Diné Organization Files Uranium Complaint with OAS Human Rights Agency

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ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, USA—Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) announced this week it will file its Additional Observations on the Merits including written and video testimony and other exhibits to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) based in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Oct. 21.

ENDAUM’s petition states that when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensed Hydro Resources, Inc. (HRI) (now known as NuFuels, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Laramide Resources) to operate uranium mining in the two Diné (Navajo) communities of Crownpoint and Churchrock it violated human rights guaranteed in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, including the rights to life, health, benefits of culture, fair trial, and property.

The U.S. NRC licensed an ISL uranium mine it knows will contaminate groundwater that is an important resource of drinking water and cultural identity to communities that suffer increased risk of death and disease from historic uranium mining and milling the United States government not only tolerated but promoted.

ENDAUM and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) will be holding a Gathering over zoom on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 AT 12:30PM MDT to Celebrate the filing and to be available to members of the media to answer any questions about this unprecedented reckoning for the U.S. government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for past and future uranium mining and milling activities on Indigenous lands.

Read additional coverage in the Albuquerque based online news site The Paper

 

Sister Joan Brown: Global Faith Community Speaks Out ahead of Climate Conference

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Sister Joan Brown, osf, executive director of New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light wrote an opinion piece for the Gallup Independent about the commitments by faith leaders around the world to address climate change ahead of the the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland from Oct. 31-Nov.12.  The article is entitled “Did you miss a critical event this week?” Here is an excerpt:

Pope Francis and 40 faith leaders representing 84% of the world’s people who identify with a faith met and signed a climate appeal Oct. 4. Many of us missed this unprecedented event, just as we are missing the call to care for Our Common Home and take action to address climate change.

The appeal made at the Vatican addresses all governments participating in the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland…The strong document calls for decisive international action by governments implores leaders to “safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship.”

Signed by the religious leaders of major traditions, it implores the world to listen and act. “Future generations will never forgive us if we miss the opportunity to protect our common home. We have inherited a garden; we must not leave a desert to our children.”

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“Climate change is touching into every aspect of life’

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An article in The New Mexico Political Report on July 26 examines the impact of climate change on communities and families of color. Sister Joan Brown is quoted in the article.

Here are excerpts:

“According to a Yale Project on Climate Change and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication report, communities of color are likely to disproportionately feel climate change more than white communities due to socioeconomic inequities. Communities of color are likely to be more vulnerable to heat waves, extreme weather events, environmental degradation and the resulting job opportunity dislocations, the report said.

Brown said she believes the first aspect of climate change to have the greatest impact on families of color in New Mexico will be the intensity of forest fires in the state.”

This week forest fire smoke from western states has affected skies and air pollution in the eastern part of the U.S. and the Bootleg Fire in Oregon is so intense it is causing its own weather.

“I think we’ve already seen some of that with fires that have drastically changed some of the areas where people live. Vegetation that won’t come back affects the watershed, affects irrigation, animals that live here. What we’ll see with exceptional drought, we see right now,” she said.

Families of color who live in Albuquerque are also feeling the effects of climate change and the ensuing severe drought, Brown said. Her organization has been involved in tree plantings, as part of the City of Albuquerque’s initiative to plant thousands of trees in city neighborhoods. Brown said New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light has focused its efforts in the International District in Albuquerque because the area acts as a “heat sink” due to a lack of vegetation and too much concrete, she said.

Heat sinks, which occur in urban settings, are more likely to affect low income and diverse communities such as the International District, Brown said.

“As it gets hotter, heat sinks will affect mental and emotional health. You get really depressed if there’s no shade, no beauty or coolness. It really impacts children and their well being. Trees are really important to children for that green and that beauty,” she said.

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