Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
Anti-Immigrant “Progressives” Target Pregnant Women of Color at Conference
1:10 pm By Maegan La Mala · Environment|Immigration|Women · Comments Off
6 Oct 2011I have written extensively of how the bodies of self-identified Latina women and their wombs are the battlegrounds over immigration policy.
Prena Lal in an article posted at AlterNet highlights a recent example where so-called “progressives” expel a group of pregnant women who were challenging the idea that it is their bodies and babies that are causing environmental harm.
During a talk by Californians for Population Stabilization’s Ben Zuckerman on the “impact of our growing population on our natural environment,” one woman asked the question: “Are you saying that the life inside of me is the problem? Won’t the next generation be leading us to new solutions?” According to a bystander, shortly after, the same mother stood up and said “my child is not the problem. My child is the solution.” As the other mothers stood up to show support, security guards physically escorted them out of the room while women sang “this little light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”
Today in NYC Lunchtime Rally Against Puerto Rican Gas Pipeline
7:47 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
9 Jun 2011
Here’s your chance NYC Ricans and those that love us. Today there will be a rally in front of 26 Federal Plaza, Downtown Manhattan, where the Army Corps of Engineers has an office. The rally will be a show of solidarity and unity against the way the proposed Gasoducto is being pushed on the people of Puerto Rico.
Thursday, June 9 · 12:00pm – 1:30pm
26 Federal Plaza (on Broadway between Worth and Duane Streets)
From the organizers:
On Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 12 pm in front of 26 Federal Plaza, local Puerto Rican leaders, activists and supporters of the Puerto Rican people and the environment, including the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights-NYC Chapter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Union Theological Seminary, Greater NY Labor-Religion Coalition, East Harlem Preservation, and Lafayette Presbyterian Church, will rally and demand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deny the permit requested by the PR Electric Power Authority (PREPA) in which they propose to construct a dangerous natural gas pipeline over 92 miles long.
The gathering will take place just days before the National Puerto Rican Parade which has been dedicated to the natural environment of Puerto Rico. Ironically, it’s a natural environment that is threatened by this costly, unnecessary and destructive project.
Public opposition to the project is strong. Polls indicate that 70% of the citizens of Puerto Rico oppose the construction of the pipeline (El Nuevo Día – March 2011). On May 1, 2011, over 30,000 people marched together to protest the ‘Vía Verde’ gas pipeline. Different sectors of Puerto Rican society have manifested their opposition to this project, including Casa Pueblo in Adjuntas (which has been invited to participate in the parade), church groups, cultural organizations, academics, labor unions, community groups, and Puerto Rican citizens in the U.S. mainland
Recently all documentation pertinent to the evaluation of the natural gas pipeline project was transferred to US Army Corps of Engineers Offices in Florida. This disingenuous act represents yet another step to hide from public scrutiny and avoid an open and transparent public discussion of the projects merits and costs.
The Puerto Rico Electric and Power Authority (PREPA) proposes to construct and install a 24-inch diameter steel gas pipeline approximately 92 miles long with a construction right-of way of 150 feet wide. The pipeline will transverse Puerto Rico from the EcoEléctrica Liquid Natural Gas Terminal to the northern thermoelectric power plants that only produces 20% of the total electric energy of the island.
To avoid compliance with basic regulatory standards and ignore procedural safeguards for the construction of such a high-risk project, the governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, declared a state of energy emergency designed to maintain secrecy, fast-track the permit process and thwart full public participation in the discussion of the project. The implications of this proposal for the future of Puerto Rico are too detrimental to accept. We need to break the dependency on fossil fuels while promoting economic development of the island with self-sustaining resources.
NYC Event This Friday : Gasoducto/PR Gas Pipeline ¿Verde or Muerte?/Green or Deadly? A Dialogue with Dr. Arturo Massol
10:59 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
5 Jun 2011FRIDAY, JUNE 10
FROM 6:00PM – 9:00PM
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
3041 BROADWAY @ 121ST STREET
Puerto Rico is Talking Gas : Green Way or Death’s Way?
8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · 5 Comments
25 May 2011I have seen alot more coverage of the struggle against the dam in Aysen, Chile than I have about another potentially environmentally devastating project in the Latin America that is the U.S., Puerto Rico.
Via Verde or Via de la Muerte, depending on who you ask, is a gas pipeline being pushed by the government of Luis Fortuño in Puerto Rico. The Gasoducto project would run through delicate ecosystems as well as through sacred Indigenous Taino areas. On May 1st, thousands marched in Puerto Rico to protest the way the project is being pushed through without transparency or input from the people of Puerto Rico.
Here is Congressman Luis Gutierrez speaking on the issue:
Bolivia’s “Law of Mother Earth”
2:54 pm By BiancaLaureano · Activism|Bolivia|Environment|history|Religion · 11 Comments
12 Apr 2011There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Bolivia’s new law that, when passed, will grant Nature all and equal rights granted to humans. This news is not new as Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, the first indeginous President of Latin America, announced December 2009 at the U.N. Climate Summit they were creating a Mother Earth Ministry. Days prior to the summit President Morales hosted the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia.
During President Morales’ speech in 2009 he stated: “The budget for the United States is $687 billion for defense. And for climate change, to save life, to save humanity. They only put up $10 billion. This is shameful.” Yeah, I don’t even want to go back and look up the numbers for education and healthcare.
The law is said to establish 11 new laws for Nature which include:
- the right to life and to exist;
- the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration;
- the right to pure water and clean air;
- the right to balance;
- the right not to be polluted;
- the right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities;
- the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered
(I know that’s not all 11, pero I’m having a hard time finding them in English or Spanish, if you know of a link with all of them please share and I’ll update the post!)
It’s raining oil…
8:46 am By la Macha · Environment|Health|Weather · 3 Comments
2 Jul 2010This is just about the most enraging thing I’ve seen in a while.
National Weather Service Science and Operations Officer Charlie Paxton says while it’s always possible a water spout could pick up some oil and carry it a short distance, the notion of black rain is just not possible. Paxton says that’s because oil does not evaporate. As a result, talk of black rain is just a myth.
Jalapnik.com mentions, however that “under normal environmental temperatures, oil does not evaporate, however with the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the effects of seawater emulsification and the introduction of BP’s dispersant of choice, Corexit 9500, may be allowing some degree of evaporation into the water cycle.”
Now, yes yes, of course, black rain isn’t possible, or it might be, who the hell knows. And this video may be video of the oil from somebody’s car mixing with rain. But maybe it’s not. Who knows.
The infuriating enraging part is that nobody knows. That we have to all sit and think now, what the hell are the implications of this massive oil spill that nobody anywhere seems to have any damn clue on how to stop. Is it possible to rain oil? Do you know? Do scientists to know? Does Jesus know?
BP’s Latin American Problem
8:16 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Colombia|Energy|Environment|Labor · 2 Comments
8 Jun 2010The eyes of the world are rightfully on the U.S. Gulf Coast and the massive damage being done by the BP oil spill and according to some, the U.S. government’s handling of it. BP, like so many multi-national organizations, has spread it’s oily tentacles across the globe and as people and wildlife struggle in the Gulf Coast region, in Colombia, workers have been fighting BP as well for at least five months. According to reports, workers at the Tauramena Central Processing Facility in Casanare have been fighting to have a recognized union with collective bargaining power, something BP is resisting.
On June 2, last week, a branch of the Colombian Army attacked the striking workers, who have escalated their strike to include blocking roads and other acts of civil disobedience.
Hugo at Copenhagen
12:00 pm By Maegan La Mala · Environment|Venezuela · 3 Comments
21 Dec 2009A tentative, yet to be finalized Copenhagen Accord has been reached following contentious negotiations this past week. Later I’ll sit down and read the climate accord including pledges to reduce emissions pero as usual Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez brings it (which way he brings it is a matter of opinion of course). He tears down capitalism , criticizes Obama as winner of the Nobel Peace Price and quotes Galeano, Marx, Jesus, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Simon Bolivar, Fidel Castro, and Rosa Luxemburg. Damn.
Complete transcript of speech via Venezuela Analysis after the video.
Sustainable farming in Bolivia
10:15 am By la Macha · Bolivia|Environment · 4 Comments
19 Aug 2009This 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 2009Admit 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
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