#enviromental protection agency

[grateful-today]

for at least one victory:

#grateful today #relief #patagonia #environment #environmetalists #enviromental #pebble mine #bristol bay #native tribe #commercial fishing #ecosystem #alaska #victory #environmental protection #epa #environmental protection agency #dangerous mining #environmental justice #environmental activism #environmentalism #environmental news #clean water act

[plethoraworldatlas]

Providing a massive $27 billion in grants, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) is the largest grant program within the IRA. Not only does this provide a massive investment in pollution-reducing, clean energy technology, but it targets communities that have been historically overlooked and underserved and brings equity to the clean energy transition. And the program's flexibility puts decision-making into states and communities’ hands—allowing local leadership to design and implement programing for maximum impact. This financing will have both immediate and long-lasting impact, by deploying clean energy projects in communities now, and supporting the creation of green banks that can finance clean energy projects well into the future. 

The deadline to take advantage of these funds is fast-approaching: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only has until September 2024 to award the money. And what follows is the potential to kick-start the transition to clean energy and reducing harmful pollution for impacted communities. It will take engagement from communities, nonprofits, financial institutions, state, local and Tribal governments to deliver transformational impact. That means equitable investment in projects and long term development strategies that prioritize benefits for historically harmed communities. 

#us politics #ecology #enviromentalism #inflation reduction act #greenhouse gas emissions #greenhouse gasses #Greenhouse gas reduction fund #pollution #environmental protection agency

[ariel-seagull-wings]

THE CLASSIC GHOSTBUSTERS MOVIES, NARRATIVE PACING AND CHARACTER WRITING

@thealmightyemprex @the-blue-fairie @angelixgutz @themousefromfantasyland @goodanswerfoxmonster @amalthea9

So i revisited the first Ghostbusters movie last night and watched the second one this afternoon.

I started to think, with the help of a nap, what made the first movie particularly satisfying and enduring, whereas the second movie, while still having enjoyable individual moments, is unfortunally not as strong in terms of cohesion.

The conclusion that I camed to me is that, the first movie had been made to tell an individual story with beggining middle, and end, not as the start of a series of movies, so every detail had to be carefully tought to tell an unique, simple and easy to follow story.

There is a sense of cause and consequence in each scene, with some moments where the characters stop to breath and discuss what is happening, but the discussions never drag and we are taken to the next scene in a satisfactory way, never feeling that we missed something important with a rush.

And is not only the main characters that are written to be in the right, but even small characters have a role in shapening the world and the narrative, and while they still can be antagonistic to the main characters, they still are presented as human and with important points to present.

The library lady is the point of view character we follow in the opening when we first are introduced to the concept of invisible ghosts, and she will be the first person who will need the service provided by the Ghostbusters.

After that introduction, we are taken to the setting of the university, and we see the psychic experiments voluntaries react in different ways to Peter Venkman's ruse of "guest the right card or be eletrocuted": the young man who is constantly receiving shocks even while guessing some cards right rightfully gets angered and calls Venkman out on this, while the young blonde woman who receives favoritism from Venkman, naively flattered, almost falls for the man's seduction.

As a consequence for this unetical practices and lack of proof that the supernatural exists, the Dean of the University, while portrayed with a snob facial expression, still has reason to send Venkman and his colleagues away from the University, wich becomes their oportunity to risk their economies and start their business.

When the business of hunting ghosts becomes sucessfull during the montage, this calls the attention of Winston, who decides to join the team as a way to win some money.

The success also calls the attention of Walter Peck, the representative of the Enviromental Protection Agency, who gets concerned that the Ghostbusters may have dangerous unlincensed nuclear machines in their office.

When introduced, he tries to present his case reasonably and ask to see the machines, but is received by Venkman who lacks filter and doesn't take the situation seriously, wich provokes Peck's temper.

Meanwhile Louis is trying to get the atention of Dana, who not only has not romantic interest in him but is also starting a relationship with Venkman. It seems at first that this love triangle has no importance to the plot, until Dana and Louis are posessed by the minions of Ghozer, giving extra motivation for Venkman and his colleagues to be concerned with the appearance of the destructive God and that culminates with the two minions having sexual relations using Louis and Dana's body's to conjure the main villain.

And this encounter happens after the minions receive a sign in the form of the firehouse exploding and the ghosts running trough New York, after Peck orders the machines to be shut down in retaliation for Venkman provoking him.

There is the fight that follows afterward, but is cut short, because New York is about to be destroyed, and the Mayor needs the Ghostbusters to save the day.

A dynamic is started between characters, the characters act on it, wich takes us to the consequences that will demand the characters take the next course of action.

They all have flaws and qualities, and no matter how small their appearance, every character, joke and special effect is here in service of telling a complete, engaging story.

But five years passed, and with it comes popularity. There is a downside to a movie's popularity: is that often we focus so much in fragmented scenes, that we often forget the whole context that made the scene work.

We can call this memefication.

And thanks to memefication, we focused so much on the fragment of the "This Man Has No Dick" joke, or the spetacle of appearance of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, that we ignore that these scenes were made to tell a story.

Not only the audience forgets, but sometimes even the original creators...

And so we got Ghostbusters 2, a sequel that feels like an enjoyable anthology of comic scenes, but doesn't manage to tell a cohesive, compeling narrative.

It tries to mesh a lot of ideas as possible: recicling the idea of the Ghostbusters loosing credibility and having to recover it again, Dana rekindling her relationship with Venkman while being a single mother and dealing with the sexual harassment of her boss, a ghost that desires to posess a human body to take over the world, an ectoplasm river that feeds on the negative feelings of the people of New York, Louis Tully getting in a romance with Janine and discovering the courage to become a fifth ghostbuster.

All ideas that could work as either different movies, or episodes of a TV show, or just be cutted out for recicling too much superficial elements from the first movie, merged together that results in a movie where a lot of things happen at the same time without a sense of cause and consequence.

The result is that it starts with a good pacing and suspense, but then the rest of the movie starts to drag.

The main cause of this dragging is the insertion of arbitrary skepticism in the side characters: for no reason than make the protagonists lifes more dificult (if the job of catching ghosts wasn't conflict enough), the civilians, the judicial autorities and the mayor start to act like the Ghostbusters are mad, even tough five years is still enough time to remember ghosts rampaging trough the city and a Giant Marshmallow Monster walking and smashing the city.

The Mayor's change of personality between movies is the most jaring: In the first movie he was a reasonable autority figure who would listen with attention when a problem was coming. In the second, he chooses to ignore the problem until its too late, even when this is a movie that can harm his election to Governour.

For some reason, he listens to an assistant who lacks the justification that Peck had to be distrustfull of the Ghostbusters.

It would be understandable if it was a new Mayor character, but when its the same character played by the same actor, it just becomes jaring.

Janine and Louis have a fun chemistry together, but you can't avoid asking how is her original relationship with Egon.

Venkman starts to present a television program, but there is no way to properly explore a conflict in career choices between celebrity and ghostbuster.

Winston still is treated as an audience surrogate newcomer even tough he has been on the team for five years to have knowledge of his own.

There is no proper way to understand what makes the people of New York so negative in 1989 compared to the previous five years when the city was having just the same problems.

So you get fun scenes of spetacular new special effects and some fun dialogue like the one where Ray and Egon discuss ordering food, but now the movie is written in the favour of the spetacular special effects and funny dialogue, instead of those being ellements in service of telling a good, simple story, exploring the humanity not only of the main characters, but of the people they found who ended up needing their help.

And that lack of purpose and cohesion is the reason why the second movie is weak compared to the first one: it was something made to capitalize in its predecessours popularity, but didn't really had a new story to tell.

#ghostbusters #ghostbusters ii #sci fi #fantasy #horror #comedy #classic cinema

[petnews2day]

Bizarre moment drunk man hurled rocks at crocodile and was nearly dragged him into a Mexican lagoon

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/?p=50271

Bizarre moment drunk man hurled rocks at crocodile and was nearly dragged him into a Mexican lagoon

Drunk man is nearly dragged into lagoon in Mexico by crocodile after hurling rocks at it

Video footage filmed by a bystander in Villahermosa, Mexico, captured the moment a man was attacked by a crocodile 

Authorities said the incident took place last Thursday at the La Encantada lagoon after the drunk individual was throwing rocks at the reptile

The crocodile crawled away from a nest where it laid its eggs and grabbed the man by his pants and tried to drag him to the water

The fire department was able to secure the animal and the eggs, which were turned over to the Federal Agency of Environmental Protection

By Adry Torres For Dailymail.com

Published: 19:58 BST, 14 June 2022 | Updated: 20:00 BST, 14 June 2022

This is the moment a drunk man challenged a crocodile to a fight before he was nearly dragged into a lagoon in the Mexican state of Tabasco.

The individual, whose name was not released by the authorities, had stoned the female reptile which was lying near her egg nest when she lunged at him at the La Encantada lagoon in the municipality of Villahermosa last Thursday.

The crocodile grabbed the man by the lower end of his pants and tried to pull him towards the edge of the lagoon before it relented.

Mexican authorities said a man who was drunk attacked a crocodile with rocks and was nearly pulled into a lagoon in Villahermosa, Tabasco, last Thursday

A member of the fire department in Villahermosa, Tabasco, secures the crocodile moments after it had attacked a drunk man who threw rocks at it

It’s unclear how badly injured the man was but witnesses said that he was able to walk away on his own, according to Mexican newspaper La Razón.

‘The person who was apparently attacked was throwing stones at (the crocodile) and was intoxicated,’ Villahermosa Civil Defense director José Gómez said.

‘These animals are in the reproductive stage. She had some eggs and the animal felt attacked and reacted.’

A firefighter attempts to lure the crocodile from its nest before trapping the reptile and securing the eggs

A firefighter grabs the crocodile by its tail while it was secured with a rope before the reptile and her eggs were removed from the lagoon and turned to the Federal Agency of Enviromental Protection

A unit with the local fire department arrived at the scene and was able to get the crocodile to crawl towards them before she was trapped and tied with a rope.

The reptile and the eggs were placed under the care of the Federal Agency of Environmental Protection.

The Tabasco Civil Protection department urged residents to restrain from making contact with crocodiles in the area.

‘We make a strong call to avoid disturbing them so as not to generate defensive attacks,’ the agency said in a statement.

The incident comes just eight months after a Villahermosa homeless man had half of his left arm bitten off by a crocodile while bathing in the Las Ilusiones lagoon.

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#Reptiles News

[timeisawheel]

i cant stop thinking about RADIOACTIVE BRINE BEING SPREAD ON ROADWAYS TO MELT SNOW OR PREVENT DUST CLOUDS

HOMIE WHAT HAPPENS TO THE RADIATION AFTER THE SNOW MELTS OR THE DUST BLOWS AWAY??? IT STAYS STUCK TO THE PARTICLES…

WE’VE ACTUALLY BEEN LIVING IN NUCLEAR WASTE FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE AND I JUST FOUND OUT!!!!!

HOW COULD THE EPA (FUCKING ENVIROMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY) HAVE LET BIG OIL PAY THEM TO SAY ITS NOT DANGEROUS?

IS IT FUCKING MONEY?

ITS JUST FUCKING MONEY, THESE ARE ENTIRE ENVIROMENTS AT STAKE.

#around and around

[beanghon]

Don’t Delay When It Comes To Using Best Gold IRA

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[karadin]

Biden administration works to protect Bears Ears monument, sacred to the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni and the Ute Indian Tribe, after Trump administration opened up 85% to drilling.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/03/us/bears-ears-national-monument-native-reaction/index.html

#biden #enviroment #indigenous people us #bears ears monument #enviromental protection agency #obama administration #trump administration #navajo nation #hopi tribe #ute mountain ute tribe #pueblo of zuni #ute indian tribe #native americans

[love-booksandtea-blog]

The End of The Wild by  Nicole Helget

A modern, beautifully written story set against the backdrop of the controversial issue of fracking that explores the timely themes of poverty, environmental protection, what makes a family, and finding your place in the world. 

Eleven-year-old Fern's rundown home borders a pristine forest, where her impoverished family hunts and forages for food. It's also her refuge from the crushing responsibility of caring for her wild younger brothers and PTSD-stricken stepfather. But when a fracking company rolls into town, Fern realizes that her special grove could be ripped away, and no one else seems to care. Her stepfather thinks a job with the frackers could help pull the family out of poverty. Her wealthy grandfather--who wants to take custody of Fern and her brothers--likes the business it brings to his manufacturing company. Facing adversity from all sides, can one young girl make a difference in the fate of her family and their way of life?

Photo by Maddi Clark, 2017. 

#books #book photography #flowers #enviromental protection agency #fracking #dog #family #PTSD #Poverty #grandfather #Fern #theendofthewild #Little Brown Books for Young Readers #middle grade #Stem

[brimstone-cowboy]

I made a alternative 90s playlist for this you know

#harry potter and the scottish enviromental protection agency #this is thr stupidest thing #Spotify

[bountyofbeads]

Nestlé plan to take 1.1m gallons of water a day from natural springs sparks outcry

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/26/nestle-suwannee-river-ginnie-springs-plan-permit?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Post_to_Tumblr

PLEASE STOP BUYING BOTTLED WATER!!! It's bad for the oceans, our health and the environment. Invest in a water filter, it's cheaper in the long run and better for the planet 🌏.

Nestlé plan to take 1.1m gallons of water a day from natural springs sparks outcry

Opponents fighting to stop the project say the fragile river cannot sustain such a large draw

Richard Luscombe in Miami |

Published:01:00 Mon August 26, 2019 | The Guardian | Posted August 26, 2019

The crystal blue waters of Ginnie Springs have long been treasured among the string of pearls that line Florida’s picturesque Santa Fe River, a playground for water sports enthusiasts and an ecologically critical haven for the numerous species of turtles that nest on its banks.

Soon, however, it is feared there could be substantially less water flowing through, if a plan by the food and beverage giant Nestlé wins approval.

In a controversial move that has outraged environmentalists and also raised questions with authorities responsible for the health and vitality of the river, the company is seeking permission to take more than 1.1m gallons a day from the natural springs to sell back to the public as bottled water.

Opponents say the fragile river, which is already officially deemed to be “in recovery” by the Suwannee River water management district after years of earlier overpumping, cannot sustain such a large draw – a claim Nestlé vehemently denies. Critics are fighting to stop the project as environmentally harmful and against the public interest.

Meanwhile, Nestlé, which produces its popular Zephyrhills and Pure Life brands with water extracted from similar natural springs in Florida, has spent millions of dollars this year buying and upgrading a water bottling plant at nearby High Springs in expectation of permission being granted.

The company needs the Suwannee River water management district to renew an expired water use permit held by a local company, Seven Springs, from which it plans to buy the water at undisclosed cost. Nestlé insists spring water is a rapidly renewable resource and promises a “robust” management plan in partnership with its local agents for long-term sustainability of its water sources.

Yet company officials concede in letters to water managers supporting the permit request that its plans would result in four times more water being taken daily than Seven Springs’ previously recorded high of 0.26m gallons for its customers before Nestlé.

“The facility is in process of adding bottling capacity and expects significant increase in production volumes equal to the requested annual average daily withdrawal volume of approximately 1.152m gallons,” George Ring, natural resources manager for Nestlé Waters North America, wrote in a June letter to the Suwannee district engineers.

Campaigners against Nestlé’s plan, who have set up an online forum and petition and submitted dozens of letters of opposition ahead of a decision that could come as early as November, say that environmental grounds alone should be enough to disqualify the plan.

“The question is how much harm is it going to cause the spring, what kind of change is going to be made in that water system?” said Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, a director of the not-for-profit Our Santa Fe River.

“The Santa Fe River is already in decline [and] there’s not enough water coming out of the aquifer itself to recharge these lovely, amazing springs that are iconic and culturally valued and important for natural systems and habitats.

“It’s impossible to withdraw millions of gallons of water and not have an impact. If you take any amount of water out of a glass you will always have less.”

It’s impossible to withdraw millions of gallons of water and not have an impact

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson

Additionally, Malwitz-Jipson said, the Santa Fe River and its associated spring habitats are home to 11 native turtle species and four non-native species, which rely on a vigorous water flow and river levels.

“Few places on Earth have as many turtle species living together and about a quarter of all North American freshwater turtle species inhabit this small river system. A big threat to this diversity is habitat degradation, which will happen with reduced flows.”

Stefani Weeks, program engineer with the Suwannee River water management district, said that because Seven Springs was seeking a five-year renewal of an existing permit instead of making a new application. Board members could not consider in their final decision the Santa Fe River’s protected designation and a recovery strategy implemented in 2014 to restore reduced water flows and levels.

But the district has its own questions, and wrote to Seven Springs in July for a second time to request answers. “Their first response we didn’t feel was complete, so we asked for them to go into more detail,” she said. “Once they respond we will review that information.”

Among the items the district wants are an evaluation report of any harm that the project might cause to wetlands, and a documented impact study of Ginnie Springs. The permit cannot be granted, the district says, unless Seven Springs can show that there would be no change in “water levels or flows of the source spring from the normal rate and range of function” and “no adverse impacts to water quality, vegetation or animal population”.

Nestlé is no stranger to controversy over its water extraction activities. In 2017, the state water resources control board of California issued a report of investigation concluding that the company appeared to be diverting water “without a valid basis of right” from Strawberry Canyon in the San Bernardino national forest for use in its Arrowhead brand of bottled water.

Nestlé continues to dispute the finding and is still pumping water there – 45m gallons last year, according to published reports. But in the tussle over whether the company had historic rights to all the water it was taking from the creek, groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters and the Save Our Forest Association were critical of Nestlé and its operations.

In a written statement Nestlé, which employs 800 people in Florida, said it wanted to address “misconceptions” about its plans.

“We adhere to all relevant regulatory and state standards. Just like all the previous owners of the High Springs factory which manufactured bottled water and other beverages, we are not taking water from a publicly owned source. Instead we are buying water from a private company which holds the valid water use permit,” spokesman Adam Gaber said, adding that Nestlé’s water use “will always remain strictly within the limit set by the permit”.

He said that Nestlé was also a responsible steward of the environment. “Our business depends on the quality and sustainability of the water we are collecting,” he said.

“It would make no sense to invest millions of dollars into local operations just to deplete the natural resources on which our business relies. It would undermine the success of our business and go against every value we hold as people and as a company.”

While Nestlé extracts millions of litres from their land, residents have no drinking water

Just 90 minutes from Toronto, residents of a First Nations community try to improve the water situation as the beverage company extracts from their land

By Alexandra Shimo | Published:05:00 Thu October 4, 2018 | The Guardian | Posted August 26, 8:00 PM ET |

The mysterious rash on the arm of six-year-old Theron wouldn’t heal. For almost a year, his mother, Iokarenhtha Thomas, who lives in the Six Nations of the Grand River indigenous reserve in Ontario, went to the local doctor for lotions for the boy. It worked, for a time. But the itchy red rash always returned. Thomas came to suspect the culprit behind the rash: water – or, rather, the lack of it.

Thomas, a university student and mother of five, has lived without running tap water since the age of 16. Her children lack access to things commonplace elsewhere, like toilets, showers and baths. For washing and toilet usage, they use a bucket.

It is a challenging existence, full of frustration, exhaustion and health problems, and reminiscent of life in some developing countries. But this is not the “third world”. It is Canada, which regularly ranks as one of the United Nations’ top places in the world to live. Moreover, this Native community is located in prosperous southern Ontario, 90 minutes from Canada’s largest and richest city, Toronto.

Meanwhile, while Thomas and her family do without water, the beverage company Nestlé extracts millions of litres of water daily from Six Nations treaty land.

Twice a week, Thomas and her husband grab jugs, pails and whatever else they have in the house, and drive 8km to a public tap to fill up. The water isn’t drinkable, however, so once a week they also drive 10km to the nearest town, Caledonia, to buy bottled water to drink.

“When my husband isn’t here, it makes it difficult to do the dishes or anything because I don’t have the strength to carry all the jugs of water,” Thomas said.

“When I start to compare my life to someone who isn’t living on reserve, I start feeling angry at the government,” she said. “Because our people don’t have running water. But that’s just the reality of living on reserve. You grow up being treated unfairly.”

Each container of the store-bought bottled water weighs more than 40lb, so a little over a year ago, Thomas, a slight, willowy woman, began supplementing them with rainwater collected from her rooftop gutters. She would have continued had it not been for her son’s rashes, later diagnosed as impetigo, which she believes came from bacteria on the roof’s shingles. “It made me feel like a bad mother to know that he had all these skin issues from washing with [rain] water.”

That’s just the reality of living on reserve. You grow up being treated unfairly

Ninety-one percent of the homes in this community aren’t connected to the water treatment plant, says Michael Montour, director of public works for Six Nations. Some, like the Thomas home, have no water at all. Others have water in their taps, but it is too polluted to drink.

The Six Nations are not the only First Nations community in Canada with a water crisis. There are currently 50 indigenous communities with long-term boil water advisories, which means an estimated 63,000 people haven’t had drinkable water for at least a year – and some for decades. But this may underestimate the size of the problem, since some indigenous communities, such as Six Nations, have a functional water plant but no workable plumbing. The lack of water has been linked to health issues in indigenous communities including hepatitis A, gastroenteritis, giardia lamblia (“beaver fever”), scabies, ringworm and acne.

“Why do white people live with water and we don’t?” said Dawn Martin-Hill, a Six Nations local and professor of indigenous studies at McMaster University. “They don’t have to live like we live. There’s a lot of environmental racism.”

It seems difficult to believe that anyone in Canada, a large, sparsely populated country home to 60% of the world’s lakes and one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, could be without clean water.

Canada’s bounty has made it an attractive destination for beverage brands such as Aquafina and Dasani, which pump and bottle the abundant freshwater. But the distribution is rarely according to need. Nestlé, the world’s biggest bottler, is extracting up to 3.6m litres of water daily from nearby Six Nations treaty land.

“Six Nations did not approve [of Nestlé pumping],” Martin-Hill said. “They told Nestlé that they wanted them to stop. Of course, they are still pumping as we speak.”

Nestlé pumps springwater from the nearby Erin well, which sits on a tract of land given to the Six Nations under the 1701 Nanfan Treaty and the 1784 Haldimand Tract, said Lonny Bomberry, Six Nations lands and resources director.

The Six Nations – Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora – sided with the British during the American revolution; as a reward they were given an area of approximately 3,845 sq km around the Grand River. Later, Ontario broke the treaty, reducing it to the current 194 sq km.

The land’s legacy may be 300 years old, but for Six Nations residents, it is alive and present. Many are outraged at Nestlé’s practices, including JD Sault, a self-employed mother of two. Like the Thomases, she lacks drinking water in her home. She paid several thousand dollars for her house to be connected to a nearby well – then found the water too polluted to drink. There is probably sewage contamination from her neighbours’ septic beds, she said. She worries about E coli and other bacteria.

“Nestlé are taking out water for free, so why don’t they dispense it to people?” Sault said. “It’s the indigenous resources they are taking. It’s unreal what [Nestlé] are doing. It’s unreal the way they operate.”

No one disputes the existence or legality of the Haldiman or Nanfan treaties. If anything, their legality is finally being taken seriously, thanks to a shift in the national political climate toward greater recognition of indigenous rights, including several wins in the supreme and lower courts.

But the question of who owns Canadian water is as murky as the water on many First Nations lands. In theory, the provinces have owned the water since 1930, when the federal government delegated ownership with the Natural Resources Transfer Act. According to that act, the provinces have the right to sell their water to whomever they want, including companies like Nestlé.

But water is also supposed to be regulated by the federal government, which is responsible for the natural environment and Canada’s waterways. And, according to the Canadian constitution, the federal government has a “duty to accommodate and consult” First Nations and to make sure other parties do the same when extracting any natural resource, including water, from indigenous land.

This legal ambiguity has allowed Nestlé to move in and extract precious water on expired permits for next to nothing. Nestlé pays the province of Ontario $503.71 (US$390.38) per million litres. But they pay the Six Nations nothing.

In response, the Six Nations are suing the province, in a case before the superior court of Ontario.

“We are working hard on developing our relationships with local First Nations communities, and look forward to working together,” Jennifer Kerr, director of corporate affairs for Nestlé Waters Canada, wrote in an email to the Guardian.

“Everything has to do with the water,” explained Ken Greene, 53, who lives with his wife in a one-bedroom trailer without running water. “Because it has to do with the land. Land needs water. We need water. We can’t survive without it.”

The disputed Erin well is located in a drought-stricken area, explained Emma Lui, a water campaigner with the Council of Canadians, a progressive not-for-profit that works on environmental causes. The drought has dried the wetlands surrounding Greene’s 10-acre property. It has also decimated the local populations of salmon, trout, pike and pickerel, Greene said.

Martin-Hill told me that indigenous leaders can do little to address the drought because they are caught in a legal trap. Drought and other environmental problems are supposed to be addressed during the granting of new water permits. That’s when scientific and legal experts examine fish populations, vegetation and aquifer levels to decide how much well water can be safely extracted.

It’s not happening. There’s been a moratorium on new permits since 2016 – yet, paradoxically, the Ontario government has also given companies the right to pump water on expired permits until 2019. (The permit for the Erin site expired in 2017.)

Makaśa Looking Horse, 21, a student in indigenous studies at McMaster University, has organized a community-wide march for this fall. She has also organized a boycott of Nestlé’s products. “It’s hard to boycott Nestlé because they own so many companies that sell so many products,” she said. “It’s hard to pick and choose. You don’t always know what’s Nestlé and what’s not because they own so much.”

This is not the first time Nestlé has found itself in such difficulties. In fact, numerous conflicts have surfaced related to their business model, according to Peter Gleick, co-founder and president emeritus of the Pacific Institute, a global water thinktank, and author of Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water.

Many of Nestlé’s competitors, such as Aquafina and Dasani, don’t use spring water, but filter and treat tap water, Gleick said. But Nestlé was founded in the 19th century on the idea that spring water might have incredible health benefits. Nestlé bottles its brands – including Arrowhead, Poland Spring, Deer Park, Ozarka, Zephyrhills, Acqua Panna, San Pellegrino, Perrier, Vittel and Buxton – from deep aquifers and natural springs, which can take decades or longer to replenish.

For the past century, demand for freshwater has grown twice as fast as population growth, explained Steven Solomon, author of Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization. The United Nations predicts that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will live with dire water shortages, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under stressed water conditions. That means a race to find untapped springs.

Anticipating shortages, companies like Nestlé are trying to lock in as much of the world’s water as possible, explained Solomon. Bottled water is the world’s most popular drink, and its sales recently outstripped soft drinks, according to a study by Beverage Marketing Corp. The trend is expected to intensify. The higher temperatures predicted with climate change will lead to less water and more thirst. “Demand is rising,” Solomon said. “The curve is rising a lot. And they are trying to tie up supply.”

“The fact that Nestlé is commercializing these natural resources in a community that doesn’t have access to reliable safe, affordable drinking water is a stunning example of the disparities we see around the world in access to safe water,” Gleick said. “The rich can pay for water and the poor get shortchanged over and over again.”

The former CEO of Nestlé, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, caused an international furor when he praised the commodification of water in a 2005 documentary, saying: “One perspective held by various NGOs – which I would call extreme – is that water should be declared a human right … The other view is that water is a grocery product. And just as every other product, it should have a market value.”

While the lack of water in indigenous communities has been carefully documented, the full impact on the health and mental wellbeing of indigenous residents has not.

Eager for answers, McMaster University professor Martin-Hill is conducting a three-year interdisciplinary study examining the impact of contaminated water and lack of water on humans, as well as fish and wildlife. “We need to know what is going on. Because what is happening with our water is a systemic, institutional assault on indigenous people’s lands and rights over those lands to protect and preserve them.”

Martin-Hill believes that the exorbitant suicide rate among First Nations youth – five to seven times that of other Canadians, according to the federal government – is directly related to the lack of drinkable water. For a Six Nations person, water is sacred and a symbol of life. But the lack also has metaphorical significance, as it becomes representative of the myriad ways that indigenous Canadians are treated as second-class citizens.

“The young people are upset, pissed and demoralized,” Martin-Hill said. “There’s a strong element of depression, sadness and hopelessness because it’s been going on for so long. Young people don’t see a future.”

At Six Nations, the water situation is improving, albeit slowly. In 2013, the community received a $41m grant to build a state-of-the-art water treatment plant. Unfortunately, the grant did not cover the cost of plumbing, so it serves only 9% of homes.

“We had to take out a loan for $12m to come up with the final dollars needed,” Chief Ava Hill said. “In addition, they have not provided sufficient operation and maintenance dollars for us to run the plant. The challenges of gaining money for infrastructure on reserves is that the federal government simply does not provide enough dollars even though they have the fiduciary responsibility to do so.”

With the election of Justin Trudeau, the tide seemed to shift somewhat. The prime minister promised to improve First Nations prosperity and solve the bad water issue on indigenous reserves by March 2021.

While there has been some progress, there aren’t sufficient funds. The Liberal government earmarked $1.8bn over five years to solve the water issue. But the real cost is estimated at $3.2bn, leaving the government more than $1bn short.

For Thomas, the inequality between indigenous people’s access to drinking water and everyone else didn’t start with water, but far earlier, with land displacement and colonialism. For her, it is the latest example of an ongoing cultural genocide. When thinking about how she will survive another day without drinking water, she remembers how her family has survived in the past.

“We are taught to be resilient,” she said. “It’s not right, but it’s just a reality. You have to tell yourself: ‘This is just the way it is.’ Otherwise you become angry and bitter.”

#enviromental #environment #environmetalists #environmental disasters #water #u.s. news #ocean #environmentalism #environmental protection agency #environmentallyconscious #environmental activism #environmental destruction #Business News #news #world news #trending news

[plethoraworldatlas]

After being accused last week of caving to Big Auto and Big Oil on passenger car and light-duty truck pollution standards, the Biden administration came under fire again on Friday for inadequate new rules on buses and freight trucks.

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency circulated some praise for the administration's announcement from some green groups and congressional Democrats, Earthjustice president Abigail Dillen said in a statement that "the EPA did not go far enough to protect communities from dangerous health impacts linked to heavy-duty truck pollution."

The rules will increasingly restrict the amount of pollution allowed for over 100 types of vehicles—from school, shuttle, and transit buses to delivery, public utility, and tractor-trailer trucks—for model years 2027 through 2032. The Washington Postnoted that unlike the proposal released last year, "the final rule will not require truck manufacturers to dramatically ramp up the production of cleaner vehicles until after 2030."

The EPA estimates the standards will prevent 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions in a country where transportation is the top source of planet-heating pollution and "provide $13 billion in annualized net benefits" for truck owners and operators, the changing climate, and the 72 million Americans—disproportionately those with low incomes and people of color—whose health is at risk because they live near freight routes.

"Diesel trucks not only spew tons of carbon dioxide into the air, they also choke communities all along our freight corridors with deadly air pollution, including nitrogen oxides and soot emissions," said Dillen. "This rule could have provided relief to communities across the country by driving a more ambitious transition to zero-emissions technology, which is also what the climate crisis demands. Instead, truck manufacturers have pushed EPA to slow-walk this change."

Steven Higashide, director of the Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, pointed out that "heavy- and medium-duty trucks make up only 10% of the vehicles on the road but contribute 28% of transportation-related global warming pollution, along with 45% of nitrogen oxides and 57% of fine particulate matter from on-road vehicles."

"Over 1,000 scientists called for the strongest possible rule and this rule falls short," he said. "We have the technology to be more ambitious and missed the opportunity to do more to clean up the freight sector, especially the heaviest and most polluting vehicles."

Not only does the United States have the technology, but "thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we have the resources to modernize our freight system," noted Dillen, referring to a pair of landmark laws signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 and 2021.

#ecology #enviromentalism #epa #environmental protection agency #biden administration #pollution

[alwaysspringers]

Determined to get fossil fuel industry puppetScott Pruitt confirmed as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), interested parties are furiously pouring money into a new dark money political action group to counter the warnings from environmental groups and scientists

#environment #climate change #fossil fuels #energy #oil and gas #fracking #coal #EPA #enviromental protection agency #scott pruitt #dark money #pacs #corruption #corporate greed #planet destruction

[yournewapartment]

First things first -Congratulations on getting married I hope it was amazing and you are very happy! Secondly - do you have any ideas where to get glasses / reusable plastic cups but ... Ecofriendly and non breakable? Im a grown ass adult and enviromentally concious but due to me being very clumsy and also having Tourettes the amount of glasses I break is.. Sad and currently my only options are kiddie plastic cups (which is, yknow, not that classy for cocktail parties)

@be-gay-study-crime thank you so much! It feels so unreal, we keep calling each other “husband” and “wife” and I’m just internally screaming the whole time.

I found some great eco-friendly, reusable plastic cup options on Amazon!

There are also many cute recyclable/biodegradable plastic options. Like these compostable cups. Maybe a good option for a party:

YNA the podcast will be doing an eco-friendly episode soon! One of the girls in my barre class works at an enivormental protection agency and has agreed to come on, stay tunned for more enviromental hacks!

Can any followers recommend any cups?

[americanbirdconservancy]

One of many bird conservation successes made possible by regulation of pesticides, the Osprey has made a heartening comeback since the 1970s. DDT had depleted Osprey populations by thinning the birds' eggshells, wreaking havoc on nesting success. We support the work of the Environmental Protection Agency in these challenging times. Photo by DMS Photo / Shutterstock

#savetheepa #environment #enviromental #environmental protection agency #osprey #raptors #pesticides #migratory birds #nature

[karadin]

How Trump fucked up the Environmental Protection Agency

Trump put Scott Pruitt in as head of the EPA until he had to resign under numerous scandals, including - overspending on luxury hotel suites and unnecessary travel including trips overseas for himself, family and friends, using his government staff as personal servants for himself and his business interests, living almost rent free at the house of a government lobbyist,  he demoted or sidelined E.P.A. employees who questioned his actions.

Abandoned environmental restoration of public land damaged by oil development. To offset the harm of oil production, the BLM often required producers to pay for restoration projects as a condition of their permits.

Ended long-standing protections for migratory birds.

Reverse a congressional ban on drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife Refuge

Pruitt began the largest regulatory rollback in the agency’s history, undoing, delaying or blocking several Obama-era environmental rules. Among them was a suite of historic regulations aimed at mitigating global warming pollution from the United States’ vehicles and power plants.

Pruitt also played a lead role in urging Mr. Trump to follow through on his campaign pledge to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement,

Pruitt questioned the established science of human-caused climate change, contradicting decades of research by scientific institutions, including his own agency.

78 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump including air pollution and emissions, water pollution, drilling and extracting including fracking and removing laws which protect animals, noteably those used in big game hunting.

Wheeler, the new head of the EPA is a coal industry lobbyist, and recently, lobbyists have been recorded at a meeting laughing at their ease of access to the department, handing over ‘wish lists’ which are then fulfilled.  “ there was about four or five EPA staffers there, who were all like, ‘Write that down, write that down,’ all the way through this.”

Under Trump -  lobbyists can be hired for any government position. Lobbyists can also work on issues where they have a direct conflict of interest, provided they get a waiver. And Trump has been giving these waivers out like candy to the most powerful people in his administration—at least 37 “to key administration officials at the White House and executive branch.

#trump administration #epa #enviromental protection agency #scott pruitt