Short excerpt from the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSpYQuTqwOM

#lithium #protectthackerpass #ProtectPeeheeMuhuh #EVs #climatejustice

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PRESS RELEASE:

As Court Ruling Nears, Thacker Pass Sacred Sites Already Being Damaged

Tribal Chairman: “It’s Our Responsibility to Protect Sacred Sites”

RENO, NV — The Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in northern Nevada is headed back to Federal Court on January 5th as the lawsuits against the project near completion, but project opponents are raising the alarm that Lithium Nevada Corporation has already begun work on the proposed mine.

Lithium Nevada’s workers at Thacker Pass have begun digging test pits, bore holes, dumping gravel, building fencing, & installing security cameras where Native Americans often conduct ceremonies. Lithium Nevada also conducted “bulk sampling” earlier this year, & may be planning to dig dozens of new test pits across Thacker Pass. They’re claiming this work is legal under previous permits issued over a decade ago. But Tribes & mine opponents, including the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony & Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, disagree.

They point to language in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine that says “authorization of [the mine] will terminate the [earlier permits].” The Federal permit for Thacker Pass was approved on January 15th, 2021.

Will Falk, attorney for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, explains: “Lithium Nevada told the government & the American public that it would terminate the older permits upon BLM's approval of the Thacker Pass Project. Now they are going back on their word, it appears they are lying to get a headstart on building the Thacker Pass mine, & the BLM is allowing them to get away with it.”

Thacker Pass, known as Peehee Mu’huh in Paiute, is a sacred site to regional tribes whose ancestors lived in the area for thous&s of years, & were massacred there on at least two occasions.

Michon Eben, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer at Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, says the site is incredibly important to Native American history. “Peehee Mu’huh is a sacred place where our ancestors lived & died. We still go there to pray, gather food & medicine, hunt, & teach our youth about the history of our people.” Eben & the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony are currently hosting an exhibit on the impacts of mining on Native people of Nevada.

Tribal members have stated in court filings that, because of the history of battles & massacres on the site, Thacker Pass is as significant to their culture as a site like Pearl Harbor is to American history. Arlan Melendez, Chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, underst&s the importance of battle & massacre sites as both a Native American & as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

“As tribal leaders, it’s our responsibility to protect & honor our sacred places,” says Melendez. “Throughout US history, tribes have always been set up to lose in the US legal system against BLM. This Lithium Mine st&s in the way of our roots & it’s violating the religious freedoms of our elders, our people.”

Falk, the Tribal attorney, says that Lithium Nevada’s construction activities at Thacker Pass are also violating tribal consultation rights.

“The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony & Summit Lake Paiute Tribe are still engaged in consultation with the BLM about the September 12, 1865 massacre site, a site that will be completely destroyed by Lithium Nevada’s mine if this project is built,” Falk says. “It’s hard to believe a government agency is consulting in good faith when they are already allowing the site to be harmed.”

Shelley Harjo, a tribal member from the Fort McDermitt Shoshone Paiute Tribe & an employee of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, has called the planned destruction of Thacker Pass “the biggest desecration & rape of a known Native American massacre site in our area.”

The upcoming January 5th hearing in Reno’s Federal Courthouse will be the final oral argument in the ongoing lawsuits against the Thacker Pass mine. Mine opponents are planning a march & rally outside. Plaintiffs, including the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Burns Paiute Tribe, four environmental organizations, & local rancher Edward Bartell, have alleged numerous violations of the law, & Judge Mir&a Du is expected to issue her opinion in the case within days or weeks of the January 5th hearing.

“No matter what happens in court on January 5th, Thacker Pass is being destroyed right now & that threat will be ongoing,” says Max Wilbert, co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass. “We have to stop that.”

Lithium Nevada claims that its lithium mine will be essential to producing batteries for combating global warming, & the Biden administration has previously indicated some support for Thacker Pass. Opponents of the project have called this “greenwashing,” arguing that the project would harm important wildlife habitat & create significant pollution. They say that electric cars are still harmful to the planet.

#ProtectThackerPass #ProtectPeeheeMuhuh #lithium #climate #greenwashing #BrightGreenLies

https://ProtectThackerPass.org

Current Status. On February 25, 2022, NDEP issued air, water, and mining permits for the proposed Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project. As part of the decision, no mining will be allowed below the water table.

A luxury boutique bringing you fish infused with fashionable microplastic fibres from the hottest brands.  Produced by Just One Ocean. 

More than 150 organisations have supported the Foundation's statement on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Bea Perez from Coca Cola and Pablo Costa from Unilever explain why it's a vital part of the solution to tackle plastic waste.

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Thank you for watching this video. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a UK charity that develops and promotes the idea of a circular economy, which - driven by design, eliminates waste and pollution, circulates products and materials, and regenerates nature.

Subscribe to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation for more insightful videos -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQAC2otE5_agzHZPnk3mE5w?sub_confirmation=1

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At the recent Global Training in July 2020, former Vice President Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project continued their call to prioritize and center the environmental justice work of communities of color and indigenous communities. In this spirit, we invite you to learn about and engage with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice's "We Can't Breathe" campaign in San Francisco's Bayview and Hunters Point (BVHP) neighborhoods, a low-income community of color (33.7 percent African American, 30.7 percent Asian, and 24.9 percent Latinx per the 2010 Census) where residents suffer from high rates of asthma and cancer and where radioactive waste and toxic contamination at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site and multiple other contaminated sites are located.

As one of the lowest-lying points in San Francisco, BVHP will also be first impacted by rising oceans, which have already risen by almost 8 inches as of 2016 and which threaten to create flooding of hazardous and radioactive waste of neighborhoods, transportation infrastructure, and the entire San Francisco Bay, while several hundred new luxury homes have been built next to and possibly on top of radioactive contamination, and 10,000 more homes are planned at the contaminated Shipyard Superfund Site where critics complain that radioactive and toxic cleanup has been marred by fraud and lax standards. Speakers will also discuss the August 25 Car Caravan Protest to San Francisco City Hall for the Bayview Hunters Point Environmental Justice "We Can't Breathe" Campaign.

NOTES
Co-presented by The Climate Reality Project Bay Area Chapter


THU, OCT 1 / 12:00 PM PDT
SPEAKERS

Dalila Adofo
Community Organizer, Policy Advocate, and Coordinator, Bayview Hunters Point Community Air Monitoring Project with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

Bradley Angel
Executive Director, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

Sabrina Hall
Community Activist; Volunteer; Member, Bayview Hunters Point Mothers and Fathers Committee; Member, Student Site Council and African American Parent Advisory Council, Paul Revere Elementary School; Member, California Environmental Justice Coalition; Vice Chair, Southeast Community Council; Community Organizer, Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice

Ahimsa Sumchai
M.D., P.D., Emergency Medicine Physician; President and Medical Director, Golden State MD Health & Wellness; Principal Investigator, Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program; Member, UCSF Medical Alumni Association Board of Directors

Alma Soongi Beck
Climate Justice Co-Chair, Climate Reality Project Bay Area Chapter—Moderator

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In July 2020, The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ released Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution, one of the most analytically robust studies ever produced on ocean plastics. Thought partners were the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, Common Seas, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Breaking the Plastic Wave shows that by 2040, if we fail to act, the volume of plastic on the market will double, the annual volume of plastic entering the ocean will almost triple, and ocean plastic stocks will quadruple. This is in line with The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's 2016 analysis, which revealed that in 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean.


The study also confirms that a circular economy for plastic is the only way to address plastic waste and pollution at the source. This is a vision that already unites 850+ organisations through the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment and the Plastics Pact network.

Find out more here. at https://plastics.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/breaking-the-plastic-wave-perspective

“We need to raise our level of ambition and match it with bold and urgent action.”
- Dame Ellen MacArthur

In July 2020, The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ released Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution, one of the most analytically robust studies ever produced on ocean plastics. Thought partners were the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, Common Seas, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Breaking the Plastic Wave shows that by 2040, if we fail to act, the volume of plastic on the market will double, the annual volume of plastic entering the ocean will almost triple, and ocean plastic stocks will quadruple. This is in line with The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's 2016 analysis, which revealed that in 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

The study also confirms that a circular economy for plastic is the only way to address plastic waste and pollution at the source. This is a vision that already unites 850+ organisations through the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment and the Plastics Pact network.

Find out more here. 

Alejandro Durán uses art to spotlight the ongoing destruction of our oceans' ecosystems. In this breathtaking talk, he shows how he meticulously organizes and reuses plastic waste from around the world that washes up on the Caribbean coast of Mexico -- everything from water bottles to prosthetic legs -- to create vivid, environmental artworks that may leave you mesmerized and shocked.

How can we stop the problem of plastic pollution? Recycling? Bioplastics? Compostable straws? No. We need to go to the root of the problem, and cut off the production of new plastic. That's the only way.