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Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

Sustainable farming in Bolivia

10:15 am By la Macha · Bolivia| Environment · 4 Comments

19 Aug 2009

This article from the BBC about farmers in Bolivia who are using farming methods of their ancestors to create sustainable farming techniques was very interesting. It made me think about how people in the U.S. have absolutely no similar history to draw on for our own farming methods–mostly because we’ve never done anything sustainable or environmentally friendly–ever. And we’ve done all that we can to destroy sustainable methods of surviving in indigenous communities in the U.S. for centuries.

The system is based on building “camellones” – raised earth platforms of anything up to 2m high, surrounded by canals.

Constructed above the height of flood waters, the camellones can protect seeds and crops from being washed away.

The water in the canals provide irrigation and nutrients during the dry season.

Pre-Columbian cultures in Beni from about 1000BC to AD1400 used a similar system.

So while other countries are talking about canals and irrigation and camellones–the U.S. is talking about militarization and destruction. When the hell are we in the U.S. ever going to wake up?

Save Agua, Xixi No Banho (Pee in your Bath).

8:03 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Brazil| Environment · Comments Off

6 Aug 2009

Admit it…..how many of you VL readers have peed in the shower? A new PSA in Brazil is encouraging people to tinkle in the tub as a way to conserve water. A really annoying kid’s voice tells us that everyone, even aliens pee in the bath (and the commercial has images to prove it). It’s an animated golden shower fantasy.

Via / Consumerist

Want Happiness? Move to Costa Rica

7:31 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Costa Rica| Environment| Health| Latin America| society · 2 Comments

7 Jul 2009

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Contrary to what the writers of South Park would have you think, Costa Rica is a paradise on earth. At least that’s that’s what a new poll by a UK environmental institute has shown: Costa Rica ranks as not only one of the most environmentally friendly countries, but also as the world’s happiest:

The New Economics Foundation looked at 143 countries that are home to 99 percent of the world’s population and devised an equation that weighed life expectancy and people’s happiness against their environmental impact.

By that formula, Costa Rica is the happiest, greenest country in the world, just ahead of the Dominican Republic.

85% of Costa Ricans say they are happy with their lives.

In contrast, the United States came in at 114, and Britain at 74. Speaking of the UK, the BBC’s Mark Easton says he has an idea as to why the richest countries come out last. Quite interesting.

What is it about Latin America and happiness anyway?

Via / AFP

Image via mikebaird on Flickr

The role of U.S. in Peru clashes

5:41 pm By la Macha · Environment| Peru| Violence| economy · 3 Comments

9 Jun 2009

peruindigenous Being in the U.S. affords me certain privileges, namely allowing me to be unaware of how laws of the U.S. affect citizens in other countries. I knew on some level what the fighting in Peru was about (corporate versus indigenous nations versus Peruvian government), but of course, the role of the U.S. is so hidden from people in the U.S., we don’t see it until we are told.

From msnbc.com:

The strikers’ demands are the same as those of the protesting Indians: that Congress revoke laws to promote oil and natural gas extraction, logging and large-scale agriculture on traditional Indian lands. Garcia decreed the laws to comply with a new U.S.-Peru free trade agreement.

“We don’t get anything from this huge exploitation, which also poisons us. We’ve never seen any development and my community lives in poverty,” local Aguaruna leader Mateo Inti told The Associated Press in Bagua, the scene of Friday’s violence.

They also want Garcia and his Cabinet prosecuted for the bloodshed, which they say also killed 30 Indians. The government puts the civilian death toll at nine — outraging the Indian leaders who accuse police of burning and hiding more bodies.

“We’re not taking even one step back. We haven’t lost this fight,” protest leader Daysi Zapata said.

In a two page article, there is one sentence that details what all this has to do with the U.S.–or in other words, how U.S. style capitalism is killing people a world away from the U.S.–or, in other words, how people in other countries learn to “hate” the U.S.

Or, more bluntly, people don’t hate the U.S. because we’re ‘free’ and because of our ‘rights,’ they hate us because we create economic structures that destroy and violate their land, communities and peoples–all in the name of protecting and defending our ‘rights.’

On a tangent, this is what makes me think that maybe “ethnic media” has some legitimacy. I cringe at the name “ethnic media,” but if it is the only media that is attempting to do something as simple as explain what U.S. trade agreements are doing to the world–then maybe I can get over the name a lot faster than I thought I could.

Corporate media should be ashamed of itself.

Updates on Protests in Peru

11:29 am By la Macha · Environment| Peru · Comments Off

8 Jun 2009

As I watch this unfold, I have to ask again, where are all the environmentalist do-gooders that buy amazon rainforest up so that native peoples can’t “destroy” it?

via the BBC News

“The police were shooting to kill, but that’s not all, because they hid the dead,” one man told the BBC.

“They took them to the ravine and threw them from the helicopter in plastic bags. There are also dead on the river banks. Up there beyond the hill, there are more, as if it were a common grave.”

President Garcia has roundly rejected the allegations. He accused the protesters of disarming, tying up and slitting the throats of the officers taken hostage.

President Garcia has blamed foreign forces – widely understood to mean Bolivia and Venezuela – for inciting the unrest, saying on Sunday they did not want Peru to use its “natural resources for the good, growth and quality of life of our people”.

Does fighting against corporate environmental destruction not feel as good as fighting against native peoples making a living?

Extreme Flooding in North Dakota

8:14 pm By la Macha · Environment| Politics · Comments Off

27 Mar 2009

As somebody who has friends who lived through both NOLA flooding and the recent flooding in Iowa, it’s been pretty heartbreaking to see the flooding in North Dakota.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I pray for the people of North Dakota–and reiterate, now is the time to insist that our government get on board with global warming initiatives.

Massive Coal Ash Spill in Tennessee

12:13 pm By la Macha · Environment · 1 Comment

29 Dec 2008

The AP is reporting that there was recently a massive coal ash spill in Tennesse. If you are anything like me, the first thing you asked upon hearing the news was, what the hell is coal ash?

The AP has the answers:

More than a billion gallons of coal fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal, spilled Monday when the dike burst on a retention pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant. The spill covered 300 acres with sludge in Harriman, about 35 miles west of Knoxville. It dumped a mix of ash and water in the Emory River, causing residents of nearby Kingston to worry about their drinking water.

TVA has said the water is safe to drink.

Three homes were destroyed and 42 property owners had damage of some kind, according to Roane County emergency management officials.

Crystell Flinn’s home and all her belongings were swept away by the ash slide, only three days before Christmas. Now, she and the rest of her family are living in a hotel paid for by TVA.

Kilgore said TVA is providing for the short-term needs of the three families whose homes were destroyed, but Flinn said there is nothing to return to.

“It looks like a tsunami,” Flinn said. “It’s not like they can scoop it up and scrape it off.”

The BBC News also has this:

Apparently, however, even though this mess supposed is safe and non toxic and peachy fine ok–two activists were arrested for simply attempting to photograph and document the damage. Which makes me think that there’s something more going on–that the damage will be something we’re going to hear about for years to come.

Speaking of Littering

3:28 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Environment · Comments Off

15 Dec 2008

Anybody who is acquainted in even the smallest part with anti-immigration rhetoric, knows that littering and pollution are actually both reasons that we are supposed to be anti-immigration. That is, when immigrants ’sneak’ over the boarder, they leave trash in the desert, thus increasing pollution, garbage that needs to be cleaned up, etc.

So it was interesting to me to see this series about the South Pole over at Dark Roasted Blend, in which ghost towns and other abandoned ‘trash’ are documented and discussed. Some of the ‘trash’ includes massive rotting whaling ships, entire towns including churches and cemeteries, airplanes and abandoned (or lost) base camps of travelers.

Some of the towns/base camps are actually considered tourist attractions now and accept money to help with preservation costs. It really made me consider–why is the ‘trash’ of a certain group of people (who happen to be colonizers looking to basically harness the land for money or ‘quick gold’) considered tourist attractions worthy of preserving–and the ‘trash’ of others (namely brown and poor) considered a good enough reason to use militaristic means to prevent those people from traveling?

Is there a reason for this discrepancy that makes sense?

Do You Have a Question for the Obama – Biden Transition Team?

11 Dec 2008

The Obama Transition team launched its new “Open for Questions” tool today on Change.gov. This new tool will allow anyone to ask and vote on questions they have for the transition team. Popular questions selected by the community of web users on Change.gov will be answered on a regular basis by the Obama team.

I suggest going online and asking/voting questions about immigration and hate crimes.

Colombia Attempting to Appeal to Green Guilt Side of Anglo Coke Users

9:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Colombia| Drugs| Environment · Comments Off

20 Nov 2008

Since being green is in, the Colombian government is trying to appeal to the environmentalist side of the British cocaine users by telling them how bad the stuff is for the environment.

These people, who have good jobs and drive a hybrid car or cycle to work because they care about the environment, may go to party and do some lines of coke and they are thinking it is no problem,” Francisco Santos told The Associated Press Tuesday. “They are absolutely unaware of the ecological impact of their drug taking and we want to change that.”

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