Jene McCovey, CAWA Policy Chair on Environment
ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT 2011 – CALL TO ACTION 2010
Compiled by
Jene L. McCovey, Humboldt County CAWA Environmental Co-chair and Mary Rose Kaczorowski (Redwood Mary), CAWA Environmental Co-Chair
Our indigenous ancestors the world over had deep respect for the earth. The wisdom and teachings of Earth, Air, Water and Fire are keys to our survival.
The protection and restoration of our ecosystems depend on Women like you! Join women around the world who are now tapping into this wisdom and who are –with their fierce compassion and networking skills — shifting our global community away from short-sighted exploitation.
EARTH: Walk with purpose in a good way as we continue on with political challenges and be strong in honoring our eco-systems. Conflicts over natural resources have ripped across our planet—be it over water, coal, oil and gas rights, or the mining of diamonds and other precious metals.
Join us here in California in turning toward practical, responsible and sensible solutions that bring us back to a way of living that respects and values Mother Earth and her amazing life support systems.
WATER: California’s rivers, streams and creeks provide drinking water, support our economy, and support ecosystems for plants and animals. Over-allocation, pollution and greed have driven the water wars of California’s modern era. For more than a century, federal, state and local governments dammed, dredged and diverted California’s waterways to promote growth and prosperity in the arid West. As competition for water intensifies, we are called to protect habitat and life giving watersheds for endangered species and wildlife.
AIR: The air we breathe is common to all. We Californians believe that we have a shared responsibility to our communities and the world to reduce our emissions that cause global warming and pollute our skies.
FIRE: The fire of the sun sustains us all. It signals the rebirth of spring’s growing cycle. Yet Mother Earth has a burning fever. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will launch a Teacher Education Course on Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (CCESD) in late 2011. The course is being developed for UNESCO by professors at Sustainability Frontiers, an international alliance of sustainability and global educators. For More Information:http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001901/190101e.pdf
California Women Taking Action:
AB 591, The Oil and gas production: hydraulic fracturing Bill passed the California State Assembly.
SUMMARY:
Hydraulic fracturing – also known as fracking-– is a violent and damaging process of extracting gas and oil by high pressure injection into a drill hole up to 8,000 feet deep. By pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure, into a drilled well, pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that releases the natural gas. 75 to 300 tons of chemicals are used in an average fracking and the natural gas industry does not have to disclose what chemicals are used. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene have been identified in the fracking process. Fracking has been conducted in various locations throughout the state including Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles counties as a means to extract oil and gas and to “restimulate” older wells to increase or regenerate production. Industry publications indicate that fracking is likely to increase significantly in the future as rising oil and gas prices drive this technology forward.
AB 591 requires operators to disclose:
1. The chemicals used in the operation.
2. How much water was used and the source of that water.
3. Any radiological components or tracers that were injected into the well and a description of the recovery method, if any, for those elements or tracers, the recovery rate, and disposal method for recovered components or tracers.
AB 591 requires the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) to add to their existing online data base the location of any well where fracking has occurred.
The protection of drinking water in the state of California is at the heart of this bill. It requires oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals used in "fracking" operations.
On August 15, 2011 the Legislature reconvenes and AB 591 will be heard in Senate Appropriations Committee. (Keep in mind that October 9th is the last day for the Governor to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature before Sept. 9 and in the Governor’s possession on or after Sept. 9).
ACTION TO TAKE:
Contact the Senators on the Committee on Appropriations and ask them to send AB 591 to Governor Brown’s Desk for his signature.
Go to: http://sapro.senate.ca.gov/
For more info Contact:
Ben Turner, Legislative Director,
Office of Assemblymember Wieckowski
Phone: (916) 319-2020
Email: ben.turner@asm.ca.gov
The Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project
Summary
The Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project, near Mount Lassen, is slated to remove and rework dams along the length of over 40 miles of waterways
and will result in helping endangered salmon to navigate back to their home streams and rivers that have been blocked by these dams for nearly a century.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/19/3711308/troubled-waters-of-battle-creek.html#ixzz1SlcxnDdC
This opportunity to increase the natural return of salmon by augmenting and assisting restoration efforts presently conducted by local watershed workgroups and
partnerships is threatened.
The issue? Erosion from clear-cutting of the forest upstream by Sierra Pacific Industries, a privately held company based in nearby Anderson and reported
as the state’s largest property owner, is highly capable of smothering spawning habitat. This clear cutting will work against the survival of salmon
species that include the Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon (state- and federally listed as threatened), the Sacramento River winter-run
Chinook salmon (state- and federally listed as endangered), and the Central Valley steelhead (federally listed as threatened).
Read more at: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/19/3711308/troubled-waters-of-battle-creek.html#ixzz1SlekUek9
ACTION #1
CAlifornia Women’s Agenda (CAWA) joins with Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Battle Creek Alliance, Center for Sierra Nevada
Conservation and Sierra Club in calling on Governor Brown to impose a moratorium on clear cutting along Battle Creek until a watershed-wide assessment
of cumulative impacts from logging is conducted. Accelerated clear-cutting by Sierra Pacific Industries is jeopardizing an ongoing $128 million
restoration project on Battle Creek. As
Tell Governor Brown that this enormous tax-payer funded effort to save Battle Creek is being sabotaged by Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) and that an
immediate moratorium on clear cutting in Battle Creek is urgently needed.
To Contact Governor Brown by Email: http://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php
by Phone: (916) 445-2841 and by Fax: (916) 558-3160
ACTION #2
Contact Sierra Pacific Industries and ask them to stop the clear cutting that is impacting the taxpayer funded Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project.
Mention that these waterways are essential to salmon recovery efforts and to the revitalization of our State’s fishing economy. (FYI: Some of the
Products that Sierra Pacific Industries produce are: Door Frames, Window Frames Components and Window Sash).
Mailing address:
Sierra Pacific Industries
P.O. Box 496028
Redding, CA 96049-6028
Telephone 🙁 530) 378-8000 E-mail: sierra@spi-ind.com
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Help implement the Klamath Restoration Agreements!
Summary
Please ask Senators Boxer and Feinstein to mobilize their colleagues to support restoration of the Klamath’s fisheries and the sustainability
of rural communities. The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA) are companion
agreements between Klamath Basin Tribes, Irrigators, fishermen, conservations, counties, Oregon, California, and federal agencies which aims to
restore Klamath Basin fisheries and sustain local economies. The dam owner PacifiCorp is also a signatory of the KHSA.
The Agreements include methods that will help create essential conditions for restoration of fisheries, as well as measures that provide
greater stability for many of the Basin’s rural communities. The implementation of the Klamath Agreements depends on federal legislation to:
begin the dam removal process
fund restoration actions
fund new water saving irrigation plans
ACTION TO TAKE:
You can help by writing, calling, or emailing your congressman and senator.
Additional Talking points:
- Federal support of dam removal is crucial to moving forward with The Klamath Agreements.
- The Klamath Agreements preserves the cultures of Native Tribes, family farmers, and family fishermen and The Klamath Agreements are an investment in tribal economic revitalization, primarily through fisheries and land restoration activities.
- The Klamath Agreements assure a power program for Basin farmers and ranchers that seeks access to affordable power and a renewable energy infrastructure to offset rate increases and diversify revenue;
- Dam removal assures that wild salmon and salmon based economies can survive with increased flows for fish in the Klamath River.
For more info go to: http://www.klamathriver.org//watershed.html
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Next Steps: Protect Ancient Forests, Save Richardson Grove
Summary
Millions of visitors from all around the world have enjoyed spectacular views of the Redwoods along Avenue of the Giants. The first known inhabitants of this region, the Wailaki people, used the area as a seasonal encampment for hunting, fishing and food gathering. Over 75 years ago, 120 acres of this redwood grove were acquired by the State of California to protect the trees from impacts of highway construction. Now that has all changed.
Please take a moment to support a Statewide campaign to Save Richardson Grove. Caltrans has proposed a project that would widen Highway 101 through the ancient redwood forest at Richardson Grove State Park. Our gateway to the Redwood Forests cannot be sacrificed to provide for giant commercial trucks to travel through this irreplaceable redwood tree living ecosystem.
ACTION TO TAKE:
Our remaining cathedral forests cannot be sacrificed to provide increased access for giant commercial trucks to travel through our unique bioregion. To write a letter to the lead agency, District 1 Caltrans, asking that they cancel this project. Go to: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5349/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1554
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Going organic is an important way to protect your family’s health!
Summary
90% of the nation’s strawberries are produced in California and Methyl iodide—a new dangerous pesticide and one of the most toxic chemicals –was approved for use in the final days of both the Bush and Schwarzenegger administration.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first registered methyl iodide as a pesticide in October 2007, despite a letter from more than 50 scientists, including five Nobel Laureates.
ACTION TO TAKE:
Call on Governor Brown to pull methyl iodide before any more goes in the ground: http://action.panna.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7165
Need more info? Contact: http://www.panna.org/contact
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Environmental Report – CAll To Action 2005
By Jene L. McCovey, Humboldt County CAWA Environmental Co-chair and Mary Rose Kaczorowski (Redwood Mary), CAWA Environmental Co-Chair and Co- director of Women’s Global Green Action Network
See Previous Reports: 1996
The Elements˜ Earth, Air, Water and Fire
Our ancestors had deep respect for the earth and the elements. Somehow we have shifted away from this balance with the cycles and rhythms of Mother Earth. As we rapidly degrade our earth, women are called to return the Earth back to balance. With women‚s intuition, fierce compassion and networking skills, women can shift our global community away from short-sighted exploitation. We can turn the tide toward practical, responsible and sensible solutions that bring us back to a way of living that respects and values Mother Earth‚s amazing life support systems, restoring the damage we have done to her and ourselves.
EARTH
Earth– that which we walk upon as we swirl within this universe. Walk with purpose in a good way as you start the New Year. Here is an issue that needs your direct attention by January 9th, 2006.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed to apply massive amounts of herbicides to public lands in 17 Western states. The BLM claims these pesticides need to be applied to forests, rangelands and aquatic areas in order to reduce the risk of fire and slow the spread of invasive weeds. Under the proposal 932,000 acres would undergo chemical application in 17 western states, including National Monuments and National Conservation areas. An integral part of this proposal involves aerial spraying of toxic herbicides, which increases negative impacts on non-targeted vegetation, wildlife, and people– including recreationists, tourists, and native peoples. The pesticides that would be used include persistent and mobile chemicals, including known developmental and reproductive toxins.
Are the Redwoods saved?
Headwaters Forest was the last large unprotected ancient redwood ecosystem left in the U.S. when Texas corporate raider Charles Hurwitz took over Pacific Lumber Company, raiding the company’s pension plan, selling off its assets, and doubling the logging in the forest so he could pay back his junk bonds debt. What followed was over a decade of lawsuits, court injunctions, protests, tree-sits, arrests, and unprecedented violence in the forest against nonviolent activists bent on saving what little remains of the continent‚s once great old-growth forests.
The Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO Since November) is now logging some of the last old-growth trees along 249 acres in the Nanning Creek watershed in Humboldt County The Nanning Creek watershed flows into the Eel River, an important salmon-bearing river and is already listed as „impaired‰ by sediment/siltation under the Clean Water Act. This logging puts other sensitive and threatened species at risk. As part of its habitat conservation plan crafted during the 1999 „Headwaters Forest Deal‰ negotiations, PALCO and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service anticipated that the southern population of murrelets would decline for several decades. The Eureka Times Standard reports that researchers at Humboldt State University are finding that murrelets in Redwood National and State Parks are not faring as well as previously thought.
In recent lawsuit appeals to the Ninth Circuit District U.S. Court, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) and the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) claimed that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowed PALCO to log hundreds of acres of murrelet habitat was unjustified, given the alarming trend toward extinction of the Murrelet on the last vestiges of it‚s Northern Coastal California habitat. The case was dismissed even though the evidence presented in PALCO‚s Timber Harvest Plan 097 HUM was criticized for failing to use Best Available Science.
To find out more about the Nanning Creek logging issues and protests, see:
http://www.wildcalifornia.org/pages/page-249
Take Action:
Write Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and ask him to stop the California Board of Forestry from caving into Pacific Lumber Company‚s manipulation of Timber Harvest Plan Data. Tell our Governor that the best way to bring back critical habitat, fisheries and working forests would be a combination of set-asides of critical biological habitat, conservation easements and restoration strategies. Purchase of critical habitat in working forests for local employment based on sustaining forests and species should be the highest priority.
To write to the Governor, send letters to
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814
Email:
To call: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
Please also write your California State Representative.
AIR
The air we breathe is common to all. We Californians believe that we have a shared responsibility to our communities and the world to reduce our emissions that cause global warming and pollute our skies. The same cannot be said about automakers. The auto business is opposed to our California Clean Air bill AB 1493, which protects our families by reducing car and truck emissions by 30 percent.
Under AB 1493, authored by state Representative Fran Pavley, the California Air Resources Board sets regulations for car manufactures to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles that emit fewer greenhouse gases and requires California Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop carbon dioxide emissions standards for automobiles as of model year 2009. Urge car and truck manufactures to do their fair share and to cooperate with the people of California. Ask them to drop their lawsuit challenging the laws that protect us. Please be pro-active and join the 80% of Californians who supported the limiting of vehicle emissions.
Take Action: Sign and on-line letter to the CEO’s of Ford, GM, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota and Honda to innovate, not litigate.
http://environmentcalifornia.org/action/clean-air/current
FIRE
The fire of the sun sustains us all. It signals the rebirth of spring’s growing cycle. Our sun supplies 99% of the direct energy used to heat our Earth and all the buildings we have constructed. Indirect forms of solar energy include wind, hydro-power from the flow of water and biomass (energy stored in trees and other plants). Passive energy storage systems such as well insulated houses with insulated windows that face the sun saves hundreds of dollars when multiplied across a community.
By using less commercial energy that is obtained from nuclear power or from the Earth‚s non-renewable mineral resources produced by burning of fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas, we may be able to prevent the climate from reaching irreversible damage. Direct solar energy can also be captured by active solar energy systems as in roof- mounted solar panels.
When coupled with consumer conservation strategies, harnessing renewable sources of free energy like the sun and wind gives hope for solving California’s demand for energy and cuts our reliance on existing polluting power plants and nuclear power that produces huge amounts of highly radioactive waste that remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years. Affordable solar panels, low maintenance wind mills and building energy efficient apartments and homes equipped with Energy Star appliances can relieve the stress of over taxed electrical grids. Not one solution will fit every region; it will take a mix of actions applied en masse to make a difference. Every action and every step makes a difference.
The earth‚s core is like the sun heating water and rocks beneath the earth‚s crust. Utilizing the geothermal energy of the earth‚s core has been the core strategy of the proposed electric power field development at Medicine Lake geothermal site. Geothermal „mining‰ activities unearth heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury. Hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acids are used to fracture the geothermal reservoir. Accessing this geothermal energy raises questions of irreparable environmental and cultural damage. The technological safety factors and long-term effects to Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen (dormant volcanoes) remains unknown. Despite these risks, corporate speculation overrides the public trust issues that the government is bound by law to protect. Thermal exploitation requires displacement of an ancient breathing vent of the earth’s magma core.
We recommend that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management buy back leases it issued more than 15 years ago to stop two companies from building geothermal power plants on this dormant volcano. We recommend that the Medicine Lake Highlands be left intact so that this sacred land can continue to be a source of inspiration and renewal to Native Americans and many others who enjoy the remote and geologically unique area.
Read about the issues at:
http://www.treatycouncil.org/section_21181214.htm
http://web.redding.com/newsarchive/19990429_05.shtml
Take Action:
Contact the California Energy Commissioners with the following requests:
? Stop funding geothermal activities at the Medicine Lake Highlands
? Cancel the two conditional awards of nearly $50 million for Fourmile Hill and Telephone Flat
? Implement Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) guidelines that favor projects benefiting minority and low-income population and include language which would exclude funding those projects which have documented Environmental Justice impacts. This would make the Medicine Lake Highlands ineligible for funding.
Commissioner John Geesman
Phone: 916-654-4001
FAX: 916-654-4420
California Energy Commission
1516 Ninth Street, MS-31
Sacramento, CA 95814
Commissioner James Boyd
Phone: 916-654-3787
FAX: 916-654-4420
California Energy Commission
1516 Ninth Street, MS-34
Sacramento, CA 95814
Link to contact information on CEC Commissioners
http://www.energy.ca.gov/commission/commissioners/index.html
WATER
Water is the essence of life˜the life blood of Mother Earth. Clean, free water is not only a necessity but a right. California’s rivers, streams and creeks provide drinking water, support our economy, and support ecosystems for plants and animals. Over-allocation, pollution and greed have driven the water wars of California’s modern era. For more than a century, federal, state and local governments dammed, dredged, diked and diverted California’s waterways to promote growth and prosperity in the arid West. As competition for water intensified, public pressure to protect habitat for endangered species and wildlife led to federal and state mandates.
Real equity is still lacking when it comes to the quality and quantity of water needed for our anadromous fish, the Pacific wild Salmon (chinook, coho, pinks, sockeye, chum, steelhead etc.) who instinctually come home to natal streams to spawn and propagate their species. Diverting more and more water for irrigating crops means managing the fishery resources for extinction.
Who‚s to blame? Industry, agriculture, timber, mining, commercial fishing, land development? It matters little to the fish, whose livelihood necessitates clean water.
To bring the salmon home will mean respecting the importance of our watersheds– this is everyone’s job. If we in California want to have clean water far into the distant future, we will have to start working together.
To keep posted on the issues, see:
http://www.klamathrestoration.org
Take Action:
Hand-written letters are the most effective way to help our leaders know that Californians care about our water, and our wildlife. What you can do to help:
Write or call your elected officials on the local, state and federal levels. Let them know that you want to see the salmon return home.
Many factors can be blamed for the salmon‚s decline, including the diversion of water to wasteful water usage practices by corporate agri-business‚s from rivers that support salmon. Ask your representatives to take action to address the dams throughout the state that stand between salmon and their spawning grounds.
Write:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 Fax: 916-445-4633
Environmental Report CAll To Action 2005
This report is by Jene L. McCovey, Humboldt County CAWA Environmental Co-chair and Mary Rose Kaczorowski (Redwood Mary), CAWA Environmental Co-Chair and Co- director of Women‚s Global Green Action Network
The Elements˜ Earth, Air, Water and Fire
Our ancestors had deep respect for the earth and the elements. Somehow we have shifted away from this balance with the cycles and rhythms of Mother Earth. As we rapidly degrade our earth, women are called to return the Earth back to balance. With women‚s intuition, fierce compassion and networking skills, women can shift our global community away from short-sighted exploitation. We can turn the tide toward practical, responsible and sensible solutions that bring us back to a way of living that respects and values Mother Earth‚s amazing life support systems, restoring the damage we have done to her and ourselves.