Lakota spiritual leader Chief Arvol Looking Horse attends a demonstration against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 28, 2015. Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on the first day of his administration, a document reported by CBC on Sunday suggests.
<p>The words "Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit" were reportedly listed on a briefing note shared by the Biden transition team with U.S. stakeholders as part of a roundup of Biden's planned day one executive actions. <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/america-votes/biden-to-prioritize-blocking-of-keystone-xl-pipeline-extension-1.5270600" target="_blank">CTV News</a> also reviewed the briefing documents, and a source familiar with Biden's thinking told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-keystone/biden-to-cancel-keystone-xl-pipeline-permit-on-first-day-in-office-cbc-idINKBN29N00A" target="_blank">Reuters</a> that the President-elect is planning to cancel the pipeline as one of his first acts.</p><p>"The Biden administration halting the Keystone XL pipeline is a momentous sign that he is listening, taking action and making good on his promises to people and the planet," Kendall Mackey, 350.org Keep It In the Ground campaign manager, <a href="https://350.org/press-release/biden-kxl-executiveorder/" target="_blank">said</a> in response to the news. "This decision to halt the Keystone XL pipeline on day one in office sets a precedent that all permitting decisions must pass a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> test and respect <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-rights" target="_self">Indigenous rights</a>."</p><p>Mackey expressed hope that Biden would also end the equally controversial <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline" target="_self">Dakota Access</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/enbridge-line-3" target="_self">Line 3</a> pipelines.</p><p>The Keystone XL pipeline was first announced in 2005, CBC News reported. The pipeline is being built to carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day, stretching about 1,200 miles from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska. From there it would connect with the original Keystone pipeline that carries oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.</p>
<p>The pipeline has long been opposed by environmental and Indigenous groups, who are concerned about its climate impacts and the potential for leaks to harm <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and pollute <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a>, CTV News reported. Protests prompted the Obama administration to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/breaking-president-obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline-1882117930.html" target="_self">rescind the permit in 2015</a>, but President Donald Trump reversed this decision with an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-2211697835.html" target="_self">executive order</a> in early 2017.</p><p>Biden's decision to once again rescind the permit is not surprising. His advisers have said in the past that he would move to block it again, according to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-keystone-xl-pipeline-permit_n_60051931c5b6efae62f9d263" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. Biden's campaign has vocally opposed the pipeline since May, according to CTV News.</p><p>The news has sparked opposition in Canada.</p><p>"I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/1350957580106006533/photo/1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-U.S. relationship and undermine U.S. national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports in the future."</p>
<p>Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., said the country still stood behind the pipeline and that it fit within Canada's climate plans, CBC News reported.</p><p>"The Government of Canada continues to support the Keystone XL project and the benefits that it will bring to both Canada and the United States," Hillman said.</p><p>Meanwhile, in a bid to make the project more appealing to Biden, owner TC Energy announced a plan on Sunday to reach zero emissions by 2030, hire union workers, sign Indigenous equity partners and install a $1.7 billion solar, wind and battery-powered operating system for the pipeline.</p><p>However, Canadian environmental groups and parties were pleased with the news.</p>
<p>"This is what true climate leadership looks like," Annamie Paul, leader of the federal Green Party, told CTV News.</p><p>Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, urged Canadians to follow suit and move away from the pipeline, which he likened to "beating [a] dead horse," CBC News reported.</p><p>"The Biden administration offers us a fresh start on addressing the climate crisis with a willing partner, so let's not blow it by pushing pipelines," Stewart said.</p>
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Water Protectors Arrested in Minnesota After Chaining Themselves Inside Enbridge Line 3 Pipe
15 January
Energy
Environmental activist Winona LaDuke (C) and water protectors stand in front of the construction site for the Line 3 oil pipeline near Palisade, Minnesota, on Jan. 9, 2021. Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
Water protectors were arrested Thursday after halting construction at a Minnesota worksite for Enbridge's Line 3 project by locking themselves together inside a pipe segment.
<p>"After moving to Minnesota to attend college and study environmental science, I was excited to be in a place where people valued protecting the Earth and finding a viable future. What I found, however, was a state that had formed 'ambitious' climate goals yet endorsed one of the dirtiest fossil fuels, tar sands oil," water protector Abby Hornberger said in a statement. "I realized that Indigenous ways of knowing and practicing harmony with the environment are continuously ignored."</p><p>KFGO <a href="https://kfgo.com/2021/01/14/2-arrested-during-latest-line-3-protest/" target="_blank">reports</a> that Cass County Sheriff Tom Burch said two protesters who were taken into custody on Thursday now face charges of trespassing and obstructing.</p>
<p>Hornberger explained that "the Line 3 pipeline far outweighs all clean energy initiatives and progress being made in renewable energies. Line 3 will destroy Minnesota's essential clean water resources for future generations and will ultimately drive us into climate doom. Education and spreading awareness is no longer enough to create meaningful change for me."</p><p>"Enbridge's last-ditch effort to build fossil fuel infrastructure is killing people and the planet. I refuse to be complicit in settler colonialist practices, and feel that I have to put my body on the line to protect Indigenous communities' sovereignty and all of our futures," Hornberger added. "This is not just an issue relevant to some, it affects each of us on a deeper level that goes beyond our daily lives. It determines if we will have a livable future."</p>
<div id="5204b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4238296ced019235c5ebedb5c4188673"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1349769464896745473" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Water Protectors Lock Down Inside Line 3 Pipeline to #StopLine3
(Backus, MN) Thursday morn… https://t.co/NWH4lBcyJY</div> — giniw collective (@giniw collective)<a href="https://twitter.com/GiniwCollective/statuses/1349769464896745473">1610645092.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Indigenous and environmental activists have long opposed the Canadian company's efforts to <a href="https://www.enbridge.com/projects-and-infrastructure/public-awareness/minnesota-projects/line-3-replacement-project" target="_blank">replace</a> an aging oil pipeline with a larger one running from Alberta, through North Dakota and Minnesota, to Wisconsin — noting Enbridge's <a href="https://www.stopline3.org/resources" target="_blank">track record on spills</a> and that cultural maps <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/14/water-protectors-lock-down-inside-line-3-pipeline?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">indicate</a> "numerous sacred and significant sites lie in the path of the Line 3 project."</p><p>Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/12/nightmarish-indigenous-and-climate-leaders-outraged-over-minnesota-permits-line-3" target="_blank">has come under fire</a> from Indigenous and climate leaders in recent months as the state has approved key permits that Enbridge needs to complete the new Line 3, especially given the Democratic governor <a href="https://twitter.com/govtimwalz/status/1095374006071504896?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said publicly</a> in February of 2019 that projects like this one "don't just need a building permit to go forward, they also need a social permit."</p><p>As some water protectors on Thursday protested inside a pipe segment a few miles from a man camp in Backus, "dozens more held space," <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/14/water-protectors-lock-down-inside-line-3-pipeline?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to</a> the Giniw Collective. The group also pointed out that "Enbridge is working 24 hours per day at several worksites, as a pending injunction to halt work while tribally led lawsuits are heard has yet to be decided."</p>
<p>Water protector Andrew Lee said that he participated in the action against Line 3 on Thursday "to protect the treaties that my ancestors failed to uphold."</p><p>"I've learned over the course of this year that Tim Walz isn't going to protect us, the government of Minnesota isn't going to protect us, and the federal government isn't going to protect us," Lee continued. "I believe it is my duty, as a colonizer and as a person with the privilege, to do so, to put my body on the line to stop the Enbridge Corporation from building this pipeline."</p><p>"It breaks my heart and enrages me to see how these people are desecrating the Earth and the lengths they will go to leech every last dollar they can from its surface," they said. "But for as much as I'm here in anger and fear, I'm also here in love."</p>
<p>Thursday's action came after eight people were arrested on Saturday, when <a href="https://www.stopline3.org/news/january092021" target="_blank">scores</a> of water protectors and Anishinaabe jingle dress dancers gathered at the Mississippi River, then walked onto a Line 3 worksite. <a href="https://www.stopline3.org/news/january092021" target="_blank">According to</a> a statement from organizers:</p><blockquote>After praying and sharing a healing jingle dance, water protectors went to Haypoint, Minnesota, where Enbridge is actively boring under Highway 169 on its way to the Willow and Mississippi Rivers.<br>Construction stopped as water protectors held space and documented <a href="https://fb.watch/2YA1x0szE0/" target="_blank">irregularities</a> in the pipe being put into the ground. Nearly 30 police squad cars from multiple counties and the Department of Natural Resources were onsite.</blockquote>
<p>The statement, which confirmed the eight arrests, also said that "one arresting officer in a Cass County uniform without a badge refused to put on a face mask and grinned at the crowd as he held a zip-tied water protector. Enbridge's worksites and man camps have quickly become hotspots for Covid-19 in Aitkin County."</p><p>While critics of Line 3 and similar projects have long raised health and safety concerns — including about the <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/native-american-and-women-s-organizations-request-un-help-on-sexual-violence-_srxHIWjqEmyrmz9OPMmZw" target="_blank">well-documented connection</a> between man camps and the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women — the pandemic, which has hit Indigenous communities hard, has further fueled opposition.</p><p>"We saw Minnesota's police officers protecting a Canadian tar sands pipeline being built by mostly out-of-state workers, for sale on foreign market," said Tara Houska, founder of Giniw Collective. "We need good-paying jobs up north that don't require us to destroy our environment. Where is the investment in the north land? Where is the upholding of treaty rights? Where is the Walz administration on this pandemic pipeline?"</p>
<div id="94ce5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="384e44bc9a6701e11c25627380232d6f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1347984613700984833" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We are here to protect the water. Hundreds of us today at the Rally for the Rivers and more every day. We will… https://t.co/ww5HOuF6ZI</div> — MN350 (@MN350)<a href="https://twitter.com/MN_350/statuses/1347984613700984833">1610219550.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Activists are <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/15/biden-urged-stand-against-line-3-water-protectors-battle-dirty-tar-sands-pipeline" target="_blank">calling on</a> President-elect Joe Biden to stand up for those "on the frontlines of fossil fuel racism and the climate crisis" by stopping Line 3. On Thursday, more than 75 Indigenous women leaders <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/14/over-75-indigenous-women-urge-biden-stop-climate-wrecking-pipelines-and-respect" target="_blank">wrote</a> to the next president, urging him to block Line 3 and two other projects that "pose grave threats to Indigenous rights, cultural survival, sacred water and land, the global climate, and the public health crises within our communities, which have been greatly exacerbated by Covid-19."</p><p>As Houska, Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe and a signatory to the letter, put it: "The Biden administration can uphold their climate justice claims by acting to stop Line 3, stop Keystone XL, and stop Dakota Access Pipeline, now."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/14/arrests-minnesota-after-water-protectors-chain-themselves-inside-pipe-section-halt" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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Biden Is Urged to Ban ANWR Drilling After Court Approves Auction of Fossil Fuel Leases
07 January
Climate
Polar bears are seen in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near Kaktovik, Alaska. Sylvain Cordier / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
President-elect Joe Biden is facing renewed pressure to deliver on his promise of a bold climate agenda after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration could move forward with a Wednesday auction of fossil fuel drilling leases for federally protected lands in Alaska.
<p>After decades of national debate over oil and gas development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Republicans in Congress opened up the region to drilling with a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/08/gop-tax-scam-attacks-renewables-while-nurturing-nuclear-and-fossil-fuel-industries" target="_blank">provision</a> in the so-called "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/22/corporations-are-literally-going-wild-says-trump-he-signs-tax-bill-most-americans" target="_blank">tax scam</a>" that President Donald Trump signed in 2017.</p><p>Late Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage <a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20441489-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-order-on-preliminary-injunction" target="_blank">declined</a> to issue a preliminary injunction to block the auction. The request came from environmental groups and Indigenous people who are opposed to drilling in ANWR, which is home to <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/wildlife_habitat.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 280 species</a>.</p><p>In a statement Wednesday, Mitch Jones, policy director at the advocacy group Food & Water Watch, urged Biden to prevent fossil fuel development in the refuge—and beyond—when he takes office in two weeks. The president-elect has previously <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2020/12/05/with-oil-drilling-in-anwr-advancing-and-a-possible-end-to-pebble-mine-what-could-change-for-alaska-under-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> he "totally" opposes drilling in the ecologically sensitive region.</p><p>"Trump rushing through these lease sales as a final handout to his cronies in the oil and gas industry is outrageous, if not surprising," Jones declared. "Trump's consistent, willful ignorance of the realities of climate change has pushed our planet towards decades of increasing climate chaos."</p>
<p>"President-elect Biden can reverse these disastrous oil and gas industry plans by keeping his promise to ban fossil fuel extraction—including fracking—on our public lands and waters," he added. "This is a step he can, and must, take upon taking office."</p><p>Jones' call for Biden to intervene to protect ANWR's coastal plain came after environmental and Indigenous leaders expressed disappointment with Gleason's decision not to block the auction while also emphasizing that her ruling doesn't mark the end of their fight against drilling rights in the refuge.</p><p>Four lawsuits have been filed since August challenging the lease plans, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-lawsuit/u-s-judge-denies-effort-to-stop-drilling-auction-in-arctic-refuge-idUSKBN29B071" target="_blank">according to</a> <em>Reuters</em>. The National Audubon Society and other groups had argued that the auction shouldn't go forward until the broader challenge to the drilling is resolved.</p><p>The <em>Anchorage Daily News</em> <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2020/12/05/with-oil-drilling-in-anwr-advancing-and-a-possible-end-to-pebble-mine-what-could-change-for-alaska-under-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reports</a> that Erik Grafe, an Earthjustice attorney representing the Audubon Society, said the case "is by no means over."</p><p>"The court concluded only that for now there is no harm that justifies an injunction. It also recognized that such an action could come very soon with issuance of seismic permits," he said. "We will continue to press our case that the agency approved the program unlawfully and that its decision should be overturned."</p>
<div id="4b52a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2fc64a53f75e68a880e2293893243cb"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346838449593212928" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We #StandWiththeGwichin in our collective fight to #ProtectTheArctic.
Trump's last-ditch effort to extract fossil… https://t.co/uhaPPWiL6T</div> — 350 dot org (@350 dot org)<a href="https://twitter.com/350/statuses/1346838449593212928">1609946284.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, which represents some of the area's Indigenous people, similarly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-lawsuit/u-s-judge-denies-effort-to-stop-drilling-auction-in-arctic-refuge-idUSKBN29B071" target="_blank">said</a> Tuesday that "today's ruling is disappointing but does nothing to change the strength of our lawsuit or our resolve."</p><p>Demientieff's people have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/24/coalition-files-suit-stop-trumps-slapdash-and-tragic-plan-drill-arctic-national" target="_blank">relied </a>on the region's Porcupine Caribou Herd for thousands of years. The Gwich'in <a href="https://ourarcticrefuge.org/about-the-refuge/the-coastal-plain-the-sacred-place-where-life-begins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">call</a> the coastal plain, which the caribou use as their calving grounds, "Iizhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit" or "The Sacred Place Where Life Begins."</p><p>As <em>The Guardian</em> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-lease-sales?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20210106&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> ahead of the ruling Tuesday:</p><blockquote>Oil from drilling west of the refuge, at Prudhoe Bay, has fueled the economic development the state has depended on to fill its coffers and write annual revenue checks to residents. That extraction also led to the most damaging oil spill in history, when the Exxon Valdez tanker spewed millions of barrels off Alaska's southern coast in 1989.<br><br>Prudhoe Bay "was the largest oil field ever discovered in North America. Since then we have had more than 1,500 square miles of oil and gas development in the Alaskan Arctic… but [ANWR] has been off limits," said Adam Kolton, executive director of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/alaska" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alaska</a> Wilderness League.<br><br>"For us, it symbolizes just what's at stake here. If you can't draw a line at the tundra and keep this one area of the Arctic off limits, then the question is, where can you draw the line and what protected part or wildlife refuge in the United States will remain off limits?"<br></blockquote><p>For the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/01/05/heres-what-to-know-ahead-of-the-anwr-oil-lease-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">first-ever ANWR auction</a>, the Bureau of Land Management "plans open bids from companies seeking 10-year leases," according to the <em>Daily News.</em> "Up for grabs to the highest bidder are 22 tracts on the refuge's coastal plain, most of them about 50,000 acres. Together, the tracts represent about 5% of the 19-million-acre refuge."</p>
<div id="ef02c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21eddea470b1f924a3e56108665ca656"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346821784440606720" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">With the denial of the injunction lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will go forward today. The ind… https://t.co/B07NKdKD9w</div> — Ctr4BioDiv Ocean (@Ctr4BioDiv Ocean)<a href="https://twitter.com/EndangeredOcean/statuses/1346821784440606720">1609942310.0</a></blockquote></div><p>It remains unclear if any fossil fuel companies will even bid on the leases—especially given that major U.S. banks, under pressure from environmental and Indigenous groups, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/01/lame-duck-trump-pushes-arctic-pillage-bank-america-latest-bank-rule-out-drilling" target="_blank">have adopted policies</a> of refusing to finance drilling in the Arctic, including ANWR, which was designated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/06/after-court-oks-trump-arctic-refuge-auction-biden-urged-immediately-ban-drilling" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
National Park Ranger Condemned for Attacking Unarmed Indigenous Man on Sacred Native Land
31 December 2020
Popular
Darrell House, an Indigenous man and Marine Corps veteran, was tasered by a National Park Service ranger on Dec. 27, 2020 in New Mexico's Petroglyph National Monument after he walked off a trail and failed to cooperate with the ranger's requests. Darrell House / Instagram
By Brett Wilkins
Indigenous and wilderness conservation groups were among those on Wednesday responding with outrage to video of a National Park Service ranger tasering an unarmed Indigenous man after he walked off a trail in Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico on Sunday and then refused to comply with the ranger's orders.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Darrell House, a Diné (Navajo) and Oneida U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was hiking with his sister and his dog in the Albuquerque park — which features many petroglyphs, or ancient stone carvings that are sacred to tribes — so that he could harvest dirt for ceremonies and pray.</p><p>House said he walked off a marked trail in order to socially distance himself from a large group of walkers when "this park ranger started following me."</p><p>"I guess he was upset about me going off trail before, you know, doing my prayers for the rocks," House <a href="https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/video-park-ranger-tases-native-american-man-at-petroglyph-national-monument/5962472/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> KOB. In a <a href="https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=4B790080-56B4-4959-AE31-36D3B80D6EE4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">video</a> released by the National Park Service, House repeatedly refuses to disclose his real name to the rangers.</p>
<div id="ac72e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="525e4c22c3310d3918c260a411080137"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344422262544367616" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A park ranger in New Mexico repeatedly tased an Indigenous man and former marine for not showing ID and allegedly v… https://t.co/b0TSySZ7Ba</div> — AJ+ (@AJ+)<a href="https://twitter.com/ajplus/statuses/1344422262544367616">1609370220.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"I didn't see a reason to give my identification," House <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-park-ranger-tasering-native-american-man-new-mexico-n1252477" target="_blank">told</a> NBC News. "I don't need to tell people why I'm coming there to pray and give things in honor to the land. I don't need permission or consent. And I don't think he liked that very much."</p><p>A ranger House identifed by his last name Graden then fired his Taser at him. In a video recorded by his sister, House is seen writhing on the ground in agony next to his dog while the woman pleads for the attackers to stop.</p><p>"I don't have anything; I apologize for going off the trail," House says between cries of pain.</p><p>House said the attack left him "traumatized" and bleeding.</p><p>"I'm shaking," he wrote in an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJVMGdglspI/?utm_source=ig_embed" target="_blank">Instagram post</a>. "What hurt me the most was when my baby Geronimo felt the shock," he said, referring to his dog.</p><p>"Here, you will see a white man abuse his power," House. "The law doesn't work for the Indigenous ... You would think with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, with the Black Lives Matter Movement, authorities would try to avoid having to pull a weapon out. Imagine I disarm him from the taser then what, I get charged with assault, or worse he grabs for his gun and ends me."</p><p>"These scenarios have been going through my head since this afternoon," he added. "I'm a son, I'm a brother, I'm a father. More importantly, I'm a human being."</p>
<div id="a8acd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6f99f0e9d315563653f46758f5633f50"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344433705201381377" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">CW—Police brutality
Darrell House is a Navajo & Oneida veteran. He was on sacred land that he visits to pray, when… https://t.co/z3Ie852ZNW</div> — Cori Bush (@Cori Bush)<a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/statuses/1344433705201381377">1609372948.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="c34cb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7117cbd1c890b0653c04ebabbd70dfa0"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344052998809341952" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">I am shocked by the video of a National Park Service ranger tasing Darrell House at Petroglyph National Monument on Sunday.</div> — Martin Heinrich (@Martin Heinrich)<a href="https://twitter.com/MartinHeinrich/statuses/1344052998809341952">1609282180.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Indigenous liberation group Red Nation released a <a href="https://therednation.org/we-condemn-racist-national-park-service-for-brutalizing-darrel-house/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=we-condemn-racist-national-park-service-for-brutalizing-darrel-house" target="_blank">statement</a> on Wednesday condemning the attack on House. It read, in part:</p><blockquote>The Petroglyphs National Monument, which is home to ancient Indigenous rock art that still retains spiritual and cultural significance to Indigenous people today, was initially created at the request of Native activists to protect the area from vandalism and developers. Instead, the NPS under the authority of the Department of Interior is policing Native people on Native land.<br>Public lands are stolen lands. Indigenous people have the right to practice their culture and spiritual ways on Indigenous land without fear of repression, discrimination, or violence. In consultation with our dear relative Darrell House, The Red Nation calls for a full investigation of NPS actions of racial terror that day, the termination of rangers Wineland and Graden, and restitution and a full apology to Darrell and his sister.</blockquote><p>"<a href="https://landback.org/" target="_blank">LandBack</a> begins with defunding racist police on Indigenous land, the Department of the Interior is no exception," the group added. </p>
<div id="50a51" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b52cf833a09133e9c30030356bbf3878"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344330082312187904" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Last Saturday, December 27, a National Park Service (NPS) Ranger tasered our Diné and Oneida relative Darrell House… https://t.co/07xcOEH8xK</div> — The Red Nation #TheRedDeal (@The Red Nation #TheRedDeal)<a href="https://twitter.com/The_Red_Nation/statuses/1344330082312187904">1609348242.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Michael Casaus, New Mexico state director at the Wilderness Society, also released a <a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/press-release/wilderness-society-response-video-showing-park-ranger-tasing-native-man-petroglyph-national-monument" target="_blank">statement</a> condemning the incident:</p><blockquote>Park rules are there for protecting the lands but the enforcement of those policies should not come at the expense of protecting the humanity of all those who visit, especially if these are their traditional homelands. Our parks and open spaces should be welcoming and inclusive places of healing and comfort, yet they are not for so many, especially for Black and Indigenous people and people of color.<br>The original purpose of the monument was to protect and promote the understanding of the petroglyphs in relation to the cultural and natural features of the West Mesa and to further the heritage of traditional communities connected to these lands. Petroglyph National Monument is a place where Native people should be able to visit and honor the past, the present, and the future on the very lands their ancestors stood without fear for their safety.</blockquote><p>House said the incident would not deter him from returning to walk and pray in the park again.</p><p>"I will go back, he <a href="https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/native-american-man-tased-while-hiking-at-petroglyph-national-monument/" target="_blank">told</a> KRQE. "I am going to continue to do my prayers, going off trail without permission. Without consent. That is my right."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/30/national-park-ranger-condemned-attacking-unarmed-indigenous-man-sacred-native-land" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland addresses the virtual DNC convention on August 20, 2020. DNCC / Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden announced Thursday that he picked New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland to serve as Secretary of the Interior.
<p>If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland would be the first Native American to hold a cabinet secretary position. However, her appointment as head of the Department of the Interior is especially significant, since the department has historically committed injustices against <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a> Americans and currently is the agency most responsible for their welfare.</p><p>"A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior," Haaland <a href="https://twitter.com/DebHaalandNM/status/1339722046373130241" target="_blank">tweeted Thursday</a>. "Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household made me fierce. I'll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land. I am honored and ready to serve."</p><p>Haaland hails from the Pueblos of Laguna and Jemez, <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/i-ll-be-fierce-for-all-of-us-6ry2p054SE2dELR9BC-ezA" target="_blank">Indian Country Today reported</a>. She made history in 2018 as one of the first two Indigenous women to be elected to Congress. In the House, she currently acts as the vice chair of the Committee on Natural Resources and chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.</p><p>As head of Interior, Haaland will oversee the department that manages around 500 million acres of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands" target="_self">public lands</a>, including <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-parks" target="_self">national parks</a>, habitat for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> drilling sites, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/climate/deb-haaland-interior-department-native-american.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. The department also manages the Bureau of Indian Education and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration, which controls funds held in trust for Native Americans, making it the most impactful department for the nation's 1.9 million Indigenous people.</p>
<p>Haaland will bring to the post a clear commitment to both <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-rights" target="_self">Indigenous rights</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/environmental-justice" target="_self">environmental justice</a>. As committee vice chair, she has worked to keep the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> front and center while also supporting clean energy plans that help create new jobs and opportunities for former <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil-fuel</a> workers, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17122020/biden-epa-interior-secretary-deb-haaland-michael-regan-climate/" target="_blank">InsideClimate News reported</a>. She supports the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/green-new-deal" target="_self">Green New Deal</a> and a ban on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fracking" target="_self">fracking</a>.<span></span></p><p>In 2016, she appeared in person to support the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/standing-rock-sioux">Standing Rock Sioux</a> tribes' opposition to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline" target="_self">Dakota Access pipeline</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/17/deb-haaland-interior-secretary-biden/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>. Jodi Archambault, Standing Rock member and former special assistant to Barack Obama for Native American affairs, said that Haaland offered support from New Mexico's labor unions, as well as home-cooked food.</p><p>"She brought her own cooking things and opened her trunk up, and said, 'This is the best I can do,'" Archambault said. "The stew was really good; the tortillas were excellent."</p><p>Haaland's appointment is itself a victory for Indigenous and environmental groups, who loudly supported her to the Biden transition team. Biden was reportedly leaning toward appointing Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, according to The New York Times. But a combination of activists, Congressional Democrats and celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, spoke up in her favor. The <a href="https://action.lakotalaw.org/" target="_blank">Lakota People's Law Project </a><a href="https://action.lakotalaw.org/action/native-interior-petition?ms=tw_share&snw=2&ref=7c569efc-4372-444b-a09a-6ad8a0841131" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">launched a petition</a> that was backed by more than 120 tribal leaders. More than 130 tribal leaders also wrote letters to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris supporting her appointment, and groups such as <a href="https://ndncollective.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NDN Collective</a> and <a href="https://illuminatives.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IllumiNative</a> campaigned online, Indian Country Today reported. The <a href="https://www.ienearth.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Indigenous Environmental Network</a> also <a href="https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1414902744" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rallied around her</a>, and the climate-justice focused <a href="https://www.sunrisemovement.org/?ms=SunriseMovement" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sunrise Movement</a> also <a href="https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1339696587682050050" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">supported</a> Indigenous activists in backing her nomination.</p>
<p>Haaland's appointment is a continuation of generations of Indigenous activism for more control over a department that has historically been party to their displacement and oppression. For example, in 1972 around 500 Indigenous activists occupied the department's Washington, D.C. headquarters demanding it honor treaties and improve living standards, The New York Times reported.</p><p>"It could not have been in our forefathers' dreams to have an actual Indian be appointed at the Cabinet level in the agency that is meant to oversee their absorption," Lakota People's Law Project attorney and Indigenous activist Chase Iron Eyes told The Washington Post.</p><p>If confirmed, Haaland will be tasked with reversing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a> Interior policies hostile to both Indigenous people and the environment, such as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shrinking-bears-ears-grand-staircase-escalante-2645172719.html" target="_self">shrinking</a> of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, according to The New York Times. She will also carry out Biden's agenda of banning fracking on public lands. Plus, Haaland has pledged to shift the department's emphasis from championing oil and gas development to boosting <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a>.</p><p>"I come from New Mexico. It's a big gas and oil state. And I care about every single job," Haaland told The Washington Post in a recent interview. "We don't want to go back to normal, right? We don't want to go back to where we were because that economy wasn't working for a lot of people."</p><p>The Biden-Harris transition team announced Haaland's appointment with a slate of climate-focused picks, including North Carolina environmental regulator <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/joe-biden-epa-michael-regan-2649540028.html" target="_self">Michael Regan</a> to run the Environmental Protection Agency and former <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/biden-climate-crisis-nominees-2649519000.html" target="_self">Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm</a> to run the Department of Energy.</p>
<div id="2353a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="73804d686d035e4a840c6a023c474456"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1339731588708491266" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The undeniable reality of climate change is taking a toll on lives and livelihoods across the country.
This team… https://t.co/2pkS4M0reZ</div> — Biden-Harris Presidential Transition (@Biden-Harris Presidential Transition)<a href="https://twitter.com/Transition46/statuses/1339731588708491266">1608251876.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"This brilliant, tested, trailblazing team will be ready on day one to confront the existential threat of climate change with a unified national response rooted in science and equity. They share my belief that we have no time to waste to confront the climate crisis, protect our air and drinking water, and deliver justice to communities that have long shouldered the burdens of environmental harms," Biden said.<br></p>
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Officials in the Marshall Islands blamed climate change for severe flooding in the capital of Majuro on March 3, 2014, leaving 1,000 people homeless. Giff Johnson / AFP / Getty Images
By Autumn Bordner and Caroline E. Ferguson
Along U.S. coastlines, from California to Florida, residents are getting increasingly accustomed to "king tides." These extra-high tides cause flooding and wreak havoc on affected communities. As climate change raises sea levels, they are becoming more extreme.
<p>King tides are <a href="https://reliefweb.int/disaster/ss-2014-000032-mhl" target="_blank">nothing new</a> for the Marshall Islands, a nation made up of 29 low-lying coral atolls that stretch across more than a million square miles of Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia. By 2035, the U.S. Geological Survey projects that <a href="https://www.serdp-estcp.org/Program-Areas/Resource-Conservation-and-Resiliency/Infrastructure-Resiliency/Vulnerability-and-Impact-Assessment/RC-2334/" target="_blank">some of the Marshall Islands will be submerged</a>. Others will no longer have drinking water because their aquifers will be contaminated with saltwater. As a result, Marshallese would be forced to migrate away from their homelands.</p><p>This scenario is not inevitable. As part of our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102054" target="_blank">research on climate justice</a>, we visited the Marshall Islands and interviewed leaders and community organizers in 2018 and 2019. We learned that large-scale adaptation measures that could save both these and other islands are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12153" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">still possible</a>, and that Marshallese leaders are committed to adapting in place. But their nation's colonial history has made it hard for them to act by leaving them dependent on foreign aid. And, to date, outside funders have been unwilling or unable to invest in projects that could save the nation.</p><p>Most of the world's other island nations share similar colonial histories and face comparable climate challenges. Without swift and dramatic adaptation, entire island nations could become uninhabitable. For the Marshall Islands, this is expected to occur <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9741" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">by midcentury</a>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1NjE2OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTg3MzU4OH0.mOpRmdrNs4fi4j9dOKVHrIQp1lwGlCT_9jC85gvByEQ/img.png?width=980" id="e46b7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6ba286bef3f726ac887a483b2520c543" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="600" data-height="384" />
The Marshall Islands span over 1 million square miles of ocean in the North Pacific. Autumn Bordner
A Radioactive Legacy
<p>The Marshall Islands were settled at least 2,000 years ago and fell under colonial rule during the 19th century. The U.S. captured the islands during World War II and became colonial administrator through the <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/111988?ln=en" target="_blank">United Nations</a>, accepting "<a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-xi/index.html" target="_blank">sacred trust</a>" obligations to protect the health and welfare of the Marshallese people and promote their political and economic self-determination.</p><p>Instead, from 1946 to 1958, the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons on inhabited Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, forcing these and other exposed communities to evacuate their homelands. Thousands of Marshallese remain in exile to this day, largely on <a href="https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/remembering-the-23-time-bombed-island-of-bikini-on-international-bikini-day/" target="_blank">tiny islands that are extremely climate-vulnerable</a> or in the United States. Others have returned to their atolls, where radioactive fallout still <a href="https://www.latimes.com/projects/marshall-islands-nuclear-testing-sea-level-rise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contaminates the land</a>. All of those exposed to radiation continue to face <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/HP.0b013e3181dc523c" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">long-term health risks</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1NjE3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1Njg5NjU4Mn0.Ya4iuU_k460Yv9e31RJyWHk50LlVomqrowR0ToSSmQk/img.jpg?width=980" id="1a979" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4835cbe35c50c080ef4353dacd971386" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="600" data-height="466" />
Residents board a U.S. Navy ship, forcibly evacuated in March 1948 from Bikini Atoll for U.S. nuclear weapons testing. U.S. Navy
<p>The Marshall Islands gained sovereignty in 1986. But the U.S. retains full authority and responsibility for "<a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/173999.pdf" target="_blank">security and defense matters in or relating to the Marshall Islands</a>," including the right to use Marshallese lands and waters for military activities.</p><p>Moreover, while the islands were a U.S. trust territory, the United States <a href="http://micronesianseminar.org/media/pubs/articles/economic/frames/creatcolofr.htm" target="_blank">did not foster a self-sufficient economy</a>. Instead, it injected large amounts of aid under the assumption that the islands were, in the words of Pacific scholar Epeli Hau'ofa, "<a href="https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/12960/1/v6n1-148-161-dialogue.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">too small, too poor and too isolated to develop any meaningful degree of autonomy</a>." The bulk of this aid went toward providing social services rather than promoting economic development, resulting in an economy based almost entirely on financial transfers from the U.S.</p><h2>It's Not Rocket Science</h2><p>What options does the Marshall Islands have for protecting its citizens from climate change? When we met with former National Climate Advisor Ben Graham in 2019, he told us that it will take "radical adaptation" to remain in place.</p><p>To control flooding driven by rising seas, the nation would need to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/rising-seas-force-marshall-islands-relocate-elevate-artificial-islands/#close" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reclaim and elevate land</a> and consolidate its population in urban centers. Doing so is "not rocket science," Graham told us. "China is <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-navy-sails-past-disputed-artificial-islands-claimed/story?id=60993256#:%7E:text=In%202014%20China%20began%20massive,deployment%20of%20Chinese%20fighter%20jets." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">building islands</a> by the acre every day, Denmark is planning to construct <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/11/denmark-plans-to-power-10m-homes-with-new-wind-farm-islands" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nine artificial islands</a>. … It's not new, but it is expensive."</p>
<div id="25ddc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="65938f7826ed165d634b2c66809da90c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1199610386372149248" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Breaking: Earlier today the town of Jenrok, Majuro, Marshall Islands experienced a flooding that’s affected a numbe… https://t.co/DQn9u0Bimm</div> — 350 Pacific (@350 Pacific)<a href="https://twitter.com/350Pacific/statuses/1199610386372149248">1574844378.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>According to Graham, implementing the forthcoming <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/displacement-and-out-migration-marshall-islands-experience" target="_blank">National Adaptation Plan</a> will cost on the order of US$1 billion. That's money the country doesn't have.</p><p>But one atoll is likely to be saved: Kwajalein, which is occupied by the U.S. military. Already, the U.S. has made substantial investments to understand how sea level rise is affecting its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/25/climate-change-could-make-thousands-of-tropical-islands-uninhabitable-in-coming-decades-new-study-says/" target="_blank">military assets on Kwajalein</a>.</p><h2>Radical Adaptation or Forced Migration?</h2><p>Like most island states, the Marshall Islands relies heavily on external funding, often from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8373.2011.01468.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">former colonial administrators</a>. Outside aid, primarily from organizations like the World Bank and donor countries like the U.S. and Australia, accounts for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220381003623889" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than 25% of its gross domestic product</a>, which in 2018 was <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/country/MH" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$221.3 million</a>.</p><p>These funders exert outsized control over the development agendas of the nations they support, including the power to decide which climate change adaptations are appropriate. In particular, funders tend to impose strict social and environmental <a href="http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/PubDocsError.jsp?err_msg=Document%20is%20not%20available%20for%20public%20viewing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">safeguards</a>, which limit the range of adaptation options the Marshall Islands and other aid-dependent sovereigns can pursue.</p><p>To date funders have only supported small-scale short-term projects, such as flood warning systems and improvements to tidal forecasting. And many have come to view migration as a suitable alternative to the type of large-scale adaptation that would allow nations to survive and people to live and thrive in their homelands. As Ben Graham put it to us, "there are those who say … your population is too small to spend half a billion dollars on it. Just relocate. It's not worth keeping your culture and your sovereign status."</p><p>But international law indicates that funders should not have the power to decide whether sovereign nations can survive climate change. The <a href="http://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/files/2019/11/51.1.3-Bordner.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">international norm of self-determination</a> requires that decision to lie with the affected nation and its people. Yet unless the status quo is changed, the Marshallese face a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuDA7izeYrk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">forced migration</a> caused by outside powers, just as they did 74 years ago as a result of U.S. nuclear weapons testing.</p>
<h2>Island Climate Justice Leaders</h2><p>The Marshallese face overwhelming challenges, but they are not passive victims. The Marshall Islands was <a href="https://sdg.iisd.org/news/marshall-islands-becomes-first-country-to-submit-second-more-ambitious-ndc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the first nation</a> to increase its greenhouse gas reduction pledge under <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Paris Agreement</a>. Its representatives have served as tireless <a href="https://www.theelders.org/news/frontline-climate-crisis-marshall-islands" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">advocates</a> for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/world/tony-de-brum-dead-climate-change-advocate.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate action</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-marshallislands-idUSKCN1TM1HU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human rights</a> on the international stage. And the Marshall Islands spearheaded the successful campaign to include a "<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/12/09/459053208/for-the-marshall-islands-the-climate-goal-is-1-5-to-stay-alive" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">well-below 2 degrees" warming target</a> in the Climate Accords.</p><p>But they can't fight alone. The nation's president, David Kabua, recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/21/the-climate-crisis-will-sweep-away-my-country-if-the-world-doesnt-keep-its-promises" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called upon wealthy nations</a> to live up to their Paris Agreement commitments to reduce emissions and mobilize the funding that vulnerable nations need to survive.</p>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/289482525" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b91f7c30fa25b95613db4b9cd3ccdf6a"></iframe><p>For years, the U.S. and other developed nations have failed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough to meet targets in the Paris climate agreement that are intended to avoid warming on a catastrophic scale. They have also <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-11-rich-nations-fall-short-climate.html" target="_blank">failed to meet</a> their pledges to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2019.1623166" target="_blank">help vulnerable states</a> adapt to climate change. The U.S., meanwhile, has refused to provide <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/11/27/a-ground-zero-forgotten/" target="_blank">over $2 billion</a> that an independent nuclear claims tribunal awarded to the Marshall Islands as compensation for damage caused by nuclear testing.</p><p>The incoming Biden administration has a chance to change course. We believe that the U.S. should provide direct support for Marshallese climate adaptation efforts. This would help to redress the long history of use and abuse, broken promises, and unfulfilled obligations that has left the Marshall Islands so exceptionally climate-vulnerable today.</p>
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Indigenous-Led Water Protectors Take Direct Action Against Minnesota Tar Sands Pipeline
07 December 2020
Energy
Several hundred people gathered on the shore of Gichi-gami (Lake Superior) in Duluth, Minnesota to protest the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline, on Sept. 28, 2019. Fibonacci Blue / CC BY 2.0
By Brett Wilkins
Indigenous-led water protectors on Friday engaged in multiple direct actions against Enbridge's highly controversial Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota, on the same day that state regulators denied a request from two tribes to stop the Canadian company from proceeding with the project.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Water protectors blocked pipeline traffic and climbed and occupied trees as part of Friday's actions. Urging other Indigenous peoples and allies to "take a stand," the Anishinaabe activists at one of the protests told other Native Americans that "your ancestors are here too."</p><p>"Take a moment to speak to her, our Mother Earth is crying out for the warriors to rise again," they said. "Strong hearts to the front!"</p><p>In a statement, Line 3 Media Collective said that the pipeline "violates the treaty rights of Anishinaabe peoples by endangering critical natural resources in the 1854, 1855, and 1867 treaty areas, where the Ojibwe have the right to hunt, fish, gather medicinal plants, harvest wild rice, and preserve sacred sites."</p>
<div id="12644" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e217e50d1a35deeae9a1f2c91ac20728"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1334951555070562313" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">@GovTimWalz what happened to the executive order you signed to work with the tribes and have a solid working relati… https://t.co/NeoHwUWq1y</div> — WinonaLaDuke (@WinonaLaDuke)<a href="https://twitter.com/WinonaLaduke/statuses/1334951555070562313">1607112227.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="6b46a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1b4361f5348d43d24d80f55192abef5c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1334944778069356552" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Become a part of our movement to #StopLine3! https://t.co/25nGfGtxPI</div> — Resist Line 3 (@Resist Line 3)<a href="https://twitter.com/ResistLine3/statuses/1334944778069356552">1607110611.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="f1740" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6703445b1f45a3649cad408d314fb906"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1334878831476428806" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING: Two water protectors in trees block Enbridge from constructing a Line 3 drill pad under the Mississippi R… https://t.co/hr9raw4X0b</div> — giniw collective (@giniw collective)<a href="https://twitter.com/GiniwCollective/statuses/1334878831476428806">1607094888.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"The state of Minnesota does not have the consent of many tribes that will be impacted by construction and spills," the group added. "Last week, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa and the White Earth Band petitioned the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to pause its approval of Line 3 construction while challenges to the permits are considered by the Minnesota Court of Appeals."</p><p>On Friday, the MPUC <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/minnesota-regulators-deny-request-to-delay-line-3-pipeline/2020/12/04/97774332-366c-11eb-9699-00d311f13d2d_story.html" target="_blank">voted</a> 4-1 to reject the tribes' request.<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/minnesota-regulators-deny-request-to-delay-line-3-pipeline/2020/12/04/97774332-366c-11eb-9699-00d311f13d2d_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> According to</a> The Washington Post,the commissioners said that further delays would hurt workers who had traveled to northern Minnesota. They also cited Democratic Gov. Tim Walz's designation of the project as "critical" during the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<div id="872a6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f42dfbd90c28ba5f8d489e843c748f0b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1334869896757469194" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">MN Chippewa Tribe comprised of 6-Bands sends an appeal letter to @GovTimWalz urging his administration to… https://t.co/hfuycNFArJ</div> — Honor the Earth (@Honor the Earth)<a href="https://twitter.com/HonorTheEarth/statuses/1334869896757469194">1607092758.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>On Thursday, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) appealed directly to Walz:</p><blockquote>Indian people have lived along the lakes, rivers, and streams of northern Minnesota since time immemorial. The people of the MCT have flourished in the area for centuries due to the careful conservation of our resources. Clean water and unpolluted land capable of providing sustenance is essential to our survival... [and] Line 3 poses an existential threat to our well-being. </blockquote><p>The vote and the water protectors' latest act of resistance come just two days after construction began on the <a href="https://www.enbridge.com/projects-and-infrastructure/projects/line-3-replacement-program-us" target="_blank">$2.9 billion</a>, 1,100-mile extension.</p><p><a href="http://www.honorearth.org/sandpiper_line_3_corridor" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">According to</a> Indigenous-led environmental group Honor the Earth, the pipeline will have the daily capacity to transport 760,000 barrels of tar sands oil — known as the <a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/tar-sands-dirtiest-fuel-in-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">world's dirtiest fuel</a> — from Alberta, Canada to a port in Superior, Wisconsin. Stop Line 3 says the pipeline will run "through untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples."</p><p>"We have the right to practice our treaty rights," stressed Gitchigumi Scout member Taysha Martineau, one of the Indigenous leaders at the Friday action. "We ask you to bear witness and protect our right to do so."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/04/strong-hearts-front-indigenous-water-protectors-take-direct-action-against-minnesota?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Polar bears are seen in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Alan D. Wilson / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
After ongoing pressure from environmental groups and Indigenous communities, Bank of America has said it will not finance any oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, making it the last major U.S. financial institution to do so.
<p>The decision is especially significant because outgoing President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> has <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-arctic-wildlife-drilling-plan-2647013527.html" target="_self">opened up</a> the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic-national-wildlife-refuge" target="_self">Arctic National Wildlife Refuge</a> (ANWR) to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> exploration, and is <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-anwr-oil-leases-2648954756.html" target="_self">rushing</a> to sell leases for drilling in the refuge before leaving office.</p><p>"It has long been clear that drilling in the Arctic Refuge would trample Indigenous rights, threaten vulnerable <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a>, and worsen the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>. Now that every major American bank has stated unequivocally that they will not finance this destructive activity, it should be clearer than ever that any oil company considering participating in Trump's ill-advised lease sale should stay away," <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a> Senior Campaign Representative Ben Cushing said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/11/bank-america-announcement-every-major-us-bank-has-ruled-out-funding-for" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release responding to the news</a>.</p><p>Bank of America first announced its decision to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-30/bofa-says-it-won-t-finance-oil-and-gas-exploration-in-the-arctic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bloomberg News on Monday</a> and confirmed it to <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201201-bank-of-america-latest-to-say-no-to-financing-arctic-drilling" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AFP</a>. In the statement, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said it had unofficially refrained from financing Arctic drilling for a long time.</p>
<p>"There's been misunderstanding around our position, but we have not historically participated in project finance for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic," Bank of America head of public policy and strategy in Washington Larry Di Rita told Bloomberg. "But given that misinterpretation, we've determined that it's time to codify our existing practice into policy."</p><p>The Sierra Club singled out Bank of America after Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Chase, Wells Fargo and Citi all announced official no-Arctic-drilling policies this year.</p><p>Bank of America emphasized its environmental commitments to Bloomberg. It has pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and aims to fund green bonds and support global climate solutions.</p>
<p>Its announcement raises further doubt about the likely success of Trump's push to lease parcels of ANWR before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20. Some analysts have pointed out it may be difficult to finalize sales by that date, AFP reported. Oil prices are also hovering around $45 a barrel, so companies may not be motivated to lease drilling sites far from major infrastructure. International financial institutions have also promised not to fund drilling in the refuge.</p><p>"Nearly 30 major banks around the world (now including all 6 major U.S. banks!) have concluded that funding new Arctic drilling — especially the Arctic Refuge, which Trump is recklessly trying to destroy — is far too risky and bad for business," Cushing <a href="https://twitter.com/bmcushing/status/1333544873530679297" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.</p><p>Environmental and Indigenous groups have long opposed drilling in the ANWR, partly because of its potential impact on Indigenous rights and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> such as polar bears and caribou. ANWR's coastal plain is the birthing and nursing ground for the Porcupine Caribou herd, and the Gwich'in Nation of Canada and Alaska considers it the "Sacred Place Where Life Begins." In 1988, the nation formed the <a href="https://ourarcticrefuge.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gwich'in Steering Committee</a> to oppose oil and gas drilling on the plain.</p><p>"The Trump administration has never even pretended to care about the Indigenous communities whose human rights would be threatened by the destruction of the coastal plain, but major financial institutions are listening to us," Gwich'in Steering Committee Executive Director Bernadette Demientieff said in the Sierra Club press release. "We will never stop fighting to protect the sacred calving grounds from destructive drilling, and we will prevail."</p>
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Biden Urged to 'Honor Indigenous Sovereignty and Immediately Halt' Fossil Fuel Pipelines
26 November 2020
Popular
Protestors walk past an image of a Native American woman during a march to "Count Every Vote, Protect Every Person" after the U.S. presidential Election in Seattle, Washington on November 4. Jason Redmond / AFP / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
A leading environmental advocacy group marked Native American Heritage Month on Wednesday by urging President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Kamala Harris, and the entire incoming administration "to honor Indigenous sovereignty and immediately halt the Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Line 3 pipelines."
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">That call from 350.org U.S. communications director Thanu Yakupitiyage for Indigenous <a href="https://landback.org/" target="_blank">#LandBack</a> came just ahead of Thanksgiving in the U.S. and as the coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate communities across the country — with more than 12.7 million COVID-19 cases and over 261,000 deaths nationwide as of Wednesday afternoon.</span></p>
<p>"As we embark on a just recovery from the compound crises of climate disasters, racist police brutality, economic injustice, and Covid-19, we are in a pivotal moment of reckoning that requires us to ground in the history of the United States as a country built on stolen Indigenous land by stolen Black and African labor," Yakupitiyage said.</p><p>"As we act to stop state-sanctioned violence against Black and Brown communities," she continued, "we also acknowledge the decades and centuries of white supremacy, colonialism, and capitalism that continue to have devastating and genocidal impacts on the lives, livelihoods, and traditions of Native and Indigenous communities across the United States, North America, and around the world."</p><p>The activist drew attention to three controversial pipelines against which Indigenous people <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/25/brutal-memories-standing-rock-stop-line-3-campaigners-wary-rule-barring" target="_blank">have led</a> the opposition, highlighting some of the destructive impacts that such projects have on Native communities and lands, in addition to the climate effects.</p><p>"Fossil fuel executives and racist climate criminals continue to assault treaty rights and Indigenous sovereignty, attempting to ram toxic and unnecessary pipelines like Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Line 3 through sacred Indigenous land and waters, while perpetuating threats and violence against Indigenous womxn, girls, and two-spirit people," said Yakupitiyage.</p>
<div id="ef565" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9cdfa0e287c7703a509672ed361c63a4"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1331660175024001025" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We are seeing day in and day out black and brown organizers across Minnesota gather to resist the Line 3 pipeline t… https://t.co/FDHSaEDRpJ</div> — 350 dot org (@350 dot org)<a href="https://twitter.com/350/statuses/1331660175024001025">1606327501.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"Transformative climate solutions to truly tackle the root of climate change require systemic action to decolonize from the very systems that have created the crisis in the first place," she added. "Our leap toward a just recovery must start with honoring treaties with sovereign Indigenous nations and returning land back to Native peoples. The time is now for meaningful care and repair."</p><p>For months, 350.org has spearheaded global calls for a just recovery from the pandemic — <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/30/ahead-may-day-500-groups-worldwide-demand-just-and-visionary-recovery-covid-19" target="_blank">demanding</a> that policymakers prioritize human health, provide economic relief directly to the people, help workers and communities rather than corporate executives, work to create resilience for future crises, and build solidarity across borders.</p><p>Yakupitiyage's comments centering Indigenous communities in relation to a just recovery come as Biden is facing calls from Native Americans and climate campaigners to consider appointing Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), a member of Pueblo of Laguna, as his interior secretary. Two years ago, she and Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) became the first two Native American women elected to Congress.</p>
<div id="defe7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f8197a96f6d6b3f20364ebc2044701d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1329136271717851136" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">When we say #landback, it means fundamentally undoing the harm that has been done to Indian Ppl...appointing an Ind… https://t.co/I7y4j0MvdU</div> — NDN Collective (@NDN Collective)<a href="https://twitter.com/ndncollective/statuses/1329136271717851136">1605725755.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Broadly, Biden is <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/20/new-no-corporate-cabinet-campaign-pushes-biden-pick-people-who-will-advance-public" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">facing</a> pressure from progressives — and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/25/new-poll-shows-68-americans-want-senators-block-any-corporate-biden-nominees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">public opinion</a> — to stock the next administration, including his Cabinet, with people committed to serving in the public interest rather than corporate insiders. Earlier this month, the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats launched a campaign that includes Cabinet suggestions; Haaland is among them.</p><p>"A visionary secretary of the interior has enormous latitude to crack down on giveaways to fossil fuel corporations, like permits to drill for oil on public lands and in public waters. With a progressive leader at the helm, we can make real progress," the groups explain on the campaign website.</p><p>"As the first Native American to hold this position, Rep. Deb Haaland would usher in a new era of Indigenous authority over stolen land," they added. "She is a fierce ally of our movement who has fought for renewable energy job creation in the House as vice chair of the House Natural Resources Committee and chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands."</p>
<div id="5b957" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="519eba91a8fc7d7ef319cba86cf1960f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1331383407255969792" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Secretary of the Interior oversees the management and conservation of federal lands.
Who better to head the de… https://t.co/f1IJwNd1Bt</div> — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@Sunrise Movement 🌅)<a href="https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/statuses/1331383407255969792">1606261514.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Haaland <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/11/23/937756927/rep-haaland-cabinet-pick-would-mean-a-lot-to-indian-country" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">discussed</a> the potential nomination on NPR this week, telling Rachel Martin, "First of all, it would mean a lot to Indian Country."</p><p>"When Sharice [Davids] and I got sworn in, everybody was so happy," said the congresswoman. "It means a lot to a group of people who have been here since time immemorial to know that they're truly being represented. I think it would really change the way people see our federal government."</p><p>"Being able to listen," Haaland added, "being able to move issues forward, bringing people to the table — I think that would make a huge difference."</p><p>From Arizona to Wisconsin, reporters have highlighted in the messy aftermath of Election Day that Native voters were key contributors to Biden's victory over President Donald Trump, who has yet to formally concede even though the transition process is already underway.</p>
<div id="cedbb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fd66c0f753f0ad581dcb839602f0738c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1329876320470360068" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">NEW from me for @CBSNews: Native American turnout in Arizona surged this year. Biden won Arizona by nearly 12,000 v… https://t.co/sMmk2La1nw</div> — Grace Segers (@Grace Segers)<a href="https://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/statuses/1329876320470360068">1605902197.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="e082d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8f5d07fe514d9d2156acd08cd74909c3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1330489726516793348" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">When we talk about the rural vote, remember that it is incredibly diverse, and that Democrats can and must recogniz… https://t.co/TNDWMHgT0L</div> — John Nichols (@John Nichols)<a href="https://twitter.com/NicholsUprising/statuses/1330489726516793348">1606048444.0</a></blockquote></div><p>After election-callers and major news networks named Biden the winner, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/the-native-vote-turned-out-so-today-it-s-celebration-F77qX2eKZ0mGV-SJhcxz9g" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">released</a> a statement noting the significance of the Native vote.</p><p>"The First Americans of this country, including a large majority of Navajo voters, had a major impact in the outcome of the presidential election in several swing states — that needs to be recognized and acknowledged by all," he said. "Both campaigns fought hard for Native American votes, particularly Navajo votes, and that's truly a reflection of the growing influence and power of tribal nations across the country."</p><p>Nez, who met with Biden and Harris to discuss tribal policy, added that "the Navajo Nation now looks forward to working together with the Biden-Harris administration to put that plan into action."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/25/biden-urged-honor-indigenous-sovereignty-and-immediately-halt-fossil-fuel-pipelines" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em></p>
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Returning the ‘Three Sisters’ – Corn, Beans and Squash – to Native American Farms Nourishes People, Land and Cultures
26 November 2020
Food
Marilyn Angel Wynn / Getty Images
By Christina Gish Hill
Historians know that turkey and corn were part of the first Thanksgiving, when Wampanoag peoples shared a harvest meal with the pilgrims of Plymouth plantation in Massachusetts. And traditional Native American farming practices tell us that squash and beans likely were part of that 1621 dinner too.
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For centuries before Europeans reached North America, many Native Americans grew these foods together in one plot, along with the less familiar sunflower. They called the plants sisters to reflect how they thrived when they were cultivated together.
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Today
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/native-americans-stories-california" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">three-quarters of Native Americans live off of reservations</a>, mainly in urban areas. And nationwide, many Native American communities <a href="https://civileats.com/2019/07/24/indigenous-food-security-is-dependent-on-food-sovereignty/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lack access to healthy food</a>. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yCZ-SMUAAAAJ&hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">scholar of Indigenous studies</a> focusing on Native relationships with the land, I began to wonder why Native farming practices had declined and what benefits could emerge from bringing them back.
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<p>To answer these questions, I am working with <a href="https://www.agron.iastate.edu/people/marshall-mcdaniel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">agronomist Marshall McDaniel</a>, <a href="https://www.hort.iastate.edu/directory/ajay-nair/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">horticulturalist Ajay Nair</a>, <a href="https://www.globe.iastate.edu/staff/donna-winham/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nutritionist Donna Winham</a> and Native gardening projects in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Our research project, "Reuniting the Three Sisters," explores what it means to be a responsible caretaker of the land from the perspective of peoples who have been balancing agricultural production with sustainability for hundreds of years.</p>
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Abundant Harvests
<p>Historically, Native people throughout the Americas bred indigenous plant varieties specific to the growing conditions of their homelands. They selected seeds for many different traits, such as <a href="https://emergencemagazine.org/story/corn-tastes-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">flavor, texture and color</a>.</p><p>Native growers knew that planting corn, beans, squash and sunflowers together produced mutual benefits. Corn stalks created a trellis for beans to climb, and beans' twining vines secured the corn in high winds. They also certainly observed that corn and bean plants growing together tended to be healthier than when raised separately. Today we know the reason: Bacteria living on bean plant roots pull nitrogen – an essential plant nutrient – from the air and <a href="http://www.tilthalliance.org/learn/resources-1/almanac/october/octobermngg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">convert it to a form that both beans and corn can use</a>.</p><p>Squash plants contributed by shading the ground with their broad leaves, preventing weeds from growing and retaining water in the soil. Heritage squash varieties also had spines that discouraged deer and raccoons from visiting the garden for a snack. And sunflowers planted around the edges of the garden created a natural fence, protecting other plants from wind and animals and attracting pollinators.</p><p>Interplanting these agricultural sisters produced bountiful harvests that sustained large Native communities and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/eam.2015.0016" target="_blank">spurred fruitful trade economies</a>. The first Europeans who reached the Americas were shocked at the abundant food crops they found. My research is exploring how, 200 years ago, Native American agriculturalists around the Great Lakes and along the Missouri and Red rivers fed fur traders with their diverse vegetable products.</p><div id="b473d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="02bce33cbe23b74661e1a9279fef31bc"><blockquote class="instagram-media"
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Displaced From the Land
<p>As Euro-Americans settled permanently on the most fertile North American lands and acquired seeds that Native growers had carefully bred, they imposed policies that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/87.2.550" target="_blank">made Native farming practices impossible</a>. In 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/indian-removal-act" target="_blank">Indian Removal Act</a>, which made it official U.S. policy to force Native peoples from their home locations, pushing them onto subpar lands.</p><p>On reservations, U.S. government officials discouraged Native women from cultivating anything larger than small garden plots and pressured Native men to practice Euro-American style monoculture. Allotment policies assigned small plots to nuclear families, further limiting Native Americans' access to land and preventing them from using communal farming practices.</p><p>Native children were forced to attend boarding schools, where they had no opportunity to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.57.1.0145" target="_blank">learn Native agriculture techniques or preservation and preparation of Indigenous foods</a>. Instead they were forced to eat Western foods, turning their palates away from their traditional preferences. Taken together, these policies <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-0802-7.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">almost entirely eradicated three sisters agriculture</a> from Native communities in the Midwest by the 1930s.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDgyNzYyMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzM2MjkwOX0.kTWQ0TwFFU0ZF3yKNzQn9zq_ouX0TpVY2oZUE-XvPbM/img.png?width=980" id="a58aa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4d5f239c5d47ebaf3157af1fe8bb54ba" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1582" data-height="1178" />
Native American tribes in the Great Lakes region pre-European settlement. Milwaukee Public Museum / CC BY-ND
Reviving Native Agriculture
<p>Today Native people all over the U.S. are working diligently to <a href="https://www.oupress.com/books/15107980/indigenous-food-sovereignty-in-the-united-sta" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reclaim Indigenous varieties of corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and other crops</a>. This effort is important for many reasons.</p><p>Improving Native people's access to healthy, culturally appropriate foods will help lower rates of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/aian-diabetes/index.html" target="_blank">diabetes</a> and <a href="https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/native-american/obesity" target="_blank">obesity</a>, which affect Native Americans at disproportionately high rates. Sharing traditional knowledge about agriculture is a way for elders to pass cultural information along to younger generations. Indigenous growing techniques also protect the lands that Native nations now inhabit, and can potentially benefit the wider ecosystems around them.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="82270cf0c87ca398f9818159ccc7e015"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IooHPLjXi2g?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>But Native communities often lack access to resources such as farming equipment, soil testing, fertilizer and pest prevention techniques. This is what inspired Iowa State University's Three Sisters Gardening Project. We work collaboratively with Native farmers at <a href="https://gardenwarriorsgoodseeds.com/2015/01/19/tsyunhehkw-oneida-nation-wisconsin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tsyunhehkw</a>, a community agriculture program, and the <a href="https://www.wisconsinlife.org/story/the-lands-we-share-laura-manthe-the-oneida-white-corn-growers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ohelaku Corn Growers Co-Op</a> on the Oneida reservation in Wisconsin; the <a href="http://72.15.165.18/index.php/en/nebraska-indian-community-college/about-nicc-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nebraska Indian College</a>, which serves the Omaha and Santee Sioux in Nebraska; and <a href="https://dreamofwildhealth.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dream of Wild Health</a>, a nonprofit organization that works to reconnect the Native American community in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, with traditional Native plants and their culinary, medicinal and spiritual uses.</p><p>We are growing three sisters research plots at ISU's Horticulture Farm and in each of these communities. Our project also runs workshops on topics of interests to Native gardeners, encourages local soil health testing and grows rare seeds to <a href="https://doi.org/10.17953/aicrj.41.3.hill" target="_blank">rematriate them</a>, or return them to their home communities.<br></p><p>The monocropping industrial agricultural systems that produce much of the U.S. food supply <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-agriculture-needs-a-21st-century-new-deal-112757" target="_blank">harms the environment, rural communities and human health and safety in many ways</a>. By growing corn, beans and squash in research plots, we are helping to quantify how intercropping <a href="https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.721" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">benefits both plants and soil</a>.</p><p>By documenting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2016.1227750" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">limited nutritional offerings at reservation grocery stores</a>, we are demonstrating the need for Indigenous gardens in Native communities. By interviewing Native growers and elders knowledgeable about foodways, we are illuminating how healing Indigenous gardening practices can be for Native communities and people – their bodies, minds and spirits.</p><p>Our Native collaborators are benefiting from the project through rematriation of rare seeds grown in ISU plots, workshops on topics they select and the new relationships they are building with Native gardeners across the Midwest. As researchers, we are learning about what it means to work collaboratively and to conduct research that respects protocols our Native collaborators value, such as treating seeds, plants and soil in a culturally appropriate manner. By listening with humility, we are working to build a network where we can all learn from one another.</p><p><em>Christina Gish Hill is an associate professor of Anthropology at Iowa State University.</em></p><p><em>Disclosure statement: Christina Gish Hill receives funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/returning-the-three-sisters-corn-beans-and-squash-to-native-american-farms-nourishes-people-land-and-cultures-149230/" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. </em><br></p>
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Largest Dam Removal Project in U.S. History Restarts With Interstate Partnership
18 November 2020
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The John C. Boyle Dam is one of four dams on the Klamath River to be removed. Bobjgalindo / CC BY-SA 3.0
In a historic move to resurrect the largest dam removal project in the U.S., Oregon, California, the Yurok Tribe and the Karuk Tribe signed an agreement on Tuesday to push forward on dam removal.
<p>The two states take on the liability of the project, along with the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the nonprofit in charge of the demolition, after the project stalled in July.</p><p>The dam removal project is essential to the tribes in the region — the Klamath River on the Oregon-California border — and will reopen hundreds of miles of river access to salmon that have been blocked for more than a century, in what is seen as one of the largest salmon restoration attempts in U.S. history. The removal would drain large reservoirs and reshape California's second-largest river.</p>
<p>The dams are not a part of the irrigation infrastructure in the region and are used only for power generation.</p><p>If U.S. regulators approve the plan, the project will remove four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River. Legal challenges have stymied the plans from coming to fruition, as environmentalists and tribes had hoped demolition would start by 2022.</p><p>"The Klamath River is a centerpiece of tribal community, culture and sustenance and a national ecological treasure," California governor Gavin Newsom said in a <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/11/17/governor-newsom-oregon-governor-brown-tribal-leaders-and-klamath-dam-owner-announce-agreement-to-advance-historic-salmon-restoration-plan/?utm_source=California+Trout+List&utm_campaign=5380e844e9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_Trout_Clout_Klamath_MOU&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cf2a51cf18-5380e844e9-232605593&mc_cid=5380e844e9&mc_eid=eeeff31369" target="_blank">statement</a> about the partnership. "With this agreement, we are closer than ever to restoring access to 400 miles of salmon habitat which will be a boon to the local economy."</p><p>In July, the project <a href="https://apnews.com/article/123f20f9e4b8948cf7d948482a8eec1d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">was stalled</a> due to questions by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission concerning cost overruns and accidents, and if the Klamath River Renewal Corporation was in a fecund position to handle any upcoming issues.</p><p>However, the new state partnership adds an influx of $45 million to the project's $450 budget. The $45 million will be paid between Oregon, California, and the utility PacifiCorp as a contingency fund. PacifiCorp operates the dams and is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, one of billionaire Warren Buffett's companies.</p>
<p>Back in July the FERC found it necessary to keep PacifiCorp on the project as a co-licensee, although PacifiCorp was always in line to be removed from the deal, as it promised public utility commissions in Oregon and California, to better serve its ratepayers. If left on the deal as a co-licensee, by federal law PacifiCorp could end up paying itself to install fish ladders — concrete chutes in structures that fish pass through — to help the salmon migrate to spawning waters upstream.</p><p>In the new agreement, if approved by regulators, PacifiCorp would be removed as a co-licensee.</p><p>"As Yurok tribal people, it is our sacred duty to bring balance to the Klamath River," Yurok Tribe Chair Joseph James said in a <a href="http://www.klamathrenewal.org/bi-state-agreement-with-klamath-dam-owner-advances-historic-salmon-restoration-plan/?fbclid=IwAR0PixUu9UBM18PIx3FpPZOZJSo6XFNF2EZfydf1mTN7-k-j2AAO70XAN4A" target="_blank">KRRC statement</a>.</p><p>"At its heart, dam removal is about healing and restoration for the river, for the salmon, and for our people. We have never wavered from this obligation and we are pleased to see dam removal come closer to reality through this agreement. Reaching this important milestone would not be possible without the many tribal people who have dedicated their lives to restoring the river."</p>
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On September 4, 2019, a tree house with solar collectors has been rebuilt by the residents in the Hambach forest. Roland Weihrauch / picture alliance / Getty Images
By Jeannette Cwienk
Shubham Mani Tripathi, newspaper reporter, India: shot dead in June 2020 for exposing illegal sand mining. Maria Efigenia Vasquez Astudillo, radio reporter, Colombia: struck and killed by a projectile in October 2017 while covering clashes between the Indigenous community and local police. Joseph Oduha, journalist, South Sudan: fled the country in 2019 after imprisonment and torture for uncovering environmental destruction by international oil companies.
<p>These are just three of the individuals highlighted by Reporters without Borders (RSF). According to the press freedom group, at least 20 journalists have died over the past decade as a result of their reporting on cases of environmental destruction.</p>
Indigenous Communities Threatened
<p>Environmental journalists in Europe also face intimidation and harassment, said RSF spokesperson Christoph Dreyer, pointing to cases connected to the destruction of the Hambach Forest in northwestern Germany or unsustainable agriculture practices in Brittany, France. But most of these attacks, more than 65%, are recorded in Asia and the Americas.</p><p><span></span>"These cases exist in places where raw materials are being mined or where land is being seized for agriculture, in countries where the government is on the side of industry," said Dreyer.</p><p>It's in these areas, where Indigenous communities often live amid untapped natural resources and unspoiled forest, where local journalists are usually the first to report on the conflicts. Often, they're the only ones on the scene."</p><p>In some Latin American countries, the dominant traditional media are heavily controlled by the economic and political elites," said Dreyer. "They often hold back from critical reporting on environmental issues, because it clashes with their interests." As a result, when local media decide to take a closer look they're put under extreme pressure, he added.</p>Local Journalists Under Pressure
<p>The work of local journalists is extremely important for Indigenous communities, said Kathrin Wessendorf, head of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). "Each Indigenous community has its own language, and only community reporters can report in that language," she told DW. "They also know how best to approach the community to spread the message."</p><p>Patricia Gualinga, who fights for Indigenous rights in Ecuador, told DW that large national media networks are often slow to report on environmental and human rights issues. "It's really very difficult to get coverage on TV. And if an issue isn't reported by the media, it doesn't exist," she said.</p><p>Gualinga belongs to the Sarayaku Indigenous group who, in 2002, sued the state of Ecuador at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for giving the go-ahead to oil drilling ventures on their land without consulting them. Numerous attempts to intimidate the group were made during the litigation process — especially against Gualinga, who represented the Sarayaku in court. But in 2012, judges ruled in their favor and awarded the community $1.3 million (€1.1 million) in damages.</p><p>Violence against environmental activists has increased significantly in recent years, as shown in <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/defending-tomorrow/" target="_blank">a report</a> released by the environmental and human rights organization Global Witness in July. According to Global Witness, 212 environmentalists were murdered worldwide in 2019 — the highest number the group has recorded in a single year.</p>
Media Coverage Provides Protection
<p>Journalism is needed to bring such crimes to light, said Wessendorf, adding that international media have a particularly important responsibility.</p><p>"Journalists can bring the human rights violations often associated with environmental destruction to the attention of the wider public," she said. "This, in turn, can lead to international solidarity and put pressure on governments or companies."</p><p>Media coverage of the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-rainforest-fire-deforestation-mining-slash-and-burn-brazil/a-54486689" target="_blank">widespread fires in the Amazon region</a> in 2019 and 2020, for example, brought the issue to a global audience, highlighting the destructive practice of slash-and-burn agriculture and the treatment of Indigenous peoples. This has led to support from many international campaigns.</p><p>"International solidarity is very important for the local population," said Gualinga. "When they realize they're no longer alone, that they're visible and supported by others, it also helps ease their fear."</p>
Documenting Violence and Intimidation Across Borders
<p>Gualinga and other media workers from Latin America discussed the role of journalism in the fight for environmental protection and human rights during a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/gmf-digital-session-tierra-de-resistentes-defending-the-planet/a-55397748" target="_blank">a recent panel discussion</a>at DW's Global Media Forum. Also taking part was Andres Bermudez Lievano, a Colombian journalist and one of the editors of <a href="https://tierraderesistentes.com/en/" target="_blank"><em>Tierra de Resistentes ("Land of Resistants"</em>)</a>. The investigative data journalism project, available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, was launched by Colombian Journalists' Association, Consejo de Redaccion, with the support of the DW Akademie.</p><p>In the project, journalists from 10 different countries documented the fates of hundreds of environmental activists in Latin America who have been threatened and killed for their work. Nearly 2,400 cases have been compiled to date, with some now taken up by UN organizations.</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3b09babc35e312a3abf9c71bc089d4fa"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=376216886918307" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div><p>"It was only with this transnational project that we were able to realize how big the problem of violence and intimidation really is, and that ethnic minorities are particularly affected," said Lievano.</p><p>What also became clear was how little authorities were doing to address the problem. Of all the documented cases, only 12% made it to court — and just 10 victims saw justice. Bermudez highlighted a particularly shocking detail: in more than half of the cases, authorities were informed ahead of time of planned efforts to silence environmentalists.</p>
<p>Protecting sources, therefore, is a top priority for the <em>Tierra de Resistentes</em> project, and the reporters are very careful in their work. "In certain regions, we report back to the editorial office every hour, so that everyone knows where we are and whether everything is okay," said Bermudez. "We announce our route ahead of time, detail who we're meeting with and if anything has changed."</p><p>Using international associations, networks and public visibility, journalists can continue to report on environmental efforts. Without them, warns Reporters Without Borders, these stories will go untold — and the environmental destruction will continue.</p><p><em>This article has been adapted from German.</em></p><p><em></em><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/environmental-justice-reporters-face-deadly-threats-intimidation/a-55593140" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2648953447#/" target="_self"></a></p>
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