EnvironMental with Dandelion

This week's episode Court did a deep dive into the dangers of the Dakota Access Pipeline and Line Three.

The Dakota Access Pipeline gained media attention in 2016 when the Sioux tribe sued the government over the construction project, its lack of environmental protections, and broken treaties with indigenous nations.

Despite the protests the pipeline was built and all lawsuits were eventually (and unfortunately) dropped.

We're seeing very recent news that there are active issues with the DAPL pipeline though, and it's undergoing a full environmental review.

Now, the current pipeline project underway is called Line 3. This pipeline would travel across the Mississippi river, over 200 other waterways, and miles of marshlands.

This land is crucial not only to the First Nation communities that live there, but also to the millions of people who rely on water that passes through it.

Do we never learn?

Construction of these oil pipelines permanently affects environment and ecosystems, regardless of if there are spills. If there are any spills, this would have massive environmental and ecological ramifications.

Why are we taking such risk and continuing to invest in infrastructure for a dying industry?

We must protect our water, not protect the pocketbooks of fossil fuel executives.

Sign the petition and make your voice hear here: https://www.stopline3.org/take-action

Sources:

https://conbio.org/publications/scb-news-blog/scientists-sign-letter-against-dakota-access-pipeline

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/federal-court-closes-dakota-access-case-allows-fresh-challenges-2021-06-22/

https://elpc.org/blog/nothing-suggests-line-3-pipeline-can-comply-with-minnesota-water-quality-standards/

https://www.honorearth.org/

https://www.stopline3.org/

This week on the podcast, we start diving into fresh water access.

In the US, having access to fresh water is treated like a privilege, especially for poor communities. The clearest example of that is the Flint Water Crisis.

aub did a deep dive into the timeline of what happened in Flint - its not pretty.

The problem in Genessee County, Michigan hit national and international news in 2016. But by then it had already been almost two years since the water crisis started.

aub shares the timeline of events because every step of the way show how severely mishandled this situation was from the start. It shows the blatant disregard for the Flint community.

The Flint water crisis is seen as a political scandal now - but that feels like it doesn't do the situation justice.

100,000 PEOPLE DIDN'T HAVE CLEAN DRINKING WATER FOR FOUR YEARS. And the story is still unfolding in the aftermath.

Corruption, mismanagement, and poisoning of an entire community of people, done for a pennies on the dollar savings venture.

The government ignored and gaslit the citizens of Flint, they sidestepped culpability, and treated their city like it was expendable.

Would this happen in a white community? In a rich neighborhood?

In a low-crime city?

No. Absolutely not.

References:

Flint Stats and US stats from the US Census Bureau.

Timeline from NPR

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis?t=1628953587723

Associated Press timeline: https://apnews.com/article/us-news-health-michigan-rick-snyder-flint-7295d05da09d7d5b1184b0e349545897

The September 2015 health advisory to the citizens of Flint

 http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/public-health-advisory-regarding-lead-in-flint-water-from-the-genesee-county-board-of-commissioners/

The 2017 Michigan Civil Rights Commission statement: The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism through the Lens of Flint

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdcr/VFlintCrisisRep-F-Edited3-13-17_554317_7.pdf

Evidence of the cover up found:

https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2019/04/millions-of-flint-water-documents-found-in-basement-prosecutors-claim.html

The most current info on Rick Snyder charges:

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/michigan/2021/03/18/ex-michigan-gov-rick-snyder-loses-challenge-to-flint-water-charges/

In this episode of EnvironMental we start our investigation into the fresh water crisis we're facing right now. 

The gross misuse of water by the energy, agriculture, and fashion industries are leading to a rapidly approaching end of fresh water availability. 

This is a major crisis that needs to be addressed now. 

Aub and Court chat about current facts, and some very interesting data points around how much water a hamburger requires. (Guess what, it's over 600 gallons PER burger you're eating.)

There's much work to be done on a large scale, but individual action can make a difference! Be conscious of your water usage, especially while on vacations.

Here are our references for this episode: 

https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/freshwater/when-will-the-world-run-out-of-water/story

https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/freshwater-crisis

Water Usage Stats: https://www.motherjones.com/food/2015/04/blue-jeans-cars-microchips-water-use/

Uses of water in industry: https://www.aquatechtrade.com/news/industrial-water/industrial-water-essential-guide/

In this week's conversation about sustainability, we're wrapping up the discussion about Food and Agriculture.

This is the second week we're talking about the book, Black Food Matters. A collection of interdisciplinary articles written or compiled by Ashanté M. Reese and Hanna Garth

We decided to split this up and talk about it over two episodes because this book is an important set of voices sharing the tangible intersection of systemic racism, power, and food culture.

This week Court thoughtfully covers the topics around cultural appropriation and food justice on the restaurant scene.

These are the chapters we talk about:

6 - Soul Food Gentrification: Food, Racial Heritage Tourism, and the Redevelopment of Black Space in Miami by Billy Hall

7 - “Preserve and Add Flavor”: Barbecue as Resistance in Memphis by Kimberly Kasper

8 - Sisters of the Soil: Urban Agriculture in Detroit by Monica M. White

9 - Race, Land, and the Law: Black Farmers and the Limits of a Politics of Recognition by Willie J. Wright, Tyler McCreary, Brian Williams, and Adam Bledsoe

10 - The Mango Gang and New World Cuisine: White Privilege in the Commodification of Latin-American and Afro-Caribbean Foods by Judith Williams

11 - Afterword: Problematizing the Problem by Psyche Williams-Forso

This is the first of 2 episodes dedicated to the book, Black Food Matters. A collection of interdisciplinary articles written or compiled by Ashanté M. Reese and Hanna Garth  

We decided to split this up and talk about it over two episodes because this book is an important set of voices sharing the tangible intersection of systemic racism, power, and food culture.  

For this first week, aub shares a thoughtful overview of the first half of the book's articles:  1 - In the Food Justice World but Not of It: Everyday Black Food Entrepreneurship by Ashanté M. Reese  2 - The Intersection of Politics and Food Security in a South Carolina Town by Gillian Richards-Greaves  3 - Nurturing the Revolution: The Black Panther Party and the Early Seeds of the Food Justice Movement by Analena Hope Hassberg  4 - Blackness and “Justice” in the Los Angeles Food Justice Movement by Hanna Garth  5 - Good Food in a Racist System: Competing Moral Economies in Detroit Andrew Newman and Yuson Jung

This week on EnvironMental, aub did a deep dive into food deserts.

More than 10% of people in the US live in a food desert, which is a geographic area where access to affordable, healthy food options are limited.

Our ability to create and grow food from a centralized place also allowed for things like urban city sprawl and a decrease in rural farms - and with both of these came food deserts.

There is no perfect solution for the food desert because every area is unique and we're so used to being separate from our food system, that it will take TIME to implement actual systems of change.

Tune in to hear to learn about the prevalence of food deserts and the potential solutions aub found for food deserts around the country.

Here are this week's resources:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-are-food-deserts#other-terms

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-food-deserts

https://www.aecf.org/blog/exploring-americas-food-deserts

https://mymorningmusings.com/?p=129

This week on EnvironMental, Courtney did a deep dive into food insecurity.  

The long and short is that food insecurity is a trap - it's a cycle that is generationally difficult to escape from.  

It is highly correlated with high rates of violence and poverty and while there are solutions like using our food waste more wisely, the only real solution for food insecurity is providing a living wage.   

Here are Courtney's resources: 

- feedingamerica.org 

- Feeding Peace: An Investigation of the Relationship between Food Insecurity and Violence - Illinois state university https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=scced 

- National Center for Biotechnology Information - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805706/ 

- Frontiers in Sustainable food systems - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00016/full

This week on EnvironMental we spoke with Anne Terhorst, Junior Business Developer for Food Tech Brainport, a company that is dedicated to improving food tech to make food production more sustainable.  

We talk about the human condition and how even though we can solve a lot of issues with technological advances, we can't make global change without people accepting those advances into their everyday lives.  

The reality is that we have big changes to make to our global food system, and those types of changes take time, energy, and intention to implement.  

This inspiring conversation left us all with a lot to think about, and if you love it and you have any questions, you can reach out to Anne through LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-terhorst/

This week on EnvironMental we talk about Farming for the Long Haul by Michael Foley!