Ecuador”s Environment Ministry wants to shutdown then raids grassroots org.Keep it in the Ground in this ear of trump
Ecuador became an even more difficult place to be a defender of indigenous rights and the environment in recent days. You would think a country with constitutionally-enshrined protections for Mother Nature would support and encourage indigenous and environmental rights defenders, but sadly that is not the case, and it has implications for the global climate change movement.
On Tuesday, Ecuador’s Environment Ministry announced its intention to shutter Acción Ecológica, the country’s leading grassroots environmental organization and one of the founders of the Keep It In The Ground movement, which has become a global call to support the scientific mandate to keep all remaining fossil fuels in the ground. The government made clear that the move was a direct response to the group’s efforts to raise awareness – like tweeting and posting blogs – about environmental and indigenous rights concerns over a planned copper mega-mine on the lands of the Shuar indigenous people in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon. That very same evening, the national police raided the offices of the Shuar federation, FICSH, and detained its president, Agustín Wachapa, who is still being held.
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It’s Not Over: Stop DAPL for Good – Jason Opeña Disterhoft, Rainforest Action Network
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Under a new fossil-fuel friendly administration, there’s only one sure way to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) permanently: Cut Off Bank Financing. We’ve teamed up with a huge coalition to force banks to stop funding the DAPL.
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For months the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Indigenous peoples, water protectors and allies have been under siege while peacefully resisting DAPL. They have been blasted with water cannons in freezing weather, tear gassed, and shot with rubber bullets. The pipeline was initially approved without sufficient environmental reviews, adequate assessment of cultural properties and sacred sites, or the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the Standing Rock Sioux affirmed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In addition to violating sovereign Indigenous rights, continued pipeline construction and any spills pose significant and direct threats to vital clean water supplies and sacred sites for the Standing Rock Sioux, who live less than a mile downstream. This disastrous project is a direct threat to the Missouri River, which provides drinking water to millions of people. The companies responsible for the pipeline are Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics, who have a deplorable track record of pipeline spills and have shown a total disregard for tribal rights, land and water. On December 4, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other water protectors who’ve been fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline for months won an important, but temporary, victory when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement needed to finish drilling under the Missouri River. But the Army Corps’ decision did not permanently stop DAPL. In fact, Energy Transfer Partners, one of the companies that is building the pipeline, insists they “fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting.” Aggressive fossil fuel advocates are being named to the incoming Cabinet of the United States, so we know we can’t count on their help. But we know one way to stop this — tell 17 big banks, like Wells Fargo and Citibank, to stop funding the bulldozers, drilling equipment, and private security. If DAPL does not deliver oil by January 1, shipper contracts will expire and the project will be in jeopardy. These 17 banks haven’t yet disbursed all the loan funds they’ve committed. This means they now face a clear opportunity to reconsider further funding a project steeped in controversy and demonstrating material loss. We have done this before and we can leverage our power as customers and account holders to pressure these lending banks to defund DAPL. Click here to tell 17 big banks to defund the climate-killing Dakota Access Pipeline. For thriving communities, Ruth Breech
Sources: 1. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/04/dakota-access-pipeline-permit-denied-standing-rock 2. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161204005090/en/ 4. http://standwithstandingrock.net/history/ 5. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-nativeamericans-safety-i-idUSKCN11T1UW |
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| Rainforest Action Network |
Ruth Breech
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Under attack: Environmental and indigenous rights activists in Ecuador. Take action!
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Donald Trump could kill the Middle East peace process.
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In weeks, Donald Trump will kill the Middle East Peace process…unless Obama steps in and recognizes Palestine as a country, giving unprecedented momentum to the two-state solution.
Join the call on him to act:
He’s been clear about it. He doesn’t think Palestinians have the right to a country, he supports illegal settlement building and wants to move the US embassy from the capital in Tel Aviv to disputed land.
It’s a diplomatic bomb that will destroy any hope of a negotiated solution. We have one chance to stop him.
President Obama is laying out a plan for a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace. It’s what most Israelis and Palestinians want. But a key way for him to protect the path to peace is by recognizing a Palestinian state before Trump takes office. The plan is already on his desk — but he needs to have the political support of the world to act. Let’s give it to him. When we reach 1 million, Israeli and Palestinian youth will deliver it to the White House.
Click here to save the peace process
In many ways this is too easy not to do. The United Nations has already recognized Palestine, it makes no difference to foreign policy nor does it affect the US’s consistent support of Israel in practically every way. It’s a gesture, one of fairness and progress and a nod to the future everyone agrees must come to pass: a free Israel next to a free and independent Palestine.
And there’s never been more momentum or more at stake.
The US just refused to veto a UN resolution condemning Israel’s settlements and Secretary of State Kerry just went on television to give a long argument for a two-state solution. Netanyahu is weakening, under investigation for fraud, and members of Israel’s government are making statements that seem to break from the radically right-wing official position.
All this, weeks before the diplomatic bomb of a Trump Presidency sets in. Let’s act before it’s too late:
When Palestine went to the UN to win statehood, we were there, driving the movement and at the center of the historic result. But it’s only a step towards independence, and the dream of a free and independent Palestine can’t soar without the recognition of Israel’s staunchest ally. We can be at the center of the movement again, in these last crucial weeks.
With hope,
Dalia, Emma, Fatima, Diego, Aloys and the Avaaz team
More information:
Secretary of State John Kerry: Two-state solution in ‘serious jeopardy’ (CNN)
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/26/politics/john-kerry-middle-east-peace-plan/index.html
US abstention allows UN to demand end to Israeli settlements (Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/23/us-abstention-allows-un-to-demand-end-to-israeli-settlements
Will Obama Recognize A Palestinian State Before January 20? (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/high-anxiety-continues-over-obama-in-the-un-until-january_us_5848327ce4b099808c198eae
Former president Jimmy Carter calls on Barack Obama to recognise Palestinian statehood before leaving office (Independent)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jimmy-carter-barack-obama-israel-palestine-statehood-donald-trump-a7454936.html#gallery
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