All information herein is gleaned from the Internet. This issue was compiled by Nancy Stiefel and Social Justice Committee members.

UUFVB Social Justice Committee News – January 2016

Human Rights Statistics

Amnesty International recently released a report on the STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS BY THE NUMBERS. It is said that one picture is worth more than a thousand words and so it is with numbers. There is no comfort in knowing that the abuses we experience in the United States occur in many countries around the world, but there is some wisdom in studying the progress made in dealing with abuses in some countries.

1 in 5 armed groups committed abuses in at least 35 countries, more than 20% of the countries Amnesty investigated

82 % of the countries (131 out of 160) tortured or ill-treated people.

28 countries around the world have laws which completely ban abortion even in cases of rape or where a women’s life or health is in danger.

58% of the countries (95 out of 160) conducted unfair trials. In unfair trials, justice is not served for the accused, the victim of the crime, or the public.

More than 1/3 of governments (62 out of 160) locked up prisoners of conscience – people who were simply exercising their rights and freedoms.

Almost 3/4 of governments (119 out of 160) arbitrarily restricted freedom of expression. There are cracks downs on press freedom in many countries with newspapers being forcibly closed and journalists threatened.

[submitted by Glenn Rogers]

Good News Tidbits:

Bees are dying for a variety of reasons, including pesticide poisoning, habitat loss, and climate change. But thanks to recent policy changes and pesticide bans, the bee population may be protected from further decline.

Lowe’s and Home Depot announced the phasing out of bee-killing plant pesticides (neonicotinoid)

a bumblebee has become the first bee species ever to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

* * * * * * * In the American River in California, both steelhead and Chinook salmon are making a comeback.

* * * * * * * Included in the spending bill agreement passed by Congress in December is an extension of tax breaks for wind and solar energy producers for five years.

Tar Sands Oil Spills – Remember the Kalamazoo River

In November, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL project after a seven-year fight. He knew what happened five years ago near Marshall, Michigan, when an oil pipeline operated by Calgary-based Enbridge, Canada's largest pipeline company, ruptured. More than 17 hours later the Canadian company finally cut off the flow of tar sands crude, but by then more than a million gallons had oozed into Talmadge Creek and then flowed into the Kalamazoo River, forcing dozens of families to evacuate because of volatile natural gas vapors.

Tar sands crude sinks in water, which is why it is more difficult to clean up than conventional crude which floats. Much of the river is still contaminated, five years later.

In April 2015, TransCanada (a major energy company based in Calgary, Alberta) asked the U.S. State Dept. for permission to construct another 240-mile pipeline between North Dakota and Saskatchewan. The U.S. ought to be preparing for a future that doesn’t depend on tar sands oil, rather than building infrastructure that’s obviously designed to facilitate its extraction.

[From: http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/kalamazoo-river-spill-five-years-later?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=linkmain&utm_campaign=email by Brian Palmer]

$$$ Money Matters: At a critical point in the Paris negotiations on global climate change, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States would commit $800 million annually to help developing nations adapt to a warming climate and move to cleaner energy. $800 million doubled the prior US pledge, and the announcement may have helped seal the deal. $800 million is a lot of money. But it is actually less than US taxpayers provided in the past year to each of five major for-profit college companies — all of which have been under investigation in recent years by federal and state law enforcement agencies for deceiving their students, lying to government regulators, and other abuses.

[From: http://www.truth-out.org/news/ ]

Water Saving Tip – Use a bucket to catch the cold water as your shower warms up. Then use that water for your plants or for your next toilet flush.

All information herein is gleaned from the Internet. This issue was compiled by Nancy Stiefel and Social Justice Committee members.

Businesses Can Make a Difference

The 2015 Climate Survey of Businesses by research consultancy GlobeScan and think tank SustainAbility shows which companies are making the most difference in climate change. Unilever came in first as the company that has achieved the most substantive advances. This consumer goods company committed to achieving zero deforestation by 2020; it has initiated a Sustainable Living Campaign with challenging, transparent goals.

Electric car manufacturer Tesla came in second while Ikea, General Electric, and Google were tied for third place. Walmart, Toyota, Siemens, Apple, and solar-energy installer SolarCity finished the list of the top 10 companies. For companies to be counted in the top 10 of this list of Sustainable Companies, they had to reduce carbon emissions, increase their use of renewable energy, and clamp down on deforestation.

This survey showed that companies are able to produce climate change benefits better than most governments around the world. Eric Whan, a sustainability director at GlobeScan, said “Businesses are expected to lead on climate change because they are seen to be able to deliver results. Traditional institutions like governments and multilaterals have failed to do so, ….”

[David Kimball summarized this article for the SJ News from: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/nov/12/climate-survey-change-conference-unilever-tesla-united-nations?CMP=new_1194&CMP ]

Sealing Methane Leaks

On October 23, the Aliso Canyon gas well in Porter Ranch, California, ruptured. More than 77,000 metric tons of methane have since escaped into the atmosphere. Methane is a potent a greenhouse gas—25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. The leak is now California’s single largest contributor to climate change.

The disaster’s timing is uncanny. Just as the EPA prepares to finalize rules limiting methane leaks from natural gas wells, the canyon provided a dramatic reminder of why such rules are needed.

The agency attributes nearly 30% of all methane emissions in 2012 to oil and gas production. The new regulations aim to curb the projected rise in those emissions by striking at the source.

[From: http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/environmental-issues-to-watch-2016?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=linkmain&utm_campaign=email by Brian Palmer]

In the first ever Catholic Church encyclical on environmental stewardship, Pope Francis wrote that humanity has a moral obligation to fight for climate justice, a call to action that he repeated while in the U.S. as he addressed Congress and the United Nations General Assembly. “The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all,” he wrote.

Australia - The World's Nuclear Waste Dump?

On December 6, 25 tons of controversial nuclear waste arrived in Australia on board a rust bucket ship from France. A 200-strong police escort escorted it to the Lucas Heights storage facility in south Sydney.

This Australian-made nuclear waste has been processed in France for ten years, and now it is back in Australia. And there is a heated argument going on about what’s actually in it. The French authorities say it is high-level waste with some plutonium in it. Australia says it is intermediate-level with no plutonium.

Greenpeace International has concerns about a whole range of safety issues in this shipment and the lack of transparency about this journey. The fact that this transfer has been planned for years makes its reality even more troubling.

[From: https://act.greenpeace.org ]