An arial view of a coal mine on public land near Gillette, Wyoming. The state has made efforts to promote coal exports and sway opponents near potential export sites Oregon and Washington. | credit: Katie Campbell
The Wyoming Governor invited 25 members of eight Northwest tribes on an all-expenses paid tour of coal operations.
The tour happened last week, and only one tribe participated.
The Wyoming government hosted three visitors from the Pacific Northwest, according to the Casper Star-Tribune: Alice Dietz of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council, Gary Archer of the Kelso, Washington, City Council and Gary MacWilliams of the Nooksack Tribe.
The tour was the latest in the Wyoming government’s efforts to promote coal as good for the economy and not as environmentally dirty as its critics in the Northwest might think. The governor and representatives of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority have also visited proposed sites for coal export facilities in the Northwest.
With more coal in the ground than the U.S. needs or wants, particularly in light of new clean air regulations that phase out coal plants, the future of the Powder River Basin’s coal industry depends on exports. Several projects have been proposed in Oregon and Washington to receive coal from Montana and Wyoming by rail, transfer it to ships and send it to Asia.
Most tribes in Oregon and Washington oppose coal exports, in part because of concerns about what coal dust and marine shipping would mean for their tribal fishing grounds. Tribes’ treaty fishing rights give them unique power to halt coal export projects.
Most refused the offer, and the tour itself didn’t appear to change any minds. Those who attended were either already in favor of coal exports or remained unswayed. But it was impressive to some. Here’s a quote from the Star-Tribune article:
“We had a prime rib dinner last night,” marveled Gary Archer, a city councilman from Kelso, Washington, a town neighboring one of the proposed ports. “These guys got it made up here. They got everything they need, except public perception.”
Coincidentally, the tour happened the same week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its starkest warning yet, essentially saying if we’re going to have a shot at curbing climate change, the fossil fuels currently in the ground need to stay there.
The Makah Nation’s new commercial fishing dock is 120 feet long, has two lanes, five offloading terminals, and an ice machine capable of holding 110 tons of ice, and is designed to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and a 15-foot tsunami wave.
“It’s going to be a huge plus to have all the catch come in at one dock,” dock manager Michael Lawrence said on the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission website. “We’ve invited a flotilla of boats to tie up at the new facility as part of the celebration.”
The Makah Nation celebrated the opening of the $3.8 million dock with a blessing and ribbon cutting on October 10. The old dock had become unstable, and the Nation expedited its replacement – obtaining permits, demolishing the old dock and completing the new dock in less than a year.
“It is estimated more than 50 percent of the Makah Nation relies on income from fishing in some way and the dock construction has meant not only some jobs during construction, but a lasting improvement to the community that will pay for itself rapidly,” the NWIFC website reported.
Makah contributed $10.5 million toward the project.
A $1.1 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant will assist with the second phase of the project: an oil spill prevention and response dock that will extend beyond the current structure. Emergency response is critical in this area, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets the Pacific Ocean.
Every year, oil tankers, fuel barges and large commercial cargo, fish-processing and passenger vessels make about 3,000 transits into the Strait bound for Washington ports. From 1999-2014, an emergency tug stationed at Neah Bay assisted 49 ships either completely disabled or with reduced maneuvering ability.
Having a specific structure for the oil spill response vessels, including the emergency tug, will allow all the response vessels to be located in one place and will expedite their deployment, NWIFC reported. A crane on the completed dock is already allocated for industrial lifting to assist in oil spill equipment deployment.
“The crane can lift 10 tons and it was mostly with oil spill response in mind,” Lawrence said.
An oceanography institute announced today (Monday) that trace amounts of radioactivity from Fukushima have been detected off the West Coast. This stems from the 2011 nuclear plant accident in Japan.
Radiation experts say the very low levels of radioactivity measured do not pose a health threat here.
The post-earthquake and tsunami nuke plant accident spilled a large amount of radioactive contamination into the Pacific three years ago. Oceanographers projected that it would take until this year for highly diluted traces to reach the West Coast of North America. And a recent research cruise from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to Eureka, California detected the front edge of the plume multiple times between 100 and 1,000 miles offshore. Ken Buesseler is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
“The levels offshore still are quite low. So by that I mean they are a couple units of these Becquerels per cubic meter, something that is about a thousand times less than a drinking water standard,” he said.
Buesseler said he is reluctant to “trivialize” any amount of radiation, but says he personally has no concerns about swimming, boating or eating fish from local waters.
Since the start of this year, Buesseler’s lab has also tested about 50 seawater samples collected at the shore by concerned coastal residents from California to Alaska. All of those results have come up negative. This sampling was paid for through crowdfunding as part of an ongoing “citizen science” monitoring project initiated by Buesseler.
A parallel but independent monitoring effort run through the radiation health lab at Oregon State University found no detectable traces of Fukushima radiation in seawater samples collected earlier this year in near shore waters along the Pacific Northwest coast.
Scientists tracking the plume from Japan look for a short-lived cesium isotope, cesium-134, that serves as the “fingerprint” of Fukushima contamination.
For context, radioecologist Delvan Neville at OSU said it helps to know that the cesium-134 levels reported by the Woods Hole researcher are “much less than the natural background radiation in seawater.” In an interview, Neville was certain the low levels of Fukushima-derived isotopes detected in the northeastern Pacific do not pose an environmental or human health radiological threat.
Buesseler is scheduled to present his findings Thursday during the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Vancouver, Canada.
The results Buesseler reported corroborate detections of cesium-134 in seawater far offshore from Vancouver Island starting last year. Scientists from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Health Canada and the University of Victoria are collaborating on a monitoring effort that also includes fish sampling.
Andrew Fryberg, a 15-year-old Marysville student who was critically injured after another student opened fire inside a high school cafeteria two weeks ago, died Friday from his injuries, Harborview Medical Center officials said.
“Unfortunately, Andrew Fryberg, 15, passed away this evening, November 7, at Harborview Medical Center,” Harborview officials said in a released statement.
Harborview shared the following statement by the Fryberg family:
“We express our thanks for the amazing support from the community, as well as from everyone around the world that have been praying for us all through this tragic event.
We also want to say a special thank you to all the amazing staff that have cared for our son and brother here in the pediatric intensive care unit at Harborview.
Our family is overwhelmed with the love and care that has been provided to our loved one during this time and you all will forever hold a special place in our hearts.
But we also ask that you respect our privacy at this time of our deep loss.”
Fryberg’s passing brings the death toll in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting to five. Gia Soriano, 14, and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, 14, died after suffering critical head injuries in the shooting. Zoe Galasso, 14, died at the school after she was shot in the head.
The shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, died at the scene of a self-inflicted wound.
Nate Hatch, 14, who was shot in the jaw, was released from Harborview Medical Center Thursday after undergoing a series of surgeries for his injuries. After Harborview announced Andrew Fryberg’s death, Hatch tweeted “I love you brother” along with a screen shot of a lengthy message:
“R.I.P. Andrew Martin lee fryberg I hope you like it up there and we well some day reunite. You were my other half you were my brother we were suppose to conquer this life together I can’t even begin to imagine life with out you I love you so much and I well live every day thinking about you. You’ll be watching over me and you’ll always be in my heart nothing seems to make sense at this time the worst things always happen to the best people but now you’re somewhere where no one can hurt you. You have impacted so many peoples lives and you well be forever missed I well never forget you I love you rest in paradise”
MTV is marking November’s Native American Heritage Month by premiering a 30-minute episode of its “Rebel Music” series on young indigenous artists in North America. The series looks at socially conscious artists across the globe. This episode, for which renowned street artist Shepard Fairey serves as an executive producer, features stories of Frank Waln, Inez Jasper, Nataanii Means and Mike Clifford. They’re all activists who channel their messages through art in an effort to combat the devastating realities of issues ranging from suicide to sexual assault in their communities.
Here’s a sneak peek:
In a somewhat unconventional move, the episode will premiere on Rebel Music’s Facebook page next Thursday, November 13 at 4pm EST/1pm PST. Stay tuned.
WeRNative Native youth across the nation are invited to show the world what it means to be Native by taking the WeRNative Photo Challenge using the #WeRNative hashtag in social media, to raise awareness of Native American Heritage.
Native youth across the nation are invited to show the world what it means to be Native by taking the WeRNative Photo Challenge using the #WeRNative hashtag in social media, to raise awareness of Native American Heritage.
We R Native, a non-profit multimedia health resource for Native teens and youth teamed with Native-owned marketing company, Redbridge Inc., to host the #WeRNative Photo Challenge throughout November as a celebration of Native American Heritage Month.
We R Native is the only comprehensive health resource for Native youth, designed by Native youth, providing content and stories about the topics that matter most to them: social, emotional, physical, sexual, and spiritual health. The organization encourages Native youth to take an active role in their own health and well-being.
“Our tribal youth face a lot of challenges that leave them feeling like they’re facing them alone,” Stephanie Craig from We R Native said in announcing the event. “In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, Native youth will unite to show the world, and each other, they’re not alone and what it means to be Native by using the hashtag #WeRNative.”
On average, the We R Native project, funded by the Indian Health Service, reaches over 31,000 users per week through its various media channels.
“If the total Native American population is 1.6 percent of the nation, then Native youth are .5 percent. It’s easy to see why they feel alone in the challenges they’re facing,” Shannon Hulbert, CEO of Redbridge said in the statement.
“Imagine how empowering it would be if they started to see a number of other tribal youth across the nation saying #WeRNative,” Hulbert said. “The Challenge could serve as a platform for raising awareness, not just for who’s struggling and how, but also for who’s facing the challenges in ways they hadn’t thought about, and who’s smiling through it all.”
In the 2010 Census, 5.2 million people reported they were American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN), with approximately one-third under the age of 18. AI/AN youth are disproportionally impacted by a variety of adolescent health concerns, including high teen pregnancy rates, drug and alcohol use, and depression and suicide, which heighten their need for programs that align to their unique culture and social context.
Tribes and tribal organizations throughout the U.S. are working to develop and implement evidence-based, culturally-appropriate health interventions.
TULALIP, Wash – Nate Hatch, one of the Marysville Pilchuck High School shooting victims, was released from Harborview Medical Center today and returned home to the Tulalip Indian Reservation to a large crowd of family and friends cheering him on. Amidst signs and banners in support of Nate, people were smiling, waving and hugging.
Nate had been shot in the jaw and has been hospitalized since the October 24th shooting. Andrew Fryberg remains in critical condition at Harborview. Jaylen Fryberg opened fire on five classmates before killing himself. Three of those victims, Gia Soriano, Zoe Galasso and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit were fatally wounded.
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Tulalip Tribal members and Tulalip community members line the street waiting to welcome Nate Hatch home, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hatch was shot in the jaw during the Oct. 24, 2014 Marysville-Pilchuck High school shooting by fellow classmate and friend Jaylen Fryberg. (Tulalip News Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil)
Anti-tar sands campaigns have cost the industry a staggering $17bn (£11bn) in lost revenues, and helped to push it onto the backfoot, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), and Oil Change International.
Another $13.8bn has been lost to transportation bottlenecks and the flood of cheap crude coming from shale oil fields, says the Material Risks report, which presents the first quantification of the impact that environmental campaigners have had on the unconventional energy business.
“Industry officials never anticipated the level and intensity of public opposition to their massive build-out plans,” said Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International’s executive director. “Legal and other challenges are raising new issues related to environmental protection, indigenous rights and the disruptive impact of new pipeline proposals. Business as usual for Big Oil – particularly in the tar sands – is over.”
The industry is currently facing a decline in increased capital expenditure on new tar sands projects, due to problems in transporting the crude, which the study links to public campaigns.
While industry profits continue to fall, the report says that lack of market access helped to stymie three major tar sands enterprises in 2014 alone – Shell’s Pierre River, Total’s Joslyn North and Statoil’s Corner project – which together would have emitted 2.8bn tonnes of CO2.
Protests by environmentalists have been swollen by the presence of first nations communities, angry at the environmental damage they fear the industry could wreak on their ancestral lands.
“The taking of resources has left many lands and waters poisoned – the animals and plants are dying in many areas in Canada,” says the Idle No More manifesto. “We have laws older than this colonial government about how to live with the land.”
“Tar sands producers face a new kind of risk from growing public opposition,” said Tom Sanzillo, director of finance at IEEFA, and one of the lead authors on the report. “This opposition has achieved a permanent presence as public sentiment evolves and as the influence of organisations opposed to tar sands production continues to grow.”
Mining trucks carry loads of oil laden sand at the Albian Sands’ oil sands project in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Jeff McIntosh/Associated Press
Canada has staked its energy future on a massive expansion of tar sands, which hold the world’s third largest reserve of crude after Saudia Arabia and Venezuela.
But the huge amounts of water and solvents needed to extract oil from bitumen dramatically boost greenhouse gas output and, on latest production forecasts, will increase Canada’s CO2 emissions by 56 megatonnes by 2020.
The tar sands production process involves steam injection, strip mining and refining, and leaves environmental scars ranging from clear-cut forests to toxic tailing ponds and destroyed farmland.
This has pushed the focus of environmental and indigenous land rights protests onto export pipelines, such as the stalled Keystone XL project to send tar sands crude to the US.
According to the new paper, the industry’s current inability to build new pipelines has the potential to cancel most, if not all, planned new projects.
It says that the 6.9bn barrels of tar sands this could still leave underground by 2030 would be the equivalent of an additional 4.1bn tonnes of CO2 emissions – or the same as 54m average passenger vehicles, over the same period.
Tammy Weaver of Marysville was asked to bring her service dog, Gracie, to help comfort students returning to MP high
Hundreds of people cheering, holding candles and flashing heart signs lined the road leading to a shooting-scarred Washington state high school Monday morning, delivering an uplifting welcome to students searching for normalcy.
The buses rolled up to Marysville Pilchuck High School 10 days after freshman Jaylen Fryberg invited friends to sit with him at lunch and then shot five of them — mortally wounding three — before committing suicide.
Three hundred to 400 alumni and 50 to 80 police officers greeted the students in the gymnasium as they came off buses, said Rob Lowry, the school’s co-principal. “The first thing they noticed was there were lines of first responders there,” Lowry said — a decision intended to send a message of security and safety.
And it wasn’t just the students who came together. Residents flocked to the school with signs that read, “We stand with you,” and chanted “Tomahawk!” — the school’s athletic nickname. A U.S. flag was hung over the road from a fire truck, and parents and alumni decorated the outside school walls with signs of welcome.
After days of tearful gatherings and vigils, many students on buses wore smiles as they watched supporters make heart signs with their hands. Some of the teens flashed the same sign back.
“Today was a good day in Marysville,” said Becky Berg, superintendent of the Marysville schools, who said she was “thrilled” that as many as 90 percent of students chose to return to campus Monday. “It’s always a good day when our kids are together.”
There were no classes. Instead, students attended an assembly and then milled around.
“It was a wonderful way to come back to school,” said Miles Holden, 15, a sophomore. “It helped to be in a room full of people who are going through the same thing as you.”
The cafeteria was closed, its eventual fate up to the school district.
“It was eerie looking at the cafeteria but good to come together,” Miles said.
At the end of the day, some of the students stopped to look at a fence that has been turned into a memorial for the victims: Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, Zoe Galasso and Gia Soriano, the 14-year-olds who were killed, and Nate Hatch, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15, who remain hospitalized.
“The hardest thing was to see the fence. It just reminds you that everyone was happy at one point and how many people are struggling,” said Michael Strope, 17, a junior. “It was intimidating to come back. Today was about readjusting. I am not completely better, but it started the healing process. “
Police still haven’t revealed what motivated Fryberg to ambush the teens, two of whom were his cousins. The shooter was popular and had recently been voted the school’s “homecoming prince,” and many students were friends with both him and the victims. Fryberg was a member of the Tulalip Tribes, which said it had been targeted by threats that had some kids fearful to return to school.
Keith Red Elk, whose daughter Jessica is a senior, said he hoped the turnout would help the kids face their fears. “We are here to show them it is OK to come back,” he said.
Deborah Parker, a member of the tribal council whose son is a senior at the school, said: “I drove my son to school, and he seemed to be a little bit nervous, but we worked hard as a family to watch over him.
“Those were his friends. Those were his relatives,” Parker said. “So coming back to school today was a slow-moving process. Once we drove up and saw all of the cheers, it became emotional.”
Afterward, representatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut — where a gunman killed 20 pupils and six staff members in 2012 — passed on to the school district and to the Tulalip Tribes a Native American dreamcatcher plaque that it received from Columbine High School, the scene of a similar massacre in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999.
SOFIA JARAMILLO FOR NBC NEWS
Representativs from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, passed on a memorial Native American dreamcatcher plaque to the Marysville School District on Monday.
Stephanie Hope Smith, a member of the Newtown Rotary Club, said the plaque “is more than just a dreamcatcher. It is made of love, compassion and hope.”
“It is our hope that you should never have to pass it on,” Smith said.
M. Alex Johnson of NBC News contributed to this report.
SEATTLE (AP) – One of the students wounded in last Friday’s shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School is doing well after undergoing surgery Thursday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The hospital says 14-year-old Nate Hatch had surgery to repair his jaw. He will need more surgeries to repair the damage. Hatch is listed in satisfactory condition.
Two other victims remain in critical condition: 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg is in intensive care at Harborview; 14-year-old Shaylee Chuckulnaskit remains in critical condition at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.
Three students have died: 14-year-old Gia Soriano, 14-year-old Zoe Galasso, and the shooter, 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, who shot himself.
