In response to the COVID 19 epidemic, Green Amendments For the Generations has submitted a letter to Congress for responsible action on the epidemic that minimizes impacts to Climate Change.
View our COVID CLIMATE RESPONSE letter to members of Congress.
Green Amendments For the Generations has joined with New Mexico leaders to protest advancement of regulations that would allow the fracking industry to use its toxic wastewater in devastating ways. The letter begins:
“We are writing to urge you to pause your plans to adopt proposed regulations regarding the use of “produced water.” As oil and gas extraction has boomed in New Mexico, the oil and gas industry has faced rising costs and difficulties in disposing its waste . In the midst of a global health pandemic and crashing oil prices, rather than slow or even stop production, industry continues to call on the Trump Administration and the Michelle Lujan Grisham Administration to simply reclassify their waste as “not toxic.” The industry’s strategy is to re-label their waste so they can more cheaply dispose of it, dumping it into rivers, onto crops, and into drinking water supplies.”
Learn more at the Wild Earth Guardians website.
On July 30th, Green Amendments For The Generations Founder, Maya van Rossum talks with Native American activist Donna Fann-Boyle about the issue surrounding the use of Native American imagery in sports teams mascots and how that affects Native American well being. Watch the interview here: https://youtu.be/7ltC8rsBP2A
On September 2, 2020 the Radnor School Board voted to end the use of the "Raider" name and Native American imagery. This is an important success in the effort to seek respect for First Nation Communities.
Note from Maya: Some have asked why my Green Amendments For The Generations organization is involved in this issue along with me (a Radnor resident, Radnor alumni, and Radnor Hall of Famer). Achieving racial equity and justice is an issue important across social justice and environmental organizations. Native Americans are among those hardest hit by racism that has, amongst other things, been expressed in environmental racism and turning Native American communities into environmental sacrifice zones. Helping to end racial injustice across our community and nation is the moral and right thing for all people and organizations to pursue; and from an environmental organization perspective ending racism of all kinds will help us end environmental violence, racism and injustice against communities of color including Native American communities. Standing in solidarity across social, racial and environmental justice issues is important.
Green Amendments For The Generation signs on in support of the NJ Cumulative Impacts Bill alongside over 250 labor, justice and faith groups. Passing the NJ Cumulative Bill is a necessary step in correcting the legacy of environmental racism and injustice in New Jersey by mandating the state to consider impacts on communities of color and low-income neighborhoods when reviewing permits for polluting projects. The bill aims to protect public health by limiting the placement and expansion of polluting facilities in overburdened communities, and by ensuring the people have a voice in the process.
Holtec International (Holtec) is seeking a federal license to construct and operate a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for spent nuclear fuel/waste that would be transported from all over the nation to southeast New Mexico. This proposal is unsafe and unwise for people, communities and the environment in New Mexico and in those locations from where the waste will be taken. Green Amendments For The Generations joins with others in the position that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs to focus on a permanent solution for addressing the hazardous nuclear waste that has been created as the result of the agency’s reviews, approvals and oversight. Interim storage is a half measure that needlessly increases the threat of contamination from nuclear waste transport and storage to our environment and communities, which is neither an appropriate, nor a defensible solution.
Green Amendments For The Generations believes that licensing the Holtec facility will wrongly pass off the problem of spent nuclear waste to communities in New Mexico. All across the country communities have benefited from the creation of this waste -- and to now put the communities of New Mexico in the sacrifice zone as the repository for this joint problem is simply wrong. New Mexico did not benefit from this waste, and in fact has worked hard to preserve their natural landscapes for their ecological, human health, recreational and economic values -- bringing this waste to New Mexico as proposed puts in jeopardy all of the investment and effort that secured the preservation of important and irreplaceable natural resources.
Green Amendments For The Generations teamed up with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network to submit comments in opposition to this dangerous proposal. You can review our comment here: Final Holtec comment for submission Green Amendments FTG
