Category Archives: Water

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A note repudiating the criminal action of the Federal Police in the Munduruku Indian Village Teles Pires

Source: Indian Mission Council (CIMI)

Cimi comes before the people to publicly manifest vehement repugnance at the violent action and murder committed by the Federal Police during the operation called El Dorado. Using the pretext of carrying out judicial orders which determined the destruction of mining balsas in the Teles Pires River and sites of illegal mining, the commander of the operation, Antonio Carlos Muriel Sanchez, led the invasion on November 7, 2012 of the Indian Village Teles Pires, in the Jacareacanga county, state of Pará. According to declarations made in the Federal Public Ministry, there the police practiced all sorts of atrocities, such as: beatings, murder, attempted murder, destruction of houses, the school, the health station, cell phones, computers, the short wave radio, canoes and fishing boats e as balsas used for mining. Now the Indians are not able to fish, porque the river is totally polluted by the fuel in the balsas destroyed by the Federal Police. Continue reading →

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Canada, Last Holdout, Drops Opposition to Water as Human Right

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 31, 2012 (IPS) – Canada, in a dramatic political turnaround, has signaled its willingness to recognise water and sanitation as a basic human right.  As negotiations continue over the Rio+20 plan of action on sustainable development to be adopted in Brazil next month, Canada became one of the last Western nations to drop its opposition to a reference to water as a human right in the document titled “The Future We Want.”  Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, one of Canada’s largest social justice advocacy organisations, said it took “unprecedented pressure” to get the government in Ottawa to change its position. Continue reading →

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Engage with Rio+20, says J&P Network

Independent Catholic News

By: Ellen Teague

The National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales (NJPN) is calling for stronger action to tackle climate change, illegal logging and access to clean water at next month’s Earth Summit in Brazil. It urges the Rio+20 gathering of world leaders to come up with a programme of transition towards more sustainable development, particularly in the area of food and agriculture. It also calls for the implementation of an international Financial Transactions Tax or ‘Robin Hood’ Tax which could potentially raise millions of dollars for countering climate change and poverty. Continue reading →

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Water Conflicts Move Up on U.S. Security Agenda

By Carey L. Biron

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2012 (IPS) – On Wednesday, the United States intelligence community unveiled a first-ever assessment of global water-security issues.   A decassified version of the document, which looks forward through 2040, suggests that “during the next 10 years, water problems will contribute to instability in states important to U.S. national security interests.”  According to one of the assessment’s lead authors, Major General Richard Engel, water-stressed countries, being forced to focus on pressing internal issues, are increasingly unable to support U.S. policies and strategic interests. Continue reading →

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Students lead move to rid campuses of bottled water

Star Tribune

JENNA ROSS , Star Tribune

St. Ben’s and Macalester join a nationwide move to ban the eco-unfriendly plastic bottles at schools. Americans currently spend about $12 billion annually on bottled water. When you give up a 12 pack a week you’d save about $75 a year and the savings in natural resources are even more impressive.  The College of St. Benedict used to like bottled water enough to affix its logo to the plastic and hand it out at alumni events. Macalester College did the same. Continue reading →

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The Dangerously High Cost of Amazon Beef

A delicious 500-gram Amazonian beef steak produced with 7,000 grams of carbon dioxide and 7,000 liters of water, mixed with belched methane, is the ideal recipe for climate change.
By João Meirelles and María José Barney González
BELÉM, Brazil, Sep 19 (Tierramérica).- The livestock industry, and especially cattle production, is one of the world’s most significant contributors to climate change.

Increased buying capacity is leading many who have historically eaten mainly grains, fruits and vegetables to increasingly add meat and dairy products to their diets. This trend, combined with unsustainable production practices, particularly in the Brazilian Amazon, can lead to the collapse of the Amazon rainforest biome and the environmental services it provides to the planet. Continue reading →

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Scientists Find Green Method to Purify Toxic Water

By Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN , Jul 6, 2011 (IPS) – South African scientists have developed an environmentally friendly method to clean highly toxic water and convert it into drinkable water. Once available commercially, the method could drastically reduce the negative impact industry has on water pollution worldwide.  Called eutectic freeze crystallisation, the technique freezes acidic water – or brine – to produce potable or drinking water as well as useful salts, such as sodium and calcium sulphate. Continue reading →

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Water fight: A new Catholic issue emerges in Italy

VATICAN CITY ([ http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20110614.htm ]CNS) — A referendum in Italy has spotlighted an emerging social justice issue for the Catholic Church: access to safe water as a basic human right. Italians went to the polls June 12-13 and voted overwhelmingly to revoke a decree that imposed the privatization of water resources.   The issue stirred an unusually intense debate, with church leaders arguing that water is the archetypal “gift from God” that should not be polluted by the profit motive. Continue reading →

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Water fight: A new Catholic issue emerges in Italy

By John Thavis

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A referendum in Italy has spotlighted an emerging social justice issue for the Catholic Church: access to safe water as a basic human right.Italians were going to the polls June 12-13 to decide whether to revoke a decree that imposed the privatization of water resources. The issue has stirred an unusually intense debate, with church leaders arguing that water is the archetypal “gift from God” that should not be polluted by the profit motive.  On June 9, a group of more than 100 missionary priests and nuns fasted and prayed in St. Peter’s Square to underline their support for the referendum and their opposition to the privatization of water. Beneath Pope Benedict XVI’s windows, they unfurled a giant banner reading: “Lord, help us save the water!” Continue reading →

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Nigerian bishops initiate forum on oil industry’s impact

National Catholic Reporter
By Patricia Lefevere

Nigerian villagers point to an oil spill in a river in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta June 10, 2010. (Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye)

ABUJA, NIGERIA — Catholic bishops, state and local government officials, oil executives and representatives of nongovernmental agencies met in Port Harcourt, the corporate and logistic hub of Nigeria’s oil industry, to address the issues of poor governance and poor oil industry practices that have bedeviled the Niger Delta region for decades. Continue reading →