A new report by the EAC about renewable energy completely ignores the horrific effects of Muskrat Falls on Indigenous peoples and others in Labrador. That’s not what climate justice looks like.
Environmentalists have long argued that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not only an urgent and critical necessity for our planet’s survival, it’s also good for the economy. Now a new report by the Ecolgy Action Centre quantifies these benefits. It’s an excellent piece of work, and very necessary to help focus the discussion we need to have. However, the report does not go far enough in terms of environmental justice and tackling the dominance of car culture.
We don’t talk enough here about the environmental and colonial mess that is Muskrat Falls, providing so-called green energy to Nova Scotia via the Maritime Link.
Indigenous people in faraway Labrador face methylmercury poisoning, but never mind, Nova Scotia can claim it’s meeting its green energy targets.
This weekend’s video is the official trailer for the award winning and stunning documentary People of a Feather, about the unique relationship between Eider ducks and the Inuit on the Belcher Islands in Canada’s Hudson Bay, and how that relationship is disrupted by massive hydroelectric dams powering New York and eastern North America. The film will be screened on Monday evening May 13, and will be followed by a panel discussion on Muskrat Falls, where local Indigenous people face mercury poisoning so that Newfoundland and Nova Scotia politicians can claim that through “clean and green” energy they are fighting climate change.
The latest on the prosecution of journalist Justin Brake, and how you can help. Muskrat Falls may help our province meet its green energy targets, but at what cost? Brake’s reporting raised that uncomfortable question, and for doing so he deserves our support.
News release by the Labrador Land Protectors and Grand Riverkeeper Labrador, calling for a national day of action on Muskrat Falls in May of this year. Nova Scotia is complicit through the Maritime Link, but unfortunately the Ecology Action Centre remains silent on this impending act of cultural genocide.
This weekend we feature In the shadow of the dam, APTN’s brand new and excellent documentary on the indigenous resistance to the Muskrat Falls project in Labrador. You can’t condemn environmental racism and violation of Indigenous rights in Nova Scotia, and remain silent on what’s happening in Labrador right now. It’s that simple.
Roberta Benefiel, founding director of Grand Riverkeeper, Labrador, is visiting Nova Scotia to remind us that for the people who live there Muskrat Falls is an environmental disaster that will poison traditional food sources and flood indigenous lands. She believes that through the Maritime Link this is Nova Scotia issue as well. “There may not be that many of us, but people do live here. We need to put a face to these people,” Benefiel tells the Nova Scotia Advocate.
The Muskrat Falls development may be far away in Labrador, but it is very much Nova Scotia’s business. That was the message delivered by speakers at a news conference held outside the Emera / Nova Scotia Power offices on Lower Water Street in downtown Halifax this morning. “What we are seeing is massive destruction and genocide for profit. The crown corporation Nalcor is giving itself the legal authority to commit genocide using water as a vehicle for devastation. Once they drown the landscape, methylmercury poisoning is inevitable. We are talking mass genocide to all vegetation, medicines and all living species. Lives will be lost,” said Michelle Paul.