{"id":533,"date":"2019-12-03T03:42:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T03:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/?p=533"},"modified":"2019-12-03T03:48:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T03:48:54","slug":"local-efforts-to-draw-attention-to-destructive-fires-in-amazon-rainforest-by-sarah-machinak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/local-efforts-to-draw-attention-to-destructive-fires-in-amazon-rainforest-by-sarah-machinak\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Efforts to Draw Attention to Destructive Fires in Amazon Rainforest by Sarah Machinak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On September\n1<sup>st<\/sup>, several environmentally-conscious Pittsburgh organizations convened\nin the lawn of the Carnegie Library of Oakland to lead the Action for Amazonia\nRally. The group sought to raise public awareness about the destructive fires\nwhich continue to burn throughout the Amazon rainforest and to inspire others\nto boycott companies that profit from the exploitation of the rainforest, with a\nfocus on local action. Fires in the Amazon rainforest have increased by 77% in\nthe past year.<a href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Rally\nleaders traced the links between global environmental destruction and the\ntendency of corporations and public policies\u2014both in Brazil and in the United States\u2014to\nvalue profits over people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the organizations\nrepresented were Team Pachamama, a nonprofit organization that aspires toward\npersonal and societal transformation through art and media, Pittsburgh UNITED, a\ncoalition of environmental organizations, the Caney Indigenous Spiritual\nCircle, the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center, Pittsburgh Vegan\nSociety, Extinction Rebellion Pittsburgh, Breathe Project, Transition\nPittsburgh, and Last Chance Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rally kicked off in front of the Pittsburgh-famous \u201cDippy\nthe Dinosaur\u201d statue. Speaker Miguel Sague, an indigenous elder and appointed\nmedicine man of the Three Rivers American Indian Center, spoke passionately about\nthe raging fires in the Amazon, which \u201care being set on purpose\u201d to clear\ngrazing land for companies such as McDonald\u2019s and Costco. In addition to\nmultinational corporations, Sague noted the role of Brazil\u2019s government in the\ndegradation of the rainforest, lamenting that \u201cThe president of Brazil [Jair\nBolsonaro] set back progress 20, 30 years.\u201d Sague stressed that the majority of\nthe fires \u201cwere not natural\u201d in origin. Sague, who founded the Caney Indigenous\nSpiritual Circle, noted the link between destruction of the environment and\nracism towards indigenous people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaker Maren Cooke echoed Sague\u2019s sentiments regarding the\nrole of large corporations in damaging the environment. Cooke serves on the\nboard of Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), a nonprofit citizens\u2019 group\nin Southwestern Pennsylvania with a focus on air quality in the Pittsburgh\nregion. GASP conducts public meetings, reviews permits, and occasionally brings\nlegal action with regard to environmental concerns, such as \u201cenforcement of air\nquality standards at the Clairton Coke Works, LTV Corporations air quality\nviolations at the firm\u2019s former Hazelwood plant\u201d and other actions.&nbsp; Cooke noted that \u201calmost all of [the fires]\nwere set on purpose\u201d with the goal of expanding agriculture and mining. \u201cSo\nmuch of the deforestation in the Amazon comes from beef and cattle grazing,\u201d\nCooke says. Cooke urged attendees to become active in writing to policy makers<a href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a>\nabout local environmental issues, as well, such as the building of the Shell petrochemical\ncracker plant, the first of several plants planned for Beaver County. She noted\nthat each plant will require the drilling of 1,000 new wells. Cooke stressed\nthat the plans are \u201cnot compatible with a view of the future that includes a\nlivable planet for our children and grandchildren.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speakers urged local action in the form of letter writing and\npersonal choices, such as eating less meat and not purchasing from companies\nthat take part in the deforestation and burning of the Amazon rainforest. Attendees\ntook a moment of silence to honor the displaced indigenous people of western\nPennsylvania\u2014the Shawnee, Seneca, and Delaware\u2014before marching through Oakland,\nled by Miguel Sague, with chants of \u201cAct locally, think globally.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>\nManuela Andreoni &amp; Christine Hauser, <em>Fires\nin Amazon rain forest have surged this year<\/em>, NY Times, (August 21, 2018),\nhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/08\/21\/world\/americas\/amazon-rainforest.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a>\nLocal organization Citizens Climate Lobby meets at the Kingsley Association to\nfacilitate letter writing to policy makers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On September 1st, several environmentally-conscious Pittsburgh organizations convened in the lawn of the Carnegie Library of Oakland to lead the Action for Amazonia Rally. The group sought to raise public awareness about the destructive fires which continue to burn throughout the Amazon rainforest and to inspire others to boycott companies [\u2026] <\/p>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"more_link clearfix\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/local-efforts-to-draw-attention-to-destructive-fires-in-amazon-rainforest-by-sarah-machinak\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIRgz-8B","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/joule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}