Ecuador Takes on Chevron, Global Indifference in Controversial Fights to Protect Rainforest |

Ecuador Takes on Chevron, Global Indifference in Controversial Fights to Protect Rainforest | Democracy Now!

During a visit to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño joins us to discuss his government’s involvement in two closely watched environmental legal battles. An Ecuadorean court has ordered the oil giant Chevron to pay $19 billion to indigenous and rural Ecuadoreans for the dumping of as much as 18.5 billion gallons of highly toxic waste sludge into the rainforest. But Chevron has refused, winning a partial victory last week when an international arbitration panel based in The Hague delivered an interim ruling questioning the validity of the original 2011 verdict. Patiño also addresses why Ecuador recently dropped a plan to preserve swaths of the Amazon rainforest from oil drilling by having wealthy countries pay them not to drill, an effort that the Ecuadorean government says failed to attract sufficient funding. Leading environmentalists, including Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein and James Hansen, recently wrote an open letter to President Rafael Correa asking him not to forsake the initiative, saying: "Along with thousands of other world citizens, we look to the Yasuní-ITT initiative as a pioneering step in the international struggle for a post-fossil-fuel civilization. We have been inspired by the determination of the Ecuadorean public to rejuvenate the initiative following your government’s recent decision to abandon it."
Watch the full interview with Ricardo Patiño here

FREE Dhondup Wangchen - Amnesty International

Amnesty International

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Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen is serving a six-year prison sentence in China for "inciting separatism" -- simply because he dared to speak out about Tibetan human rights through his filmmaking. Demand his release now!

Dhondup is not due to be released until December 2014. He has been tortured, subjected to solitary confinement, and at times forced to work up to 18 hours a day. He suffers from various medical issues, including Hepatitis B, for which he is not receiving treatment.

Write for Rights 2013 | Amnesty International Canada

Write for Rights 2013 | Amnesty International Canada

Amnesty International invites you to join us on International Human Rights Day for the world’s largest letter-writing event

Every year on December 10th, activists in more than 80 countries gather on their own or in large and small events to press governments to respond to a human rights concern on selected high-priority cases. We also write letters of hope and solidarity directly to prisoners or people experiencing human rights violations.

(choose cases from link above)

GE Fish / T Canadian Biotechnology Action Network - CBAN

GE Fish / Topics / Resources / Take Action - Canadian Biotechnology Action Network - CBAN

GE salmon eggs

Environment Canada has approved the commercial production of genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon eggs Prince Edward Island (PEI), the decision was announced on November 23 in the Canada Gazette. The U.S. company AquaBounty has asked for approval of the GM Atlantic salmon for human consumption in the U.S., based on a plan to produce the GM fish eggs in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada and ship them to Panama for grow-out and processing.
The company claims the salmon grow to market-size twice as fast as other farmed salmon. The salmon are engineered with a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon and genetic material from ocean pout (an eel-like creature). If approved, it would be the first GE food animal in the world.
You can email the Minister of the Environment today!

• Press Release - November 25, 2013: Canada’s Approval of GM Fish Eggs Threatens Environment, Groups Say
• Media Background, November 2013

Protect Costa Rica's rainforests: tell Infinito Gold to drop the $1b lawsuit | SumOfUs

Protect Costa Rica's rainforests: tell Infinito Gold to drop the $1b lawsuit | SumOfUs
Infinito Gold, a Canadian mining company, just slapped Costa Rica with a $1 billion lawsuit simply because the country decided its rainforests were more important than an open-pit gold mine.
Lauded as one of the countries with the most beautiful rainforests, it’s no wonder Costa Rica rejected Infinito’s mine. Costa Rica’s rainforest is home to many endangered species such the green macaw. Gold mining also uses toxic chemicals such as cyanide, which often leaks into and pollutes nearby lakes and rivers.

Cases | Amnesty International Canada: Write for Rights, Dec 10

Cases | Amnesty International Canada

Write with hundreds of thousands of human rights supporters

On December 10, let the letter-writing marathon begin! Amnesty supporters in 80 countries around the world will be participating in what has become the world’s biggest letter-writing event. Together our collective action on these priority cases will put massive pressure on governments to respond positively to our plea to improve human rights.
Each year Amnesty selects human rights cases for Write for Rights. Follow the links below to read case details, download printable case sheets for your letter writing, and take action. Letter-writing tips, event resources, slideshows and more are located on the resources page.

Solar for the Philippines - WakaWaka

Solar for the Philippines - WakaWaka US

We personally bought wakawaka solar chargers for gifts and they sent some to syria and haiti.
You can now buy the and send them to the phillippines.  

Our partner the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is on the ground in the Philippines mobilizing a humanitarian response to the typhoon. Delivering clean water and safe sanitation is the IRC's first focus. But access to light and power is also included in the first critically important services to be lost. And the effects can be devastating.
WakaWaka's solar-powered devices provide immediate assistance as well as long-term relief, enabling the survivors to see after dark and to charge their phones to connect with family members elsewhere. In addition, emergency response teams need a source of light and power to even begin dealing with the crisis.
WakaWaka is getting solar-powered lamps and chargers to IRC staff on the ground - as many as we can, as soon as possible. Help them by buying one for yourself today!

Take action for human rights | Amnesty International Canada

Take action for human rights | Amnesty International Canada

Up to October 31, the province is inviting public comments on the plan to renew clearcut logging in the Grassy Narrows territory. Amnesty International takes no position on the details of the plan. However, we strongly support the people of Grassy Narrows who have said this decision cannot be made without their consent. We are encouraging our members and supporters to take this opportunity to express their own support for this fundamental human rights standard.

The draft ten-year plan will not be subject to an environmental impact assessment or any other public process. However, all comments submitted this month will form part of the public record and the province has promised to consider all the comments it receives.

No clear cutting on Grassy Narrows: Take action for human rights | Amnesty International Canada

Take action for human rights | Amnesty International Canada

Up to October 31, the province is inviting public comments on the plan to renew clearcut logging in the Grassy Narrows territory. Amnesty International takes no position on the details of the plan. However, we strongly support the people of Grassy Narrows who have said this decision cannot be made without their consent. We are encouraging our members and supporters to take this opportunity to express their own support for this fundamental human rights standard.

The draft ten-year plan will not be subject to an environmental impact assessment or any other public process. However, all comments submitted this month will form part of the public record and the province has promised to consider all the comments it receives.

Download This Anti-Fracking Protest Poster by Artist Gregg Deal - ICTMN.com

Download This Anti-Fracking Protest Poster by Artist Gregg Deal - ICTMN.com
great poster, based on the photo, attached.  (go to the link to download the entire poster, longer than the thumbnail)

Yesterday, as we were posting the excellent video project artist Gregg Deal (Pyramid Lake Paiute) has been cooking up, he was taking note of the chaos in Canada near Rexton, New Brunswick. He was inspired to make the poster below, which he offers as a free, open source image for anyone who cares to show solidarity with the protestors. Suitable for Facebook and Twitter posts, profile photos, or even framing -- right-click or ctrl-click (Mac) to download it in high resolution (file is 1728 x 2592 pixels, 1.19 MB):

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/18/download-anti-fracking-protest-poster-artist-gregg-deal-151814

GRAIN — Hands off our maize! Resistance to GMOs in Mexico

GRAIN — Hands off our maize! Resistance to GMOs in Mexico
In a previous report (“Red alert! GMO avalanche in Mexico”),1 we recounted the circumstances leading up to the imminent threat of the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) organisms (also known as GMOs, genetically modified organisms, or transgenics) into Mexico and several other Latin American countries. The whole continent is seeing a wave of measures, such as seed and intellectual property laws, designed to facilitate multinational control over agriculture. Unfortunately, these efforts are finding an echo in international organizations like the FAO and CIMMYT and in “development” foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
With or without the granting of commercial planting permits, the threat of Mexico’s largest cities being inundated with transgenic maize still looms. We are seeing the proliferation of authoritarian crop intensification systems whose ultimate result is to contaminate native maize varieties in the very centre of origin of this crop – one of the four most important crops in the history of humanity.
Public protest
The approval of permits for the commercial planting of GE maize in the states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas had seemed imminent, but thankfully this did not come to pass during President Felipe Calderón's final months in office. Yet the threat remains under the new administration of Enrique Peña Nieto. He may try to use his “National Crusade Against Hunger” as a pretext to distribute GE maize, claiming that it is needed to fight hunger.2 He might also invoke the Crusade in support of land grabbing, monoculture, and industrial agriculture with its typical package of agrotoxins, intellectual property rights, and criminalization of native seeds.3
Approval was not granted, the dates for a ruling expired, and the planting season for irrigated maize for northern Mexico, where the permits were requested, is over for the time being.
This success is a significant achievement on the part of Mexican and international organizations. Months of effort, initiative, and coordinated mobilization have gone into this. Information has been disseminated through the newspapers, social networks, meetings, assemblies, workshops, international petition campaigns, strikes, sit-in and fasts, public debates, and radio spots by well-known activists, intellectuals, and artists. Countless opinion pieces, news stories, billboards, and Web video and radio interviews have appeared. The national and international political cost in terms of public opinion continues to rise. On another level, the legal and administrative tangle through which various government bodies are attempting to navigate has made it very difficult for them to act in a coordinated fashion.
But it would be a mistake to assume the threat no longer exists. When planting time (irrigated or seasonal) rolls around again in northern Mexico, we will find out whether the corporations think they have their winning conditions in place. Applications for new permits have already been filed, covering as much as 36 million hectares.4

Important update on our #SaveTheBees campaign | Sierra Club Canada

Important update on our #SaveTheBees campaign | Sierra Club Canada
Since PMRA has invited us to comment on the use of neonicotinoids, let’s let them know what we think! We have made it easy -- just click here, fill in the form and click “send”. For everything you need (scientific studies, media releases, etc.) visit our #SaveTheBees webpage.
Please note: Be sure to include your full mail address in the body of your submission or the PMRA will invalidate your submission.
CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE

 On September 19th, Sierra Club Canada and others filed an objection to PMRA’s decision to re-license Clothianidin -- a neonicotinoid pesticide made by Bayer. We’re using a complex legal action in the hope we can force a reversal of the decision.
Here's what happened over the summer. In July, the Ontario Premier convened a “Bee Health Working Group” to give her recommendations for action to protect bees and other pollinating insects. However, within days of the first meeting, beekeepers in Ontario began reporting bee deaths.
In early August, David Schuit of Elmwood Ontario lost several million bees and Ontario beekeeper Jim Coneybeare was forced to truck his hives several hours north to “bear country” just so they could forage away from neonicotinoid pesticides.
You’ll remember that back in the spring, Health Canada’s “Pest Management Regulation Agency” (PMRA) concluded neonicotinoids only present a problem “during spring planting” and went ahead on July 13th to quietly re-license Clothianidin (a neonicotinoid manufactured by Bayer) despite demands from beekeepers and Sierra Club Canada to ban bee-killing pesticides (we even sent the Health and Agriculture Ministers 20 scientific studies linking neonicotinoid pesticides with bee deaths).