July, 26 2011, 01:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Nan Wishner, California Environmental Health Initiative – 530-467-3069, nan@cal-ehi.org
Debbie Friedman, MOMS Advocating Sustainability - 415-608-8317, debbie@greenwavestrategies.com
Caroline Cox, Center for Environmental Health - 510.655.3900 x308, caroline@ceh.org
Erin Tobin, Earthjustice, 510-550-6700, etobin@earthjustice.org
Coalition of Health and Environmental Groups Challenges California's Pesticide Plan
Groups point out health and safety threats from pesticide use, need for public involvement
WASHINGTON
A coalition of groups, including moms, water protection advocates, teens, cities, and health and environmental organizations today challenged the State of California's current planning process to control and eradicate pests. The state's programs often include spraying harmful pesticides, some of which drift onto homes and people.
The group's letter, prepared by the public interest law firm Earthjustice, was sent to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) today. It points to flaws in the agency's proposal to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for its pest programs throughout California. The PEIR covers "an undisclosed number of plant pest prevention and management programs and activities implemented by CDFA throughout California."
The groups contend that the state's current "one size fits all" approach to fighting agricultural and other pests does not prioritize least toxic methods that avoid use of harmful pesticides, nor does it account the heightened risks these chemical pose to vulnerable populations, such as children. The groups argue that the state must evaluate the risks posed by pests based on sound science and consider the actual environmental impacts of pest management activities, which are likely to be highly dependent on site-specific environmental variables, such as geography and climatic conditions.
In addition, the letter raises concern that the agency's proposal would restrict the public from having a voice in pest control and eradication programs carried out in communities far into the future.
"It is puzzling that the state is proceeding with a multi-million-dollar EIR for a pest management approach that is outdated, costly, and ineffective. If they modernize their program first, it would likely have far fewer environmental impacts, so the scope of environmental review could be much less sweeping and costly - and the process would be much less likely to lead to litigation," said Nan Wishner of the California Environmental Health Initiative, one of the groups represented by the letter.
"The state's proposal raises serious questions about when and where pest eradication projects will occur, how will the public be informed, and what will be the impacts to public health and the environment," said Earthjustice attorney Erin Tobin. "If the state intends to cut the public out of future pesticide projects, this PEIR will be vulnerable to legal challenge."
The groups demand that the state change its pest eradication planning to include:
* evaluation of the scientific bases for CDFA's current "quarantine and spray" approach
* the costs of CDFA's pest programs as well as their effectiveness at actually controlling or eradicating pests
* the impacts of the state's practices on the growers whose products and livelihoods pest management programs are intended to protect
* the criteria (if any) CDFA uses to determine whether pests are a serious environmental risk
* the impact of global warming on the arrival and spread of pests in California
* CDFA's current practice of declaring "emergencies" for pest eradication projects instead of following CEQA's procedures for preparing EIRs prior to taking action.
"It is critical that the PEIR rigorously evaluate how the state decides whether a pest poses an environmental risk and should be eradicated, as well as how effective its current practices are in actually controlling or eradicating pests," said Caroline Cox, Research Director for Center for Environmental Health. "As we recently saw with the light brown apple moth, the state's determination that the moth posed a serious threat was inaccurate. The apple moth has done no damage in the three years since CDFA declared it an emergency. When decisions about pest threats become justification for spraying in communities and on food, those decisions must be transparent and based on sound science."
The group called for an alternative planning process led by an independent body that would bring stakeholders together to create a less toxic, less costly, and more effective pest control plan that would be easier for farmers to comply with. This call has been ignored by the state agency leading to the letter sent today.
"The state's project description says that one objective of the PEIR is to minimize human health impacts of pest treatments; however, nothing else in the document addresses health impacts. CDFA's past history, from aerial spraying for the medfly 30 years ago to aerial spraying for the apple moth 3 years ago, makes clear that the agency's approach does not prioritize protecting human health and is sorely in need of updating. But, unfortunately, the PEIR project description indicates that the PEIR will focus on CDFA's business-as-usual approach," said Debbie Friedman, Chairperson of MOMS Advocating Sustainability (MAS), another of the groups on whose behalf the letter was prepared.
"One ostensible purpose of the PEIR is to avoid the repeated emergency declarations for pests that have been the agency's pattern. How can a PEIR address emergencies when, under CEQA's definition, they are unexpected occurrences? The real question the agency must ask is whether it is justified to treat pests as emergencies. Lack of time to complete legally required environmental review does not constitute an emergency," said Jason Flanders, Staff Attorney at San Francisco Baykeeper, one of the groups joining in the Earthjustice comments.
The state says it will consider how to minimize damaging peoples' health when it sprays pesticides to eradicates pests but it should instead be insisting on avoiding health threats to people altogether," said Mayor Farid Javandel of the City of Albany, which endorsed the Earthjustice letter. "Given a choice between public health and economic impacts to agricultural interests, public health must be held paramount."
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
"The privacy violations that flow from law enforcement entities circumventing the Fourth Amendment undermine civil liberties, free expression, and our ability to control what happens to our data," said Free Press Action policy counsel Jenna Ruddock. "These impacts affect everyone who uses digital platforms that extract our personal information any time we open a browser or visit social media and other websites—even when we go to events like demonstrations and other places with our phones revealing our locations."
"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the pending 702 bill and FANFSA's lead sponsor in the upper chamber, called the the House's Wednesday vote "a huge win for privacy" and said that "now it's time for the Senate to follow suit."
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Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," said one former Lebanese diplomat.
Apr 17, 2024
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," Massoud Maalouf, a former Lebanese ambassador to Canada, Chile, and Poland, said on social media.
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Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
Apr 17, 2024
"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and BrasÃlia's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
- Learn about Israel's NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
- Meet the Grey Wolves, Turkey's roving death squad with links to President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and the ethno-nationalists in his governing coalition; and
- Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun.
Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
"Together, we will not only name, shame, and expose the forces of the far right—but also dismantle their network of complicity," the group said.
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