CLIMATE CRISIS sparks people Nationwide

According to the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, 31 indigenous villages in the Arctic region of Alaska face imminent threats from climate change. As many as 12 have decided to relocate, and one, Newtok, has identified a site and will start building new homes this summer. Biologist Carl Wassilie, a Yup’ik Eskimo and one of the founders of Alaska’s Big Village Network, is in town for this Saturday’s Climate Crisis Summit in Chicago at IIT’s Kent College of Law. Today, he stops by Worldview to talk about the Alaskan villages facing imminent threat.

(CLICK BELOW)
https://soundcloud.com/wbez-worldview/melting-permafrost-creates-1/

By Matt Pearceails.

February 17, 2013, 4:10 p.m.

Climate activists descended on Washington, D.C., on Sunday in what organizers boasted was the largest climate-change rally in American history, claiming more than 35,000 attendees.

The Forward on Climate rally, as it was billed by environmental groups Sierra Club and 350.org, called forPresident Obama to take immediate action on climate change, with many calling for the government to block the construction of the oil pipeline known as Keystone XL.

Protestors marched through the streets bearing placards and massed on the National Mall, where speakers addressed the crowd. Washington police declined to provide a crowd estimate.

"Today was one of the best days of my life, because I saw the movement come together finally, big and diverse and gorgeous," 350.org President Bill McKibben tweeted after speaking at the rally.

Keystone XL has been a signature issue for climate-control activists, who caught policymakers and the pipeline industry off guard with 2011 protests against the proposed pipeline, which would bring so-called tar sands oil from Canada into the United States.

Although other proposed pipelines inside the U.S. would shunt larger amounts of oil around the country, the proposed TransCanada project must pass through a legal bottleneck in order to be built: U.S. law requires federal approval for new pipelines crossing international borders, making the pipeline more vulnerable to concentrated political pressure.

Opposition has since led the Sierra Club to lift a long-standing ban on civil disobedience for the sake of opposing the pipeline's construction. The club's executive director, Michael Brune, was arrested at a Wednesday protest outside the White House.

Obama is expected to make the decision whether to approve construction of the pipeline, which proponents have said would limit U.S. reliance on Middle Eastern oil.

Opponents believe the process to produce and refine tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, would be more carbon-intensive than typical oil production, potentially accelerating climate change.

According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 38% of Americans think global warming will harm them in their lifetimes, up from 25% in 1997. However, according to a January poll, 57% of Americans are satisfied with the environmental state of the nation, up 3 points from 2005.

Except for 1998, the Earth's nine warmest years on record have occurred since 2000, according to reports issued in January -- one by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the other by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Last year was reported as the warmest on record for the lower 48 states.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-climate-change-rally-washington-20130217,0,799969.story

Alaska lawmaker Feige introduces ‘Lucy Lawless bill

Actress Lucy Lawless with the New Zealand Greenpeace aboard a Shell drilling rig. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace New Zealand)

Feige introduces ‘Lucy Lawless bill’

An Alaska lawmaker has introduced legislation that would make it a felony to interfere with permitted oil and gas, timber or other development projects.
Rep. Eric Feige is calling HB92 the “Lucy Lawless bill,” after the actress last year boarded a Shell drill ship before it left New Zealand for the U.S. She and other activists were arrested.
Feige, a co-chair of the House Resources Committee, says Alaska has a good permitting process, through which the public can raise concerns or complaints. He says there seems to be an increasing tendency within the activist community to try to take the law in their own hands.
He says the bill is his effort to get ahead of any problems in Alaska, where Shell has begun exploratory drilling in the Arctic.
See the original article
Feige introduces ‘Lucy Lawless bill’
 ww.360north.org/2013/02/01/feige-introduces-lucy-lawless-bill/

Idle No More Anchorage, Alaska J28

Idle No More-  Anchorage    J28

No more global Fukashima nuclear meltdown disasters. Is America next?

No more global Fukashima nuclear meltdown disasters.  Is America next?

Protest against NRC's absurd rush to restore Entergy Palisades to top-notch safety status

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps testifies at NRC public meeting in South Haven, MI on 12/11/12 regarding catastrophic risks at Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor. Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a public meeting in South Haven, MI on Tuesday, Dec. 11th in order to explain to the public its oversight role, Entergy's corrective actions at Palisades, and the reasons why the problem-plagued atomic reactor has been suddenly restored to top-notch safety status. NRC designated Palisades one of the four worst-run reactors in the U.S. last February, but restored its top-notch safety status on Nov. 9th -- under pressure from powerful U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who chairs the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee -- despite ongoing leaks, and a complete collapse of safety culture. The safety culture collapse was covered up by Entergy and NRC for months, but was recently revealed by Palisades' whistleblowers, their attorney Billie Pirner Garde, and U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). The public isn't buying NRC's and Entergy's flip assurances, and marked the dog and pony show with a game of "Nukespeak Bingo," or "Blinky B'Lingo."



The coalition of concerned local residents and environmental groups put out a press release, as well as a "Blinky B'Lingo" board with 25 Nukespeak words or phrases, and a listing of their translations into plain English. The coalition included in its press packets an article entitled "No Word for Meltdown: The Return of Nukespeak," written just days after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe had begun, by Rory O'Connor and Richard Bell. Along with Stephen Hilgartner, the three co-authors had published the book Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Myths, and Mindset in 1982, and re-issued an updated version several months after Fukushima began.



Michigan Public Radio reported on the Nukespeak bingo game in an article. Michigan Radio's "Environment Report" also published an on-air "Palisades: Year in Review." There have been so many "unplanned shutdowns" in 2011 (five safety-significant equipment breakdowns that required emergency shutdowns of the reactor) and "leaks" in 2012 (three so far), Michigan Public Radio created a timeline to keep track of it all.



South Bend's ABC57 television news also reported on this story, as did the Kalamazoo Gazette newspaper.



On the very same day as the NRC meeting in South Haven, David Lochbaum, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Nuclear Safety Project Director, published an "All Things Nuclear" blog entitled "Palisades Reprises Davis-Besse." He compared the primary coolant leaks from Palisades' control rod drive mechanisms to Davis-Besse's infamous Hole-in-the-Head fiasco of 2002.

No Donlin Gold Mercury Mine in Alaska: A mega mercury “gold” mine with a list of problems financed by Barrick Gold and Nova Gold

No Donlin Gold Mercury Mine in Alaska:

A mega mercury “gold” mine with a list of problems financed by Barrick Gold and Nova Gold

Contact:

Alaska's Big Village Network, Carl Wassilie 907-382-3403

Center for Water Advocacy, Nikos Pastos 907-764-2561

Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, Delice Calcote 907-563-9334

What: Donlin Gold Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Scoping Meeting

When: January 22, 2013 5:30-6pm demonstration; 6pm hearing

Where: Wilde Martson Theatre, Loussac Library 3600 Denali Street, Anchorage, AK

January 22, 2013

Anchorage, AK

Alaskan Tribal Communities, Yup'ik fisherpeoples and environmental groups warn Donlin Gold -- "No mercury poison in our waters and in our bodies!"

A group of concerned global citizens, indigenous peoples and Yup'ik fisherpeoples are demonstrating opposition to the proposed Donlin Gold mine in the Kuskokwim watershed.  The Army Corps of Engineers is holding a Donlin Gold Environmental Impact Statement public meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, today.  The groups have concerns about one of the world's largest proposed mega-gold mines whose 16,300 acre wetland footprint extends into the Alaska marine transportation corridor.

The proposed mine's impacts will result in permanent changes to the Kuskokwim River's Yup'ik peoples' cultural survival, subsistence resources, and health.  "The increased dredging, ports and barges carrying toxic materials in our Kuskokwim river will negatively impact our coastal and river villages' salmon fishing, food security, drinking water, future generations and cultural traditions," says Ole Lake of Alaska's Big Village Network.   

This mine will bring enormous cost to water, fish, wildlife, peoples and migratory animal pathways with massive amounts of contaminants such as mercury, arsenic and selenium, that will permanently leach into the Kuskokwim watershed. ["Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment," A report by Earthworks and Oxfam America, 2004]

Donlin Gold is equally owned and supported by Barrick Gold Corp. and Nova Gold Resources.  Barrick and NovaGold both have a history of contaminating peoples' water supply on a global scale.

“Center for Water Advocacy (CWA) is concerned about the Human Rights implications of a mine of this scale to the amount of water that is withdrawn out of stream that would otherwise be used for subsistence purposes,” says Harold Shepherd of Center for Water Advocacy. “Furthermore, there exists the potential contamination of drinking water and subsistence food resources.”

NovaGold has a history of mishaps in Alaska including the complete shutdown of the Rock Creek mine in Nome, Alaska, in which "streamlined permitting" killed 2 workers and resulted in terrible planning for the water balance of the mining operation in 2007-8.[“Rock Creek Mine Problems,” report by Center for Science in Public Participation, April 2012]

Alaska Inter-Tribal Council (AITC) is concerned about the worst-case senario of a dam failure or barge accident along transportation routes that would lead to catastrophic releases of contaminants and toxic substances in the environment which impacts hundreds of villages along the transportation route.

“Shell's Kulluk grounding accident shows us the vulnerability, risks and threats to tribal communities that hunt, fish, gather, and harvest marine and aquatic subsistence resources along the coasts and inland waters,” says Delice Calcote, Executive Director of AITC. National Congress of American Indians has a resolution opposing development of the Donlin mine as it threatens Alaska's indigenous peoples traditional means of subsistence and implicates violations of international law. [National Congress of American Indians Resolution #NGF-09-005]

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is also a major concern of these groups in the proposed Donlin Gold mine. AMD can cause severe health, reproductive and developmental impacts to living organisms; including humans. Some of these concerns have been discussed extensively in the EPA's draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment of the Pebble Mine project.  In addition, Donlin proposes to install a 313-mile, 14-inch gas pipeline from Cook Inlet to the middle of a Kuskokwim wilderness area, an area with no infrastructure.  The municipality of Anchorage predicts a Southcentral Alaska natural gas supply crisis in Cook Inlet region by 2014. 

The groups are calling on Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska residents to get involved in the Donlin Gold EIS to oppose this badly planned mine that threatens Alaskans' air, water, land, animals and future generations.

###end end###

Alaska's Big Village Network
''creating communities of inclusion"

J11 IDLE NO MORE: ALASKA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT

January 10, 2013

Carl Wassilie, Alaska Big Village Network,

907-382-3403

Ramsey Hart, MiningWatch Canada,

613-298-4745

Chris Zimmer, Rivers Without Borders,

907/586-2166

IDLE NO MORE MOVEMENT TRANSCENDS CANADA-ALASKA BORDER.

Upstream BC Industrial Development and Gutting of Canadian Environmental Laws Pose Major Threats to Salmon and Clean Water in Alaska

(ANCHORAGE) The Idle No More grassroots protest movement that started in the province of Saskatchewan has stretched across Canada and is now being joined by Alaskans who are concerned about the threats to Alaskan waters and salmon from British Columbia’s (BC) aggressive industrial development plans. Indigenous Peoples and supporters will host an Idle No More rally at Town Square Park downtown Anchorage at noon on Friday, January 11^th.

“We would like to show solidarity with our indigenous brothers and sisters in Canada that are facing the same issues our tribal peoples are faced with here in Alaska,” said Delice Calcote of Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. “Our mission is to protect customary and traditional use of our subsistence resources. Protect our subsistence or expect resistance.”

This demonstration is more than just a show of solidarity with Indigenous activists in Canada. Participants are also hoping to raise awareness about the fact that BC’s major industrial development plans and drastic changes to Canadian environmental laws also pose serious risks to salmon, water quality and traditional uses in the Southeast Alaska/Northwest BC transboundary region.

Carl Wassilie of Alaska's Big Village Network said that “Native and non-native Alaskans need to stand up and be counted when it comes to protecting our water, salmon, and indigenous people’s rights. Our representatives are shirking their responsibilities and largely ignoring the threats to our resources from Canada’s massive rush to industrial development in the headwaters of major salmon rivers like the Taku, Stikine and Unuk and weakening of important environmental protection laws. History tells us ignoring this is a bad idea.”

The Idle No More movement was sparked by changes to laws that protected all of Canada’s “navigable” waterways and that govern Indigenous land tenure. Recent changes to the Environmental Assessment Act, Fisheries Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act mean there will be substantially less federal oversight over decisions about major industrial developments, such as the many mines, roads and hydro-electric projects that are proposed on the BC side of the border. Many of these projects would have direct impacts on rivers that provide drinking water and salmon to Alaskans. The most recent changes are but part of a larger pro-industrial development agenda that is being implemented without meaningful consultation with the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

“Federal oversight of mining in Canada hasn’t been perfect, but it has played an important role in reducing risks to the environment,” said Ramsey Hart of MiningWatch Canada. “Recent weakening of environmental regulations is taking us in the wrong direction, which increases the threat that poorly planned and risky projects going forward on a massive scale will pollute Alaskan waters, harm salmon and threaten the livelihoods of Alaskans who depend on these resources. Alaskans have reason to be concerned about what’s proposed in the headwaters of rivers like the Taku, Stikine and Unuk.”

BC mining operations have a history of polluting U.S. waters. For example, acid mine drainage from the Tulsequah Chief mine has been leaking into the Tulsequah and Taku rivers for over 50 years. Pollution from a smelter in Trail, BC ended up in Lake Roosevelt, in the Washington state portion of the Columbia River.

“The BC government and the mining industry have shown little regard for downstream interests in Alaska,” said Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders. "The double whammy of massive industrial development and the gutting of environmental laws is the biggest threat to water quality and salmon in major transboundary wild salmon rivers like the Taku, Stikine and Unuk we have seen in decades. We need our elected leaders to immediately engage with Canada to ensure that Canada’s actions do not harm our interests.”

#####END#####

http://alaska.risingtidenorthamerica.org/press-advisory-idle-no-more-rally/

PRESS ADVISORY: Idle No More Rally, 1/11/13, at noon in 

the Town Square Park, Anchorage, AK

CONTACT:           Kirby Spangler 907-982-0908, or Heather McCausland, 907-232-7345, heather@akaction.org

Idle No More Movement Catches Fire in Alaska

Alaskan Native Peoples and allies join the Idle No More Movement day of Global Action

Anchorage, AK - Indigenous people and allies from across Alaska will gather in Town Square on Friday in solidarity with the Idle No More Movement for indigenous sovereignty sweeping across Canada and the Globe. Alaska’s Idle No More Event will emphasize the issues that Alaska’s Indigenous Peoples face concerning sovereignty, subsistence rights, environment, health and well-being, culture, and spirituality. This will be a peaceful Rally.  We are drumming, singing, dancing, praying and giving voice to the Spirit of our lands and waters, which need our defense now.

The Idle No More Movement began as a response to a renewed assault on indigenous rights in Canada by the Conservative Government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The movement has forced Harper to meet with a coalition of First Nations leaders, including Atiwapiskat Chief Teresa Spence who has been on hunger strike for nearly a month. Friday’s Rally in Anchorage is part of solidarity actions planned across the globe. (Follow on Twitter #J11)

Supported by REDOIL, Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, and Alaska Rising Tide.

 Tentative Schedule: ALASKA IDLE NO MORE RALLY – Noon, Town Square Park, Anchorage, Friday, January 11^th

Noon – Opening Traditional Prayer

Chief Lee Stephan- Athabascan, Eklutna (Welcome)

Chief Gary Harrison- Athabascan, Chickaloon (Sovereignty)

Faith Gemmill- Gwich’in- Arctic Village (Vision)

Mae Hank-Inupiat, Point Hope (Chukchi Sea/ Shell)

Rosemary Ahtuangruak-Inupiat, Barrow (Health and Oil)

Allison Akootchook Warden-Inupiat, Kaktovik (Beaufort Sea/ Shell and Arctic Refuge)

Vi Waghiyi-Siberian Yupik, St. Lawrence Island (POPS/ Contaminants/ Toxics/ Military)

INUPIAT DANCE GROUP 

Gwich’in Elder or Youth (Arctic Refuge)

Rochelle Adams- Gwich’in, Ft. Yukon (Yukon Flats/language, culture, identity)

Lisa Wade-Athabascan, Chickaloon (Wishbone Hill Coal)

ATHABASCAN DANCE GROUP 

Alannah Hurley-Yupik, Clarks Point (Pebble Mine/BBAY Shell offshore)

Fishermen- Yupik, YK Delta (Subsistence Rights and Salmon issues/Donlin Mine)

YUPIK DANCE GROUP 

Dune Lankard-Eyak, Cordova (Coal/EVOS)

TSIMSHIAN DANCE GROUP

ALL DRUM GROUPS DRUM SIMULTANEAOUSLY TO BRING POWER OF DRUM/SPIRIT to close out speaking portion

PAMYUA  

Medicine Dream

Sleeping Lady Drummers

Closing – Participants will dance a round dance to close Rally

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/302607813194243/

Twitter: #J11 and #idlenomore

@ak_action

sHell update

sHell disaster Update:

Breakaway Oil Rig, Filled With Fuel, Runs Aground

The vessel ran aground Monday night 12.31.12 in a rocky area on the southeast side of Sitkalidak Island on the northern end of Ocean Bay, Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska.  

"We've got a pattern of failures," said Carl Wassilie, a Yup'ik Eskimo who coordinates a grass-roots group called Alaska's Big Village Network and helped organize a protest Monday outside the Frontier Building, Shell's Alaska headquarters. "I'm saying no, there's no way that I can see any feasibility of drilling in the Arctic, especially with the extreme conditions that we're seeing, not only with Mother Nature right now but also just the technical aspects of the failures that we're seeing with the fleet." 

Will Shell's grounded drilling ship impact US energy policy in Arctic?

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/will-shells-grounded-drilling-ship-impact-us-energy-policy-arctic