There will be a Medicine Water Wheel ceremony in Frenchy’s Park for the Full Moon on Sunday 19th June at 6 PM to bless the Full Moon, Summer Solstice and Father’s Day. Hope you can make it. Please join us. Here is the schedule for the upcoming water wheel ceremonies for the rest of the year:
http://www.naturalnews.com/053953_fluoride_cancer_water_safety.html
FAN has been working for many years to raise awareness about the toxicity of fluoride, with the eventual goal of getting it removed from public water supplies. And its most recent efforts involving OEHHA could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, so to speak, as it has the potential to unleash the truth about fluoride on a massive scale, and spark a revolt against its use.
According to a recent FAN press release, OEHHA’s report was birthed out of an inquiry into the science of fluoride’s toxicity. It is also a prelude to the group’s scientific advisory board Carcinogen Identification Committee (CIC) meeting to be held on October 12 – 13, 2011, which will make a decision on the status of fluoride as a carcinogen.
The OEHHA report already states that “multiple lines of evidence (show) that fluoride is incorporated into bones where it can stimulate cell division of osteoblasts [bone-forming cells],” an admission that already recognizes fluoride as a cause of bone cancer. The report goes on to state that fluoride induces “genetic changes other cellular changes leading to malignant transformation, and cellular immune response thereby increasing the risk of development of osteosarcomas.”
To add to this, FAN presented OEHHA with additional studies from the National Research Council (NRC), the National Toxicology Program (NTP), and several esteemed universities that all illustrate a link between fluoride consumption and various cancers, including liver and oral cancers, and thyroid follicular cell tumors.
With this mountain of evidence, the only logical conclusion OEHHA can come to in October is that fluoride is a toxic poison — and just like lead and other known toxic chemicals already are in California, worthy of being publicly identified as dangerous.
“While we understand that there will be tremendous pressure put on the CIC and OEHHA by the proponents of fluoride and fluoridation, we ask that the Committee continue to rely on its high level of scientific knowledge and integrity when deliberating and reaching a final conclusion on the carcinogenicity status of fluoride and its salts,” wrote FAN as part of its official submission.
To read the entire FAN press release, which contains further details about the cancer studies included, visit:
Sarah Jane White’s walking to the top of a sandy hill near the eastern edge of the Navajo reservation. Along the way, she points to footprints in the sand. Her 4-year-old grandson, Albino, crouches to look. She shows him the prints of a horse, then a cow. Each time, he’s delighted.
It’s sunny and warm, though just a few days before the official start of winter. We walk past juniper trees, an old sweat lodge. Albino powers across the sandstone arroyo and on up the hill. The sky’s a deep blue. And depending on the breeze, the air smells like either sage or pine.
“Right now, there’s healthy people living here,” says White. “The air is fresh. It’s clean.”
White and her relatives are “allottees,” Navajo people living on lands deeded to them by the federal government.
The federal government deferred new oil leases near Chaco Canyon National Historical Park last month. But many people who live here are still worried about how development outside the park will affect their communities, their landscapes, and their children’s futures.
If you’ve driven Highway 550 between Cuba and Farmington recently, you’ve seen the oil rigs and flares on federal allotments along the road near Lybrook and Counselor.
But people like White – people who live here – seem surprised to see how fast things have changed. “When they’re done sucking everything out, everybody’s going to pack up and leave and leave their trash behind,” she says. “Nobody’s going to clean it up. That’s what bothers me.”
At the top of the hill, White looks out, across the landscape. From here, she can see four different wells in the distance. “I see the landscape looks really beautiful, but when you see all these oil tanks and fields, that’s not beautiful,” she says. “The flare, that doesn’t look good at all. And if we don’t stop this, it’s going to be all over the place.”
In the past two years, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved more than 100 new exploratory wells around here. Companies like Encana Corporation and WPX Energy have come in, offering tens of thousands of dollars to allottees willing to have a well on their lands.
Each well pad has its own road, waste pond, and tanks. During drilling, pickup trucks and semi-trucks run up and down the roads 24 hours a day.
Lori Goodman directs the nonprofit, Diné CARE – Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment. “The leases are being sold… grandma and grandpa are selling their leases, they get $60,000, $80,000. They’ve never seen money like that, and they’re not understanding the value of it, even.”
Oftentimes, she explains, people don’t understand what they’re signing, and they don’t understand what’s going to happen on their lands.
That’s also a one-time payment – even if the well runs for decades.
Many Navajo people who live here are upset that the roads leading to their homes are being ripped up by semi-trucks. They’re afraid of fracking fluids. They don’t know what’s coming out of the flares. And they worry about blowouts and accidents that happen far – very far – from emergency services.
Victoria Gutierrez is Sarah Jane White’s daughter. “Especially at night, it’s enough to make you just cry. One of the ladies (said it) looks like a war zone. It’s just completely lit up,” she says. “All you see is flames everywhere, you smell that gas, that burning, it’s just ugly.”
Guttierrez knows that the wells mean money: lots of cash for people working in the fields, and depending on land ownership and jurisdiction, hundreds of millions of dollars for the state of New Mexico, the federal government, or the Navajo Nation tribal government and millions more in profits for the oil companies.
But she’s angry that Navajo people are living with the trucks and the flares, the noise and the fear.
“I think indigenous people, Navajos, we’ve been pushed around enough. We were forced to live on land no one wanted, (and) now everyone wants it because we’re full of natural resources,” she says. “It’s not right. And so, leave it where it’s at. Leave it where it’s at. That’s what I say.”
Guttierrez’s mom, Sarah Jane White, says Navajo people live where they are born. “Like, if I was born here,” she says, pointing to the ground between her feet, “I would live here. And I would die here. And I would want to be buried here. You don’t leave your homeland.”
That’s why they are fighting, she says. Because what happens now will still matter to the children born here in a century.
***
Forwarded by Leslie Lakind from
The Max & Anna Levinson Foundation
P.O. Box 6309, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502
505-995-8802 levinsonfoundation.org
You are invited to a coming out party, fundraiser evening with pot luck, music and a wonderful presentation to benefit the Santa Fe Global Water Festival. Come join and support us and share with your friends.:
“The Magical Grandeur of Water“, a presentation by Jim McMath will take you on a journey from the global to the molecular worlds of water. Fundraiser and coming out party for the Santa Fe Global Water Festival, Friday, December 19th at La Cocina de Balam, 1406 3rd Street, Santa Fe 87505. Pot luck, opening ceremony, music, dance and community from 6 PM – 9 PM.
Lara Bache, Miriam Kass and Sage Gray will be performing songs and spoken word, some about water written for the occasion.
DJ Spunflower and/drumming/jamming/dancing afterwards. By donation
Info:(575) 770 1228 email: HealingTheScars@Gmail.com
www.waterawarenessgroup.wordpress.com/gwf
Please share and invite friends from our FaceBook event page:
www.facebook.com/events/672417426207113/
If you can’t make it pass on to your friends. You can also send us a contribution!!!!
The Magical Grandeur of Water
“The Grandeur of Water”, a presentation by Jim McMath will take you on a journey from the global to the molecular worlds of water. Fundraiser and coming out party for the Santa Fe Global Water Festival, Friday, December 19th at La Cocina de Balam, 1406 3rd Street, Santa Fe 87505. Pot luck, music, dance and community from 6 PM – 9 PM. DJ/drumming/jamming afterwards. By donation
Info:(575) 770 1228 email: HealingTheScars@Gmail.com
www.waterawarenessgroup.wordpress.com/gwf
Please share. If you can’t make it pass on to your friends. You can also send us a contribution!!!!
At the Women’s Congress for Future Generations, legendary scholar, author and activist Riane Eisler called for a global shift to economic practices and policies that value caring for other beings and for the earth.
Her idea – that the real “wealth of nations” is not simply financial, but consists of the contributions of people to each other and to nature – illuminates SEHN’s goal in convening the Women’s Congress.
We invite you to make your contribution to the work of cultivating and protecting our real, collective wealth – in service of future generations.
Nearly 500 Congress participants gathered in Minnesota this November to delve into the question: how do we shift from a culture based on dominance and exploitation of resources, to one focused on long-term collective well-being, partnership, and a relational approach to the community of life?
We explored the tenets of the Owl Economy, a wisdom-based approach to economics calling for a recognition that the Earth is the source of our life and our economic activity.
We offered participants a template for action, Heartland & Headwaters, to support the emerging grassroots movement of women organizing and innovating for future generations as a result of the Congress.
And out of our Caucus of All Waters, we developed the Declaration of Rights of All Waters, articulating the innately-held rights of the oceans, lakes, rivers, aquifers, and clouds, as well as the related responsibilities of humans to protect these waters.
Throughout the Congress, we wove music and the arts into the proceedings. With song, we invoked the living rights of all nature. With music, we grieved the earth’s losses and celebrated our power to make change. We danced and sang the new forms of law and policy into being.
We are steadfastly committed to calling forth a legal system grounded in guardianship and care for future generations. At the cusp of 2015, we are exploring innovative partnerships and possibilities for a next women’s gathering – which we’ll share with you in the coming weeks and months.
As we do this courageous work together, Joanna Macy again reminds us that we are not alone, and our efforts matter:
“Future generations are a two-way street. I work for them, and they hold me in an embrace of deep time. They help me see my life is one short little span in a great span of time, and I mustn’t fall prey to measuring my success by what I can see happening in my lifetime.”
Water Wheel at El Museo Cultural on Day of the Dead
Medicine Water Wheel Ceremonies at the Water Wheel in Frenchy’s Park beside the footbridge:
Full Moon ceremony, Saturday 6th December at Noon
Winter Solstice and New Moon ceremony on Sunday 21st December at Noon.
Dress warmly and bring your prayers, offerings and blessings for the Waters.
Presentation and fundraiser for the Santa Fe Global Water Festival: “The Grandeur of Water” by James McMath, music and movie. Friday 19th December 6PM Location to TBA
More info: Raphael Weisman (575) 770 1228
HealingTheScars@Gmail.com
https://waterawarenessgroup.wordpress.com/
From La Jicarita
San Miguel County Passes Tough Oil and Gas Regulations.
By KAY MATTHEWS
Today the San Miguel County Commission unanimously voted to adopt the San Miguel County Oil and Gas Regulations ordinance, which uses zoning and stringent requirements to regulate how and where the oil and gas industry can explore, drill, and hydraulically “frack” within the county. At the last public hearing before the adoption of the ordinance, Robert Freilich, the land use law attorney who helped the county draft the ordinance, stated, “This ordinance is a lot better than Santa Fe’s ordinance.” He also acknowledged the hard work of the members of PROTECT San Miguel County, whose diligence in reviewing the ordinance and helping in its revision makes it one of the toughest in the country. After the commissioners passed the ordinance, they also thanked all of those who had worked so hard to make this a reality.
La Jicarita spoke with PROTECT San Miguel County member Bob Wessely about what makes the San Miguel County ordinance so strong. He described it as basically a “large collection” of details that have gone through four or five incremental drafts to address problems raised by his organization and by the public at the 15 or so hearings held over the last several years. He cited four areas in which the final draft is particularly rigorous:
These regulatory requirements will apply to the eastern portion of the county—the boundary line is about 30 miles east of I-25 and runs from north to south— where exploration and drilling will be allowed. The western portion of the county is off limits.
Other regulations that PROTECT requested or worked on with the county have also been included in the ordinance:
I asked Wessely if he felt this ordinance would act to discourage oil and gas development because of its onerous requirements. He answered that it would certainly discourage a “fly by night” operator and would make large companies like Shell carefully consider whether it’s worthwhile, before engaging in the process. While there is currently no drilling taking place in the county, there are leases in the Watrous area (west of the dividing line) and some ranchers in the eastern area are desirous of having drilling on their ranches.
The San Miguel Oil and Gas Regulations were long in the making. La Jicarita asked Pat Leahan, with the Las Vegas Peace and Justice Center and PROTECT San Miguel County, to provide a timeline of how the public and county worked together to promulgate this ordinance.
While folks in San Miguel County are celebrating the passage of these regulations, neighboring Mora County is navigating tough legal terrain. In 2013 Mora County passed an outright ban on oil and gas development and is now embroiled in two industry lawsuits. Last week, U.S. District Judge Browning heard arguments on a motion for summary judgment in the SWEPI LP (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell) vs. Mora County lawsuit. Based on his statements in the courtroom—“Some of these provisions are pretty wild; they’re pretty inconsistent with centuries of federal law” —it seems likely that at a subsequent hearing he will rule that either some of the language in the Mora County Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance is unconstitutional or that the entire ordinance should be thrown out. Another lawsuit filed against Mora County by private landholders and the Independent Petroleum Association remains extant but settlement negotiations are ongoing.
There will be a Global Frackdown on October 11th
If you would like to participate or organize an event in Santa Fe, go to
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/global-frackdown-october-11-2014
Here is the outline of the event in an email from Lars Panaro:
https://www.facebook.com/FoodAndWaterWatchNewMexico?ref
Please sign up to take action on our website.
Santa Fe Water Awareness Group 