Earthbytes

t r u t h o u t | Chile's Ghosts Are Not Being Rescued

CORECTION posted 14 October 2010 at 5:18 pm: This post originally stated that there were 39 fatalities at the Upper Big Branch mine; the number of miners killed at UBB was actually 29.

I really appreciated John Pilger's article since he reflects on a number of issues that came to mind as I watched the rescue of miners from the San Jose mine in Copiapo, Chile. Just as I was immediately curious about why 29 miners had to die in the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia last April, I was curious about why 33 miners in Chile had became trapped in the first place.

Earlier today I suggested that questions of corporate accountability for the red sludge disaster in Hungary parallel what was eventually uncovered about TVA's contributions to the Kingston Fossil plant pond failure in 2008. In the aftermath of the UBB mine disaster, CEO Don Blankenship was called out on Massey's history of violations and screw-ups in the operation of their mines -- in particular, their part in the UBB disaster. Given the documented bad behavior of governments and corporations in relation to environmental justice, Indigenous rights and natural resource extraction around the world, I couldn't help wonder about about the situation in Chile.

Here's an excerpt from Pilger's article:

The accident that trapped the miners is not unusual in Chile and is the inevitable consequence of a ruthless economic system that has barely changed since the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Copper is Chile's gold, and the frequency of mining disasters keeps pace with prices and profits. There are, on average, 39 fatal accidents every year in Chile's privatized mines. The San Jose mine, where the trapped men work, became so unsafe in 2007 it had to be closed - but not for long. On 30 July last, a labor department report warned again of "serious safety deficiencies," but the minister took no action. Six days later, the men were entombed. Read the whole article here...

Clearcuts blamed in First Nation flooding

Good followup on the September flooding in Canada:

Clearcut logging and a receding glacier were pinpointed Tuesday as probable contributors to a devastating flood which swept through the remote First Nations community of Kingcome Inlet last month.

Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan and First Nations leaders, who converged on the village to take a first hand look at the damage, said a helicopter trip up the Kingcome River Valley was startling.

"Right at the glacier is an obvious unravelling of the slopes," said Duncan, who announced financial help adding up to $770,000 and said a key part of the recovery plan will be a full hydrological assessment of the valley.

"I was expecting to see a significant event. What I wasn't expecting was to follow mud all the way to the headwaters and major, significant issues at the head of the glacier," said Duncan, adding that there will be no quick fix. Read more here...

t r u t h o u t | Tribal Councils in US and Canada Uniting Against Oil Sands Pipeline

This article is the fifth in a series on TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here.

Last week, representatives from Canada’s First Nations traveled to Washington, D.C., to explain how mining of tar sands for heavy crude oil is causing severe health problems and environmental upheaval across their communities. They’ve also joined forces with Native American groups in the U.S., calling on tribal councils along the Keystone XL’s route to come out against the proposed pipeline.

Their concerns are being echoed on Capitol Hill by a pipeline safety organization that recently recommended to a congressional subcommittee specific safety measures to include in any potential pipeline legislation.

via www.truth-out.org

Honoring the World's Indigenous Peoples

Today, August 9th, is celebrated as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations. Here's the message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

"The world's indigenous peoples have preserved a vast amount of humanity's cultural history. Indigenous peoples speak a majority of the world's languages, and have inherited and passed on a wealth of knowledge, artistic forms and religious and cultural traditions.  On this International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we reaffirm our commitment to their well-being.

The landmark United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly in 2007, lays out a framework for Governments to use in strengthening relationships with indigenous peoples and protecting their human rights.  Since then, we have seen more Governments working to redress social and economic injustices, through legislation and other means, and indigenous peoples' issues have become more prominent on the international agenda than ever before.

But we must do even more.  Indigenous peoples still experience racism, poor health and disproportionate poverty. In many societies, their languages, religions and cultural traditions are stigmatized and shunned. The first-ever United Nations report on the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples in January 2010 set out some alarming statistics.  In some countries, indigenous peoples are 600 times more likely to contract tuberculosis than the general population. In others, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years before his or her non-indigenous compatriots.

The theme of this year's Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is indigenous filmmakers, who give us windows into their communities, cultures and history. Their work connects us to belief systems and philosophies; it captures both the daily life and the spirit of indigenous communities. As we celebrate these contributions, I call on Governments and civil society to fulfill their commitment to advancing the status of indigenous peoples everywhere."

Here's a link to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the UN report on the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

Update on Arrests at Chevron Shareholder Meeting: Photos

Earlier I posted on the arrests of several people at the Chevron Shareholders meeting. Photos of the arrests are up here. I'll post a video link when it's up.

Arrests Made at Chevron Shareholders Meeting

From Climate Connections --

This just in! People are being dragged out and arrested  at the Chevron Shareholders Meeting. Four arrests have been made so far:  Han Shan, Mitch Andersen, Juan Parras, Reverend Davis

via climatevoices.wordpress.com

Lot's of videos about cultural survival and human rights abuses in a previous post at Climate Connections, The True Cost of Chevron. Here's a couple:

Boreal Forest Conflicts Far From Over « Climate Connections

via climatevoices.wordpress.com

This article at Climate Connections by Dawn Paley documents yet another deal between mainstream environmental groups and industry that shut significant numbers of Canada'a First Nations out of negotiations impacting their homelands.

Two great quotes from the article:

“The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement is essentially another huge jump away from democracy, towards corporate control of the lands of Canada, as well as the corporatization of what is left of a once defiant environmental movement,” said Macdonald Stainsby, co-ordinator of OilSandsTruth.org.

Clayton Thomas-Muller (Indigenous Environmental Network's tar sands campaigner): “I hardly think that this in any way represents an end to the conflict between the true proponants of the war over the boreal forest, which of course are corporations and First Nations,” he said. “What this means is that First Nations no longer have the support of these mainstream environmental groups that have fallen into the strategy of conquer and divide deployed by industry.”

Here's a video interview with Thomas-Muller:

Morales: 'The Central Enemy of Mother Earth is Capitalism' | CommonDreams.org

"The main cause of the destruction of the planet Earth is capitalism and in the towns where we have lived, where we respected this Mother Earth, we all have the ethics and the moral right to say here that the central enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism," said Morales, who is Bolivia's first fully indigenous head of state in the 470 years since the Spanish invasion.

Morales is the leader of a political party called Movimiento al Socialismo, the Movement for Socialism, which aims to give more power to the country's indigenous and poor communities by means of land reforms and redistribution of wealth from natural resources such as gas.

"The capitalist system looks to obtain the maximum possible gain, promoting unlimited growth on a finite planet," said Morales. "Capitalism is the source of asymmetries and imbalance in the world."

via www.commondreams.org

Planeta o Muerte — Evo Morales and the Revolutionary Politics of Mother Earth - World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth

In a 21rst century twist on “Revolucion o Muerte” (Revolution or Death), the slogan that powered Latin American revolutionary movements of the 60’s and 70’s, the generally soft-spoken Morales opened the conference by shouting “Planeta o Muerte!” (Planet or Death). Morales slogan drew raucous responses from the diverse and mostly dark-skinned crowd filling a stadium that bore more flags of indigenous nations than it did of nation states like Bolivia. Having sung just prior to Morales invocation the song “Oye-amigo-tu-tierra-esta-en-peligro” (Listen friend, your earth is in danger), a variation on the Spanish language version of “The people united will never be defeated”, the crowd was ready to accept Morales’ challenge.

via envivo.cmpcc.org.bo

Cathie's notes: Great article that highlights key issues that brought people to Bolivia for the People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.

This is What Development Looks Like?, or Better Dead than REDD? « Climate Connections

Somewhere at the heart of this gathering, and in the buzz one hears in conversations in the crowded conference rooms, are profound contradictions that must be confronted in constructing the “other world” that the global social movements insist is possible. Yesterday at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a call for Member States “to promote development while respecting the values and traditions of indigenous peoples.” Yet what does this mean in practical terms? Of all the challenges to dominant paradigms that exist among the social movements, perhaps the most profound is the challenge to the concept of development itself.

via climatevoices.wordpress.com

Cathie's notes: Follow the World People's Conference at Climate Connections here, or their Conference Twitter feed here.