Good News For Canada's Oceans

Via innovation.ca

As Canada celebrates the election of Justin Trudeau, the world celebrates the announcement that the Leader of the Liberal Party will take action to protect Canada's oceans.

         “Liberals will build a better country and a sustainable economy that gives hard-working Canadians a real and fair chance to succeed. We will improve the air we breathe, the water we drink, the parks and beaches where our children play,” said Mr. Trudeau. “From coast to coast to coast, that means investing in the protection of our oceans – the health of which is vital to safeguarding our environment and growing our economy.”

        A Liberal government will:

• Meet Canada’s international commitments by increasing the amount of our protected marine and coastal areas from 1.3 percent to 5 percent by 2017, and 10 percent by 2020;
• Reinstate the $40 million cut from the federal government’s ocean science and monitoring programs, and restore scientific capabilities at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans;
• Re-establish thorough environmental assessments, review all amendments made by the Harper Conservatives to the Fisheries Act and other legislative changes, and incorporate modern safeguards to protect our ocean and freshwater fish habitats;
• Work with provinces, Indigenous Peoples, and other stakeholders, to effectively co-manage our oceans; and
• Formalize the moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s North Coast – including the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait, and Queen Charlotte Sound – and ensure that ecologically sensitive areas and local economies are protected from the devastating impacts of a spill."

Thank you, Canada!


Read the full article here: https://www.liberal.ca/trudeau-announces-plan-to-protect-canadas-oceans/

Environmental Organizations Sued the US Forest Service

Here's a headline that grabbed my attention:

The Feds Just Got Sued for Letting Nestlé Bottle Water in California’s Drought Country
Is this lawsuit good news, or what?

It's pretty well known that there is a drought in California, so why would the US Forest Service still allow Nestle to pump water? And, why allow the company to "illegally divert millions of gallons of water from California's San Bernadino National Forest to use for Arrowhead brand bottled water?"

Water activists around the world have to be shaking their heads over this decision and asking how this was allowed to happen.

The plaintiffs in the case are the Center for Biological Diversity, the Story of Stuff, and the Courage Campaign Institute. They charge the Forest Service with "breaking its own policies by allowing the bottling operation to continue, as the siphoning of water from already depleted water source is harming local habitats and wildlife."

And how about this:

"Recent reports have indicated that water levels at Strawberry Creek are at a record lows," said the plaintiffs in a statement. "In exchange for allowing Nestle to continue siphoning water from the Creek, the Forest Service receives just $524 a year, less than the average Californian's water bill."

This sounds like a 5th grader would be able to determine that this was not a good deal for California, so why has the US Forest Service determined that it is?

Water activists must remain vigilant!


Read full article here: http://linkis.com/www.motherjones.com/6TRgU

Protecting Water In Colombia

I came across a great article I want to share with all of you. The topic on WaterKeeper website already grabbed my attention:

Won’t Back Down: Colombia’s Coal-War Warrior

But it was the first paragraph that got me excited to read more about who this Warrior is and what she is doing.

"There is an old saying that dynamite comes in small packages. At just a smidgen over five feet, Bocas de Ceniza Waterkeeper Liliana Guerrero is pure Colombian dynamite. From her small office on a busy street in Barranquilla on Colombia’s north coast, Guerrero is leading a determined charge to stop the destruction that multinational coal companies are wreaking on her country, and she is doing it in spite of considerable personal risk."

Trials and tribulations:

"When Guerrero started her organization, the main problem she thought she would be dealing with was Barranquilla’s untreated domestic and industrial sewage, which were polluting the Magdalena River and devastating the legendary coastal mangrove stands in the Mallorquín marshes north of the city.

“I did not think the coal industry would be the greatest threat to Barranquilla and our precious wetlands, mangroves, river and sea,” she says. “But as the industry expanded, I came to understand the magnitude of the devastation of open-pit mining in the departments of César and La Guajira, as well as from the transportation of mined coal across the department of Magdalena and the catastrophic spills into the ocean at the coal-export ports.”"

This is a great story about a water activist—her struggles and her work. Thank you for all the work you do, Liliana!

Read the full article here: http://waterkeeper.org/magazine-article/wont-back-down-colombias-coal-war-warrior/