Some 30,000 years later, the Egyptians would be embalming bodies to preserve them and then burying them in special structures. In other parts of the world, such as England and Ireland some 5,000 years ago, bodies were cremated and the cremains placed in special tombs. In Tibet, bodies were placed as special offerings for the vultures who picked the bones clean.
Today, humans have a wide variety of ways of disposing of dead bodies, including both burials and cremations. However, if you wish to dispose of a human body in an environmentally friendly way, what should you do? Burials in the United States are most often done by first embalming the body with chemicals to help preserve it. Then the body is placed inside a casket and this is often placed within a concrete or metal liner or vault. Burials are generally done with an eye toward: (1) preserving the body, and (2) preserving the smooth look of the cemetery’s lawn. Today, however, many people are looking for environmentally friendly alternatives to the traditional burial.
Many people choose cremation as an environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional burial. While cremation is considered to be the preferred method of dealing with dead bodies among some religious groups, such as Hindus and Sikhs, it is discouraged by others, such as Orthodox Jews. At the present time, about 40% of the dead in the United States are cremated, as compared with 47% in Canada.
Until recently, internment in an environmentally friendly burial ground was not an option. However, this is changing and in many parts of the United States, green burials are now an option.
The website for Green Burials explains why people want green burials:
It is clear that nature has intended that our bodies be reunited with the earth. All organisms that have lived, have died and returned to the soil...only to be recycled into new life. Constant microbial activity in the soil breaks everything down. Nature creates no waste. Everything is recycled.
In a green burial, the body is placed in a biodegradeable casket or shroud, or simply wrapped in a favorite blanket. It is placed in the ground without being embalmed. While this is a very simple process, for modern funerals it presents a couple of problems.
First, without embalming fluids to preserve the body, burial must be done soon after death, or the funeral home must be able to refrigerate the body to preserve it for burial.
The second problem is found at the cemetery. When a body is buried naturally, the ground around it will slump as the body decomposes. This means that the graves develop depressions which must be filled in. Green Burials points out:
Embalming, expensive sealed caskets and burial vaults are not required by law. Though traditional memorial parks may require them, a green cemetery or memorial nature preserve does not.
than an artificial landscape. According to Green Burials:
A natural burial takes place in a natural environment where native flora and wildlife flourish. A green cemetery provides habitat for endemic birds and animals, returning lands to their native grasses, flowers and shrubs.
Recently, the Ashland, Oregon City Council approved a measure to allow green burials in city cemeteries. The measure resulted from requests by city residents for green burials.
Green burials are becoming one more alternative, one which is attractive people who see humans as a natural part of the environment and who want to maintain the natural cycle of life and death.
Diarist's Note: This segment was posted at Street Prophets on June 27, 2010.
Take Action Alerts
by Boatsie
Endorse and participate in the vital climate policy discussion at "A Path To A Safe Climate: Making Climate Justice a Reality". The discussion paper was launched last week by the Solutions Working Group of the No Offsets Coalition to promote aggressive US climate action in lieu of such "false solutions as carbon trading, nuclear subsidies, and continued concessions to big coal and oil." Participants are invited to endorse the current document and participate in ongoing modifications and evaluations which will be updated quarterly as the group works towards a final document.
Join the Gulf Mobile Bay Keeper Org drive to mail one million hand-written letters to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson by August 1st. Visit the site for a sample letter opposing the ongoing use of the toxic Corexit chemical dispersant. The organization is also demanding fast tracking the process by which all dispersants are evaluated.
Gulf Coast Benefit: Help raise much needed funds for those directly impacted by the disaster in the Gulf by attending coast to coast concerts tomorrow, July 1. Music venues across the nation have joined together to donate proceeds from events to the Gulf Restoration Network.
Still haven’t signed the world’s largest mandate demanding global leaders seriously tackle the climate crisis? Join 16 million + Global Citizens for Climate Action today by signing tcktcktck’s I Am Ready petition! Also, follow the latest news and action alerts at their virtual Fresh Air Center and stay up-to-date on Twitter.
"Save the Peaks" Action Alert
By Oke
Immediately north of Flagstaff, AZ majestically sit what is commonly known as the San Francisco Peaks. The rightful name, given by the Navajo, is "Diichilí Dzil - Abalone Shell Mountain." Thirteen tribes hold these mountains as a sacred place.
The National Forest service designated them a Traditional Cultural Property . (TCP)
The latest of many cultural and environmental desecrations to the Peaks is a battle to stop the Arizona Snowbowl from furthering development by using sewage effluent to make snow.
Regardless of the Forest Services designation of TCP, it has not answered many essential questions, one of them being the health risks.
What's in the Water and what happens if I eat it?
The Forest Service failed to ask that question. The only time that the possibility of eating snow is directly addressed in the FEIS is in the FS response to comments, which provides, in pertinent part, that, "[t]here will be signs posted at Snowbowl informing visitors of the use of reclaimed water as a snowmaking water source. . . it is the responsibility of the visitor or the minor's guardian to avoid consuming snow made with reclaimed water. . ." The FS failure to adequately consider this impact was without observance of the procedure required by law, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and/or otherwise not in accordance with law.
The case is "Save the Peaks Coalition, et al. v. U.S. Forest Service." It is asserting that the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) PDF prepared by the USFS ignores the possibility of human ingestion of snow made from treated sewage effluent.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals backed the snowmaking plan. That is being challenged and oral arguments will begin at 2:30 PM, Friday, July 16th, 2010 in the United States District Court.
Indigenous Action Media has announced a prayer vigil, march, and rally, to be held July 15th-16th, in Phoenix, AZ. by Save The Peaks Coalition. Attendance is obviously the best option, there is even a rideshare program. What’s essential is for each of us to use the convenient tools on the interactive page, "7 things you can do to help SAVE THE PEAKS!" Distribute these downloadable flyers, posters, and information.
EcoAdvocates is a new series initiated by Meteor Blades and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, who are contributing editors. This series focuses on providing more effective political pressure and taking action on environmental issues.
Contributing writers provide a diversity of perspectives including wind/energy/climate change; water; agriculture/food; mountaintop removal mining/coal; wildlife; environmental justice; and indigenous/human rights/civil rights. Contributing writers include: Bill McKibben, Jerome a Paris, mogmaar, boatsie, Aji, rb137, Ellinorianne, faithfull, Oke, Jill Richardson, Patric Juillet, Josh Nelson, beach babe in fl, Ojibwa, Muskegon Critic, Desmogblog, A Siegel, gmoke, DWG, citisven, mahakali overdrive and FishOutofWater.