Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights
Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts

October 28, 2020

Sending Going Home Song for Evo Morales, by Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

Ofelia Rivas, co-chair of Indigenous rights working group, Cochabamba, Bolivia
Photo by Ben Powless, Mohawk

Crow Voices Radio -- Govinda talked with Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, live from Montana.

Photo by Jason Jaacks

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

On Crow Voices Radio, Govinda interviewed Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, live from Montana today. Ofelia described the opposition to the Israeli spy towers of Elbit Systems, now being constructed on her Tohono O'odham Nation homeland.
Along with the spy towers, integrated fixed towers, the vehicle barrier now prevents animals from migrating. The towers allow the U.S. government to watch and listen to traditional O'odham in their home communities.
Rivas said the Tohono O'odham Nation government's opposition to the border wall is just rhetoric because the elected tribal government does not want to jeopardize its federal funding.
Traditional O'odham continue their prayers for the protection of the water and Quitobaquito Springs.
"We do need each others help to protect our lives and appreciation of Mother Earth," Rivas said.
"We are all going through a lot of changes."
Rivas said she is in a grieving mode, because there is a lot of destruction, and not just because of the pandemic. "The destruction of the sacred mountain affects our way of life."
O'odham remember their ancestors and hold them dear.
"If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be sitting here today."
As the number of O'odham communities on the south side of the border decreases, she said the Mexican government has not supported the O'odham on the south side. Rivas has been delivering water and food to O'odham.
"We meet at that fence," she said, of deliveries to O'odham on the south side.
"Stay strong, and be healthy, and be happy," she said.
Oct. 28 live on Crow Voices.

Ofelia Rivas' website: O'odham Solidarity Movement, O'odham Voice Against the Wall


Welcome home message to Evo Morales, from Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

By Ofelia Rivas
Censored News

Sending him my going home song and all the flowers for his walk to his community, to his family. Our prayer offerings are wonderfully fulfilled that no harm will come to the only Indigenous president of this world. I was a guest in his homelands and the people were so beautiful and they love President Juan Evo Morales Ayma. -- Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

Bolivian President Evo Morales invited members of the international press to join him at his mountain homeland in Bolivia, during the gathering in 2010. Here, he shared a traditional meal with us, fresh fish, purple potatoes and boiled corn on clay dishes, after Morales played a game of soccer. 
-- Brenda Norrell, Censored News



Democracy Now! reports: "In Bolivia, a court in La Paz has dismissed terrorism charges and annulled an arrest warrant against Evo Morales, arguing the former president’s rights and due process had been violated. The charges were issued following a right-wing coup last year that overthrew Morales. This comes as Morales has vowed to return to Bolivia after Luis Arce of Morales’s MAS party won last week’s presidential election by a landslide. Morales has been in exile for nearly one year."

World's Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 2010



 

October 5, 2015

O'odham and Dineh Women Seek Sponsors to Cochabamba Climate Conference 2015


Michelle Cook, Dineh (Navajo) and Ofelia Rivas,
O'odham, make plans for Cochabamba.
Photo Brenda Norrell Sept. 2015
Update Oct. 9, 2015: Sadly, there was no response for travel sponsors for these incredible grassroots women.

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News


TUCSON -- Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas and Dineh Michelle Cook hope to return to Cochabamba, Bolivia, in October and continue the work that they began five years ago when President Evo Morales hosted the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. 

Bolivia is hosting the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and Defense of Life, October 10--12, 2015, and the women who facilitated the Indigenous Working Group at the 2010 Conference in Cochabamba hope to be there.


Ofelia Rivas, outspoken human rights defender living on the border in her homeland, on the Tohono O'odham Nation, is founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall. Ofelia co-chaired the Indigenous Working Group in Cochabama in 2010. 

"Everyone had a voice," Ofelia said, remembering the gathering in Cochabamba.

Michelle Cook, Dineh (Navajo) flew into Cochabamba from New Zealand in 2010 and assisted Ofelia with the work of the Indigenous Working Group in Cochabamba. Since then, Michelle received her masters degree as a Fulbright scholar in New Zealand, in Maori and Pacific Development, and completed law school at the University of New Mexico. Michelle is currently in the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

November 30, 2014

Bolivia's Nuclear Power Plant is Disturbing News to Native Americans

Native Americans alarmed by Bolivia President Evo Morales announcement of building a nuclear power plant

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News
Dutch
French

The announcement by Bolivia President Evo Morales that Bolivia would build a nuclear power plant came as troubling news to those who attended the Climate Change and Protection of Mother Earth Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2010.


Ofelia Rivas, O’odham from the O’odham Territory on Turtle Island, was among those from the north who attended the conference in Bolivia and recommends action.

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, Cochabamba, Bolivia
Photo Ben Powless, Mohawk

"As co-President of the Indigenous Working Group on the Rights of Mother Earth at the 2010 World Indigenous Climate Change Summit, I recommend a world-wide petition to express our deep concern of this 'economic liberation' development decision in Bolivia. I recall the words of the grassroots women of Bolivia, and their deep heartfull love of Pachamama, Mother Earth and the absolute determination to protect her.”


Bolivian President Evo Morales announced that his government will invest around $2 billion US through 2025 to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, TeleSur reports.

President Morales said, "We can never feel like a small country again now that we have liberated ourselves economically. With this type of investment toward atomic energy we are going to guarantee that.”

Bolivia began nuclear cooperation with Argentina in May of 2014, and most recently in mid-July, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Brazil. Morales then announced that the Russian leader offered Bolivia technology and ongoing training for the country's scientists, TeleSur reported.

The nuclear power plant would be built in La Paz province. The announcement was made after uranium was discovered in the Santa Cruz area. In a strange turn of event, La Paz and Santa Cruz were two of the cities that Native Americans arrived in for the Mother Earth Conference in 2010, before traveling on to Cochabamba.

Following the gathering in Cochabamba, Bolivia and Ecuador both passed laws upholding the Rights of Nature.
In Indian country in the United States, Native Americans are quick to point out the dangers of uranium mining and nuclear waste dumps to Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia.

Klee Benally, Dine' (Navajo) said, "The nuclear production process has only meant death for Indigenous Peoples and desecration of sacred lands. From mining, milling, processing, transporting, energy, weapons, and waste, the toxic legacy of nuclear colonialism is anything but a "green alternative." 

"There are more than 10,000 abandoned uranium mines located throughout the US, many of them are in or near Indigenous communities where high cancer rates and birth defects are caused by exposure to these toxic sites. Sacred places like Mount Taylor in New Mexico or Red Butte in Arizona, are desecrated for uranium extraction. The US currently has more than 71,000 metric tons of that it's attempting to store at Yucca Mountain, a sacred site for the Western Shoshone. The Western Shoshone have also faced more than 1,000 atomic bomb detonations on their lands," Klee Benally told Censored News.

Navajos and Pueblos, and other Natives throughout the west, have suffered from cancer and other deadly diseases for decades because of uranium mining. Navajos were sent to their deaths in uranium mines without protective clothing. As late as the 1990s, in the communities of Cove and Red Valley near Shiprock, N.M., on the Navajo Nation, Navajo elders lived in homes built of radioactive rocks. Navajo members of every family in those communities died from cancer from uranium mining. Navajo children in the region played in yards strewn with radioactive rocks from uranium mining. 

Even in the area of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley on the western portion of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, which are both major tourist attractions, uranium mines and strewn radioactive rocks left a legacy of death.

Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, said Pueblos died after the radioactive dust covered their foods, and the radioactive dust covered the fields where their livestock grazed. Pueblo women were contaminated further as they washed the clothing of their husbands who worked in the mines.


Today, unreclaimed radioactive tailings remain scattered on the Navajo Nation. The uranium mining corporations have largely escaped responsibility for the widespread deaths and devastation, even as new uranium mining threatens the region.


Further, Western Shoshone battle the threat of nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, as Native American lands have been targeted for dangerous nuclear waste storage. Nuclear disasters have proven there is no safe way to transport or store nuclear waste. Western Shoshone lands were also the site of US atomic bomb testing.


Responding to the deadly dangers of uranium mining and nuclear waste storage, Louise Benally, Dine' of Big Mountain, told Censored News, "It is all bad, it is not safe."


The dangers were resounded in an open letter from the global community to President Morales, posted on Breaking the Nuclear Chain:
Excerpt from the letter:
The safety of a nuclear plant is a myth, fuelled by industry supporters and industrialists, but clearly denied by the facts: the last half-century shows that we must expect an extremely serious accident every few years. The consequences of a major nuclear accident are worse than those of any other accident. The legacy of the Fukushima accident alone will last for decades to burden Japan and the world!
Nuclear energy is a vulnerable target to terrorist attacks and leads to a militarization of the surrounding territory.
For all these reasons, the production of energy by nuclear means is in steep decline all around the world and is likely to continue that way; it is reasonable to expect that the construction of new nuclear power plants and their total number will decrease in the future.
Nuclear power on planet Earth represents the quintessential "anti-nature" form of energy production. Nature uses nuclear reactions in the creation of new worlds in stars. That however is fusion, not fission; on Earth its use is purely episodic and marginal.
There is a tight bond between civil and military nuclear energy production. The materials and basic techniques are the same, with plutonium - the ‘explosive’ material ideal for nuclear power generation as well as nuclear weapons – resulting as a by-product during the chain reaction.
Anna Polo, World without Wars, Italy
Olivier Turquet, chief editor Pressenza Italy
Angelo Baracca, Professor of Physics, Italy
Carlos Vassaux M.D., USA
Dr. Jouni Ylinen, Finland
Ira Helfand, MD,  USA, co-President International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Claudio Giangiacomo, Italy
Nnimmo Bassey, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nigeria
Roberto Renzetti, Professor of Physics and essayist, Italy
People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australia
Human Survival Project, Australia

French translation by Christine Prat, thank you!
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=2591



LES AMERINDIENS TRES INQUIETS SUITE A L’ANNONCE PAR LE PRESIDENT EVO MORALES DE LA CONSTRUCTION D’UNE CENTRALE NUCLEAIRE
Par Brenda Norrell
Censored News
30 novembre 2014
Traduction Christine Prat

L’annonce par le Président de Bolivie Evo Morales suivant laquelle la Bolivie construirait une centrale nucléaire a été perçue comme une nouvelle troublante par ceux qui ont participé à la Conférence sur le Changement Climatique et la Protection de la Terre Mère à Cochabamba, en Bolivie, en 2010.
Ofelia Rivas, O’odham du Territoire O’odham dans l’Ile de la Tortue [Amérique du Nord] Ã©tait parmi ceux du nord qui participaient à la conférence en Bolivie et elle recommande l’action.
« En tant que co-Présidente du Groupe de Travail Autochtone sur les Droits de Notre Mère la Terre au Sommet Mondial Autochtone de 2010 sur le Changement Climatique, je recommande une pétition à l’échelle mondiale pour exprimer notre profonde inquiétude devant cette décision de développement de ‘libération économique’ en Bolivie. Je me souviens de ce qu’ont dit les femmes boliviennes de la base et de leur profond amour pour Pachamama, Notre Mère la Terre et leur détermination absolue de la protéger. »
Le Président bolivien Evo Morales a annoncé que son gouvernement investira environs 2 milliards de dollars d’ici à 2025 pour développer l’énergie nucléaire dans des buts pacifiques, selon la chaîne TeleSur.
Le Président Morales a déclaré : « Nous ne pourrons plus jamais nous considérer comme un petit pays maintenant que nous nous sommes libérés économiquement. Avec ce type d’investissement dans l’énergie nucléaire nous le garantirons. »
La Bolivie a commencé sa coopération nucléaire avec l’Argentine en mai 2014, et plus récemment, à la mis juillet, après une rencontre avec le Président Russe Vladimir Poutine, au Brésil. Morales a alors annoncé que le dirigeant russe offrait à la Bolivie la technologie et la formation continue des scientifiques du pays, dit la chaîne TeleSur.
La centrale nucléaire serait construite dans la province de La Paz. L’annonce a été faite après que de l’uranium ait été découvert dans la région de Santa Cruz. Par un curieux concours de circonstances, La Paz et Santa Cruz sont les deux villes où les Amérindiens sont arrivés pour la Conférence sur la Terre Mère en 2014, avant de se rendre à Cochabamba.
Suite au rassemblement de Cochabamba, La Bolivie et l’Equateur ont adopté des lois affirmant les Droits de la Nature.
En pays Indien aux Etats-Unis, les Amérindiens sont prompts à souligner les dangers de l’extraction d’uranium et des décharges de déchets nucléaires à l’attention des Peuples Autochtones de Bolivie.
Klee Benally, Diné (Navajo), avait dit : « Le processus de production nucléaire n’a signifié que la mort et la profanation de terres sacrées pour les Peuples Autochtones. De l’extraction, au retraitement, au transport, à l’énergie, aux armes et aux déchets, l’héritage toxique du colonialisme nucléaire, est tout sauf une ‘alternative verte’. »
« Il y a plus de 10000 mines d’uranium abandonnées dans tous les Etats-Unis, beaucoup sont situées dans ou à proximité de communautés Autochtones où les taux élevés de cancers et de malformations congénitales sont causés par l’exposition à ces sites toxiques. Des sites sacrés comme le Mont Taylor au Nouveau Mexique ou Red Butte en Arizona, sont profanés pour extraire l’uranium. Les Etats-Unis ont actuellement plus de 71000 tonnes de déchets qu’ils essaient d’entreposer à Yucca Mountain, un site sacré pour les Shoshone de l’ouest. Les Shoshone de l’ouest ont aussi eu plus de 1000 explosions de bombes atomiques sur leurs terres [ce territoire était l’équivalent de Mururoa pour les Français – NdT], » dit Klee Benally à Censored News.
Klee Benally  parlé (et chanté) des mines d’uranium abandonnées à Montreuil en 2013
Les Navajo et les Pueblos, et d’autres Autochtones dans tout l’ouest, ont souffert de cancers et autres maladies mortelles pendant des décennies à cause de l’extraction d’uranium. Des Navajos ont été envoyés à une mort certaine dans les mines d’uranium, sans combinaisons protectrices. Jusque dans les années 1990, dans les communautés de Cove et Red Valley près de Shiprock, au Nouveau Mexique, dans la Nation Navajo, des Navajo âgés ont vécu dans des maisons construites avec des roches radioactives. Des membres de toutes les familles de ces communautés sont morts de cancers à cause de l’extraction d’uranium. Des enfants Navajo de la région jouaient dans des cours parsemées de pierres radioactives à cause de l’extraction d’uranium.
Même dans la région du Grand Canyon et de Monument Valley, dans la partie ouest de la Nation Navajo, en Arizona, deux sites qui sont éminemment touristiques, les mines d’uranium et des pierres radioactives éparpillées ont laissé un héritage mortel.
De nombreux Pino, des Pueblo Acoma du Nouveau Mexique, dirent que des Pueblos étaient morts après que la poussière radioactive ait recouvert leur nourriture, et les champs dans lesquels leur bétail paissait. Des femmes Pueblo ont été contaminées en lavant les vêtements de leurs maris qui travaillaient dans les mines.
Aujourd’hui, des résidus radioactifs non-décontaminés sont toujours dispersés dans la Nation Navajo. Les entreprises minières ont largement été soustraites à leur responsabilité d’avoir semé la mort et la dévastation, alors même que de nouveaux projets d’extraction menacent la région.
De plus, les Shoshone de l’ouest combattent la menace de voir entreposer des déchets nucléaires sur la Yucca Mountain, dans le Nevada, étant donné que les Amérindiens ont toujours été la cible des décharges de déchets nucléaires. Les désastres nucléaires ont prouvé qu’il n’y a pas de moyen sûr de transporter ou d’entreposer les déchets nucléaires. Les terres des Shoshone de l’ouest était aussi le site des essais pour les bombes atomiques des Etats-Unis.
Réagissant aux dangers mortels de l’extraction d’uranium et de l’enfouissement des déchets, Louise Benally, Diné de Big Mountain, a dit à Censored News : « C’est totalement mauvais, il n’y a aucune sécurité. »
Les dangers ont été exprimés dans une lettre ouverte de la communauté mondiale au Président Morales, publiée sur le site Breaking the Nuclear Chain :
Extrait de la lettre :
La sécurité d’une centrale nucléaire est un mythe, promus par les partisans de l’industrie nucléaire et les industriels, mais c’est clairement nié par les faits : le demi-siècle passé montre qu’on peut s’attendre à des accidents extrêmement graves très régulièrement. Les conséquences d’un accident nucléaire majeur sont pires que celles de n’importe quel autre accident. Rien que l’héritage de Fukushima durera des décennies et affectera le Japon et le reste du monde !
L’énergie nucléaire est vulnérable aux attaques terroristes et conduit à la militarisation du territoire aux alentours.
Il y a un lien très étroit entre le nucléaire civil et le nucléaire militaire. Les matériaux et les techniques de base sont les mêmes, avec du plutonium – le matériel ‘explosif’ idéal pour produire de l’énergie nucléaire et fabriquer des armes nucléaires – qui résulte comme sous-produit de la réaction en chaîne.
Signataires :
Anna Polo, World without Wars, Italy
Olivier Turquet, chief editor Pressenza Italy
Angelo Baracca, Professor of Physics, Italy
Carlos Vassaux M.D., USA
Dr. Jouni Ylinen, Finland
Ira Helfand, MD, USA, co-President International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Claudio Giangiacomo, Italy
Nnimmo Bassey, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nigeria
Roberto Renzetti, Professor of Physics and essayist, Italy
People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australia
Human Survival Project, Australia

* BOLIVIA – BOUW VAN KERNCENTRALE VERONTRUSTEND NIEUWS VOOR NATIVE AMERIKANEN
Door Brenda Norrell, Censored News:www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Vertaald door NAIS, De NAIS Gazet: www.denaisgazet.be

Morales.jpg
De aankondiging van de Boliviaanse president Evo Morales over de bouw van een kerncentrale in Bolivia kwam hard aan bij diegenen die de ‘Climate Change en Protection of Mother Earth ‘ conferentie hebben bijgewoond in 2010.
ofelia.jpg
                    Ofelia Rivas- foto van Ben Powless
Ofelia RivasO’odham van het O’odham Territory op Turtle Island, een van hen uit het noorden die deelgenomen heeft aan de conference, roept op tot actie.
 “Als co- voorzitter van de Inheemse Werkgroep voor de rechten van Moeder Aarde op de ‘World Indigenous Climate Change Summit,’ in 2010, roep ik op tot een wereldwijde petitie om onze grote bezorgdheid over deze beslissing voor “economische bevrijding” in Bolivia kenbaar te maken. Ik moet steeds denken aan de woorden van de grassroots- vrouwen in Bolivia, en hun diepe liefde voor Pachamama, Moeder Aarde en hun absolute vastberadenheid om haar te beschermen.”
De Boliviaanse president Evo Morales heeft aangekondigd dat zijn regering ongeveer $2 miljard gaat investeren om een kerncentrale te bouwen voor vreedzame doeleinden. Dit volgens TeleSur.
President Morales zei: “ Wij kunnen ons nooit meer een klein land voelen nu dat we onszelf economisch bevrijd hebben. Met dit type van investering in atoomenergie, kunnen wij daar zeker van zijn.”
Bolivia begon de nucleaire samenwerking met Argentina in de maand mei 2014, en nog eens recenter in midden juli na de ontmoeting met de Russische president Vladimir Putin in Brazilië.
TeleSur rapporteerde dat Morales aankondigde dat de Russische leider Bolivia, technologie en training voor Boliviaanse wetenschappers heeft aangeboden.
De kerncentrale zou gebouwd worden in de La Paz provincie.
De aankondiging kwam er nadat er uranium ontdekt was in het Santa Cruz gebied.
Het toeval wil dat in deze twee steden, La Paz en Santa Cruz de Native Amerikaanse delegaties bijeenkwamen alvorens naar Cochabamba door te reizen.
Volgend op de bijeenkomst in Cochabamba hebben Bolivia en Ecuador wetten gestemd om de rechten van de natuur te respecteren.
In Indian Country in de Verenigde Staten wijzen de Native Amerikanen al meteen op de gevaren van de uranium ontginning en nucleaire stortplaatsen.
Klee Benally, Dine’ zegt: “Het nucleaire productieproces betekende alleen maar dood voor inheemsen en ontwijding van sacraal land. Van ontginning, milling, processing, transporteren, energie, wapens, tot afval, is het erfenis van de nucleaire kolonisatie allesbehalve een “groen alternatief.”
“ Meer dan 10.000 verlaten uranium mijnen zijn doorheen de Verenigde Staten gelokaliseerd, veel daarvan in of nabij inheemse gemeenschappen waar hoge kankersterftes en geboorteafwijkingen vastgesteld zijn, veroorzaakt door blootstelling aan deze toxische sites.
Sacrale plaatsen zoals Mount Taylor in New Mexico of Red Butte in Arizona, zijn ontheiligd door uranium ontginningen.
De Verenigde Staten willen meer dan 1000 kilo opslaan op de Yucca Mountain, een sacrale site voor de Western Shoshone. De Western Shoshone hebben ook reeds te maken gekregen met 1000 atoom bom -detonaties op hun land,” zegt Klee Benally aan Censored News.
Navajo’s en Pueblo’s, en andere Natives in het westen, lijden al tientallen jaren aan kankers en andere dodelijke ziekten door de uranium ontginningen.
Navajo’s werden de dood ingestuurd in uranium mijnen zonder beschermende kledij. Zelfs recent, in de jaren 1990, woonden Elders in de gemeenschappen van Cove en Red Valley, nabij Shiprock, N.M. in huizen die gebouwd waren van radioactieve rotsen.
Van iedere familie in deze gemeenschappen stierven er vele aan de kankers veroorzaakt door de uraniummijnen. Navajo kinderen speelden in tuinen die bezaaid waren met radioactieve stenen.
Zelfs in het gebied van de Grand Canyon en Monument Vallei in het westelijke gedeelte van de Navajo natie in Arizona, die beiden belangrijke toeristen attracties zijn, hebben de uranium mijnen en radioactieve afval hun erfenis van dood achtergelaten.
Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, zei dat Pueblos gestorven zijn nadat radioactief stof neerkwam op hun voedsel, en het stof bedekte de velden waarop hun vee graasde. Pueblo vrouwen werden nog veder besmet door het wassen van de kleding van hun mannen die in de mijnen werkten.
Tot op vandaag, ligt er nog radioactief afval verspreid over de Navajo natie. De uraniummijn corporaties ontsnappen aan de verantwoordelijkheid voor de wijdverspreide dood en verwoesting, zelfs nu nog wanneer nieuwe ontginningen in het gebeid dreigen.
Verder bevechten de Western Shoshone de bedreiging van nucleaire afval op Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Nucleaire rampen hebben het bewijs geleverd dat er geen veilige manier is om nucleair afval te transporteren of op te slaan. Western Shoshone land was ook de site waar de US atoombom getest werd.
Louise Benally, Dine’ van Big Mountain zei aan Censored News: “Het is allemaal slecht, niets is veilig.”
De gevaren weerklinken in de open brief van de ‘global community’ aan President Morales, gepost op ‘Breaking the Nuclear Chain’:

Uittreksel:
De veiligheid van een kerncentrale is een mythe, gevoed door industriëlen en hun aanhangers , maar duidelijk weerlegt door de feiten: de laatste helft van de eeuw toont ons dat we om de paar jaar een extreem ernstig accident kunnen verwachten.
De gevolgen van een belangrijk nucleair accident zijn erger dan de ergste van eender welk ander accident.
De erfenis van het Fukushima accident alleen al zal nog tientallen jaren aanslepen en Japan en de wereld belasten.

Nucleaire energie is een kwetsbaar doel voor terrorist aanvallen en leid tot een militarisering van het omliggende gebied.

Voor al deze redenen, de productie van energie door nucleaire middelen over de hele wereld is aan een teruggang bezig, die waarschijnlijk nog zal verder gaan; is het redelijk om te verwachten dat de bouw van nieuwe kerncentrales zal afnemen.
Kernenergie op planeet Aarde vertegenwoordigd de zuiverste “anti-nature” vorm van energie productie.
Natuur gebruikt nucleaire reacties in de creatie van nieuwe werelden in sterren. Dat echter is fusie, geen splitsing; op aarde is zijn gebruik louter episodisch en marginaal.

Er is een sterke band tussen burgerlijke en militaire energie productie. De materialen en basis technieken zijn hetzelfde, met plutonium – het “explosieve” materiaal ideaal voor zowel kerncentrales als atoomwapens- resulteert als een bij- product tijdens de kettingreactie.

Lees meer:
Anna Polo, World without Wars, Italy
Olivier Turquet, chief editor Pressenza Italy
Angelo Baracca, Professor of Physics, Italy
Carlos Vassaux M.D., USA
Dr. Jouni Ylinen, Finland
Ira Helfand, MD,  USA, co-President International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Claudio Giangiacomo, Italy
Nnimmo Bassey, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nigeria
Roberto Renzetti, Professor of Physics and essayist, Italy
People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australia
Human Survival Project, Australia

January 29, 2014

Snowden docs: US spying on Copenhagen thwarted change Indigenous hoped for

US spying on Copenhagen climate summit was aimed at halting real climate solutions

By Brenda Norrell
Copenhagen 2009 by Ben Powless, Mohawk, IEN

The latest documents released by Edward Snowden reveal that the US engaged in spying on other countries at the Copenhagen climate summit in order to support American interests and prevent any real climate solutions.

The US is historically the largest carbon emitter, which includes the coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Nation and elsewhere in Indian country.

Rallying in defense of Mother Earth in Copenhagen were large delegations of grassroots Native Americans and First Nations, along with Indigenous Peoples from around the world, working for real climate solutions.

Copenhagen become "Hopenhagen" with new hope for climate solutions and protection of the planet. Carrying forward this hope, Indigenous Peoples gathered in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with President Evo Morales the following year in 2010 for the Protection of Mother Earth Conference, which ignited the movement for the defense of the Rights of Nature, with the release of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth.

The documents leaked by Snowden were made public on Wednesday night by the Danish daily Information. The Danish Information reports:

"At the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, the world's nations were supposed to reach an agreement that would protect future generations against catastrophic climate change. But not everyone was playing by the rules. A leaked document now reveals that the US employed the NSA, its signals intelligence agency, to intercept information about other countries' views on the climate negotiations before and during the summit."

"... the document suggests that the NSA's actual focus in relation to climate change was spying on other countries to collect intelligence that would support American interests, rather than preventing future climate catastrophes. It describes the US as being under pressure because of its role as the historically largest carbon emitter."
In the mountains of Bolivia
President Evo Morales 2010
Photo Brenda Norrell

After the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit, Bolivian President Evo Morales called for the summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

"Those most affected by climate change will be the poorest in the world who will see their homes and their sources of survival destroyed, and who will be forced to migrate and seek refuge," President Morales said.

President Morales pointed out that 75 percent of historical emissions of greenhouse gases originated in the countries of the North that followed a path of "irrational industrialization."

"Climate change is a product of the capitalist system," President Morales said. While citing regret at the failure of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, he said the so-called developed countries failed to recognize their climate debt to developing countries, future generations and Mother Earth.

Previous documents leaked by Snowden reveal that the NSA spied on the climate negotiations in Bali, which also attracted Native American delegations, including the Indigenous Environmental Network.

The Guardian reported, "Australian spy agency the Defence Signals Directorate worked alongside America’s National Security Agency in mounting a massive surveillance operation on Indonesia during the United Nations climate change conference in Bali in 2007." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/nsa-australia-bali-conference-spy-indonesia


Read more: US spied on negotiators at Copenhagen climate summit
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/snowden-nsa-surveillance-_n_4681362.html?1391048276

Article copyright Brenda Norrell, photo copyright photo one Ben Powless, photo 2 Brenda Norrell

January 17, 2014

ECUADOR Rights of Nature Tribunal hears 8 cases

First Global Tribunal on Rights of Nature hears 8 cases

Rights of Nature Ethics Tribunal 
FIRST WORLD TRIBUNAL ON RIGHTS OF NATURE
HEARS EIGHT CASES FOR ADMISSIBILITY
GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR RIGHTS OF NATURE
COMMITS TO DEEPEN AND EXPAND THE WORLDWIDE MOVEMENT
QUITO, ECUADOR
The world’s first Tribunal on the Rights of Nature is being held in Quito, Ecuador, today. Headed by Vandana Shiva, physicist and internationally renowned environmental activist, this “Seed” Tribunal is hearing eight cases to determine their admissibility for adjudication at a later Tribunal, which will be held in another city and country later this year. The Tribunal for Rights of Nature will become permanent, hearing cases around the world.
The cases and the persons presenting the factual arguments for admitting them for adjudication under Rights of Nature are:
BP                                            Esperanza Martínez, Ecuador
Fracking                                  Shannon Biggs, United States
Chevron                                  Julio Prieto, Ecuador
Yasuní-ITT                               Carlos Larrea, Ecuador
Great Barrier Reef                 Michelle Maloney, Australia
Minería Condor Mirador      Nathaly Yépez, Ecuador
GMOs                                     Elizabeth Bravo, Ecuador
Climate Change                     Pablo Solón, Bolivia
The international panel of judges sitting on the Tribunal includes:
Alberto Acosta, economist and former President of the Constituent Assembly from Quito, Ecuador
Tantoo Cardinal, actress (e.g., Dances with Wolves) from the Tar Sands of Canada
Blanca Chancoso, Kichwa leader and educator from Cotacachi, Imbabura, Ecuador
Cormac Cullinan, lawyer and author (Wild Law), Earth Democracy Coop, Cape Town, South Africa
Tom Goldtooth, Dine’/Dakota, director of Indigenous Environmental Network from Minnesota, US
Julio César Trujillo, constitutional lawyer for Yasunidos from Quito, Ecuador
Elsie Monge, human rights activist and president of CEDHU y FIDH from Quito, Ecuador
Atossa Soltani, founder and director of Amazon Watch from Washington, DC, US
Enrique Viale, environmental lawyer from Buenos Aires, Argentina
Native rights activist Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca from Oklahoma, US) andPatricia Gualinga, an indigenous of the Amazon and director of Sayaku, will provide expert witness testimony on the critical importance of Rights of Nature.Carlos Pérez will provide testimony as to his recent actions in defense of Mother Earth, the reasons for his actions and its consequences.
Patricia Gualinga, Sarayaku Leader.
The Tribunal begins at 8:30 and concludes at 17:00. Before rendering her judgment at the end of the day, Vandana Shiva will speak to the issues at stake in this Tribunal and the worldwide Rights of Nature movement.
The Tribunal marks the end of a five-day summit of more than 60 global leaders of the Rights of Nature movement who form part of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. The participants hail from Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, United States, Spain, Canada, India, Romania, Bolivia, Argentina, and the United Kingdom, as well as Ecuador.
The Global Alliance for Rights of Nature was founded at a gathering in Ecuador in 2010, two years after Ecuador became the first nation in the world to adopt Rights of Nature in its Constitution. At the summit, the leaders committed to redoubling their efforts to broaden and deepen the movement worldwide over the coming year, with a series of actions that will be detailed in the next months.
The Rights of Nature movement draws on the wisdom and cosmovision of indigenous peoples in positing a new jurisprudence that recognizes the right of nature in all its forms to exist, persist, evolve and regenerate.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Robin R. Milam
1.530.272.4322/Nature@TheRightsofNature.org