See Environmental Justice projects: Current | 2004 | 2003 | 2002

Summer 2004

Skiing vs Native Rights

In February, the DataCenter participated in a weekend-long training in Flagstaff, Arizona exclusively for Navajo community leaders and members. About thirty participants from all corners of the Navajo reservation and beyond came together to develop effective strategies to protect their traditional territories and sacred lands. They work on a variety of issues affecting the Navajo community, but are united under the single banner of Dine Bidziil Coalition (which means "Navajo Strength"), comprised of 24 grassroots Navajo organizations. In our workshop, an intergenerational audience worked together on power-mapping exercises designed to help them strategize around the Save the Peaks campaign. Save the Peaks aims to prevent the expansion of the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort on San Francisco Peaks, a mountain sacred to the Navajo and Hopi, as well as at least 13 other native tribes in the region. In the training, we also discussed the distinction between data and facts needed to defend one's position, and traditional wisdom and knowledge necessary to inform approaches and strategies that are culturally appropriate for the Navajo community.

World Hope Foundation is Dine Bidziil Coalition's interim fiscal sponsor.

Also read about a native land rights campaign against the expansion of the Sun Peaks Ski Resort in Canada on native land.

Building Toxic-Free Homes

PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is the most common plastic product used in construction, and one of the most toxic. Vinyl chloride, a flammable gas that goes into making PVC, is a known human carcinogen. People who breathe vinyl chloride for long periods of time can have permanent liver damage, immune reactions, nerve damage and liver cancer. CertainTeed Corp is a vinyl manufacturer with a plant outside of Buffalo, NY. They want to expand and move to a new location in Buffalo itself. Citizens Environmental Coalition and a growing coalition of groups in New York and across the country are opposing the relocation and pushing for safer alternatives.

Western New York Meets Mossville, Louisiana - Derrick M. Byrd of WNY's Toxic Waste Lupus Coalition, Mossville activist Edgar Mouton, and Jay Burney of WNY's Learning Sustainability Campaign

In April, CEC went as part of a delegation of New York activists to Louisiana to learn about Mossville's PVC pollution problems. Louisiana is home to the largest concentration of vinyl producers in the country. Mossville, a predominately African-American town, is plagued by four PVC facilities, including one owned by CertainTeed. CEC also visited a PVC-free Habitat for Humanity house being built in New Orleans. Greenpeace is funding construction of the house to show that affordable alternative materials are available. CEC would like to see CertainTeed phase out PVC products and produce safer materials like those being used in the house. The Greenpeace house has infuriated the Vinyl Institute, the main trade group for vinyl manufacturers. VI has worked with Habitat since 1995 and formed Vinyl Partners for Humanity, which made a five-year, $1 million commitment to Habitat in Louisiana. The DataCenter provided a profile of CertainTeed to CEC, which used it to create a fact sheet for press conferences held in conjunction with its trip to Louisiana, as well as for other campaign activities.

Mining Activists Learn Corporate Research
The Western Mining Activist Network is a network of more than 100 organizations in the Western U.S and Canada that are working to protect communities and land from the impacts of irresponsible mining. They are working to reform government mining policy and corporate mining practices while holding government and corporate officials accountable. At their annual meeting in Vancouver in October, we presented a workshop "Information for the people " - that emphasized defining and using strategic research as an effective way to build and inform campaigns to hold government and corporations accountable. Participants learned how to plan effective research strategies and what information sources are available. We also had participants fill out their own campaign research plans so they could apply what they learned right away. Perhaps even more valuable than the training is the relationships we made, especially with indigenous and rural communities.

Check out our new air toxics research guide!

East Oakland Residents Demand Clean Air

In East Oakland, where residents have elevated asthma rates and other respiratory infections, "neighbor" most often refers to an industrial facility. To better understand what these factories are putting into the air, we are doing a collaborative research project with the Center for Environmental Health and the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health. The campaign for clean air is being led by the community organization People United for a Better Oakland. Their goals are to hold polluters accountable, reduce air pollution in Oakland, and to guarantee community leadership and participation in decisions that affect Oakland residents. Armed with the initial results of our research, PUEBLO kicked off their campaign with an event the day before Halloween.

Protecting Western Shoshone Land
We are continuing our work to support the Western Shoshone people's fight to protect their ancestral lands in Nevada. Our previous work was helping them fight a congressional bill that would forcibly buy out their land (see Summer 2003 projects). We are now continuing our work with the Western Shoshone Defense Project on a new front. The Western Shoshone have already experienced a history of exploitative resource extraction on their land, and now they are confronting geothermal energy interests. Corporate interest in leasing native lands for geothermal energy development has skyrocketed since California's energy crisis. We are providing the Western Shoshone Defense Project with research to help them develop educational materials exposing the real health and environmental impacts of geothermal energy projects.

Environmental Justice

The DataCenter's Environmental Justice program provides strategic research, consultation and training to grassroots organizations, with a focus on resource extraction (mining, dams, timber, oil, gas) and resource processing and disposal (refining, power plants, landfills, toxics). We also serve as a networking conduit to support key environmental justice organizations nationally. We work collaboratively with the environmental justice movement to strengthen its capacity to use information as a strategic tool to effectively confront and dismantle the perpetrators of environmental racism and injustice.