"If #Biden continues his current course, extraction of the lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and manganese vital for a green-energy transition will come at the cost of Indigenous lands and trust... it could also cost Biden the election."
The largest #GreenEnergy development in Washington was approved last week by state officials. It overlaps Yakama Nation ceremonial sites, the county's last habitat connectivity corridor, and the county's last intact sagebrush steppe.
The state has required project modifications to protect a threatened species of hawk, but has required no modifications to protect other tribal cultural resources.
Last week, a group of Wenatchi-P’squosa people gathered on Badger Mountain to demonstrate against the solar development that’s under proposal there.
It threatens Indigenous foodways and other cultural resources. Families have gathered heirloom organic root vegetables on the mountain for countless generations. “It’s a mother. It’s a grandmother. It’s part of our family,” one of the organizers said.
The world's 3rd largest copper deposit is in #Arizona. It's essential to #RenewableEnergy projects. Resolution Copper wants to extract it. But the copper is beneath Chí’chil Biłdagoteel, AKA Oak Flat.
“Oak Flat is like Mount Sinai to us,” says Wendsler Nosie (San Carlos Apache) of Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit fighting to protect the area.
"When mining companies like Resolution Copper kill places like Oak Flat, they kill us, by taking away both our way of life and spiritual connection to the land — and that is the worst way to die. That is not what we want. We want to stay connected; we want to live here freely as our ancestors did."
--NAELYN PIKE
San Carlos Apache Tribe executive assistant, Apache Stronghold member
Before permitting a new #solar facility in #Washington, the state needs to know if it will impact #Indigenous cultural resources, like artifacts, first foods, or burial grounds. To find out, they rely on a land survey conducted by… the developer.
Often, the developer contracts this work out. And contractors, according to critics, chronically produce surveys that are “at best deficient and at worst deliberately negligent.”
#Sweden#GreenColonialism#GreenTransition#FossilFuels#Decarbonization: "Across Kiruna’s region of Norrbotten, companies have staked claims here for pioneering new carbon-free ways to mine iron and make steel. They also want to dig up a rich treasure trove of rare earth elements and precious metals to help power our mobile phones and electric cars. In 2021, the region even became the prospective locale for a drastic intervention that could bring down global temperatures but could also cause cataclysmic disaster — a proposal to dim the sun.
Ebba Busch, Sweden’s deputy prime minister and minister for business and energy, believes northern Sweden could help reduce the speed at which the world is heating up. “Sweden really has the answer to the million-dollar question of whether it’s possible to have very high set climate goals and then at the same time have a strong economic growth,” Busch told me. “The Swedish answer to that is yes.”
There’s a prevailing sense in Kiruna that swathes of this beautiful, resource-laden land should be turned over to industry — sacrificed on the altar of a green transition in order to phase out fossil fuels. But for the region’s residents, the tradeoffs are more complex than simply embracing a more sustainable future.
Environmentalists, Indigenous groups and academics say that what politicians and energy executives are really advocating for is a technofix for the climate crisis: simply trading out one extractive industry for another without challenging the systems that got us here in the first place. And it could bring untold collateral damage upon one of nature’s last refuges in Europe (...)
In reporting this story, I met climate scientists, mining executives, Sami leaders and Swedish politicians. Among them, I found no absolute heroes or true villains. Everyone was searingly aware that the climate is in danger, but each person had drastically different ideas about how to fix it.
And secondly: It's not too late. We can still change the course of #RenewableEnergy development so it doesn't create sacrifice zones---especially on sacred Indigenous lands.
"Duck Valley Paiute-Shoshone Council Member Addie Parker appealed to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, describing the disastrous lithium mining and hydrocarbon plume her people suffer from in northern #Nevada. Parker said there has been extensive #mining here for over 150 years.
"The "new green gold rush" for lithium batteries has brought devastating lithium mining and 'green colonialism.' Currently, there are 70 lithium mining applications in Nevada alone. The so-called 'green' solution actually creates an #environmental nightmare, including the disposal of #batteries.
Parker said there must be a rights-based approach and pointed out that Nevada mining laws are archaic. Paiute Shoshone of #DuckValleyNation opposes more mining and Nevada's new law for increased revenues from mining.
"Since the signing of the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1863, there has been no mechanism for tribes to share in the benefits of mining. The mining companies are multi-national #corporations and most are from #Canada. They are not required to compensate the people.
"'It violates our Indigenous rights,' Parker said, listing international law violations, including the fre prior, and informed consent as mandated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of #IndigenousPeoples.
President #Biden's order to consult with #tribes is also being violated.
"Describing the illegal exploration of their resources, she said Paiute-Shoshone children are suffering because of it. 'We can't even get money to build a new school,' Parker said, describing how children are forced to attend school on a #toxic site.
"More than 100 members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Nation, on the Nevada #Idaho border, have died over the years due to #cancer. It is a large number for a tribe of about 3,00 people, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. There was one thing they had in common: they all attended the same school on the reservation.
"The 70-year-old Owyhee Combined School, where tribal members have been educated for generations, sits adjacent to hydrocarbon plumes that lie underneath the town, Chairman Brian Mason said. He thinks the school, where drinking water was once #contaminated by the plumes, is the root of the problem.'"
This weekend I visited #ThackerPass, where the largest lithium mine in the US is under construction on lands of cultural and historical significance to the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe people, near the #Nevada / #Oregon border.
Impacted tribes have not given consent for the open pit mine, but the Biden administration and a federal judge have approved it to supply lithium for electric vehicle batteries.
#Indigenous leaders, including descendants of those who survived massacres at #ThackerPass, are camping in protest. As I visited, a truck arrived hauling chain link panels to fence off one of the access roads to the camp.
Indigenous leaders said they could use supplies, but more than that they need people to show up and camp with them, peacefully, prayerfully, and prepared for the possibility of arrest.
If you've never heard about #GreenColonialism, or if you read my last article about it and want to know some behind the scenes stuff that didn't make it into the final draft, have a listen to Libby Denkman's probing, thoughtful questions on the topic as she interviewed me for KUOW Seattle's Soundside. 📻 👇
‘Green colonialism’: Indigenous world leaders warn over west’s climate strategy
"World Indigenous leaders meeting this week at an annual #UN summit have warned that the west’s climate strategy risks the exploitation of #Indigenous territories, resources and people.
New and emerging threats about the transition to a greener economy, including mineral mining, were at the forefront of debate as hundreds of Indigenous chiefs, presidents, chairmen and delegates gathered at the 22nd United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues."
World Governments Rattled as Indigenous Expose Atrocities at the United Nations
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 22, 2023
"Governments from around the world are rushing to defend their #HumanRights records as #IndigenousPeoples describe the atrocities during the 22nd session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues."
Desertec 3.0 – grüner Wasserstoff in kolonialer Tradition
"Die Krisen, mit denen wir uns aktuell konfrontiert sehen, sind die logische Konsequenz eines Systems, das auf Wachstum basiert. Die Politik gibt zwar vor, die Ursachen davon bekämpfen zu wollen, doch tatsächlich verwaltet sie diese bloß und sorgt durch das Beschleunigen von Modernisierungsprozessen in der Wirtschaft dafür, dass gesellschaftliche Umbrüche nicht die Stabilität der bestehenden Machtverhältnisse gefährden. Nichts zeigt dies deutlicher als Maßnahmen, welche zur Abwehr der Klimakatastrophe propagiert werden.
Dabei bleibt nicht nur die Logik des permanenten Wachstums unangetastet, sondern werden auch globale Machtasymmetrien und Abhängigkeiten zwischen der Nord- und Südhalbkugel durch neokoloniale Großprojekte mit grünem Anstrich weiter zementiert und ausgebaut. Beispielhaft dafür ist Desertec 3.0, bei dem Deutschland eine Vorreiterrolle spielt...."
Auch der Transformationskapitalismus, der sich grün zu waschen versucht, trägt die kolonialistische #Ausbeutung und Zerstörung von #Menschen und #Umwelt in sich.
‘Green colonialism’: Indigenous world leaders warn over west’s climate strategy
"World Indigenous leaders meeting this week at an annual #UN summit have warned that the west’s climate strategy risks the exploitation of #Indigenous territories, resources and people.
New and emerging threats about the transition to a greener economy, including mineral mining, were at the forefront of debate as hundreds of Indigenous chiefs, presidents, chairmen and delegates gathered at the 22nd United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues."