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A healthy and sustainable environment is the foundation of an equitable, functioning society and the basis for prosperity, well-being, security, and stability of human and animal life. We must implement global, national and subnational policies on the conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of ecosystems, landscapes, and seascapes, including building cities with nature, through locally adapted, resource-efficient, and just systemic interventions. These must be based on the precautionary principle and follow a global mitigation hierarchy for nature conservation.

In this context we are urging governments to fully utilise the opportunity presented by the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of our ecosystems and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in order to build a clear pathway to achieve a world in harmony with nature.

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Our Future With Nature | GYBN - Our Future With Nature | GYBN

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A healthy and sustainable environment is the foundation of an equitable, functioning society and the basis for prosperity, well-being, security, and stability of human and animal life. We must implement global, national and subnational policies on the conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of ecosystems, landscapes, and seascapes, including building cities with nature, through locally adapted, resource-efficient, and just systemic interventions.

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share your thoughts on our list of demands for international action!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1maTudAIdIB0a4Ul_9VRjwRzpwaBA8iBsZStrVijce9M/edit?usp=sharing

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Black Woman (Marine Biologist) Reviews Seaspiracy 

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Black Woman (Marine Biologist) Reviews Seaspiracy 

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CW: slavery, dead megafauna

Why the Netflix "documentary" Seaspiracy is misleading, anti-Asian, and inaccurate.

(Fast forward to 8:25 for Part 3: Slavery & Exploitation)

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A Collective Poem against militarization of the Pacific

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A Collective Poem against militarization of the Pacific

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CW: war, bombs

A beautiful, moving poem by the Cancel RIMPAC coalition in their effort to cancel the 2020 RIMPAC war games, which contributes to environmental and cultural destruction, as well as accelerating climate change, and perpetuating environmental racism against the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific.

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Nuclear Testing on Marshallese (Bikini Atoll)

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Nuclear Testing on Marshallese (Bikini Atoll)

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CW: images of bombing, overt racism

This video does a great job quickly explaining the history behind nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands by the U.S. The Marshall Islands is a part of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) which has continuously and still to this day undergo some of the worst forms of environmental racism, with generations of trauma caused by the bombing of their Indigenous lands, the loss of their islands due to intense levels of radioactive fallout, compounded by climate change. In addition, the people of the Marshall Islands experience high rates of cancer, stillbirths, and birth deformities.

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A great article that details how  for >70 years, US military operations have been contaminating the Pacific region with toxic substances including radioactive fallout, nerve agent and dioxin-tainted Agent Orange. These atrocities have been occuring in the islands of Okinawa, Hawai'i, and Guåhan and have affected the health and environment of the Indigenous peoples of those places.

This article is an interview with the author of the book "Poisoning the Pacific" which describes this using documents from the US Dept of Defense obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

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In 1968, Leroy Foster was a master sergeant in the US Air Force, assigned to the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, a United States island territory in the Pacific. The day after he arrived on the island, he recalled being ordered to mix "diesel fuel with Agent Orange", then spraying "it by truck all over the base to kill the jungle overgrowth".

Soon after, Foster suffered serious skin complaints and eventually fell sick with Parkinson's and ischemic heart disease. Later, his daughter had cancer as a teenager, and his grandchild was born with 12 fingers, 12 toes, and a heart murmur. Foster died in 2018.

A new book, Poisoning the Pacific, to be released Monday, chronicles the US military's decades-long contamination of indigenous lands across the Pacific as well as the ocean itself, endangering lives and ecosystems across the vast Pacific Ocean.

Written by British journalist Jon Mitchell, Poisoning the Pacific is based on more than 12,000 pages of documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and through interviews with local residents, military veterans and researchers.

The book argues that for decades, the US has treated its territories in the Pacific with negligence, allowing its military to violate indigenous rights, seize land, and damage delicate ecosystems.

Alongside Foster's case - after years of campaigning the airman was ultimately compensated for his exposure on the island - Mitchell's book details US military operations over decades contaminating the Pacific with toxic substances including radioactive waste, nerve agents, and dioxin-tainted Agent Orange.

"US authorities have repeatedly tried to cover up contamination through lies, disinformation and attacks on reporters," Mitchell told The Guardian. "I have experienced this pressure firsthand."

Mitchell's book documents several attempts by the US departments of state and defense to block his work. One FOIA file showed Mitchell was monitored by the US marine corps criminal investigation division. The document included his photograph, biography, and an account of a lecture he had given in Okinawa about military contamination.

"Colleagues warned me against continuing my investigations. What particularly motivated me to keep filing FOIAs and digging for evidence was the very real impact my research was having for veterans exposed to Agent Orange on Okinawa," he said.

"My reporting has helped these sick men and women to receive compensation from the US government. Investigative journalism is ultimately a job that ought to help people suffering from mistreatment to receive the justice they deserve."

Poisoning the Pacific details ongoing environmental damages and risk to human health.

The 'Dome' on Runit island in the Marshall Islands - a sovereign nation in compact of free association with the US - is a massive concrete tomb where the US has stored more than 70,000m ³ of radioactive debris, including plutonium-239, left over from US post-war atomic tests. Irradiated soil from Nevada was also transported to the island and dumped.

The dome is leaking radioactive material into the sea, the US department of energy concedes, though it says the amount is not dangerous. Successive US administrations have said the dome is the Marshall Islands' responsibility, saying the US has paid out more than $600 million in resettlement, rehabilitation and radiation-related healthcare costs to affected communities.

The book documents "the US Army disposing of 29 million kilograms of mustard agent and nerve agents, and 454 tons of radioactive waste" into the Pacific Ocean, as well as the US military's use of nerve agents, including sarin, which US government documents confirm were leaked into the environment while slated for destruction on Johnston Atoll near Hawaii.

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At nine locations stretching from Johnston Atoll in the Pacific to Edgewood, Maryland, the US Army held 31,280 tons of mustard and the nerve agents sarin and VX. Photograph: Ronen Zilberman/AP

The debate over the use of potentially deadly herbicides has been fiercely contested.

After the second world war, roughly five thousand barrels of Agent Purple - a forerunner to the herbicide Agent Orange - were transported and stored in Guam.

Although the US department of defense has consistently claimed the herbicide stockpile was never used on the island, service members stationed there at the time claimed they sprayed and dumped military waste, including damaged herbicide barrels, over Guam's cliffs.

Researchers, including the Guam department of public health and social services, reported in 2015 that villages where herbicides were believed to have been sprayed suffered higher incidences of infant deaths from birth defects.

In 2017, investigating claims of herbicide use on Guam, the US government itself was conflicted: the department of defense reported that tests on soil did not contain herbicides, the environmental protection agency reported the opposite.

The health and environmental impacts on Guam mirror those that have happened to local residents and US soldiers based in Okinawa, Japan, where the US has maintained a base for decades, and where Mitchell began his reporting.

In 2005, the US struck a deal with Japan to move thousands of US marines from Okinawa to Guam. Okinawans have consistently opposed US military presence on the island citing harm to their health and environment.

'Will to fight together': Fiji's has taken another bold step in the battle against nuclear weapons | Vanessa Griffen and Talei Luscia Mangioni

There has been some progress, albeit limited. Guam senators have backed bills for the territory's inclusion on the veterans affairs' list of places where Agent Orange was used. In March 2019, a bill named after Lonnie Kilpatrick, a service member who fell ill on Guam and died, approved compensation to 52,000 veterans exposed to herbicides in three US Pacific territories - Guam, American Samoa, and Johnston Atoll.

But even in 2020, indigenous voices consistently go unheard, Mitchell argues. In July, when military excavations in Guam revealed dozens of sites containing human remains and cultural artefacts, local residents - particularly the indigenous Chamorro people - were appalled. But despite the concerns fuelling a growing movement to demilitarise the Pacific, the newest US marine corps base - the first new base in nearly 70 years - officially opened its doors early this month.
Topics

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'Poisoning the Pacific': New book details US military contamination of islands and ocean

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In 1968, Leroy Foster was a master sergeant in the US Air Force, assigned to the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, a United States island territory in the Pacific. The day after he arrived on the island, he recalled being ordered to mix "diesel fuel with Agent Orange", then spraying "it by truck all over the base to kill the jungle overgrowth".

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Racism against Indigenous Chamorus (Pacific Islanders)

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Racism against Indigenous Chamorus (Pacific Islanders)

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CW: human (ancestral) remains

Environmental racism can take  many forms on people who are marginalized in different ways. A great example is in Guam (Guåhan), a modern-day colony of the U.S., where the Indigenous Chamoru people have lost 1/3 of the island to the U.S. Dept of Defense, and which is continually a target due to its increased militarization against the will of the Chamoru people. Please read this article for more.

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There's evidence of more ancient burial sites found at the new Marine Corps base under construction in Dededo, but neither the local government nor the military will provide much information.

The military, the governor and the Guam State Historic Preservation Office have known for several months that additional burial sites were found at Camp Blaz.

The governor and the Preservation Office attended a reburial ceremony Nov. 4 at Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, where the governor delivered an address in CHamoru and military officials shared preliminary findings on the new burials.

The State Historic Preservation Office didn't respond to a request for photos of the ceremony, which it described as "a moment and a remembrance." There was no public notice a ceremony took place or that more burial sites were discovered.

Adelup, as of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, hadn't responded to a request for comment sent at 4:48 p.m. Tuesday.

Knowledge of the latest burials adds to the growing list of human remains found at the base, which were described as significant and a catalyst to reshape the historical understanding of the area.

Preliminary reports state there are now 12 burials across four gravesites - eight more than reported at the same site last year. The total number of burials and when they were found remains unclear.
More: More: Four CHamoru burials at Marine base site 1,000 years old Marine base, live-fire training range halfway complete; 43 historic sites discovered
"There are four burial pits associated with the Sabanan Fadang location aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz that are preserved in place. The definitive number of individuals is pending further analysis," said Capt. A.J. Ramos, communication strategy and operations officer, Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz.

"The numbers of individuals associated with the burial pits previously provided to the State Historic Preservation Office were part of an informal status update. Given the ongoing nature of work, we defer to the State Historic Preservation Office to deem it appropriate to publicly release preliminary information," Ramos said.

Secrecy is 'disgusting'

Carlotta Leon Guerrero, acting state historic preservation officer, said she had a preliminary report on the burials but declined to share it in its entirety.

She provided a three paragraph summary of the report that stated "there is evidence of 12 individuals in the four graves," ranging age and sex. They appear to be Latte period.

Speaker Therese Terlaje described the secrecy as "disgusting." She wasn't informed of the reburial ceremony on base, or told of the growing number of burials at the site.

"To hide this information from us, it's unconscionable. It's a failure on the part of the government of Guam, if they are complicit in that," Terlaje said. "I just think they should acknowledge that this type of information is very important to the people of Guam."

She added: "Why can't the people of Guam come to these places, pay their respects when they find these burials? Why can't we do more? Everything is off-limits. I'm just furious. We're talking about our ancestors. This is sacred."

Local historian Dave Lotz criticized both the military's and local government's handling of the issue.

"It just adds questions of the bigger scope of this," Lotz said. "The only people the State Historic Preservation Office is communicating with is the military."

"I would like to see the overall plan for preserving what's left up there," he said.

The many burials point to a more permanent, ancient settlement in the area, which military officials previously stated wasn't the case.

This is why preservation in place of the burials is no longer enough, according to Terlaje.

Full extent unclear

"I don't even think we know the full extent of the burials there. ... If it's a burial ground, it's clearly a village," she said. "There should be a pause, and we just need to figure out what to do, now that we know that. Every plan that was made, was made with that being completely denied. I just think it's very different now."

A nearly intact skeleton with no skull present - a ceramic was placed over where the skull would be, which the office had said was the "first on Guam" of the type;

two skeletons buried together, with the two individuals directly overlying each other; and

a skeleton of a juvenile.

The discoveries at Camp Blaz come after the Preservation Office in July 2020 stated that buildup construction disturbed one Latte period burial at the Dededo base earlier in the year, adding that it was an "extraordinary find." A week later, the office stated there were three more burials nearby. All four burials added an important layer to the area's history, the office stated.

Those remains included:

Ramos stated the Marine Corps "treats all human remains discovered with utmost dignity and respect and all archaeological studies are performed as non-intrusively as possible."

All of the burials will remain in their original sites. The site was originally intended to be a parking lot, which the preservation office and military agreed to move elsewhere on base.

There will be a monument for the burials on base and a future "ceremony will be performed in accordance with Guam cultural practices," Ramos said.

Formal report

Ramos said a formal report will be submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office after the site's analysis is complete.

"Throughout the construction process, we continue to abide by the reporting and consultation requirements with the State Historic Preservation Office as outlined in the 2011 Programmatic Agreement anytime there is a significant archaeological discovery," Ramos stated.
Reporter Anumita Kaur covers military, business, government and tourism on Guam. Follow her on Twitter @anumitakaur. Reach her at akaur@guampdn.com.
The requirements mandate the military to halt construction in the immediate vicinity, inform the preservation office and work with the office to determine next steps. Construction continues elsewhere on base.

As many as 5,000 Marines from Okinawa and elsewhere will be transferred to a new base, Camp Blaz, as part of a larger realignment of U.S. military forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Joint Region Marianas said the Marine Corps still foresees commencing the relocation to Guam "by the end of the first half of the 2020s," with construction Camp Blaz steadily nearing completion.

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Historic Preservation Office, military won't share information on more burials at Camp Blaz

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There's evidence of more ancient burial sites found at the new Marine Corps base under construction in Dededo, but neither the local government nor the military will provide much information. The military, the governor and the Guam State Historic Preservation Office have known for several months that additional burial sites were found at Camp Blaz.

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L'énergie sale est á l'origine de l'injustice climatique

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L'énergie sale est á l'origine de l'injustice climatique

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L'énergie sale est á l'origine de l'injustice climatique

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Un poderosa ilustración de  Sergio Maciel y Provoke Culture sobre las desigualdades en la salud y las injusticias ambientales

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A case study of an eco youth-led initiative in Rwanda:

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A case study of an eco youth-led initiative in Rwanda:

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climate-vulnerable communities and marginalized groups need climate justice in the developing world

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We Do GREEN engages grassroots communities for aforestation and sustainability best practices

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Environmental Racism and Climate Injustice-

Resources :

* Confronting Injustice: https://sites.google.com/view/climates-of-resistance/resources/learninglog/injustice?authuser=0

o    Environmental racism in Canada: https://ecojustice.ca/environmental-racism-in-canada/

o    https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/230569581.pdf

o     The origin of environmental justice: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/environmental-justice-origins-why-finally-getting-the-attention-it-deserves

o    Why Canada need to combat environmental racism: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/03/10/opinion/why-canada-needs-law-combat-environmental-racism

o    Environmental Justice and Women Empowerment in Nyungwe National Park (Rwanda): Case Study of Kitabi Women Handcrafts Cooperative : https://www.journalijecc.com/index.php/IJECC/article/view/30098

o    Rwanda environment and climate change analysis : 2019-06-05: https://sidaenvironmenthelpdesk.se/digitalAssets/1748/1748556_environment-and-climate-change-analysis-rwanda-2019-06-05.pdf

o    Environment and climate justice, Centre for health , environment and  justice  : http://chej.org/2020/03/04/environmental-racism-injustice/

o    Environment racism in south Africa : A sustainable  green solution: https://research.library.fordham.edu/environ_theses/31/

o    Environmental racism and justice in South Africa's transition :https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589340120058120?journalCode=cpsa20

o    Why Climate Change is an Environmental Justice Issue: https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/09/22/climate-change-environmental-justice/

o    How the environmental justice movement is gathering momentum in South Africa: https://theconversation.com/how-the-environmental-justice-movement-is-gathering-momentum-in-south-africa-49819

o    Unequal Impact: The Deep Links Between Racism and Climate Change   : https://e360.yale.edu/features/unequal-impact-the-deep-links-between-inequality-and-climate-change

o    Why the Larger Climate Movement Is Finally Embracing the Fight against Environmental Racism:https://time.com/5864704/environmental-racism-climate-change/

o    Q&A : Organizing for Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa:https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/q-and-a-organizing-for-climate-justice-in-sub-saharan-africa

o    Environment and climate justice-NAACP : https://naacp.org/issues/environmental-justice/

o    Environment Justice: Towards  an African Perspective: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-18807-8_12

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a powerful spoken word about (in)justice for Small Island Nations

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Terisa Tinei Siagatonu  - Atlas - for Fast for the Climate

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Racism and Climate (In)Justice Framing Paper