This battle never ends well..

[the_future_modernes]

The people vs the Environment

Officials in India keep reviving the dead debate on floods – to the detriment of local communities and the national exchequer.

While inaugurating a seminar on floods in 1937, Bihar Governor Maurice Hallett said that, looking back over engineering records from the previous six decades of the floods that had taken place, ‘22 percent are sub-normal, 55 percent are normal, 22 percent are abnormal and only two percent are extremely abnormal. In other words, the dwellers in India can expect to be flooded rather badly once every five years, on the average, and to have a really dreadful flood once every fifty years or so.’ Those were the good old days, when rainwater did not have many obstructions to its free flow. Today, to the contrary, Bihar has nearly 3600 km of embankments, and its area considered flood-prone has nearly tripled from 250,000 hectares in 1952 to more than 688,000 hectares (in 1994). Add to this the 368,000 ha of so-called ‘flood-protected land’ that was flooded in the 2008 breach of the Kosi River, the flood-prone area in the state actually comes to some 724,800 ha.

In 1953, a multipurpose scheme was sanctioned to embank the Kosi river, ostensibly to protect 214,000 ha of land from flooding and irrigating 712,000 ha of agricultural land in India, with benefits to Nepal. This brought the debate of floods and embankments to an end, because the Kosi was the most vibrant river of Bihar, notorious for changing its course. This is similar to all other major rivers in north Bihar, due to their heavy sediment load coming down from the Himalaya – and, thus, a huge mass of loose soil forming a major portion of their catchment. It is specifically because of this sediment that over time the Kosi had shifted from Purnia to Darbhanga, the Bagmati has shifted from Kamtaul in Darbhanga to Sheohar, and the Mahananda had been swinging between Malda in West Bengal to Katihar in Bihar. The Kamala has also come from west of Jaynagar in Madhubani to east of it, and the Bhutahi Balan justifies its name (bhutahi means ‘ghost’), because no one knows when and where the river will strike.MORE

At this point, I'm thinking that time-travel to advise one and all to NEVER believe the Europeans

[the_future_modernes]

sounds like a plan:

LOCKED DOWN: Native Americans arrested defending sacred San Francisco Peaks

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Six people were arrested, including four Native Americans, after they locked themselves to heavy equipment this morning, protesting the destruction of sacred San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff. They are being taken to Coconino County jail.
Native Americans are protesting pipeline construction to the Snowbowl ski resort, which would carry sewage water for snowmaking.
Native American medicine men gather herbs for healing on the mountain. Since time immemorial, the mountain has been sacred to 13 area American Indian Nations.
Here's their statement, released as they locked themselves to heavy equipment on Thursday, June 16:

“Today we take direct action to stop further desecration and destruction of the Holy San Francisco Peaks. We stand with our ancestors, with allies and with those who also choose to embrace diverse tactics to safeguard Indigenous People’s cultural survival, our community’s health, and this sensitive mountain ecosystem.

"On May 25th 2011, sanctioned by the US Forest Service, owners of Arizona Snowbowl began further destruction and desecration of the Holy San Francisco Peaks. Snowbowl’s hired work crews have laid over a mile and a half of the planned 14.8 mile wastewater pipeline. They have cut a six foot wide and six foot deep gash into the Holy Mountain.
"Although a current legal battle is under appeal, Snowbowl owners have chosen to undermine judicial process by rushing to construct the pipeline. Not only do they disregard culture, environment, and our children’s health, they have proven that they are criminals beyond reproach.

"Four weeks of desecration has already occurred. Too much has already been taken. Today, tomorrow and for a healthy future, we say “enough!

"As we take action, we look to the East and see Bear Butte facing desecration, Mt. Taylor facing further uranium mining; to the South, Mt. Graham desecrated, South Mountain threatened, the US/Mexico border severing Indigenous communities from sacred places; to the West, inspiring resistance at Sogorea Te, Moana Keya facing desecration; to the North, Mt. Tenabo, Grand Canyon, Black Mesa, and so many more, our homelands and our culture under assault.

"We thought that the USDA, heads of the Forest Service, had meant it when they initiated nationwide listening sessions to protect sacred places. It fhe process was meaningful, we would not have to take action today.MORE

Media Watch: Arizona Snowbowl and Racism in the Media

Although the protesters statement was available on the Internet all day at Google News, the media chose to criminalize the protesters without explaining the sacred nature of the mountain for Native Americans. The majority of the media in Arizona and nationwide simply posted AP's article, without questioning it, researching the facts or Today in the media, the majority of reporters failed to even mention the most basic reason for the protest.


It is here on San Francisco Peaks that Native Americans offer ceremonies for healing and for protection. Native American medicine men use the plants on the mountain for healing herbs, the same plants that would be doused with sewage water for snowmaking if the Snowbowl continues with its plan to use recycled wastewater for snowmaking. The mountain is sacred to 13 American Indian Nations. AP's article simply criminalizes the young people and fails to point out that these young people made the decision to be arrested in order to bring attention to the desecration of sacred San Francisco Peaks. AP failed to even provide one quote from the protesters lengthy statement. The statement was available, and easy to find, all day. It was posted Thursday morning in the Narcosphere, which appears on Google News, and was posted at Censored News all day.MORE

I am fairly sure that this fuckery is breaking UN laws on the Rights of Indigenous people too. NOT that the US gives a fuck. 

If you are against mining you are a terrorist???!!!

[the_future_modernes]

'Whoever Opposes Mining is Seen as a Terrorist':Wikileaks on the US and Peru: Spying on Indigenous Groups, Defending Mining Companies

A Wikileaks cable reveals the US Embassy in Lima, Peru, identified Indigenous activists and tracked the involvement of Bolivian President Evo Morales, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivia Ambassador Pablo Solon, prominent Quechua activist Miguel Palacin Quispe and community leaders.

Since the writing of this cable, the bonds with Native Americans and First Nations have grown stronger in the struggles for justice. Bolivian President Morales and Ambassador Solon were in the forefront of the Indigenous global climate change efforts in 2010. Palacin was in Tucson for an anti-mining conference in 2007, and more recently with Indigenous Peoples from around the world at the climate summits in both Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Cancun, Mexico, in 2010.

The US Embassy report dated March 17, 2008, focuses on Indigenous activists and their supporters who, the cable states, were organizing "anti-summit" protests against the European Union-Latin American Heads of State summit scheduled for mid-May of 2008 in Lima.

James Nealon at the US Embassy in Lima wrote the cable released Sunday, Feb. 13. "The greatest concern among our European Union mission colleagues is the threat that radicals could hijack the protests by aggressively confronting ill-prepared security forces, as occurred in Cusco in February."MORE

The Arabian Oryx are such beautiful animals. I'm glad that it seems like we can save them

[the_future_modernes]

Arabian Oryx Makes History as First Species to Be Upgraded from 'Extinct in the Wild' to 'Vulnerable'

The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species includes an all-too-rare victory: The Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) has been upgraded from the Endangered category to Vulnerable. This is quite an achievement, because the species was extinct in the wild just a few decades ago. The last wild Arabian Oryx was shot in 1972. Since that time, intense conservation and re-introduction efforts have increased the species's wild population to 1,000 individuals.

This is the first time that a species once listed as Extinct in the Wild has been upgraded past the Endangered category (where the Oryx has been listed since 1986) all the way to Vulnerable.

Once present throughout the Middle East, the Arabian Oryx was overhunted in the 19th and 20th centuries until the only animals that remained were in zoos. Following captive breeding, re-introductions started in Oman in 1982. A brief period of poaching from 1996 to 1999 resulted in more than 200 Oryx deaths before the remaining animals in that country were placed in protective pens. The species was later re-introduced in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, where they have fared well.

MORE