As Amazonian Wildfire Season Approaches, We Must Protect the Vulnerable Forest
15 June
Insights + Opinion
NASA satellite image showing fires raging across the Amazon rainforest on Aug. 11, 2019. NASA
By Daniel Ross
The wildfires that tore across Australia were as devastating as they were overwhelming, scorching some 15 million hectares of land, killing 34 people and more than 1 billion animals. In terms of its apocalyptic imagery — sweeping infernos torching great swaths with unerring speed — Australia's wildfires were hauntingly reminiscent of the fires that roared through the Amazon rainforest over the past year. Indeed, more than 80,000 fires hit the region during 2019, according to the Brazilian government.
<p>Though many months have now passed since global media focused on the unfolding disaster in the Amazon — one of the world's most <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-11-forests-amazon-important-carbon.html" target="_blank">important carbon sinks</a> — the problem has far from disappeared. Indeed, as the region gears up toward its next Amazon wildfire season, the causes underpinning the problem — like illegal logging, encroachment from agribusinesses and profit-driven government policies — remain very much at play.</p><p>And though uncertainty surrounds some of the short- and long-term impacts of increased commercial activity in the Brazilian Amazon, the consequences on a rapidly warming planet are stark indeed. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51464694" target="_blank">New research</a> suggests that some <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforested</a> regions of the rainforest are exhaling more carbon dioxide than they're taking in.</p>
<p>What's more, experts and environmentalists are quick to point the finger of blame toward a principal factor: a government presided over by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose tenure has been characterized by aggressive deregulation and increased commercial exploitation of the Amazon's resources.</p><p>"The impact is obvious: We have much more deforestation," said Philip Fearnside, an ecologist at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia in Brazil, earlier this year. Even before Bolsonaro took office officially, Fearnside <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-brazils-new-president-poses-an-unprecedented-threat-to-the-amazon" target="_blank">sounded the alarm</a> about the Brazilian president's intentions in the Amazon. And with Bolsonaro well into the second year of his tenure, "he's made good on those promises," Fearnside added.</p><p>Indeed, in the year ending on July 30, 2019, more than <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/brazil-revises-deforestation-data-amazon-rainforest-loss-topped-10000-sq-km-in-2019/" target="_blank">10,000 square kilometers</a> of Brazilian Amazon rainforest were lost through deforestation — an amount last topped in 2008, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. The number of active fires in August 2019 was three times higher than in 2018 and the highest number since 2010. The broad ramifications of these trends are far from clear-cut.</p>
<p>According to Jos Barlow, a professor of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> science at Lancaster University, England, "<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14872" target="_blank">different fire types have very different behaviors</a>," with varying severities of impact. While "understory" forest fires have the smallest flame heights and burn slowly across the forest floor, for example, "they also have long-lasting impacts, killing around 50 percent of all trees, with mortality occurring for many years after the fire," Barlow wrote in an email.</p><p>And so, "How long will it take for forests to recover biomass and primary forest species composition?" Barlow asked. "Will they fully recover, or will they be locked into a lower biomass state?"</p><p>Then there's the potential impact on the climate. For the first six months of 2019, deforestation and fires in the Brazilian Amazon released as much as <a href="https://whrc.org/new-data-brazilian-amazon-fires-have-released-104-141-million-metric-tons-of-co2/" target="_blank">141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide</a>, according to research led by the Woods Hole Research Center. As César Terrer, a postdoctoral scholar in Earth system science at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, explains it, the destruction of the Amazon through logging and wildfires means "we're also limiting the potential of current plants to continue storing CO2."</p>
<p>Terrer led a <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/press/view/29425" target="_blank">study</a> using anticipated carbon dioxide levels for the end of the century and found that plant biomass should increase by 12 percent as a result — an increase that would help enable plants and trees to store more carbon dioxide. "A 12 percent increase is huge," Terrer said in a phone interview. "For the Amazon in particular, that's more than 15 billion tons of carbon," he added, explaining that this amount is equivalent to "all the carbon stored in all the trees in all the forests" in the United States. "They could store all that additional carbon for free, if we let them be."</p><p>The problem? That 12 percent increase is predicated upon current plant biomass levels remaining as they currently are. Instead, "we're increasing deforestation rates in the Amazon, which is hugely important for the climate," Terrer said. "I'm strongly concerned."</p>
<p>After the turn of the century, Brazil appeared to be wrestling the problem of a shrinking Amazon. Between 2004 and 2012, Brazil employed an action plan instituting a number of key provisions, including an expanded network of protected areas alongside market incentives and disincentives, like a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/194008291300600308" target="_blank">successful deforestation moratorium</a> agreed to by nearly all soybean processors and exporters in Brazil. Deforestation rates during that time <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/deforestation_calculations.html" target="_blank">plummeted</a>.</p><p>But 2012 marked a turning point. Since then, deforestation has been ticking upwards — 2016, for example, saw a <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/business-as-usual-a-resurgence-of-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon" target="_blank">29 percent increase</a>.</p><p>The administration under Bolsonaro has used that fact to justify its policies in the Amazon, said Fearnside. "There were lots of things happening before Bolsonaro took office, but Bolsonaro has certainly increased that [deforestation] substantially," Fearnside said, pointing to the myriad ways his actions have played out.</p>
<p>The current Brazilian president has taken various measures to weaken the country's environment ministry — the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) — not least of all by tapping Ricardo Salles to lead it. Salles has called <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> an "innocuous" and "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/10/environmental-fines-are-ideological-says-brazil-minister-ricardo-salles" target="_blank">secondary</a>" issue, and has characterized the rate of illegal deforestation in the Amazon as near "<a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/07/ricardo-salles-afirma-que-amazonia-ja-tem-desmatamento-relativo-zero.shtml" target="_blank">zero</a>." The director of Brazil's Space Research Institute was fired when the agency's own calculations — which illustrated a <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/scienceandhealth/2019/08/amazon-deforestation-in-july-increased-278-over-same-period-in-2018.shtml" target="_blank">278 percent increase in deforestation</a> last July — disproved Salles's claims.</p><p>The environment ministry has also stepped back its regulatory oversight. Though <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/brazils-new-president-and-ruralists-threaten-amazonias-environment-traditional-peoples-and-the-global-climate/F5C1E42BF9F6E6BDDB957B87601FC4F7/core-reader" target="_blank">95 percent of the deforestation</a> that occurred in the first three months of Bolsonaro's tenure was illegal, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/brazils-new-president-and-ruralists-threaten-amazonias-environment-traditional-peoples-and-the-global-climate/F5C1E42BF9F6E6BDDB957B87601FC4F7" target="_blank">no offenders</a> were punished. Indeed, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html" target="_blank">New York Times analysis</a> found that IBAMA's enforcement actions fell by 20 percent during the first half of 2019, as compared with the year prior. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/02/war-for-survival-brazils-amazon-tribes-despair-as-land-raids-surge-under-bolsonaro" target="_blank">Increased land</a> raids have impacted Indigenous populations in particular.</p><p>"President Bolsonaro of Brazil is encouraging the farm owners near our lands to clear the forest," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/02/amazon-destruction-earth-brazilian-kayapo-people" target="_blank">wrote</a> Raoni Metuktire, chief of the Indigenous Brazilian Kayapo people. "And he is not doing anything to prevent them from invading our territory."</p>
<p>Some of Bolsonaro's actions have been met with opprobrium among certain sectors of Brazil's corporate class. Blairo Maggi, a billionaire soybean producer and former agriculture minister, has warned of international condemnation of the government's excursions into the Amazon. "The farmers, associations and industry will have to redo what has been lost," he told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/world/americas/amazon-fires-bolsonaro-photos.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "We retreated 10 steps; we will have to work to get back to where we were."</p><p>Nevertheless, "there are large parts of the agribusiness that are on the other side," said Fearnside, pointing to the <a href="https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-43662020000100008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en" target="_blank">thriving soybean industry</a> in Matopiba, a vast region spanning four Brazilian states. And where is this produce going? In 2017, <a href="https://www.globalcanopy.org/sites/default/files/documents/resources/Brief_DM_soy_final.pdf" target="_blank">92 percent</a> of the soybeans grown for the domestic market in Brazil were used to feed livestock to supply the world's demand for meat.</p><p>"The soy farmers there are all on the bandwagon of denying climate change, which is incredible given that climate change is likely to wipe out their soybean business there," Fearnside said.</p><p>With Bolsonaro only about one year and a half into his presidency, Fearnside is understandably concerned about his remaining tenure and describes the actions already undertaken as having opened up a Pandora's box. This includes the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2020/01/wildfire-pollution-worsens-air-quality.aspx" target="_blank">human health impacts</a> from wildfire-created air pollution on both nearby and <a href="https://www.enn.com/articles/61766-brazilian-wildfire-pollution-worsens-air-quality-in-distant-cities" target="_blank">distant</a> urban centers — even intensifying <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50573623" target="_blank">glacier melt in the Andes</a>.</p><p>Other experts agree with Fearnside. According to Jos Barlow earlier this year, all indications suggested that 2020 would be "even worse." That prophecy is proving true, with deforestation <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/brazil-revises-deforestation-data-amazon-rainforest-loss-topped-10000-sq-km-in-2019/" target="_blank">rates currently on pace</a> to surpass last year's.</p>
<p><em>An earlier version of this article first appeared on </em><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/as-amazonian-wildfire-season-approaches-we-must-protect-the-vulnerable-forest/" target="_blank"><em>Truthout</em></a><em> and was produced in partnership with </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Amazon Deforestation Is Causing 20% of Forests to Release More ... ›
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Planting Projects, Backyard Habitats Can Re-Create Livable Natural Spaces
30 April
Insights + Opinion
Portland, Oregon's local Backyard Habitat Certification Program is a collaboration between Portland Audubon and Columbia Land Trust. Gaylen Beatty
By April M. Short
The world's wildlife is in danger of dying off, and inevitably taking humanity out with it. Humans have destroyed enormous portions of the planet's natural spaces, and caused a climate disaster as well as the unprecedented acceleration of mass extinction events. Among the many species struggling to stay afloat are the butterflies, birds, bats, bees and other pollinators we depend upon in order to grow basic food crops. People cannot live without the earth's diverse wild plants and animals.
<p>Scientists agree that continued disruption of the earth's ecosystems <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/to-humanity-as-climate-change-/f8lnx2/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">threatens</a> the future survival of humanity as much as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> does. And the two aren't entirely separate issues; healthy <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests" target="_self">forests</a> and soil systems, for example, sequester carbon naturally. As they are destroyed, there is increased carbon in the atmosphere. A <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/content-365-6448-76/f8lnx4/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">study</a> published in 2019 in the journal Science found that forest restoration is among the best possible climate change solutions.</p><p>The current pandemic brings these issues home, as the problems of climate change, habitat destruction and pollinator decline are <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ollinators-and-then-the-virus-/f8lnx6/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">intricately linked</a>, as outlined in an article by Dr. Arshad M. Khan and <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/author-meenamiriamyust-/f8lnx8/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Meena Miriam Yust</a> published in Modern Diplomacy in April.</p>
<p>And, as explained by Ensia's environment editor John Vidal in an <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ons-for-coronavirus-to-emerge-/f8lnxb/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">article</a> that appeared in Scientific American in March, the destruction of wildlife habitat in particular creates breeding grounds for new viruses — and is a likely cause of the devastating current outbreak of novel coronavirus.</p><p>Vidal writes:<br></p><blockquote>"Only a decade or two ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments teeming with exotic wildlife threatened humans by harboring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans like Ebola, HIV and dengue.<br><br>"But a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity's destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases like COVID-19 … to arise — with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections among the well-being of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems."</blockquote><p>As Vidal notes, this likely won't be the only pandemic we experience. Keeping the next one at bay hinges on protecting and stewarding habitat spaces for wildlife.</p>
<p>While the outlook on both pandemic and climate change can seem bleak, we're also witnessing a demonstration of how quickly the planet can repair itself when people merely slow down a little. In just a matter of months, without changing much other than how often we go out to work, spend and gather in public spaces, the world's skies have cleared up in places that were murky with smog for generations.</p><p>The pandemic has caused a <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-global-drop-in-air-pollution-/f8lnxd/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">steep decline</a> in air pollution levels around the globe. Weeks without hordes of tourists have deepened the blue of <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/anals-scli-intl-scn-index-html/f8lnxg/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">the waterways of Venice, Italy,</a> and there are reports of fish being visible through the clear waters for the first time in decades; the Himalayas are <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-in-india-amid-lockdown-720012/f8lnxj/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">visible</a> in parts of northern India that haven't been able to catch a glimpse of them in 30 years; Los Angeles's famous traffic has <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/rants-and-other-pandemic-perks/f8lnxl/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">eased up</a>. It's clear that the small efforts by large numbers of people can and do ripple throughout the world, and they have the potential to combat mass destruction. If so much can begin to change when all we do is ease our operations a little, what can change if we make concerted efforts together in support of nature's resilience?</p>
<h3>Planting Habitat From the Grassroots</h3><p><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/gardening">Gardening</a> to support pollinators and other wildlife is one way individuals can <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/d6-44bb-4367-a718-98346e928869/f8lnxn/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">help</a>. The movement for native habitat planting seeks to re-supply wildlife with the plants and habitat spaces that support them, by way of individual garden projects.</p><p>Since the 1970s, the native plant movement has encouraged people to garden and grow native species of plants, which can provide biodiverse habitat for birds, butterflies, amphibians and other creatures that live among us. Out of the native plant movement, many backyard and community habitat gardening certification programs have emerged across the country, to educate and incentivize people to plant habitat gardens.</p><p>The largest habitat gardening certification effort in the U.S. is the National Wildlife Federation (NWF)'s Community Wildlife Habitat Program (<a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/nityWildlifeHabitat-Home-About/f8lnxq/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">CWHP</a>), which offers tools and a certification program not just for individual backyard gardens, but for whole communities interested in participating. The program started in 1997 in the small town of Alpine, California, in San Diego County, as a grassroots effort by a few individuals who decided to team up and encourage local native garden projects. Now, the program is a concerted national effort that works with approximately 200 certified <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/abitat-Home-CurrentCommunities/f8lnxs/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">communities and municipalities across the country</a>, including some major cities, such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Houston, Texas. </p><p>NWF has encouraged people to create habitat gardens for more than 40 years through its <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/garden/f8lnxv/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Garden for Wildlife</a>. The CWHP builds upon that longstanding initiative, with a science-based program framework for community leaders to restore wildlife habitat — including wildlife corridors and road passage areas — and engage residents. The end goal for areas that participate is to be certified as a wildlife-friendly community through the NWF.</p><p>The program encourages communities to integrate a set of wildlife-friendly practices into plans for parks and general sustainability. It offers tools for its members to educate as well as motivate private community members — residents, schools, places of worship, and others — to get involved and transform their garden spaces via native trees and plants, and non-toxic practices.</p>
<p>Patrick Fitzgerald, senior director of community wildlife for NWF, says anyone can get involved with the habitat gardening effort, even people in highly urban areas, via container gardens.</p><p>"If you're planting a garden, you can really make an impact for wildlife and the environment literally right outside your front door," he says, noting that the <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2020-04-28/f8lnxx/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">monarch butterfly</a> offers a particularly potent example of a species that might be positively affected by collective individual efforts. The Western monarch's populations have been plummeting, down from the millions in the 1980s, to 200,000 in 2017, and just 30,000 as of 2018, as reported in March 2020 by <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/science-monarch-butterfly-html/f8lnxz/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>"The example of the monarch shows how the simple act of planting milkweeds in your garden, in a pot and just about anywhere, can have an impact for a very specific species," adds Fitzgerald. "A lot of folks, myself included, just love this monarch butterfly for its migration and metamorphosis. It's an amazing species. We've seen a call to action for the monarch butterfly, and so many people are planting milkweed and other native plants that they need to survive in their yards and telling us about it. … Knowing that you're part of millions of people doing this, all for the sake of one black and orange butterfly, is a pretty powerful thing. It's just tremendously rewarding."</p><p>The NWF program also works with communities interested in larger restoration efforts, such as wildlife thoroughfares, urban forestry, water conservation, planting for climate resilience and green infrastructure efforts.</p><p>"In terms of climate resilience, a lot of the actions that our teams in our cities, counties and communities are taking have multiple benefits for wildlife and for people — and they're also helpful in terms of addressing climate change in different ways," Fitzgerald says.</p><p>He points to efforts like reforestation and planting trees along waterways to reduce erosion and mitigate runoff into waterways, or efforts to increase soil carbon storage.</p><p>"A lot of folks who participate in our programs, they just love wildlife, and from there, they're looking for strategies to attract more wildlife to their neighborhoods and communities," he says.</p>
<p>Houston, Texas, is one of the largest communities certified by the NWF Community Wildlife Habitat Program. Kelli Ondracek, the natural resources manager for the City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department, says that when the city started working toward the certification in 2016 it was a natural fit, as many of the efforts already underway in the city overlapped with the NWF's habitat certification program. The city of Houston partners with the Houston Audubon, for instance, to replace invasive plant species in public areas with bird-friendly natives, and Houston is a certified "Bird City" of Texas by the state's Parks and Wildlife program.</p><p>In order to encourage Houston residents to participate and plant backyard habitat gardens, Ondracek says they began to include information about the certification effort at all of their regular events. Since the city was already offering many of the educational events and information required for the NWF certification, once they got enough homes and common areas involved with the project, it came together citywide, by way of volunteer efforts.</p><p>Among the bigger habitat initiatives in Houston is its longstanding <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/olutions-to-unnatural-flooding/f8lny2/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">prairie restoration</a> project, which replants fields full of native prairie grasses and wildflowers throughout the city's parks, medians, and other relevant public spaces. Ondracek, who oversees the city's greenhouses, says the prairie restoration efforts have involved collecting seeds and propagating more than 10,000 gallon pots' worth of native plants.</p><p>Ondracek says the wildlife habitat project in Houston involves taking inventory of the land in their parks system — which is vast — and assess what that land would have historically looked like. Then, they work to re-create it.</p><p>"We try to get it as close as possible back to the historic habitat, with a focus on really diverse native species," Ondracek says. "We're really trying to focus on native plants — and we're growing them ourselves because often you can't really purchase them — so that we can get our restoration projects completed."</p><p>The prairie restoration project serves to provide habitat, and also to mitigate climate change–related threats such as increased flooding and drought, as detailed in a Christian Science Monitor <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/olutions-to-unnatural-flooding/f8lny2/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">article</a> published in October 2019.</p><p>Ondracek says Houston also has a native tree farm and is working to replant trees along waterways in 70 of its parks, with the goal of planting more than 200,000 trees along the city's bayous and other water systems. Trees along the waterways, known as <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/es-riparian-forest-buffers-php/f8lny4/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">riparian buffers</a>, serve to reduce the impacts of flooding and improve water quality for both humans and wildlife. The goal of this effort is twofold: to rehabitat these spaces as wildlife corridors, and to create a more climate-resilient future for the city. The tree project acts as part of Houston's <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/yc88f828/f8lny6/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Climate Action Plan</a>, which centers on large restoration projects like tree installations to mitigate inevitable increased flooding and help sequester carbon.</p>
<p>Many cities, counties and states around the U.S. offer their own habitat certification programs, unrelated to the NWF's certification. Portland, Oregon's local <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2020-04-28/f8lny8/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Backyard Habitat Certification Program (BHCP)</a>, for instance, is a collaboration between Portland Audubon and Columbia Land Trust.</p><p>Megan Van de Mark, the Portland BHCP's program manager, says the localized program is particularly hands-on and serves more than 6,100 properties throughout Oregon's Clark, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. The program originated in Portland, where more than 4,600 properties are enrolled, and works hands-on with community sites, including religious institutions, multi-family complexes, schools, etc., as well as private backyards.</p><p>"One person can make a difference where they live by incorporating native plants in their yards and gardens, by removing noxious weeds, by reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides, and by taking actions that steward wildlife and manage stormwater at home," Van de Mark says in an email.</p><p>Van de Mark says the program shows that the cumulative actions of individual people can add up to a significant positive impact.</p><p>"An ecosystem is an interconnected system," Van de Mark says. "What each of us does makes a difference specifically because we're all connected. The ecosystems within which we reside are home to many. By building habitat where you live and reside (i.e., by planting native plants, removing noxious weeds, reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides, and by taking actions that steward wildlife and manage stormwater on-site), you can help ensure that birds, pollinators, and other species also have enough to eat, a way to get around, and a place to call home. We're all in this together."<br></p>
<p><em>This article was reposted with permission from <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/local-peace-economy-/f8lnyb/609037909?h=Jm1ZmFSO2X6U0D521QCpvsHnTSsQNE3M8auqr5zV5NY" target="_blank">Local Peace Economy</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- How to Turn Your Yard Into an Ecological Oasis - EcoWatch ›
- How to Turn Your Patch of Earth From Barren to Bountiful - EcoWatch ›
- What Is Regenerative Agriculture? - EcoWatch ›
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The Farm Workforce Modernization Act Does Not Solve the Farm Labor Dilemma
29 March
Insights + Opinion
Pie Ranch in San Mateo, California, is a highly diverse farm that has both organic and food justice certification. Katie Greaney
By Elizabeth Henderson
Farmworkers, farmers and their organizations around the country have been singing the same tune for years on the urgent need for immigration reform. That harmony turns to discord as soon as you get down to details on how to get it done, what to include and what compromises you are willing to make. Case in point: the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (H.R. 5038), which passed in the House of Representatives on Dec. 11, 2019, by a vote of 260-165. The Senate received the bill the next day and referred it to the Committee on the Judiciary, where it remains. Two hundred and fifty agriculture and labor groups signed on to the United Farm Workers' (UFW) call for support for H.R. 5038. UFW President Arturo Rodriguez rejoiced:
<blockquote>"Today is a milestone because this bill will help bring stability to the agricultural industry…Agricultural workers will have stability for themselves and their families. No longer will children worry whether their moms and dads are coming home from work. The bill addresses the pervasive fear faced every day by the immigrant farmworkers who perform one of the toughest jobs in America."</blockquote><p>Smaller farmworker organizations, however — Familias Unidas por la Justicia, Community to Community Development, CATA, Farmworker Association of Florida and UFCW, who unite in the Food Chain Workers Alliance — <a href="https://foodchainworkers.org/2020/02/fcwa-stands-with-farmworker-members-in-opposing-the-farm-workforce-modernization-act-of-2019/" target="_blank">vigorously oppose H.R. 5038</a>. Why the split, and what does it mean for this bill and future steps toward comprehensive immigration reform?</p>
<p><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5038" target="_blank">With bipartisan sponsorship</a>, the bill has three titles that address a pathway to legal status for some farmworkers, expansion of the H-2A program — which allows farmers to import seasonal farm labor for up to 10 months if they can show that there is a shortage of resident workers — to year-round work on farms along with many adjustments to make it easier and cheaper for farmers to apply, and a mandatory requirement of e-verify for all agricultural employers. The UFW acknowledges that the bill is a <a href="https://ufw.org/fwmaintro/" target="_blank">compromise</a>, "crafted with help from a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers…the result of months of difficult negotiations between Members of Congress from both parties, the United Farm Workers, UFW Foundation, Farmworker Justice and most of the nation's major grower associations."</p><p>Let's examine the three sections to see how big those compromises are and who is hurt or benefits from them.</p><p><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5038" target="_blank">Title One of H.R. 5038</a> lays out what farmworkers must do to qualify for temporary and then more permanent legal status. If they have records to prove at least 180 days of employment in agriculture over the previous two years and no criminal record, they can apply for five-year renewable Certified Agricultural Worker (CAW) status, which will protect them from deportation, but not allow them to receive any public or tax benefits or health care subsidies. Listing by a Farm Labor Contractor qualifies a worker for CAW. The Secretary of Agriculture "may" (not "shall") grant approval with similar limitations for a spouse and minor children. To retain CAW status, they must work at least 100 days a year in agriculture. Unlike the earlier <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr2414" target="_blank">Ag Jobs Bill (2009)</a>, H.R. 5038 does not allow flexibility for periods of illness or injury. CAW status does allow farmworkers to travel outside the U.S. as long as that travel does not interfere with the required 100 days a year of farm work.</p><p>To gain Permanent Resident Status (PRS), H.R. 5038 requires a total of <em>14 years of farm work</em>: 10 years before the passage of the bill and then four more years before applying for PRS. If a person has done farm work for less than 10 years, they have to work and wait eight more years before applying for PRS. Nothing in H.R. 5038 shelters a worker who has been injured and is unable to work the full 100 days per year required to gain citizenship from being disqualified and deported. The 14-year process to gain permanent legal status with no social safety net and no room for even a single misdemeanor seems like a mixed blessing even for the fortunate farmworkers who can meet these requirements that are much more stringent than the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/01/30/in-1986-congress-tried-to-solve-immigration-why-didnt-it-work/" target="_blank">1986 Immigrant Reform and Control Act</a> (IRCA).</p><p>CATA, the Farmworker Support Committee, a small organization with 40 years of history helping to organize and defend farmworkers and other low-income immigrants, convened a discussion of H.R. 5038 among its members. <a href="https://cata-farmworkers.org/cata-statement-on-the-proposed-farm-workforce-modernization-act-h-r-5038/" target="_blank">They rejected the proposal for failing to provide a short, clear path to legal status</a> for all undocumented agricultural workers.</p>
Changes to H-2A
<p>From the farmer perspective, Title Two of H.R. 5038 improves the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-2a-temporary-agricultural-workers" target="_blank">H-2A program</a>. Instead of sequential filings via snail mail with three different government agencies, it consolidates the application process into one online filing, allows farmers to stagger labor requests and post their workers wanted listings in a single electronic registry. (<a href="https://thepryingmantis.wordpress.com/2017/04/28/time-to-replace-h2a-the-us-guestworker-program/" target="_blank">See my blog for a detailed description of how H-2A functions.</a>) Title Two changes the formula for calculating H-2A pay in a way estimated to reduce wages slightly while allowing more flexibility for differentiating among different work assignments, freezes the rate for a year and then caps the percentage increase per year, and allows alternatives to inspected on-farm housing. It sets up a limited number of three-year visas for year-round workers, thus opening the program to dairies and other livestock farms and a pilot program for 10,000 workers who will be allowed to change employers.</p><p>On balance for H-2A workers, H.R. 5038 does extend coverage by the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/laws-and-regulations/laws/mspa" target="_blank">Migrant and Seasonal Workers Protection Act to H-2A workers</a>. This act regulates labor contractors, requires full disclosure of wages, hours and work assignments, and provides workers with some protection from retaliation for raising grievances. Section 505(a) of MSPA states that it is a violation for any person to "intimidate, threaten, restrain, coerce, blacklist, discharge, or in any manner discriminate against any migrant or seasonal agricultural worker because such worker has, with just cause, filed any complaint or instituted, or caused to be instituted, any proceeding under or related to this Act, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceedings, or because of the exercise, with just cause, by such worker on behalf of himself or others of any right or protection afforded by this Act." While section 505(a) sounds good, it is hard to see how the timing of the grievance process could work for short-term seasonal workers who would probably have to return home before the wheels of justice start turning.</p><p>From the perspective of both H-2A and undocumented workers, most of the changes to H-2A do not look like improvements. Except for those in the pilot program, H-2A workers are still locked in to the employer who invited them and cannot switch jobs unless the employer is a multi-farm association, and they are left without the legal right to organize. <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/#h2a" target="_blank">According to USDA statistics,</a> the number of H-2A positions has increased "from just over 48,000 positions certified in fiscal 2005 to nearly 243,000 in fiscal 2018." By making it easier for farmers to hire "guestworkers," the bill threatens the job security of farmworkers already working on U.S. farms.</p><p>The members of <a href="https://cata-farmworkers.org/cata-statement-on-the-proposed-farm-workforce-modernization-act-h-r-5038/" target="_blank">CATA denounce the H-2A program</a> for leaving all the power in the hands of the employer. In CATA's words: "If a worker loses their job, they lose their visa and must return immediately to their home country. We have documented extensive lack of compliance with the workers' rights regulations included in the current H-2A program. Despite this, workers in the program are extremely reluctant to report issues with their job orders and problems in the workplace because their status and their ability to return through the program depends on their employers."</p>Mandatory E-Verify
<p>The final title makes electronic verification of employment eligibility, known as "e-verify," mandatory for the entire agricultural sector. No other industry sectors are saddled in this way. The goal is to close all pathways to farm work for undocumented people and to provide due process for authorized workers who are unfairly rejected by the system. However, despite the bill's assurances of fairness and accuracy, so far, the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/prove-yourself-work-10-big-problems-e-verify?redirect=technology-and-liberty/prove-yourself-work-10-big-problems-e-verify" target="_blank">e-verify system has not reached that high bar</a>, and in its current form makes many misidentifications thus disqualifying qualified workers and the reverse. <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/serious-problems-e-verify" target="_blank">Contested cases take days to straighten out</a>, threatening new hires. A large farm would have office staff assigned to sort this out, but for small farms, appealing a mistaken finding can turn into a lengthy and expensive legal tangle. According to USDA, close to <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/#h2a" target="_blank">50 percent</a> of all farmworkers are still undocumented.</p><p>I have combed UFW public statements for an explanation for the compromises in H.R. 5038, but I have not been able to find a UFW analysis of the details of the bill, and none of the UFW staffers I have reached out to have responded to my queries. Their press releases crow about a victory and urge supporters to contact the Senate to pass the same bill. By contrast, the Food Chain Workers Alliance, which includes all the smaller farmworker organizations, urges calls and letters to the Senate in <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/oppose-hr-5038-the-farm-workforce-modernization-act-of-2019" target="_blank">opposition to H.R. 5038</a>: "<a href="https://tinyurl.com/yxy8k6h9" target="_blank">As an Alliance,</a> we believe that regardless of immigration status, all farmworkers deserve dignity, respect, and full protection on the job and in the communities in which their families reside. It is our belief that our movement should be guided by this vision of expanding access to rights and protection for all workers, especially the right to organize…we should oppose <em>any</em> legislation that does not provide stronger rights on the job for farmworkers and guestworkers and oversight over their conditions."</p><p>A close reading of H.R. 5038 leads me to the same conclusion. If we want to end this country's dependence on desperate people who are willing to do hard physical labor at machine speeds for poverty wages, we need to transform farm work into a respected vocation with living wages, the right to organize, full benefits, health coverage and a pension plan. When we replace giant farms with integrated, biodiverse family-scale organic and <a href="https://tinyurl.com/vhoq22o" target="_blank">agroecological farms</a>, no one will need to work like a machine.</p><p><strong>Take action: </strong><a href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/oppose-hr-5038-the-farm-workforce-modernization-act-of-2019" target="_blank">Urge your senators to oppose H.R. 5038 — The Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019</a>.</p>
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polaristest / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner
Over six gallons of water are required to produce one gallon of wine. "Irrigation, sprays, and frost protection all [used in winemaking] require a lot of water," explained winemaker and sommelier Keith Wallace, who's also a professor and the founder of the Wine School of Philadelphia, the largest independent wine school in the U.S. And water waste is just the start of the climate-ruining inefficiencies commonplace in the wine industry. Sustainably speaking, climate change could be problematic for your favorite glass of wine.
<p>Wine, in all its sippable glory, is, after all, an agricultural product, dependent on several, ever-changing factors that impact the taste, look and longevity of each bottle. The temperature, the weather and the ground (collectively known as the terroir) the grapes are grown in all affect every single bottle of wine. And, like any product that relies on uncontrollable environmental factors, wine is in trouble due to human-caused climate change.</p>
<p><em>Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner is a writer based in New York. She is a writing fellow at <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She's written for the New York Times, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Glamour, AlterNet, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Architectural Digest, Them and other publications. She holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Columbia University and is also at work on a novel. Follow her on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/melissabethk" target="_blank">@melissabethk</a>.</em><br/></p><p><em><span></span>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
<p>Rising temperatures, droughts, forest fires, natural disasters and other unfortunate, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/14/dining/drinks/climate-change-wine.html" target="_blank">once rare, now increasingly more common</a>, climate-related catastrophes are endangering small and large wineries alike. According to a new study, wine regions across the planet could <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/01/27/wine-regions-shrink-climate-change/" target="_blank">shrink by more than 50 percent</a> if temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius. (One stopgap solution could be for winemakers to <a href="https://news.ubc.ca/2020/01/27/switching-grape-varieties-can-help-save-worlds-wine-growing-regions-ubc-study/" target="_blank">switch their grape varieties</a> to those that are more tolerant to drought and heat.)</p><p>Not only is our drastically changing planet <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/climate-change-is-reshaping-wine-as-we-know-it/2019/06/06/7d8082c8-8861-11e9-98c1-e945ae5db8fb_story.html" target="_blank">threatening the wine varietals whose taste</a> the culinary world has come to favor for having specific characteristics, but the industry as a whole is shifting. Popular wines may be harder to produce, or lose their defining characteristics, as the planet changes.</p><p>"When your entire business is predicated on the predictability of the weather, any change in climate, hot or cold, has an enormous impact," Wallace said. "You work all year, but if it rains at the wrong time or if fires start nearby, then you forfeit your entire salary for the year. That is a terrifying proposition to anyone." As the director of a wine school, Wallace himself finds that an increasing number of his students are interested in the subject of sustainability and wine. But the topic isn't nearly as clear as a well-washed Schott Zwiesel Burgundy glass.</p>
Sustainability Is Subjective
<p>Sustainability isn't an absolute, meaning that wine and its agricultural counterparts can be sustainable in some ways, and not so much in other facets. While winemaking may be hyper eco-conscious, bottling and shipping may harm the planet beyond what less sustainable vineyard habits could ever lay claim to. Sustainability is rosé; neither white nor red, not necessarily organic or inorganic, but somewhere in between. And that limbo of sustainability can be, like a nicely chilled pink wine, complex and delicious, though nowhere near as easy to sip.</p><p>For instance, organically grown and made wine is not necessarily considered to be organic wine. "In the wine industry, many growers farm organically, but to be certified as an organic farm, the grower must keep records of practices for several years and submit them to one of the certifying organizations, like <a href="https://www.ccof.org/" target="_blank">California Certified Organic Farmers</a>," explained Vanessa Conlin, head of wine at online wine store <a href="https://www.wineaccess.com/" target="_blank">Wine Access</a>.</p><p>These etymological (and bureaucratic) hurdles make it difficult for a wine to become officially organic certified, and therefore the organic practices of omitting synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and other toxins from the wine-growing and making process, though better for the environment and the consumer's health, typically go unseen on a wine bottle's label. In France, however, a special European Union regulated label, <a href="https://www.winetourbooking.com/en/what-is-actually-a-biological-wine/" target="_blank">the Ecocert</a>, marks biological (that is, wines free of artificial pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer) wines, proving that such an indicator can be successfully utilized with a little government interest.</p><p>In the United States, organic is the most popular label to identify a biological wine, but wines that are labeled organic also cannot contain any added sulfites. Sulfites are a natural by-product of fermentation, but many winemakers add sulfur dioxide as antimicrobial and an antioxidative agent, stabilizing wines to best ensure the bottle tastes as good as expected once uncorked.</p><p>"The key difference between sustainable and organic farming is that while sustainability is meant to protect the environment for future generations, it does not have to include organic practices, although many do," Conlin explained. "Sustainability takes into account the health of the entire business, in ways like water preservation, energy efficiency, and even the well-being of the employees." <a href="https://www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/whats-the-difference-between-sustainable-organic-and-biodynamic-wine" target="_blank">Biodynamic wine</a>, which utilizes a closed ecosystem, that is, no outside fertilizers or alternative products, is just one example of a type of sustainable wine.</p><p>"Every winery and farm can do it," <a href="https://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/hunt-country-vineyards-wins-award/" target="_blank">said</a> Art Hunt, who, along with his wife Joyce, founded and owns Hunt Country Vineyards, located near Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes AVA ("American Viticultural Area," a federally designated wine grape-growing region) in upstate New York. The Hunts regard their vineyard as a total, biodiverse ecosystem that supports bees, birds and other wildlife.</p><p>"It's not all or nothing," Hunt said about running a sustainable winery. "You can work at it every year without it impacting your bottom line too much, and gradually increase your profitability."</p>Sipping Wine Sustainably
<p>The carbon footprint of global winemaking and global wine consumption is nothing to scoff at. The latter, which requires cases of wine be shipped from California to Spain, France to China, Australia to South Africa or perhaps back to Oregon or Alaska and everywhere in between, imprints a deep carbon footprint. Because wine is so region-specific, and only so many regions can create drinkable bottles, ground and air transportation is <a href="https://www.livescience.com/3041-carbon-footprint-wine.html" target="_blank">responsible for nearly all of the wine industry's CO2 emissions</a>.</p><p>Pesticides may fall out of favor, but a craving for an excellent Napa Cabernet in Singapore may not. The solution? Better packaging. "Many sustainable producers are making a concerted effort to lessen their carbon footprint by moving to lighter-weight glass bottles, or are trying alternative packaging, as the actual production of glass is energy-intensive," Conlin explained. "Cans, kegs, and other alternative types of packaging are lighter to ship and, in the case of kegs, are often reusable." Wine on tap? Great for the planet!</p><p>Unless you're a hyper-knowledgeable wine consumer, actually understanding how to purchase a bottle of wine sustainably can be befuddling. Beyond the physical packaging, labels like Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, additional local certifications, and the universal <a href="https://www.demeter.de/verbraucher/landwirtschaft/weinbau/weltweit/faq" target="_blank">Demeter</a> qualification, only for biodynamic wines, can address environmental concerns. "Look for key terms like sustainable or integrated pest management or even biodynamic," Wallace suggested. "They mean a wine was made with the goal to protect and maintain the natural ecosphere."</p><p>Also, winemakers use <a href="https://vegansbaby.com/theres-what-in-my-wine-the-gross-ingredients-in-wine-no-one-talks-about/" target="_blank">animal-derived products</a> to clarify the wine in a process called "fining." Some fining agents include casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein) and isinglass (fish bladder protein). Since animal agriculture is the <a href="https://tinyurl.com/vnf53gy" target="_blank">second largest contributor</a> to human-made greenhouse gas emissions after fossil fuels and a <a href="https://tinyurl.com/r27g4eo" target="_blank">leading cause</a> of biodiversity loss, deforestation, and water and air pollution, eco-minded, animal-friendly wine drinkers may want to seek out vegan wines, which use mineral-based fining agents like activated charcoal or bentonite, a type of clay.</p><p>Wine is a dialogue, and there's no shame in asking a sommelier or wine store professional questions about wine and its sustainable bragging points. Ask which bottles (or cans!) are <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/wine/sustainable-wines-and-spirits" target="_blank">sustainable</a> or <a href="https://vegnews.com/food-recipes/vegan-food-guides/wine" target="_blank">vegan</a>, which winemakers prioritize protecting the environment and if there are any local alternatives to a more faraway favorite.</p><p>"Industry buyers and restaurants are there to serve the demands of the consumer, so as interest in sustainability grows, savvy merchants are responding to that demand and often notate sustainably farmed wines on shelf-talkers or as symbols on wine lists," Conlin said. Don't see sustainable notations at your local wine shop or happy hour spot? Speak up!</p>From Your Site Articles
- Climate Crisis Could Destroy Most Vineyards - EcoWatch ›
- California Winery Cuts Carbon Emissions With Lighter Bottles ›
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Following House Approval, U.S. Has a Chance to Ban the Cruel Shark Fin Trade
18 March
Insights + Opinion
Lemon shark seen in the wild. Vanessa Mignon
By Sara Amundson
Every year, fins from as many as 73 million sharks circulate throughout the world in a complex international market. They are the key ingredient in shark fin soup, a luxury dish considered a status symbol in some Asian cuisines.
<p>The global trade in shark fins is contributing to a crisis among shark populations worldwide. Sharks are being killed <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X13000055?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">30 percent faster</a> than they can reproduce, and the fin trade is one of the main culprits. Up to <a href="https://elife.elifesciences.org/content/3/e00590" target="_blank">one-quarter</a> of all species of sharks and their relatives are at risk of extinction. Some shark populations have declined by <a href="https://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/16/prop/E-CoP16-Prop-43.pdf" target="_blank">nearly 90 percent</a> in recent decades. The disappearance of sharks can <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/shark-fishing-tournaments-devalue-ocean-wildlife-and-harm-conservation/" target="_blank">harm fragile ocean ecosystems</a>, because as top predators, sharks help balance the populations of species below them in the food chain.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="17d87ec34d2ed085f4ac7284997704c0"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4oiX_z0AGgA?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Additionally, many of the fins traded are obtained through the brutal, inhumane practice known as finning, in which fishers at sea catch sharks, slice off their fins and throw the animals — usually still alive — back into the water. Unable to swim without their fins, the sharks drown, bleed to death or are eaten alive by other fish. Because space on boats is limited and fins are by far the most valuable part of the shark, fishers have an incentive to use this cruel method to get fins.</p><p>However, the tide is turning against the shark fin trade.</p><p>In November 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives issued a resounding bipartisan "no" to this cruel practice, voting 310 to 107 to pass a bill <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/news/house-approves-bill-prohibiting-trade-shark-fins" target="_blank">banning</a> commercial trade of shark fins and products derived from shark fins in the U.S. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/737" target="_blank">The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act</a>, led by Representatives Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-Northern Mariana Islands) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas), would prohibit all purchase, sale and possession for commercial purposes of these parts and products. The legislation builds on previous laws passed by Congress — the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/106/plaws/publ557/PLAW-106publ557.pdf" target="_blank">Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000</a> and the <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/laws-and-policies/shark-conservation-act" target="_blank">Shark Conservation Act of 2010</a> — which banned the act of shark finning in U.S. waters and the transport on U.S.-flagged vessels of shark fins not naturally attached to a shark carcass.</p>The action has now moved to the U.S. Senate, where a third of the members have sponsored a parallel bill, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/877" target="_blank">S. 877</a>, introduced by Senators Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia). Already the Senate Commerce Committee has cleared this bill for potential floor action.
<p>States are also taking up the fight. In January, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill into law that bans the sale and trade of shark fins in the Garden State. The state's general assembly had <a href="https://www.billtrack50.com/BillDetail/990923" target="_blank">approved the bill</a> by a vote of 54 to 19, and the state's senate passed its version of the bill by a vote of 33 to 6. These vote tallies reflect the will of the state's constituents: In a <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/NJ%20Public%20Opinion%20Survey%20040119.pdf" target="_blank">recent survey</a>, a majority of New Jersey voters said they would support a prohibition on the sale, possession and trade of shark fins.</p><p>New Jersey now joins 13 other states, including all of its coastal neighbors, and three U.S. territories that have passed legislation to ban or limit the sale of shark fins — American Samoa, California, Delaware, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington.</p><p>The current to stop the shark fin trade is also flowing internationally. In June 2019, Canada, the <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/document/2017-shark-finning-report-congress" target="_blank">largest importer</a> of shark fins outside Asia, passed a bill that includes measures to prohibit that country's trade in shark fins as well as the act of finning in Canadian waters. Worldwide, nearly 60 airlines and container shipping companies — including Air China, Eastern Air Logistics (the parent company of four major Chinese airlines) and Maersk, the world's largest shipping line — have <a href="https://wildaid.org/four-more-chinese-airlines-ban-shark-fin/" target="_blank">banned the transport of shark fins</a>. Many high-end restaurants and hotel chains in Asia have also stopped serving shark fin soup. Demand for the soup <a href="https://tinyurl.com/tygz8mg" target="_blank">is declining</a> but not quickly enough to save sharks on its own.</p>
<p>While finning in U.S. waters is already prohibited, current law is not enough because once shark fins are on land, they can be sold. Furthermore, U.S. participation in the global fin market continues to fuel the practice in places that lack shark-finning bans or adequate shark management and conservation policies.</p><p>It is impossible to guarantee that shark fins are humanely and sustainably sourced. That is because once a fin is detached, it is impossible to know where it was obtained, or whether it was sliced off a shark at sea or removed after the shark was brought to shore. It is also difficult to determine the species of the shark. For the most part, shark fins sold in the U.S. do not come from U.S. fishers. Because of this, fins sold here can come from sharks that were finned, or from <a href="https://tinyurl.com/clw28lh" target="_blank">endangered or threatened</a> shark species.</p><p>Our role is magnified by the fact that the U.S. is a major transit hub for international shark fin shipments. Latin America is one of the most significant shark fin-producing regions, and many of these countries transport shark fins through U.S. ports. <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/unintentional-partner-shark-fin-market-report_0.pdf" target="_blank">Some Latin American nations</a> ship as much as one-third to one-half of all their shark fin exports through the U.S. In fact, on February 3, almost 1,400 pounds of dried shark fins worth around $1 million were <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/endangered-species-1400-pounds-shark-fins-1m-seized-miami/" target="_blank">found by wildlife inspectors</a> in Miami. The shipment is believed to have originated in South America and was likely headed to Asia.</p>
<p>Still, banning the shark fin trade in the United States has its opponents. They argue that U.S. shark fisheries are already well managed. In reality, however, fewer than 20 percent of U.S. shark stocks <a href="https://usa.oceana.org/blog/are-us-sharks-trouble" target="_blank">are considered sustainable</a>. They also argue that it is wasteful for fishers to land a shark and not be able to sell its fins. By that standard, not selling the ivory from a dead elephant is wasteful, too — but as a nation, we have decided that the broad well-being of all elephants supersedes that pernicious use of their tusks.</p><p>Fishing industry advocates claim that banning the fin trade would have harmful economic impacts. The truth is, though, that sharks are worth much more alive than dead. In 2016, <a href="https://usa.oceana.org/SharkEconomics" target="_blank">shark-related diving</a> in Florida produced more than $221 million in revenues and more than 3,700 jobs. Moreover, fishers would still be able to sell the meat and other products from the sharks they land. In states where the shark fin trade has been banned, there is no evidence of negative impacts to the commercial fishing industry.</p><p>Finally, some believe we can address the shark crisis not by changing our own practices, but simply by requiring other countries to improve their shark fishing methods. The latter is an unrealistic goal. The low percentage of U.S. shark stocks known to be sustainable underscores how difficult fisheries are to manage, even here in one of the world's richest and most technologically advanced nations. Additionally, when the U.S. leads, other countries follow. After we banned commercial trade in ivory, many other nations followed suit, including China, the European Union and Australia.</p><p>Simply put, the U.S. must remove itself from the cruel and ecologically damaging global shark fin trade. Americans <a href="https://oceana.org/press-center/press-releases/8-10-americans-support-nationwide-shark-fin-ban" target="_blank">overwhelmingly oppose it</a>, and we are in a position to set an example for the rest of the world.</p><p>Join the wave for a U.S. shark fin ban. <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sharkfinban" target="_blank">Call your two U.S. senators</a> and ask them to support S. 877, the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act.</p><p>Sharks are worth more alive than in a bowl of soup.</p>
<p><em>Sara Amundson is the president of the <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ybl63pav" target="_blank">Humane Society Legislative Fund</a>, the 501(c)4 legislative and political organization affiliated with the Humane Society of the United States. In this capacity, she manages political and legislative activity for the organization. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and in various state legislatures on a variety of animal protection legislation.</em></p><p><em>This article first appeared on </em><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/following-house-approval-us-has-a-chance-to-ban-the-cruel-shark-fin-trade/" target="_blank"><em>Truthout</em></a><em> and was produced in partnership with </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Big Data, Big Oil: Unveiling the 'Dark Forces' Behind Trump’s 2020 Reelection Campaign With Josh Fox
14 January
Insights + Opinion
Josh Fox, award winning filmmaker and director, speaking on stage at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 2, 2017. CC BY 2.0
By Reynard Loki
Josh Fox, the Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Gasland, the documentary that started the global anti-fracking movement, is bringing a new message to audiences across the country with The Truth Has Changed, a live theater-based project that sounds the alarm on the right-wing disinformation campaign working to secure President Trump's reelection.
<p> Commissioned by legendary documentary producer Sheila Nevins for HBO as a solo performance to inspire grassroots action, <em>The Truth Has Changed</em> traces Fox's personal arc from 9/11 to present-day America to tell a story that is both a warning and a prescription to save our democracy — and the planet.</p>
<p>I talked to Fox about this new project and the dark forces working to spread lies and misinformation to influence the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/2020-election">2020 presidential election</a>.</p><p><span></span><strong>Reynard Loki</strong>: Your films have been about the environment, and the fight to save it from climate change, fracking, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipelines</a>, the activists at Standing Rock. How has your previous work led you to your new live performance-based project, <em>The Truth Has Changed</em>?</p><p><strong>Josh Fox</strong>: That's a great question. It started with an intriguing proposal from HBO. They said, "We know you do theater. We know you've been on the road for 10 years bringing your films to people. And you in a live setting is a part of the show, right? It's not just that people come out to see your films. They come to see you, so how about you do a one-man show that brings that reality to the people?" And that was an assignment from Sheila Nevins when she was at HBO. And I said, "Absolutely; I'll try this." And then I started to really think about it, and at first, it was kind of a reporter's notebook, but to be honest, what I really zeroed in on was the fact that for the last 10 years, the oil and gas industry has made a huge effort to discredit my work and discredit all of the people who spoke about how bad fracking is. And this is very similar to the campaigns of climate denial, which hinge on widespread misinformation and then spreading disinformation and propaganda, smear and lies.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: Can you describe the effort to discredit your work?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Big names in conservative smear campaigns were following me all around the country. [Steve] Bannon. Conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. Filmmaker Phelim McAleer, whose pro-fracking documentary "FrackNation" attempted to refute my own documentary <em>Gasland</em>. Conservative activist James O'Keefe. GOP media strategist Fred Davis. These high-profile right-wing charlatans clearly did opposition research on me. They collected all this data on me and figured out how to attack me personally. They tried to get inside my psyche to unnerve me. And they did it in a very specific and deliberate kind of way.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: What exactly did they do?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: They created hate emails specifically designed for my personality. There were tweets threats; there were death threats on Twitter. They highlighted my life in the theater, my hairline, the fact that my family's Jewish; they found out that I had quit smoking several years ago, but they found a picture of me with a cigarette in my hand online from the past, and they ran that as a pro-fracking TV ad in Ohio saying, "This environmentalist is a smoker." They followed me around the country for years. They booked shadow tours of our films. They tapped into ethnic and regional stereotyping. And then they tried to paint me as some kind of rich, intellectual, New York City liberal, which is not the case. They flung all of these stereotypes at me. They gathered all this information about me — my background, my ethnicity, my age, my race, where I live, where I went to school, how much money I made, what I had done in my previous life before the films.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: Are you saying that those techniques used against you are similar to the current disinformation campaigns we're seeing today? Could you have been a kind of beta test for this data-based approach to spread propaganda?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Absolutely. Basically, what Steve Bannon did to me from 2010 to 2015, he did to the entire American electorate in 2016. In developing <em>The Truth Has Changed,</em> I made two startling realizations. One was that the people who ran those campaigns against me had a very strong hand in influencing the 2016 election: Steve Bannon, who was running Breitbart when all these attacks were happening against me, took over the Trump campaign and his team profiled the electorate in the exact same way. This connection led me down two trails in my own life. The first looked back to my own personal history as a grandson of Holocaust survivors. I have an intimate knowledge of how white supremacy works, how the Nazi playbook operates, and feel a sense of intergenerational trauma. The second trail looks to the present time and the future, to how the same techniques that were used in a smear campaign against an individual through Google, Facebook, data collection, [and] <a href="https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/5-things-you-should-know-about-addressable-ads-more-dollars-shift-digital-173653/" target="_blank">addressable ad technology</a>, which enables advertisers to selectively segment audiences to serve different ads, are used to influence a massive amount of people. And instead of just following one person around and knowing one person's data — mine — now they know the personal data of tens of millions of people, and they use that information to create highly personalized ads according to different personality types.</p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>RL</strong>: How important was big data to Trump's victory in 2016?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: During the 2016 election, CNN called political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica "<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/04/politics/donald-trump-political-ads-cambridge-analytica/index.html" target="_blank">Donald Trump's mind readers</a>" and his "secret weapon." They gathered up to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-359-harvey-weinstein-a-stock-market-for-sneakers-trump-s-data-mining-the-curious-incident-more-1.4348278/data-mining-firm-behind-trump-election-built-psychological-profiles-of-nearly-every-american-voter-1.4348283" target="_blank">5,000 data points on more than 220 million Americans</a>. And they used that data to tailor ads specifically toward people's personality types to influence their thinking. The same folks are currently rallying white supremacists all across the world and are making a bid to get Trump reelected in 2020. Their digital campaign created <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/us/elections/trump-campaign-ads-democrats.html" target="_blank">5.9 million different ad variations in 2016</a>, versus just 66,000 ads created by Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was so key to Trump's victory that Trump's digital campaign manager <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/brad-parscale-campaign-manger-trump-2020/" target="_blank">Brad Parscale is now his campaign manager</a>.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: So in "The Truth Is Changed," you're connecting big oil and white supremacy to big data — and how these forces are working together to influence the 2020 election.</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Yes, we're talking about Bannon and the white supremacy movement. We're talking about Trump's former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who, before that, was the head of ExxonMobil and the oil and gas industry, which has brazenly taken over the government. We're talking about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and their collection of the personal data of billions of people around the globe. Together, they have created a situation in which big data, big oil and white supremacists powerfully influence the way the United States government operates. And certainly, in the 2020 election cycle, we're going to have a very hard time figuring out what is true. I think we're going to see the largest smear, misinformation and disinformation campaigns in the history of any election. So in <em>The Truth Has Changed</em> I'm taking a deep dive not only into the smear techniques of big oil and how they work from a new technology perspective, from psychographics to addressable ad technology, but going into how that is now how we run elections in America, and then we've entered the age of misinformation because right now it's very hard for people to tell what's true.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: Do disinformation campaigns rely on gullibility?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: No, I wouldn't say that at all, not with the state of our education system right now. This entire project starts with a high school girl in the front row of one of my films putting her hand up and asking me, "Josh, how do we know what's true?" She said, "You say all these things about how fracking is bad, and climate change is real, but then we can look online, and we see that people are saying that the opposite of this is true. So how do we know?" She's not gullible. She's trying, but can't figure out the difference between a persuasive argument that is true, and a persuasive argument that is false.</p><p>Friends of mine send me fake things all the time because it appeals to them. I've sent fake things out accidentally because they appeal for my sensibility. And it's not only that these ads say things like, vote for Donald Trump, he's a nice guy, or he's a tough guy, or he's a strong guy, or he's a compassionate guy. It's often taking people who are upset with the Democratic Party and funneling them toward, for example, Jill Stein, when they might otherwise vote for Hillary Clinton. And a lot of people will get really mad at me and say, "No, no, no, Jill Stein represents what I believe in." But if you're in Pennsylvania and you're voting against the Democratic platform, which Bill McKibben, Cornel West and I helped write and which has real progress in it, and that vote then gets siphoned away to put Donald Trump in office, then you've been manipulated. These disinformation campaigns often take the most deep-seated things that are really important to you and turn that into their own political gain. People are assuming that there is some kind of standard for truth because there always used to be. But last year, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to Congress and declared that <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-lies-trump-ads.html" target="_blank">political candidates no longer had to abide by any kind of standards of truth</a>, they abandoned a century's worth of journalistic integrity. And they are arguably the largest news publisher in the world.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: In the face of all of this, what can we do to suss out truth from lies?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: We always have to check for accuracy. The pursuit of the truth is not something that can be done easily, and it never has been. However, we are now seeing the standard-bearers of journalism consistently undermined, and they themselves also make mistakes and who are also subject to manipulation. The New York Times publishes things directly from State Department press releases constantly; it's maddening. Today, people need to work harder to get to the truth. But beyond that, we must control and own our own data, because if someone knows you really well, it's really easy for them to manipulate you.</p><p>Take, for example, the 1988 presidential election that pitted incumbent GOP Vice President George H.W. Bush against Democratic Governor Michael Dukakis. [Those who are old enough] probably remember the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/01/politics/willie-horton-ad-1988-explainer-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">Willie Horton ad</a>, a racist ad put out by the Republican campaign against Michael Dukakis, and it obviously caused a huge wave of controversy and anger because it was racist. But it only caused that level of controversy because it was visible to everyone. Now you can run 1,000 Willie Horton ads. You can run 10,000 Willie Horton ads. You can run a Willie Horton ad supposedly put out there by a fake Black Lives Matter page, and no one would ever know. So if you put out a racist ad and only racists can see it, it causes absolutely no controversy, but it's deeply effective in rallying people. And a lot of the times people don't even know that they're racist. So you might have things happening to folks on an unconscious level, on a deep psychological level that they're not aware of. But the internet knows. If you've got 5,000 data points on somebody, you know them on a very intimate level, you know their psychology, you know what they're afraid of, you know their sexual orientation, you know their medical history, their age, their race. So your campaign to win them over becomes very effective.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: So, how do we get to a point where <a href="https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/01/21/we-need-to-own-our-data-as-a-human-right-and-be-compensated-for-it" target="_blank">owning your personal data is a human right</a>? Is this ever going to happen?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: There have to be laws, and those laws have to be in line with the current technology. We're currently working with the New York State Senate to create a new slate of laws. There's a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Consumer_Privacy_Act" target="_blank">privacy law in California</a> that's just recently been passed, but there's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/technology/california-privacy-law.html" target="_blank">some dispute as to how companies are supposed to comply</a>. And so there have to be laws about data privacy that we can campaign for, but the Democrat campaigns must also address this issue. The New York Times recently reported that the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/technology/2020-campaigns-disinformation.html" target="_blank">Democrats have no strategy to stop this wave of misinformation</a>. But they need to understand that how they handle misinformation is going to be the difference between tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of votes in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania and Florida. So the Democrats have to get really serious about this issue — and they have to address it really fast. I've appealed to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bernie-sanders" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bernie Sanders</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Elizabeth-Warren" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elizabeth Warren</a> and other campaigns, saying that this is really serious because it's about to happen — and it's going to happen worse than it's ever happened before.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: Should we be allowed to sell our data?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: That is a fascinating question. I don't know if I have a real clear answer. I mean, it's being collected by your action, right? Everything you buy, everywhere you go, everything you search for, all things you know and all the things you don't know, all that data goes in, and the algorithm learns what you personally crave and what you personally lack and what you really want in life, so that's a digital map of your dreams, your insecurities, your life. And it is sort of like you're on the road, right? It's your digital biography. Do you own your movements in the world? It's a very interesting question. I imagine there are some benefits. So, for example, if you're on Instagram and you're a man, and you're constantly getting ads for feminine hygiene products, they're an annoyance; they're not useful to you. So perhaps you want to get ads that are more tailored to you. And of course, the way the news works these days is the news gives you back things that you agree with and that you want to see and that you want to read because there's so much information out there. This does backfire upon you because, at that point, you end up being manipulated by the fact that now interests that are foreign to you and nefarious to you and harmful to you can start to target you.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: How has the truth crisis impacted the climate crisis?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: They go hand-in-hand. We get our terrestrial proof from the Earth. The planet is empirical data. Climate change deniers are saying that the empirical data that's coming from the Earth is not true. Where do they say that? Principally, they say that online, which is its own "planet," the cybersphere. It's a planet that doesn't exist on Earth. It exists by its own rules and has its own set of priorities. And if you leave terrestrial Earth, yeah, you can make it wherever you want. So when you're in that cybersphere, it reigns true whenever you feel like on that particular day, for whomever is willing to pay for it.</p><p>The tobacco industry originally started doing this. They started to say things like, "Smoking is good for you." And they created all this bogus science and fake reports that said, "These cigarettes are fine." And what they were trying to do is sow confusion in people and stave off regulation. The exact same technique has been used by the oil industry.</p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>RL</strong>: Why is the truth crisis such an urgent matter?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: It's so important because the further we get away from the terrestrial planet as our source of empirical reality, the closer we come to being evicted from the planet like climate change, and that is those same forces, the oil industry and the conservatives that are forcing us to an unlivable world. This is an emergency because of the climate. It's also an emergency because we're seeing right now the reemergence of white supremacists and Nazis on this planet, and they are taking over. Right-wing authoritarian governments are sweeping elections across the earth, and they're doing so primarily by using Facebook and WhatsApp and by lying directly to the public. <a href="https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/tens-thousands-fake-twitter-accounts-set-back-bolivia-coup" target="_blank">Sixty-eight thousand fake Twitter accounts</a> helped push the recent Bolivian coup. In the UK, Boris Johnson's recent election, <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/10/investigation-finds-88-tory-ads-misleading-compared-0-labour-11651802/" target="_blank">88 percent</a> of the conservative parties' advertisements were misleading. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro was elected with the help of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/25/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-whatsapp-fake-news" target="_blank">fake news messages sent via WhatsApp</a>, a messaging app used by 120 million Brazilians, saying that his opponent was a criminal. Obviously, there's Donald Trump, who had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/us/elections/trump-campaign-ads-democrats.html" target="_blank">5.9 million ad variations</a> using Cambridge Analytica. There's also Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. Narendra Modi in India. There are dozens of examples. So you're seeing right-wing, authoritarian, racist regimes cropping up all over the world. And in 2019, Steve Bannon raised <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-brink-movie-review-steve-bannon-812011/" target="_blank">$100 million</a> for his white supremacist project in Europe. </p><p>So what is really dangerous about all of this is the two-headed monster of the rise of white supremacy, Nazism and racism on the one hand and on the other hand, climate change denial and the fossil fuel industry. And these are linked, and these are linked in the persona and in many actions by the Trump administration. In 2017, Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil turned Secretary of State, created a <a href="https://time.com/5372923/cambridge-analytica-state-department-terrorist-propaganda/" target="_blank">contract between the State Department and Cambridge Analytica</a>, and their mission was to influence elections all across the world. Big data and big oil running American diplomacy. And that continues to this day.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: Why should people see <em>The Truth Has Changed</em>? </p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Because this is a chance to rally for the truth. It's the chance to rally for a new America. This project concerns itself with the oil industry, the world at war post-9/11, climate change. We've seen the United States get <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/war-with-iran/" target="_blank">closer to war with Iran</a>. We see Australia on fire, and authorities there must battle <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/10/795218092/australias-wildfires-spark-disinformation-battle-as-they-take-a-tragic-toll" target="_blank">misinformation campaigns contending that the fires were caused by arson and not climate change</a>. We know that we're watching the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/climate-change-and-the-new-age-of-extinction" target="_blank">extinction of countless species in real time</a>. We're in an emergency.</p><p>At every single performance of <em>The Truth Has Changed</em> there will be activists in the room who are campaigning on these issues, and that's what we need to do. We need to set the record straight. We need to say climate change is real. We need to say fracking is bad, we need to see Donald Trump as a racist and say that is not who we are as a nation. So we have to take our country back, and this is our effort to try to fight back against this wave of lies, smear and misinformation.</p>
<p><em><em>The Truth Has Changed</em> opens at New York's Public Theater this January and will tour across the United States. For more information, visit </em><a href="https://www.internationalwow.com/tthc.php" target="_blank"><em>internationalwow.com/tthc.php</em></a><em>.</em></p><p><em></em><em>Reynard Loki is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent for <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a></em><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p><p><em><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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CAFOs often store animal waste in massive, open-air lagoons, like this one at Vanguard Farms in Chocowinity, North Carolina. Bacteria feeding on the animal waste turns the mixture a bright pink. picstever / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
By Tia Schwab
It has been almost a year since Hurricane Florence slammed the Carolinas, dumping a record 30 inches of rainfall in some parts of the states. At least 52 people died, and property and economic losses reached $24 billion, with nearly $17 billion in North Carolina alone. Flood waters also killed an estimated 3.5 million chickens and 5,500 hogs.
<p>
A lesser-known impact of the devastating hurricane was revealed through satellite photos released after the storm. Excessive rainfall flooded concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in low-lying areas, carrying riverbed sediment and animal waste previously stored in open-air lagoons into nearby waterways and then into the Atlantic. The <a href="https://www.ewg.org/release/dramatic-satellite-photos-reveal-impact-hurricane-florence-north-carolina-cafos" target="_blank">difference between the photos</a>, taken just five months apart before and after the storm, is striking.
</p><p>
<strong>Here are before-and-after photos of the coastline near Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune on April 12, 2018, and then on Sept. 19, 2018, after Hurricane Florence dumped near-record amounts of rainfall. <br/></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTYwNjMxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjI3NDEzNn0.HYaubIGvn2FhOFyYev0X6XzEefD5ZU7qjAvfJH-UFG4/img.jpg?width=980" id="c2fbb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9ca5cd100140163c3495355e532cb288" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">This photo is from April 12, 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Landsat 8 / NASA</small>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTYwNjMxMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDkxMDY0N30.hucDYQ8yKH0FN8BQOYEv-wY0vc68TRAXcRWwfq1iIDE/img.jpg?width=980" id="c5515" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5d3851aaa7e931061e7f8b8497c82085" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Sept. 19, 2018: The dark brown liquid spilling into the Atlantic captured in this image is a mix of rainwater, riverbed sediment and waste from those factory farms within the 100-year flood plain that were inundated with more than 20 inches of rain in the matter of a couple of days.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Landsat 8 / NASA</small></p>
<p>
<em>Tia Schwab is a <a href="https://stonepierpress.org/newsfellows" target="_blank">news fellow</a> for <a href="https://stonepierpress.org/" target="_blank">Stone Pier Press</a>, a San Francisco-based environmental publishing company with a food focus. She recently graduated from Stanford University, where she studied human biology with a concentration in food systems and public health. She was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and she is passionate about using storytelling to create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system.</em>
</p><p>
<em>This article was produced as part of a partnership between </em><a href="https://www.stonepierpress.org/" target="_blank"><em>Stone Pier Press</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em>
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<p>Generally, CAFOs dispose of animal waste by spraying it as fertilizer and storing the excess in massive underground pits or open-air lagoons, where sulfur-eating bacteria often turn the mixture bright pink. Given that cropland can absorb only so much, a good deal of the waste ends up in groundwater, rivers, streams and the ocean. In fact, agriculture is the <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/cafo_proposed_env_assess_ch1-3.pdf" target="_blank">leading</a> cause of pollution in the nation's rivers and lakes, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), much of it emanating from large-scale <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/factory-farming">factory farms</a>.</p><p>Floods can have even more devastating consequences for water quality. The risk is particularly pressing for North Carolina, a state <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/us/hurricanes-landfall-by-state-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">regularly</a> smacked by hurricanes, because it houses more than 2,200 hog CAFOs and 3,900 poultry CAFOs, and produces up to 10 billion gallons of animal waste a year. These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.ewg.org/release/dramatic-satellite-photos-reveal-impact-hurricane-florence-north-carolina-cafos" target="_blank">Environmental Working Group</a> (EWG).<span></span></p><p>One problem is that they are just that — estimates.</p><p>The truth is <a href="https://stonepierpress.org/goodfoodnews/climatechangeanimalagriculture?rq=tia%20schwab" target="_blank">no one really knows</a> how much factory farm waste is escaping into our environment because no federal agency collects consistent and reliable information on the number, size and location of large-scale agricultural operations, nor the pollution they're emitting. This means there is considerable variation on how thoroughly states track and monitor CAFOs. Without this information, no one can monitor and hold CAFOS accountable for mismanaged waste and related health and environmental damage.</p><p>Stanford Law Prof. Daniel Ho and Ph.D. student Cassandra Handan-Nader are hoping to change that. In a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0246-x" target="_blank">paper</a> published in Nature Sustainability in April, they show how a new algorithm can help put CAFOs on the map. Their research focused on hog and poultry operations. The latter can contribute as much nutrient runoff to watersheds as pig operations but are largely unpermitted in North Carolina and therefore much harder to detect.</p><p>The Clean Water Act requires permits for CAFOs that discharge pollutants directly into federally regulated waters. However, permits are not required for facilities that may discharge pollutants, say, if there was a break in the manure storage tank or a hurricane. An estimated <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0246-x" target="_blank">60 percent</a> of CAFOs do not hold permits, reported the EPA in 2011, and so monitoring these facilities for unintentional pollution is nearly impossible.</p><p>Due to the lack of information about CAFOs and the failure of the government to provide oversight, several environmental and public interest groups have conducted their own studies of the issue. Several of these organizations have hired contractors to manually scan satellite images or physically identify facilities by plane or car. But this process is time- and resource-intensive. For North Carolina alone, contractors need about six weeks to manually scan satellite images on Google Maps, according to the EWG.</p><p>Ho and Handan-Nader's automated approach could accomplish the same task in less than two days.</p><p>The development is a welcome one in an industry notoriously lacking in transparency. Around 25 states have pushed for "ag-gag" laws, which criminalize undercover filming or photography at factory farms without the consent of the owner. <a href="https://www.aspca.org/animal-protection/public-policy/what-ag-gag-legislation" target="_blank">Nine</a> states have passed these laws, and legislation is pending in two additional states, Kansas and North Carolina. In Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, ag-gag laws were later struck down in higher courts as a violation of free speech and equal protection.</p><p>Proponents of ag-gag laws argue that they protect the animal agriculture industry, and farm owners' privacy. Critics say it gives factory farmers license to continue practices that are dirty, unsafe and cruel. "This project helps mitigate a dangerous dearth of information about CAFOs," said <a href="https://stonepierpress.org/goodfoodnews/katiecantrell?rq=katie%20cantrell" target="_blank">Katie Cantrell</a>, executive director of the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition. "Because CAFOs are exempt from reporting requirements under the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, many communities across the United States are subjected to contaminated drinking water and dangerous levels of air pollutants, with little political recourse."</p>
The Public Health Menace No One Knows About
<p>The health and environmental impact of CAFOs is indeed enormous. "CAFOs are large-scale facilities that house thousands if not tens of thousands of animals in very small spaces," said Ho. "One CAFO can produce as much manure as a medium-size city in the United States" — with one critical difference: A medium-size city in the U.S. is required under the Clean Water Act to have a municipal wastewater treatment plant. CAFOs have no such treatment plant.<br></p><p>When animal manure escapes from CAFOs into nearby water sources, it can have devastating <a href="https://stonepierpress.org/goodfoodnews/factory-farms-public-health" target="_blank">health consequences</a> for people and ecosystems. Manure can contain nitrogen and phosphorus, pathogens such as <em>E. coli</em>, growth hormones, antibiotics, chemicals used as additives to the manure or to clean equipment, animal blood and silage leachate from corn feed, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh.pdf" target="_blank">reports</a> the National Association of Local Boards of Health. Ammonia is also often found in surface waters surrounding CAFOs. When exposed to air, ammonium converts into nitrate, and elevated nitrate levels in drinking water have been connected to poor general health, birth defects and miscarriages. For infants, it can mean blue baby syndrome and even death.</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/us/california-central-valley-tainted-water.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> recently exposed the devastating effects of nitrate contamination from animal manure in low-income farmworker communities in California's Central Valley. The widespread application of chemical fertilizers and dairy cow manure has made the water unsafe for drinking, cooking and even showering. Camille Pannu, the director of the Aoki Water Justice Clinic at the University of California, Davis, likens the situation to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/flint-water-crisis.html?module=inline" target="_blank">water crisis</a> in Flint, Michigan. "Flint is everywhere here."</p>Tying Data Patterns to Factory Farms
<p>To put factory farms on the map, the Stanford team figured out how to teach a computer algorithm to analyze data patterns. They got <a href="https://woods.stanford.edu/news/machine-learning-environmental-enforcer" target="_blank">help</a> from Google's advances in image learning, the USDA's National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP), and the <a href="https://www.ewg.org/" target="_blank">EWG</a> and <a href="https://waterkeeper.org/" target="_blank">Waterkeeper Alliance</a>.<br></p><p>The environmental groups supplied locations of CAFOs they had collected manually. The researchers matched those locations to NAIP satellite images, hand-validating the presence of CAFOs using these same processes. Once CAFOs were confirmed, the team combined this information with open-source image-recognition tools released by Google, which were already trained to identify different types of objects, buildings, people and animals in photos.</p><p>In receiving this information, the algorithm was retrained to identify CAFOs by looking for certain visual cues. "Swine farms were identifiable by compact rectangular barns abutted by large liquid manure pits, and poultry by long rectangular barns and dry manure storage," noted the researchers in their report. The algorithm could then be applied to unscanned locations to identify unseen CAFOs.</p><p>Handan-Nader explained this process as the retraining of an existing technology. "Instead of working with a baby, we got a toddler, who knows what an arm is, but maybe doesn't know what an entire person looks like," said Handan-Nader. In this case, the arm is a building, and an entire person is a CAFO.</p><p>To improve the tool's accuracy, the team also fed the algorithm photos of stadium bleachers, airplane hangars and mobile home parks, which only appear to match the CAFO visual cues. "Just as humans learn from being tricked, so does a computer," said Handan-Nader.</p><p>There's another way to look at the research effort, she added. They were "very unglamorously looking at poop for months and months."</p><p>It paid off. Ho and Handan-Nader identified 15 percent more poultry farms than what was found through a manual census. The researchers <a href="https://woods.stanford.edu/news/machine-learning-environmental-enforcer" target="_blank">estimated</a> their algorithm could identify 95 percent of existing large-scale facilities using fewer than 10 percent of the resources required for a manual census.</p><p>"Dr. Ho's work makes my job much easier," said Soren Rundquist, the director of spatial analysis at the EWG. "While humans will always need to validate and quality check computer-generated results, any innovation for locating CAFOs will make the process much more efficient. This is paramount when keeping up with an industry that can grow quickly, having an immediate impact on the environment and public health."</p>Replacing Guesswork With Evidence
<p>The tool works with conventional satellite imagery, but future iterations could be trained to identify new spectral signatures, like building materials, lagoons, or actual discharges into waterways. The tool could also help detect other forms of environmental degradation, like oil spills. Stephen Luby, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, is already using a similar technology to track brick kilns, a huge source of air pollution.</p><p>Katie Cantrell envisions using the tool to provide solid evidence of the harm done by factory farming. "This mapping project provides an invaluable resource for advocates at the local, state, and national level," she said. "They can use it to document correlations between the location and density of CAFOs and socioeconomic data, health data such as asthma and mortality rates, and air and water pollution data, that can hopefully help drive better regulation and protection of front-line communities." Added EWG's Rundquist, "The need for this utility is becoming more important as public information around these operations becomes more opaque and unavailable."</p><p>In the meantime, Missouri voted last month to prevent counties from passing more stringent laws regulating CAFOs. Now, local standards for health and environmental protection cannot be tougher than those of the state. In doing so, Missouri joins <a href="https://psmag.com/news/missouri-outlaws-rural-residents-last-line-of-protection-against-cafos" target="_blank">seven</a> other states this year who have considered strengthening protections for CAFOs, which raises the question: Who is strengthening protections for our environment and local communities?</p>
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If We Want Antibiotics to Work, Consumers Have to Put Big Pressure on Factory Farms
05 June 2019
Insights + Opinion
More than 27 percent if all medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used to raise pigs. North Dakota Department of Agriculture
By Christy Spees
On March 1, Denny's stopped purchasing chicken treated with medically important antibiotics for its U.S. restaurants. Many consumers might expect to see such promises at Whole Foods or their local farm-to-table restaurant, but why is a chain like Denny's (i.e., one that is enjoyed more for its assortment of inexpensive breakfast foods than its moral standards) joining the trend to reduce antibiotics in meat?
<p>In fact, Denny's joins a growing group of major fast food and fast casual chains (<a href="https://www.asyousow.org/press-releases/mcdonalds-eliminate-overuse-antibiotics-beef" target="_blank">McDonald's</a>, Wendy's, <a href="https://www.asyousow.org/press-releases/kfc-plastic-pollution-pledge-antibiotics-use" target="_blank">KFC</a>, Chipotle and others) that have established policies prohibiting the use of medically important antibiotics in chicken. This is not the same as "antibiotic-free" claims, to be clear ("medically important" antibiotics are those used in human medicine; there are other antibiotics only used in animals), but it is a critical change that has been rippling through the food system for the past several years to protect human health. To explain the significance of this trend, a quick history of the problem that companies are trying to address is useful.</p>
<p>According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is one of the <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019" target="_blank">top 10 threats to global public health in 2019</a>. When antibiotic medications are overused or misused, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/health/100000005932983/bacteria-antibiotics-war.html" target="_blank">resistant bacteria can spread</a>, causing treatments for common (and often serious) illnesses to become ineffective. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html" target="_blank">2 million Americans contract an antibiotic-resistant infection every year</a> and 23,000 will die from it.</p><p>The use of <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/07-11-2017-stop-using-antibiotics-in-healthy-animals-to-prevent-the-spread-of-antibiotic-resistance" target="_blank">antibiotics in animal agriculture</a> is a major part of the problem. <a href="https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ChainReaction4_Report_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">More than 70 percent</a> of the medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. are sold for use in food animals. This is not because cows are particularly susceptible to strep throat; the majority of antibiotics used on animal farms are not used as treatment for diagnosed diseases in animals. Rather, most animals raised for food are raised on factory farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). To produce animal products cheaply and on a large scale, animals are packed together, creating crowded, stressful and unsanitary conditions. Such conditions are inherently disease-promoting for animals. To deal with the likelihood of infections and disease associated with poor conditions without actually changing those conditions, antibiotics have become a convenient Band-Aid. As factory farming has become the predominant model for raising animals for food, more farmers have resorted to practices of routinely administering antibiotics (sometimes even delivering drugs to chicks still in the egg) to keep animals "healthy" enough to bring to slaughter. As more antibiotics are used in these conditions, more antibiotic-resistant bacteria are released into the environment.</p><p>Pressure from public interest organizations, consumers, scientists, investors and government has led to significant reductions in the use of antibiotics in food animals over the past several years, though much work remains. Consumer demand for meat raised without medically important antibiotics has steadily risen as awareness of the threat of antibiotic resistance has grown. According to <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food-safety/most-burger-chains-get-failing-grades-for-antibiotics-use" target="_blank">Consumer Reports</a> surveys from last year, almost <a href="https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ChainReaction4_Report_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">80 percent</a> of Americans think meat producers should stop giving antibiotics to healthy animals and almost <a href="https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ChainReaction4_Report_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">60 percent</a> of survey respondents said they would be willing to pay more for meat raised without antibiotics. Consumer Reports and five public interest groups have jointly published four editions of their <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/restaurants-antibiotic-use-report-2018.pdf" target="_blank">Chain Reaction report and scorecard</a>, which urges fast food chains to respond to changing consumer preferences and reduce the impacts of their meat supply chains on antibiotic resistance.</p><p>In line with growing public concern and the rampant growth of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, which <a href="https://www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/GuidanceComplianceEnforcement/GuidanceforIndustry/UCM216936.pdf" target="_blank">took effect in 2017</a>, eliminated the use of medically important drugs for the purposes of growth promotion or feed efficiency. Voluntary changes by large meat purchasers are also propelling this downward trend.</p><p>The good news is that there is momentum for shifting the industry towards a healthier, more sustainable and less destructive future. The FDA <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yyavm2of" target="_blank">recently reported</a> that from 2015 to 2018, sales of medically important antibiotics for use in farm animals declined by 43 percent. Consumer demand, federal regulatory trends, advocacy group pressure and shareholder action have combined to fuel this progress.</p><p>The bad news is that the uphill battle to change the food system gets a bit steeper from here. Much of the progress made so far has come from the chicken industry. While <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food-safety/most-burger-chains-get-failing-grades-for-antibiotics-use" target="_blank">chicken producers have been able to make fairly swift changes to reduce their antibiotics use in recent years</a>, this is not the case for other industries like beef and pork. The supply chains for those animals are more complex. So far, in the fast food industry, which has made so much progress establishing policies to avoid chicken raised with antibiotics, McDonald's is the only major company to set meaningful standards for the use of antibiotics in the beef it purchases.</p><p>Ultimately, eliminating antibiotics in the rest of the meat supply chain will require real changes in the way conventional farming works. Furthermore, the problem of antibiotic resistance is only one of many negative consequences of the factory farming system. Factory farms are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution and deforestation; and from a moral standpoint, the quality of life for animals raised in factory farming conditions is shockingly poor.</p><p>Antibiotics provide a window into the deep problems in the animal agriculture system that produces the majority of our meat. The current model is broken. At the same time, the progress in reducing medically important antibiotics in the chicken industry over just a few years sheds light on the potential for change. When consumers demand more responsibly raised meat, the market will respond.</p><p>Power to drive change comes in several forms. Consumers can vote with their dollars every time they purchase food that is safe, nutritious, sustainable and transparent. Purchasing food from companies that are working to support these values will help create a food system which prioritizes health and sustainability. Health and environmental advocacy groups voice concerns on behalf of consumers and communities, helping to drive policy change. Investors in food companies also have the <a href="https://www.asyousow.org/shareholder-advocacy-1" target="_blank">ability to weigh</a> in on the risks of poor company policies through engaging with the companies they own and voting in favor of resolutions requesting healthier, less harmful practices. When all of these advocates work toward a common goal, a better food system seems possible.</p>
<p><em>Christy Spees works to promote corporate accountability to ensure a safe and sustainable food system for <a href="https://www.asyousow.org/our-work/environmental-health" target="_blank">As You Sow</a>.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a></em><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
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The Lady K tow boat kicks up a wake full of green algae a few hundred feet from the city of Toledo's Water Intake on Lake Erie, for testing on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Ty Wright / The Washington Post / Getty Images
By Valerie Vande Panne
In February, the voters of Toledo, Ohio, passed a ballot initiative that gives Lake Erie and those who rely on the lake's ecosystem a bill of rights. The idea is to protect and preserve the ecosystem so that the life that depends on it — humans included — can have access to safe, fresh drinking water.
<p>On the surface, it seems pretty logical: Humans need water to survive, and if an ecosystem that is relied on for water—in this case, Lake Erie — is polluted (in this case, with algae), then the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (or LEBOR) would ensure the rights of humans would come before the polluters (in this case, big agriculture).</p>
<p>Except, that's not what's happening.</p><p>Rather, in a perhaps unsurprising move, the state of Ohio has at once both acknowledged rights of nature to exist, and taken them away, with a line written in, of all things, the state <a href="https://www.ocj.com/2019/05/state-budget-clears-house-moves-to-senate/" target="_blank">budget</a>: "<a href="https://tinyurl.com/yxot2uxk" target="_blank">Nature or any ecosystem</a> does not have standing to participate in or bring an action in any court of common pleas."</p><p>"It's not surprising that the Ohio legislature has the shameful distinction of being the first in the country to specifically name ecosystem rights — trying to quash them rather than taking the lead in recognizing them," the <a href="https://celdf.org/2019/05/media-statement-the-first-state-in-u-s-history-has-mentioned-legal-rights-of-nature/" target="_blank">Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund</a> (CELDF), which was involved in the initiative and is experienced with rights of nature laws and actions, said in a press release. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights has received international acclaim.</p><p>Last week, a judge ruled Toledoans for Safe Water, the local group behind the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, cannot defend the voter-passed initiative in a lawsuit brought by a factory farm against the city over the initiative. Yet, the state of Ohio is being permitted to support the farm in the lawsuit against the city.</p><p>Big agriculture, of course, is the primary source of nutrient pollution that has caused algae blooms that have denied half a million people access to clean, safe drinking water, sometimes for days at a time.</p><p>Markie Miller, Toledo resident and concerned citizen with Toledoans for Safe Water, said the new barriers to implementing LEBOR shows the citizens are on to something. "Obviously we're doing something right, because we're scaring the <a href="https://ofbf.org/" target="_blank">Farm Bureau</a>."</p><p>As the lawsuit is set to proceed as of this writing, the judge said there was no need for the two sides (the farm or the city) to file briefs, and would, rather than hold a hearing, have a phone call on May 17. The call would be closed to the public, and without briefs, the public — who passed the initiative by more than 60 percent of the vote — will not have access to the arguments being used.</p><p>Meanwhile, according to a recent report released by the United Nations, "one million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with alarming implications for human survival," the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/05/06/one-million-species-face-extinction-un-panel-says-humans-will-suffer-result/" target="_blank">Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The report specifically attributes the die-off to human activity. Worse, it points to an inevitable collapse of the natural world humans rely on for food and water.</p>
<p>"Nature's current rate of decline is unparalleled, and the accelerating rate of extinctions 'means grave impacts on people around the world are now likely,'" reported the Washington Post.<br></p><p>"All the studies say we need drastic action. If we think the courts are going to save the plants or the animals," said Tish O'Dell, Ohio community organizer with CELDF, "they aren't."</p><p>O'Dell points to the fact that the people who passed the law aren't part of the lawsuit trying to prevent its implementation, and to the fact that the state of Ohio is intervening on the side of the factory farm, "Not on the side of the people — and denies the people and the lake the right to intervene."</p><p>Laws should reflect our values, O'Dell continues. She supports a culture shift to curb the rapid decline of the natural world humans rely on. The change may take time, O'Dell said, saying, "It's like [with] segregation. That lunch counter moment, it wasn't in the courts. It was the pushing and the pushing," that shifted the courts. "That's what we have to do. As we get more and more people saying nature should have rights, doing their own laws and their own actions, it'll start shifting things."</p><p>While this shift could take time, we don't have 150 years to push or wait for nature to have the right to exist.</p><p>"We talk about climate change. It's climate crisis. In my opinion, they're committing crimes against humanity. It's homicide and ecocide. We have the scientific studies these species will go extinct. It's homicide because humans won't be able to live," O'Dell said. "We need to start getting more blunt about what is happening."</p><p>"People think the corporation is the problem," she continued, but cautions against blaming the farming industry or the oil and gas industries for our current situation: "It's your own government that's the problem, because they're protecting them."</p><p>It seems, then, we are in a time when corporations are considered people and their rights are preserved, and the rights of people — actual humans — to have access to the single thing they absolutely must have to survive, clean drinking water — are denied.</p><p>"If they think they've prevented this movement, all they've done is fired people up," Miller added.</p>
<p> <em> Valerie Vande Panne is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/local-peace-economy/" target="_blank">Local Peace Economy</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in Columbia Journalism Review, In These Times, Politico, and many other publications.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/local-peace-economy/" target="_blank"><em>Local Peace Economy</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Can the Department of Defense Win Its Complicated Battle Against Climate Change?
15 May 2019
Insights + Opinion
Airmen from the 821st Contingency Response Group setup tent city at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, Oct. 12, 2018. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Liliana Moreno
By Daniel Ross
The 150 mph winds that Hurricane Michael blasted through Tyndall Air Force Base last October left a trail of destruction, ruin and exorbitant financial loss at one of the Department of Defense's (DoD) key military bases. The damage could have been worse. Fifty-five of Tyndall's fleet of F-22 fighter jets had been flown to safety before the hurricane hit. Nevertheless, some of the 17 remaining F-22 jets — their combined worth a reported $5.8 billion — suffered damage, along with roughly 95 percent of the buildings.
<p>But it's the fallout from these events at the airbase, along with the ensuing cleanup, that holds a mirror up to the complex set of forces confronting the military as it grapples with the global threat of anthropogenic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>.</p><p>As an example of the complex set of factors the military must consider as the planet warms, Conger has <a href="https://climateandsecurity.org/2018/10/19/three-takeaways-from-hurricane-michaels-impact-on-tyndall-air-force-base/" target="_blank">written about</a> the possibility of closing Tyndall due to its location in a <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes">hurricane</a>-prone area. More broadly, he describes the military's climate change strategy as being "mission focused," meaning that the various branches look at it as a "constraint on their ability" to do their job. "It is a lot less about emissions and carbon, and a lot more on impact and resilience."</p>
<h2>"This is a game-changer."</h2><p>That said, there has been movement within the DoD to lessen its oil dependency. At the China Lake Naval Air Weapons station in the western Mojave Desert, for example, <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2018/SE/C7SE00415J#!divAbstract" target="_blank">researchers are working on renewable diesels and jet biofuels</a> that have the potential to significantly lessen the DoD's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> footprint. "This is a game-changer," said Marilyn Berlin Snell, a veteran investigative environmental reporter, about the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biofuels">biofuel</a> research being conducted at China Lake.</p>In her new book, <em>Unlikely Ally: How the Military Fights Climate Change and Protects the Environment</em>, Snell reports that these high density, high-performance biofuels could improve the "range" of the military's fleet of aircraft, ships and ground vehicles, all the while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 percent. A future iteration of the facility's research will be to adapt the beer-making fermentation process to create other biofuels. And while it's "not the role of the DoD" to commercialize these biofuels, the military is working with private companies to do just that, Snell said. "It'll take a long time," she added, "but that's the kind of innovative public-private effort we need."<p><br>Snell also discusses the efforts made at a number of military bases in California to adopt green practices. Indeed, at the installation level, "many military strategists are really working hard to figure out how to mitigate climate change on their bases," Snell told Truthout. At the Army National Training Center Fort Irwin in the arid Calico Mountains — "a god-awful rocky desert outpost," as Snell describes it — water conservation measures have cut consumption by nearly 40 percent, and a new state-of-the-art water treatment facility has taken efficiency from 50 to 99.6 percent.</p>
<p>Efforts at the base level to adapt to climate change aren't confined to California; take the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, where its five dry docks are especially vulnerable to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">rising sea levels</a> and worsening storms, according to an <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19112018/military-readiness-climate-change-risk-hurricane-heat-sea-level-rise-dangers-without-borders" target="_blank">InsideClimate News series</a> looking at the way climate change shapes national security and military readiness.</p><p>When Navy ships are secured within a sealed and emptied dry dock, their hulls are opened for repairs — a process that can leave exposed or vulnerable expensive electronics and mechanical systems, as well as the ships' nuclear reactors. To mitigate the threats that storms and rising sea levels pose to these ships mid-repair, the Navy has <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19112018/military-ships-nuclear-fleet-norfolk-shipyard-climate-change-threat-hurricane-sea-level-rise" target="_blank">reportedly</a> erected temporary flood walls to protect the docks and has elevated equipment. The Navy also hopes to conduct more maintenance at the facility as part of a <a href="https://news.usni.org/2018/04/17/navy-plans-spend-21b-20-years-optimize-modernize-public-shipyards" target="_blank">$21 billion, 20-year improvement plan</a>.</p>
<h2>"Unleash the full potential of renewables."</h2><p>What about the military's move toward <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewables</a>? "Some branches of the military have laid out pretty ambitious agendas for reducing their emissions, not for the sake of the planet, but in terms of saving money and having more resources for war," said Miriam Pemberton, a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank, mirroring Conger's assessment that the military is "mission focused."</p>It was <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/peg/publications/report/pewdodreport2013ks10020314pdf.pdf" target="_blank">back in 2007</a> that President George W. Bush signed the National Defense Authorization Act committing the DoD to secure 25 percent of its energy used to power individual installations from renewable resources by 2025. <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/11/fact-sheet-obama-administration-announces-additional-steps-increase-ener" target="_blank">In 2012</a>, President Barack Obama upped the stakes once more, requiring three gigawatts of renewable energy — from things like <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a>, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a>, biomass and geothermal — to be deployed on Army, Navy and Air Force installations by the same target date. Indeed, according to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-green-energy-insight/u-s-military-marches-forward-on-green-energy-despite-trump-idUSKBN1683BL" target="_blank">report in Reuters</a>, the military tripled between 2011 and 2015 its number of renewable energy projects. At the same time, the military's response to global warming is especially vulnerable to things like underfunding and lack of strategic planning. Another part of the problem, said Pemberton, is that the current White House is "doing whatever it can" to handcuff the government as it grapples with a warming world. In the first National Security Strategy released under the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump administration</a>, for example, there was no mention of the threat climate change poses to global security. Compare that to the 2015 National Security Strategy, released under the Obama White House, when climate change was described as an "urgent and growing" peril.
<p>Impediments to the military's broad climate change strategy also exist at the state level. In her book, Snell tells the story of Miramar Air Force Base, in San Diego, where work continues on a microgrid — what is essentially a localized energy system — built primarily upon renewable energy sources, and supplemented with battery storage, diesel and natural gas. When fully operational, the microgrid at Miramar will have the capacity to power the entire base. California law, however, prevents facilities like Miramar from generating more renewable energy than is needed on base and pumping excess back into the grid.</p><p>Were that cap lifted, just four military bases alone located in the California desert could generate 7,000 megawatts of solar energy, the DoD found back in 2012. That's the equivalent output of seven nuclear power plants. "If people in California want to unleash the full potential of renewables in the state, they have to let the military produce as much renewable energy as they are capable of, because it is jaw-dropping," said Snell, who added that "this kind of symbiotic relationship is possible nationwide." Indeed, other bases have implemented their own microgrids, like a Navy shipyard in Maine that hopes to storm-proof its electrical supply.</p><p>Nevertheless, while state regulations are certainly an "important part of the puzzle," said John Conger, at large are a complex set of variables impacting the military's ability to wean off of fossil fuels. The issue of microgrids, for example, is "location specific," and is highly dependent upon expertise, he said. "Usually, the more sophisticated the system is, the more difficult it is for in-house staff to maintain it," Conger added. "They don't necessarily have the skills to maintain more complicated systems."</p><p>What's more, the military's <a href="https://dod.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1497582/dods-underfunded-maintenance-backlog-exceeds-116-billion-official-says/" target="_blank">$116 billion underfunded maintenance backlog</a> has an even more profound effect on efforts to push forward with costly infrastructure projects. "DoD has historically underfunded its installations," Conger added. "And that problem has tendrils that reach into all these other pieces."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"Climate Change Is an Existential Crisis - It Should Be the Top Political Issue, Too." - Dr. David Suzuki <a href="https://t.co/ZJHxi4LTL7">https://t.co/ZJHxi4LTL7</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Climate?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Climate</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaturdayMorning?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SaturdayMorning</a></p>— John Lundin 🌊 (@johnlundin) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlundin/status/1084108265749909510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Indigenous Waorani elders, youth and leaders gathered in Puyo, Ecuador, on Feb. 27, to launch a lawsuit against the government's auctioning of their ancestral lands to the oil industry. Mitch Anderson / Amazon Frontlines
By Reynard Loki
On Feb. 27, hundreds of Indigenous Waorani elders, youth and leaders arrived in the city of Puyo, Ecuador. They left their homes deep in the Amazon rainforest to peacefully march through the streets, hold banners, sing songs and, most importantly, submit documents to the provincial Judicial Council to launch a lawsuit seeking to stop the government from auctioning off their ancestral lands in the Pastaza region to oil companies. An eastern jungle province whose eponymous river is one of the more than 1,000 tributaries that feed the mighty Amazon, Pastaza encompasses some of the world's most biodiverse regions.
<p>Co-filed with the Coordinating Council of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador–Pastaza (Pastaza CONCONAWEP), a political organization of the Waorani, and the Ecuadorian Human Rights Ombudsman against the Ecuadorian Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, the Secretary of Hydrocarbons and the Ministry of Environment, the lawsuit alleges that the Waorani's rights granted to them under the Ecuadorian constitution "were violated due to an improper consultation process prior to an oil auction which would offer up the Waorani's lands in the Pastaza region to the highest bidding oil company," <a href="https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/waorani-lawsuit-press-release/" target="_blank">according to Amazon Frontlines</a>, a nonprofit advocacy group supporting the Indigenous peoples living in the Amazon rainforest. The government's auction, announced in February of last year, included <a href="https://www.labroots.com/trending/earth-and-the-environment/8370/indigenous-women-activists-fight-save-ecuador-s-land" target="_blank">16 new oil concessions</a> covering nearly seven million acres of roadless, primary Amazonian forest across southeast Ecuador.</p><p>A hearing to argue the lawsuit was held in Puyo on March 13, but according to Amazon Frontlines, the group of assembled Waorani women "broke into song in court and did not stop" until the judge, "unable to be heard over the songs of the Waorani women ... called the parties' lawyers to the bench and <a href="https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/suspended-waorani-lawsuit/" target="_blank">declared the suspension of the hearing</a> until a translator was found." The Waorani said that, in keeping with Waorani tradition, they would only accept a translator approved by their elder leaders. "The Waorani have their own authorities and their own systems, which must be respected by the Western systems," Lina Maria Espinosa, attorney for the Waorani petitioners and a member of Amazon Frontlines' legal team, told the Independent Media Institute. "This case is an example of the country's obligation to apply intercultural justice."<em></em></p>
<p><em>Reynard Loki is a writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent for <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He previously served as the environment, food and animal rights editor at AlterNet and as a reporter for Justmeans/3BL Media covering sustainability and corporate social responsibility. He was named one of FilterBuy's "Top 50 Health & Environmental Journalists to Follow" in 2016. His work has been published by Truthout, Salon, BillMoyers.com, EcoWatch and Truthdig, among others.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
Concessions vs. Constitutional Rights
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/323500965" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e05171c070b448d43cd0aefe30cfccda"></iframe><p>The concessions overlap with the titled territories of the Shuar, Achuar, Kichwa, Waorani, Shiwiar, Andoa and Sápara nations, with one block located almost entirely within Waorani territory. If taken over by the fossil fuel industry, the Indigenous coalition warns, the health and livelihoods of the communities living in the area — as well as the region's unique biodiversity and sensitive ecosystem — will be threatened. But regardless of the environmental and sociocultural threat, the plaintiffs argue that the concessions trample on their constitutional rights.</p><p>In November 2018, following pressure from Ecuador's Amazonian Indigenous nationalities, Carlos Pérez, the nation's hydrocarbon minister, reduced the auction from <a href="https://energytransition.org/2019/02/ecuador-oil-extraction/" target="_blank">16 blocks to two</a>. But it may end up being a pyrrhic victory, as the government said that the land may still be <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/indigenous-group-sues-ecuador-for-earmarking-its-land-for-oil-drilling/" target="_blank">put on the auction block in the future</a>. In addition, Pérez asserted that there should be no issue with the remaining two blocks, claiming that "<a href="https://amazonwatch.org/news/2018/1206-ecuadors-yasuni-bait-and-switch" target="_blank">there aren't any Indigenous [people] there</a>." However, according to Amazon Watch, a nonprofit based in Oakland, California, the two blocks <a href="https://amazonwatch.org/news/2018/1206-ecuadors-yasuni-bait-and-switch" target="_blank">overlap with the titled territory</a> of the Sápara, Shiwiar and Kichwa nations, and sightings of Tagaeri-Taromenane have been reported in the area, which is located along Ecuador's border with Peru.</p><p>Adding insult to injury was the emergence in November 2018 of a <a href="https://fr-fr.facebook.com/YASunidos/posts/compartimos-el-documento-con-el-cual-ls-yasunidos-en-ejercicio-de-nuestro-derech/1568197109870454/" target="_blank">leaked draft</a> of a presidential decree that revealed the government's plans to <a href="https://amazonwatch.org/news/2018/1206-ecuadors-yasuni-bait-and-switch" target="_blank">permit oil drilling in a protected area</a> established for the Tagaeri-Taromenane that had previously been off-limits to fossil fuel development.</p>Industrial Development vs. Indigenous People
<p>Ecuador is one of the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/data/browser/#/?pa=00000000000000000000000000000000002&c=ruvvvvvfvtvnvv1vrvvvvfvvvvvvfvvvou20evvvvvvvvvvvvuvo&ct=0&tl_id=5-A&vs=INTL.57-1-AFG-TBPD.A&vo=0&v=H&start=2014&end=2016" target="_blank">smallest oil producers</a> in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) — only the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon pump less. But that has not hindered it from making big deals with oil-hungry nations. In 2009, a year after Ecuador defaulted on around <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/1/14/14265958/ecuador-drilling-oil-rainforest" target="_blank">$3 billion worth of debt</a>, then-President Rafael Correa made an oil-for-cash agreement with China. In exchange for selling his nation's crude oil to Petrochina, China provided Ecuador with a <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/1/14/14265958/ecuador-drilling-oil-rainforest" target="_blank">$1 billion loan</a>.</p><p>Now the country seeks to attract investments totaling around <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-landrights-indigenous/from-ecuadors-amazon-to-presidents-palace-indigenous-women-demand-end-to-drilling-idUSKBN1GZ2N3" target="_blank">$800 million</a> to boost the production of oil, which the government maintains is critical to improving the nation's economy. "It's time for the private sector to invest," said President Lenín Moreno in the 2018 televised address, arguing that public-private partnerships in the infrastructure, oil, energy, mining and telecoms sectors could generate <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/394a1848-3719-11e8-8b98-2f31af407cc8" target="_blank">$7 billion of investment by 2021</a>.</p><p>The government, as it has for decades, is yet again facing stiff opposition against untrammeled industrial development from its Indigenous population. "We are demanding that the Ecuadorian state respect our territory and self-determination," <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/indigenous-group-sues-ecuador-for-earmarking-its-land-for-oil-drilling/" target="_blank">said</a> Nemonte Nenquimo, a Waorani leader and CONCONAWEP representative. "This fight didn't grow overnight; it's been the fight of the Waorani for years."</p><p>Indeed, the latest legal action launched in Puyo stems from the state's broken promise. In December 2017, following a <a href="https://www.labroots.com/trending/earth-and-the-environment/8370/indigenous-women-activists-fight-save-ecuador-s-land" target="_blank">two-week, 200-mile march</a> by Indigenous activists from the Amazon jungle to Quito, the nation's capital, demanding an end to extractive industry development on their territories, the Moreno administration made a commitment to the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), Ecuador's largest Indigenous organization, to <a href="https://www.labroots.com/trending/earth-and-the-environment/8370/indigenous-women-activists-fight-save-ecuador-s-land" target="_blank">end new oil and mining concessions</a> in regions where local Indigenous nationalities had not been consulted. However, as the current suit <a href="https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/waorani-lawsuit-press-release/" target="_blank">alleges</a>, the Waorani were not properly consulted.</p><p>Specifically, <a href="https://tinyurl.com/7mb4ko2" target="_blank">Article 57, section 7 of the constitution</a> guarantees "free prior informed consultation, within a reasonable period of time, on plans and programs for prospecting, producing and marketing nonrenewable resources located on their lands which could have an environmental or cultural impact on them." The suit claims these rights were violated as the Waorani were not properly consulted prior to the announcement of the new oil concessions. In addition, the Ecuadorian government is also bound by <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y2gbgzku" target="_blank">two international agreements</a> to consult with its Indigenous populations: Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), ratified by the nation in 1998, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted in 2007.</p><p>However, many activists and Indigenous leaders ultimately don't want consultation at this point; they want oil development to end entirely. "We took the president at his word regarding the end of oil and mining concessions in our territories," <a href="https://amazonwatch.org/news/2018/0301-ecuador-to-offer-new-oil-concessions-despite-government-pledge-to-the-contrary" target="_blank">said</a> Jaime Vargas, CONAIE's president. "We don't need more consultation, however. Given the destruction in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon and in other areas of the world at the hands of the oil industry, we already have enough information to say 'No' to all oil activity."</p><p>Mitch Anderson, executive director and founder of <a href="https://waoresist.amazonfrontlines.org/action/" target="_blank">Amazon Frontlines, which created a petition</a> on behalf of the Waorani urging the Ecuadorian government to halt oil development on Indigenous land, told the Independent Media Institute:</p><blockquote>"There are two different courses for the Ecuadorian government here. The first is an all-in bet on oil, and the last half-century has already shown us what that road leads to: environmental degradation, institutional corruption and further indebtedness to foreign interests, in this case China. Or they can take an urgently needed, forward-thinking path which supports forest protection, respects Indigenous rights and promotes investment in green economic alternatives that will ultimately contribute to the building of a sustainable future for the country and planet."<br></blockquote><p>"Oil has not brought development for the Waorani," Alicia Cahuiya of the Waorani group <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/ecuador-landrights-indigenous/from-ecuadors-amazon-to-presidents-palace-indigenous-women-demand-end-to-drilling-idINL8N1R4739" target="_blank">told</a> President Lenín Moreno at a meeting at the presidential palace in Quito in March 2018. "It has only left us with oil spills and sickness."</p>A History of Pollution
<p>The current lawsuit is the latest salvo in a protracted battle between Indigenous people across Ecuador and fossil fuel interests that has been going on <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2018/01/chevron-accused-2-million-witness-bribery-plot-ecuador-pollution-case/" target="_blank">since 1993</a>, when local tribes turned to the legal system to compel Texaco—and now Chevron, its parent company since 2000 — to clean up the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest and care for the people who have been sickened by the oil operations that began in 1967, when Texaco struck oil in the country's northeastern province of Sucumbíos.</p><p>In a 2008 Los Angeles Times <a href="https://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/20/opinion/op-feige20" target="_blank">op-ed</a> about that legal battle, author and former public defender David Feige wrote that Texaco's environmental legacy in the region "includes as many as 16 million gallons of spilled crude — 50 percent more than the <em>Exxon Valdez</em> dumped in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989; hundreds of toxic waste pits, many containing the chemical-laden byproducts of drilling; and an estimated 18 billion gallons of waste, or 'produced,' water, which some tests have shown to contain possibly cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at levels many times higher than those permitted in the U.S. All these pollutants were discharged in one of the most sensitive ecosystems in the world — the Amazon rainforest."</p><p>This troubling history makes the current administration's push to auction off land to oil drilling all the more ill-advised. "When we extract oil, it has a very high price for the environment, and sometimes, it's not paid by those who use the oil," <a href="https://www.livescience.com/46319-oil-drilling-contaminated-amazon.html" target="_blank">said</a> Antoni Rosell-Melé, an environmental chemist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain, who co-authored a 2017 <a href="https://www.uab.cat/web/newsroom/news-detail/oil-contamination-in-the-amazon-modifies-chemical-composition-of-rivers-1345668003610.html?noticiaid=1345734672816" target="_blank">study</a> that found that the Amazon rainforest in neighboring Peru is suffering from extensive contamination from decades of fossil fuel development.</p><p>In that study, the researchers analyzed nearly 3,000 water samples from four Amazon rivers gathered between 1987 and 2013 and found an "extremely elevated presence of chloride, chromium, barium, lead and hexavalent chromium," industrial chemicals involved in oil drilling that are toxic to humans, wildlife and the environment. The researchers also estimate that oil extraction activities in the region have changed the overall chemical composition of the Amazon's waters, including 30 percent more salt than is naturally present.</p>Destroy the Rainforests, Destroy Ourselves
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM4MzY5NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjU1NjEzNH0.CGlpsUw0Rj_5mnl8PgQUlvCvBL3QEH__0_dWlkgcH6E/img.png?width=980" id="4c285" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="beea46817207f845b1b0aa958ec78dd9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Indigenous Waorani women assembled in Puyo, Ecuador, on March 13, for a hearing on the lawsuit, which was suspended by the judge.
Sophie Pincetti / Amazon Frontlines
<p>The Indigenous fight in Ecuador is a fight that anyone who cares about biodiversity and the global climate should join. After all, the Ecuadorian Amazon isn't just one of the most sensitive ecosystems in the world — it's key for the environmental health of the entire planet. Known as the "<a href="https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/tropical-rainforests-lungs-planet-reveal-true-sensitivity-global-warming" target="_blank">lungs of the planet</a>," the Amazon rainforest "inhales" carbon dioxide and "exhales" oxygen, helping to stabilize the global climate by safely storing up to <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/amazon" target="_blank">140 billion metric tons of carbon</a>. Deforestation by extractive and agricultural industries releases this carbon into the atmosphere, further accelerating global warming, the effects of which are felt across the world, from <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-with-10-feet-of-sea-level-rise-17428" target="_blank">rising seas along U.S. coasts</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/big-thaw/" target="_blank">melting Arctic glaciers</a>, to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/are-fires-in-europe-the-result-of-climate-change-/" target="_blank">wildfires in Europe</a> and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/south-africa/climate-change-tripled-likelihood-drought-pushed-cape-town-water-crisis-day-zero" target="_blank">droughts in Africa</a>.</p><p>Ecuador is also home to an astounding number of species. The nation is the <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/20ecuador.htm" target="_blank">eighth most biodiverse on Earth</a> and the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.1102" target="_blank">most biodiverse when considering the number of species by unit area</a>. It is home to the <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/20ecuador.htm" target="_blank">highest number of species by area worldwide</a>, including more than 1,500 species of birds, more than 840 species of reptiles and amphibians, and more than 300 species of mammals. Ecuador's Yasuni National Park boasts nearly 20,000 plant species, more flora than anywhere on Earth.</p><p>But despite its high level of biodiversity, Ecuador also has a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.1102" target="_blank">low representation of species</a> living within its protected areas. According to a 2014 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.1102" target="_blank">study</a> conducted by a team of researchers from the Technological University Indoamerica in Quito, there are more than 100 vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species in the Ecuadorian Amazon for which conservation goals have been missed. Lawyers for the Indigenous communities fighting oil development can also refer courts to the nation's constitution, which provides "protection of ecosystems, biodiversity and the integrity of the country's genetic assets, [as well as] the <a href="https://tinyurl.com/7mb4ko2" target="_blank">prevention of environmental damage</a>."</p><p>Unfortunately, the pro-drilling camp "doesn't see the forest," said Waorani leader Nenquimo in her <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/29/message-indigenous-resistance-and-inspiration-amazon" target="_blank">keynote address</a> at last year's <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ntkt6fa" target="_blank">Bioneers conference</a> in Marin, California, which gathered leaders and activists involved in environmental protection and the rights of nature around the globe. "They see oil wells where we see gardens. They see money where we see life." Sharing her fight to protect her ancestral lands from exploitation by industrial development, Nenquimo warned that if given "a foothold in our lands," the oil industry "will bring money, sickness and contamination. They will try to divide our families and change our way of thinking."</p><p>"Our fight is not just a fight about oil," she said. "This is a fight about different ways of living. One that protects life and one that destroys life."</p><p>Penti Baihua, a leader of the Waorani village of Bameno, has seen firsthand the destruction of life that the outside world has brought to his idyllic slice of the jungle — from the oil spills that drive out local species his people rely on for sustenance to the destruction of ancient rainforest to make room for new cocoa and coffee plantations. What will happen to him, his family, and his community if extractive and agricultural industries continue the destruction of his ancestral home? Baihua said simply, "<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/village-ecuadors-amazon-fights-life-oil-wells-move" target="_blank">We do not want to disappear</a>."</p>
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