How Indigenous Kayactivists Protest Against Shell

The Lummi Youth Canoe leads kayaktivists to shores the Duwamish people used to inhabit for thousands of years. ALEX GARLAND

May 19, 2015, www.popularresistance.org | “Saturday’s action against the towering Arctic drilling rig now squatting in the port’s Terminal 5—originally Duwamish waters—was different, for lots of reasons.  It began early in the morning at the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, where Duwamish chairwoman and elder Cecile Hansen prepped starchy biscuit mix to feed more than 50 mouths for the protest, her glasses soon flecked with flour. Native leaders and participants had traveled from all over to lead kayaktivists in native canoes that day, some coming in from Alaska. And Hansen, who can’t be much more than five feet tall, has been fighting for federal recognition of the Duwamish people for much of her life.”

Kevin Phillips shared a link to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.
Greenpeace USA
www.periscope.tv
  • Robert Brothers likes this.

The Color of Victory is not Always Clear

Robert Brothers shared a photo to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.

THE_COLOR_OF_VICTORY_IS_NOT_ALWAYS_CLEAR
Floods clean rivers like fires clean forests. The tan silt that you see in this photo mixing with clear blue water of a tributary is the Trinity River doing its job of washing silt out of the river’s salmon spawning gravels — the result of an artificial flood mandated by a court victory of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes in 2004, enforcing 20-year old legislation by the U.S. Congress.
On May 5th, releases from the Lewiston dam were increased from 500 to 8,500 cfs and will not return to 500 cfs until the end of June.
Major floods in the Trinity River were reduced by the Lewiston Dam in 1964, and 90% of the river’s flow was diverted to irrigate farms in the Central Valley. The result was an 85 percent drop in salmon, a prime food source for native peoples.
In 2000 the tribes negotiated a plan with federal and state agencies to help restore the Trinity River fishery by reducing the amount of water diverted to 50 percent. Normal flows are restored to the river by the current release, mimicking spring flooding, and by releases during the summer to keep water temperature cool enough to support salmon survival.
This is a long, complex, and on-going story of a battle to keep a river alive.
The tributary shown here is the South Fork of the Trinity River. A victim of corporatel clearcutting on highly erosive soils, the South Fork usually shows noticeably more sediment than the mainstem. It is only clear in this photo because of the lack of recent rain. For a larger view of the confluence at this time, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204406210655599&set=a.1052779839997.2009051.1240817813&type=1&theater
Robert Brothers's photo.

THE_COLOR_OF_VICTORY_IS_NOT_ALWAYS_CLEAR
Floods clean rivers like fires clean forests. The tan silt that you see in this photo mixing with clear blue water of a tributary is the Trinity River doing its job of washing silt out of the river’s salmon spawning gravels — the result of an artificial flood mandated by a court victory of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes in 2004, enforcing 20-year old legislation by the U.S. Congress.
On May 5th, releases from the Lewiston dam were increased from 500 to 8,500 cfs and will not return to 500 cfs until the end of June.
Major floods in the Trinity River were reduced by the Lewiston Dam in 1964, and 90% of the river’s flow was diverted to irrigate farms in the Central Valley. The result was an 85 percent drop in salmon, a prime food source for native peoples.
In 2000 the tribes negotiated a plan with federal and state agencies to help restore the Trinity River fishery by reducing the amount of water diverted to 50 percent. Normal flows are restored to the river by the current release, mimicking spring flooding, and by releases during the summer to keep water temperature cool enough to support salmon survival.
This is a long, complex, and on-going story of a battle to keep a river alive.
The tributary shown here is the South Fork of the Trinity River. A victim of corporatel clearcutting on highly erosive soils, the South Fork usually shows noticeably more sediment than the mainstem. It is only clear in this photo because of the lack of recent rain. For a larger view of the confluence at this time, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204406210655599&set=a.1052779839997.2009051.1240817813&type=1&theater

Big River Clean Up – Mendocino CA

“A Big ‘Thank You’ to all who joined us on Saturday for the Big River Clean Up! Several pounds of garbage and recyclables were collected and a patch of invasive tamarisk (salt cedar) was removed. Together, we’re keeping Big River beautiful.”
Mendocino Land Trust's photo.
'One of our volunteers posing with his hard earned 'trophy'. That tamarisk was tenacious!'

A Big ‘Thank You’ to all who joined us on Saturday for the Big River Clean Up! Several pounds of garbage and recyclables were collected and a patch of invasive tamarisk (salt cedar) was removed. Together, we’re keeping Big River beautiful.

Florida manatee count tallies record high

Manatees crowd into a cove at Three Sisters Springs in Kings Bay near the headwaters of the Crystal River. The springs keep water temperature at about 72 degrees, a warm refuge for the wintering sea cows.

March 16, 2015, www.miamiherald.com | “Two years after Florida tallied a record number of manatee deaths, state biologists announced Monday that they have documented a near stampede of wintering sea cows in recent months.”

 Robert Brothers

“Thanks to Maryska Azzena for posting this to GoodNews FortheEarth.”

Manatees numbers are bouncing back after their population for being reduced by 828 death’s in 2013.

  • Kevin Phillips, Nancy Brophy, Kimberly Hatley-Cabot, Jericho Sarai, Mariah Wentworth, Ava Thiesen, Lydia Roberts, Guy Hawkins, Ann Marie Callahan, Dolong B Blavats, Esther Forbyn,  Aidan Grimes,  Sue Mattenberger, Lezlie Alizon Green, Tanya Kiyak-Boughton, Lee Nhan, Joy Moore, Jeavonna Chapman, Justine Cooper, Konrad Langlie, Dena Nickell, Olivia Ellis,  Victoria G Marshall, Crystal McMahon, Luz Engelbrecht, Michael Breeze Mundell, Nurjamila Elliott, Rita Cooper, Vicky Wacky
  • COMMENTS:
  • Victoria G Marshall –  “Always in the ‘mood’ for such good news!! Thank you!”
  • Rudy Breuning – “I sat on a dock once and watched a manatee slowly rolling around and around under the surface. Then she came up and held her newborn baby up in the air for me to see. I clapped. True story.”

President Obama’s Earth Day Focus: Climate Change

ObamaApril 22, 2015, ens-newswire.com | “Climate change is the greatest threat that faces humans today, and as a nation, the United States must ‘act before it is too late,’ declared President Barack Obama in his 2015 Earth Day Proclamation. ‘The United States is committed to our role as a global leader in the fight against climate change,’ he proclaimed.”

President Obama’s Earth Day Focus: Climate Change
WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2015 (ENS) – Climate change is the greatest threat that faces humans today, and as a nation, the United States must “act before it is too late,” declared President Barack Obama in his 2015 Earth Day Proclamation. Visiting the Everglades today, Obama said, “Climate change can no longer be denied.”

Dutch Guy Was Annoyed By The Trash On His Way To Work So He Did This

April 21, 2015, www.boredpanda.com | “Tommy Kleyn, a guy in the Netherlands, has showed us just how easy it is to volunteer in your community. He cleaned up a heavily polluted waterfront on his way to work, and all he had to do was wake up half an hour earlier every day until the trash was all gone. After he posted the images on Facebook, he even got some help from his friends. All it took was filling up one garbage bag at a time until the work was done!”

Robert Brothers shared a link to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.
Tommy Kleyn, a guy in the Netherlands, has showed us just how easy it is to volunteer in your community. He cleaned up a heavily polluted waterfront on his way…
boredpanda.com
  • Kevin Phillips, Audrey Henschell, and Nurjamila Elliott like this.

Six Environmentalists Each Win $175,000 Goldman Prize

winnersApril 20, 2015, ens-newswire.com | “The activists honored with the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony Monday evening have protected the planet by shutting down a lead smelter, blocking dam construction, stopping a proposed gold and copper mine, and safeguarding fisheries.”

Robert BrothersGoodNews FortheEarth

Six Environmentalists Each Win $175,000 Goldman Prize SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 20, 2015 (ENS) – The activists honored with the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony Monday evening have protected the planet by shutting down a lead smelter, blocking dam construction, stopping a proposed gold and copper mine, and safeguarding fisheries. – Six Environmentalists Each Win $175,000 Goldman Prize | ENS

Woman defeats mine, saves wilderness, wins $175,000

Marilyn Baptiste, 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America, led the Xeni Gwet'in community in defeating one of the largest proposed gold and copper mines in British Columbia that would have destroyed Fish Lake—a source of spiritual identity and livelihood for the Xeni Gwet’in. Photo courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.April 20, 2015, news.mongabay.com | “When a huge open-pit mine threatened a pristine lake and surrounding forest in British Columbia, Canada, Marilyn Baptiste jumped into action, spearheading efforts to collect environmental impact data and even physically turning away construction crews. Because of her efforts, the Canadian government rejected the mine, leaving wild a part of the Canadian Rockies upon which First Nations communities have depended for generations. Today, Baptiste was honored for her work when she was presented the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony in San Francisco.”

“When a huge open-pit mine threatened a pristine lake and surrounding forest in British Columbia, Canada, Marilyn Baptiste jumped into action, spearheading efforts to collect environmental impact data and even physically turning away construction…
news.mongabay.com”
  • Kevin Phillips, Robert Brothers, Crista Hewlett, Molly Kelly, and Kirsten Yergensen

A River Cleanup With A Twist

Windsor-Water-Restoraton-Event--LizDohrmanApril 13, 2015, www.americanrivers.org | “Stacks of muddy tires, bags bursting with plastic bottles, and an assortment of rusted out shopping carts and bike frames are what we typically have to show off at the end of a river cleanup…During the last week of March I joined 60 Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. (Keurig) volunteers for a river restoration event along Bennett’s Creek…Instead of sending out our volunteers with trash bags and pickers we handed out shovels and wheel barrows. Instead of digging tires out of the banks and snatching trash floating down stream our volunteers planted trees and shrubs and spread mulch cover.”

“National River Cleanup joined Keurig and the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance for volunteer river restoration activities in Suffolk, Virginia.
americanrivers.org”

Nebraskans outraged over oil-waste well plan

Nebraska resident holds photo of abandoned oil wellMarch 2, 2015, rapidcityjournal.com | “Residents of northwestern Nebraska are protesting a proposal by a Colorado energy company to store liquid oil-field waste products in an abandoned oil well that resides within the Ogallala Aquifer.  Numerous residents and officials from local governments across the region are opposing the proposed injection well in southern Sioux County, not far from Crawford, Neb.”

Robert BrothersGoodNews FortheEarth

Mainstream Grassroots Resistance to Big Energy
Residents of northwestern Nebraska are protesting a proposal by a Colorado energy company to store liquid oil-field waste products in an abandoned oil well that resides within the Ogallala Aquifer.
rapidcityjournal.com|By Kerri Rempp Chadron Record
  • Connie Ashby, Diana Hartel, Rita Jacinto, Dariel Garner, and Ava Thiesen like this.