Tulalip News

Ingenious 19-year-old Develops Plan to Clean up Oceans in 5 Years

By: Amanda Froelich,

September 13, 2013 True Activistcom

Watch video here

With millions of tons of garbage dumped into the oceans annually and repeat incidence of oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, it’s the Ocean which has taken the brunt of unsustainable methods from man. In effect, it’s estimated almost 100,000 marine animals are killed due to debris entanglement and continually rising pollution.

To a degree, individual lessening of consumerism and utilizing sustainable methods to re-use and eliminate waste is very beneficial. However, reducing the already-toxic state of the Earth is the biggest concern of environmentalists and engineers, seeking to utilize the technological advances already available. To this avail, it was 19-year-young Boyan Slat that ingeniously created the Ocean Array Plan, a project that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic from the world’s oceans in just five years.

Slat’s idea consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Working with the flow of nature, his solution to the problematic shifting of trash is to have the array span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel as the ocean moves through it. The angle of the booms would force plastic in the direction of the platforms, where it would be separated from smaller forms, such as plankton, and be filtered and stored for recycling. The issue of by-catches, killing life forms in the procedure of cleaning trash, can be virtually eliminated by using booms instead of nets and it will result in a larger areas covered. Because of trash’s density compared to larger sea animals, the use of booms will allow creatures to swim under the booms unaffected, reducing wildlife death substantially.

Economically, the Ocean Array Project also rises to the top due to its sustainable construct; it’s completely self-supportive, by receiving energy from the sun, currents, and waves. By also letting the platforms’ wings sway like an actual manta ray, contact with inlets in the roughest weather can be ensured. It’s a plan that merges environmental safety with thoroughly thought out processes.

Inspired to tackle global issues of sustainability, Boyan began by launching a project at school that analyzed the size and amount of plastic particles in the ocean’s garbage patches; his final paper went on to win several prizes, including Best Technical Design 2012 at the Delft University of Technology. Continuing the development of his concept during the summer of 2012, he revealed it several months later at TEDxDelft2012.

Slat took his well-planned project further by then founding The Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a non-profit organization responsible for the development of proposed technologies. Aside from saving thousands of animals and reducing chemicals (like PCB and DDT) from building up in the food chain, it could also save millions of dollars a year due to clean-up costs, lost tourism, and damage to marine vessels. His undeterred passion to create healthier oceans has possibility to beneficially impact the lives of the entire world.

Although extensive feasibility studies are currently being conducted, it has been estimated that through the selling of plastic retrieved over the five years, the money would surpass the initial cost to execute the project. In other words, it may even be potentially profitable. Because the main deterrent to implement large scale cleanup projects is due to the financial cost, this solution could perhaps pave ways for future innovations of global cleanup to also be invented.

While the project process would take five years, it’s a span that could continue to increase the world’s awareness of garbage patches, as well as the importance of recycling and reducing consumption of plastic packaging.

To find out more about the project and to contribute, click here.

Monsanto just dropped $1 billion on better weather forecasts

John Upton, Grist

Congressional paralysis is freezing or slashing national spending on weather forecasting and monitoring. Plans to deploy a next-generation array of satellites known as COSMIC-2 could be cut by lawmakers as part of the sequester spending cuts — if only they would pass a budget. And workers at NASA, which provide data used by climate researchers the world over, are being furloughed.

But Monsanto — that profitable agro-corporation that wields ever-increasing power over the world’s food supply — is taking a smarter approach. As the effects of climate change devastate crops the world over, Monsanto has announced it is buying the Climate Corporation for $930 million. From the press release:

“Farmers around the world are challenged to make key decisions for their farms in the face of increasingly volatile weather, as well as a proliferation of information sources,” said David Friedberg, chief executive officer for The Climate Corporation. “Our team understands that the ability to turn data into actionable insight and farm management recommendations is vitally important for agriculture around the world and can greatly benefit farmers, regardless of farm size or their preferred farming methods. Monsanto shares this important vision for our business and we look forward to creating even greater experiences for our farmer customers.”

Modern Farmer explains the acquisition:

Climate Corporation underwrites weather insurance for farmers, basically in real time, using some of the most sophisticated data tools available to determine the risks posed by future weather conditions and events.

And the company doesn’t limit itself to weather data. As politicians, pundits, and people on the Internet continue to argue over whether climate change is real, the insurance industry has for years been operating under the assumption that it is. So Climate Corporation uses data from major climate-change models — the very ones that are under constant assault by doubters — in its calculations.

Climate Corporation manages an eye-popping 50 terabytes of live data, all at once. Besides climate-change models, data is collected from regular old weather forecasts and histories, soil observations, and other sources. The company collects data from 2.5 million separate locations. Given these numbers, it shouldn’t be surprising that Climate Corporation is basically alone in this market.

If Congress continues down the road of spending cuts and government shutdowns, private industry will soon know more about what’s going on with the weather than the government does.

Opponents of Racist D.C. Mascot to Hold Event at NFL Fall Meeting

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The Oneida Indian Nation is taking its ‘Change the Mascot’ campaign a step further.

On Monday, October 7^th, the Nation plans to convene in Washington, D.C. to hold a public conference calling on the NFL and its teams to end the use of the slur, Redskins.

The conference, which will be held in the Ritz Carlton, in the same hotel as the NFL’s Fall Meeting, is open to the public and press.

This conference comes just weeks after the Nation broadcast its “Change the Mascot” radio advertisements, and months after students at Cooperstown Central School District in Cooperstown, New York, made national news by voting to change their teams’ name from ‘Redskins’ to the ‘Hawkeyes.’

“As proud sponsors of the NFL, we are encouraged by how many leaders are standing up, speaking out and joining the grassroots effort to get the Washington team to do the right thing and change its name,” said Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter in an earlier news release.

The Nation, along with U.S. Lawmakers: Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia), Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota), and special guests hope to spur a discussion that will lead to change.

“We should be treated as what we are: Americans,” Halbritter said.

Poetry at Hibulb Cultural Center, tonight

Patricia Stein will be at the Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center at 6 p.m. this evening for the Poetry Series event, with open mic following.

Navajo Nation officials say the tribe’s parks aren’t affected by federal government shutdown

Window Rock Mational ParkPhoto source: Wikipedia — Window Rock National Park
Photo source: Wikipedia

By Associated Press,

Published: October 1

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Navajo Nation officials say the tribe’s parks aren’t affected by the federal government shutdown.

Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department Manager Martin Begaye announced Tuesday that “all Navajo Nation tribal parks are fully operating and open to the public.”

The Navajo tribal parks are open seven days a week with the exception of Christmas, New Year’s and Thanksgiving.

The parks include Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park, Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Four Corners Monument, Bowl Canyon Recreation Area and Window Rock Navajo Tribal Park.

County feels effects of government shutdown

By Jerry Cornfield and Gale Fiege, The Herald

The federal shutdown is starting to be felt in Snohomish County.

Campers on U.S. Forest Service lands are being asked to leave. The Smokey Point Commissary, which serves military families, is planning to shut down on Wednesday. Job training programs could soon be closed.

And students from a Catholic school in Everett who raised money for a year to visit Washington, D.C., may miss many of the sights they had been hoping to see.

Here are some of what is happening around the county.

Campers asked to leave

The U.S. Forest Service is closing its recreational facilities in all forests including the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, which includes much of eastern Snohomish County.

Visitors in campgrounds or cabin rentals are being asked to leave. Law enforcement is set to help clear people out, said Renee Bodine, a Forest Service spokeswoman in Everett.

The federal agency also canceled a meeting for the public on Oct. 9 in Everett over a long-range plan on what roads should be left open in the forest.

A big crowd was anticipated at the Everett meeting, the last of a series of open-house events designed to gather public opinion. It will be rescheduled when the federal government reopens, said Bodine, who was furloughed late Monday night, but who worked without pay Tuesday morning to make sure people were notified of changes.

Tour sights closed

A group of Everett eighth-graders will experience the effects of the shutdown when they arrive in the nation’s capital Wednesday for a five-day visit.

The 34 students of St. Mary Magdalen School in Everett, who’ve spent more than a year planning and raising money for the trip, scheduled stops at the Lincoln Memorial, Holocaust Museum and other Smithsonian Institute museums. But all of those are closed until there’s a federal budget in place.

They are still very excited, school Principal Bruce Stewart said.

“They are learning more about the United States government as a result,” he said.

Not all of the students’ itinerary will be wrecked by the political turmoil.

They do intend to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, visit the Mount Vernon home of George Washington and attend a mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Job training programs closed

Workforce Snohomish furloughed 33 employees in its administrative office at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The private not-for-profit agency provides an array of education and job training services using federal funds passed on through the state Employment Security Department.

Three career centers, which serve roughly 1,300 residents, will be open for a few days with limited services and staffing then close until the government shutdown ends.

WorkSource Monroe will be available at least through Friday while WorkSource Everett and WorkSource Mountlake Terrace will operate at least until Monday.

They could be open longer. The state Employment Security Department issued a press release Tuesday afternoon indicating money is available to keep the centers open beyond Monday.

However, the WorkSource Youth Center and the resource room at Everett Station for those dislocated from Kimberly-Clark closed Tuesday, according to agency officials.

Navy bases send home civilian workers

Naval Station Everett and Whidbey Island Naval Air Station sent home civilian employees this week who work in food service, administrative support and maintenance.

The Smokey Point Commissary, at 13900 45th Ave. NE in Marysville, was open Tuesday, but plans to shut down on Wednesday. The commissary provides low-cost groceries for military families.

Military personnel will still receive paychecks under a bill signed by President Barack Obama this week.

Some civilian employees involved in emergency services and other essential operations will be kept in their jobs, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Daniel Pearson.

Pearson is manning all public affairs operations for Navy Region Northwest.

“We’re filling a lot of shoes right now,” Pearson said.

Full-time active members of the National Guard will not be furloughed, but roughly 1,000 federal technicians, including vehicle and aircraft maintenance, computer technicians and human resources personnel will be.

National Parks shuttered

The National Park Service closed all of its 401 sites, including 10 in Washington state.

They are: Mount Rainier National Park; North Cascades National Park; Olympic National Park; San Juan Island National Historical Park; Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Seattle; Fort Vancouver National Historic Site; Lake Chelan National Recreation Area; Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area; Ross Lake National Recreation Area; and Whitman Mission National Historic Site.

Eleven recreation areas in Washington overseen by the Bureau of Land Management closed Tuesday. San Juan Islands is the closest location to Snohomish County.

People can continue to drive, bike or hike at parks where access is not controlled by gates or entrance stations.

A total of 67 BLM employees who work in Washington were furloughed.

Spokeswoman Jody Weil said each came to a BLM office in Wenatchee or Spokane to receive their notice and do an “orderly shutdown” before departing.

As for their mood, she said: “I think they are hopeful for an early resolution.”

Amidst Shutdown NCAI Urges Congress to Meet Tribal Obligations

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has released the following statement regarding the budget impasse and the shutdown of the federal government.

“The failure to come to a budget agreement threatens the capacity of tribal governments to deliver basic governmental services to their citizens. The federal government has made treaty commitments to our people, and in return we ceded the vast lands that make up the United States. The immediate shutdown crisis poses very real threats to tribal governments and denies health, nutrition, and other basic services to the most vulnerable tribal citizens.

“Even if the shutdown is resolved soon, a greater crisis remains – both the House and Senate versions of the Continuing Resolution sustained the devastating FY 2013 sequestration cuts. The sequester has deeply affected tribal programs: the Indian Health Service, Indian education funding streams, law enforcement, infrastructure programs such as housing and road maintenance, Head Start, and others. These funding commitments serve some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens and are part of the federal government’s trust responsibility to tribal nations.

“As Washington faces the threefold crisis of the shutdown, sequester, and debt limit, we call on the Congress to reach a long-term budget deal that meets the nation’s obligations to tribal nations and Native peoples. It is time to address the ongoing fiscal crisis caused by the sequester. The trust responsibility to tribal nations is not a line item and tribal programs must be exempt from budget cuts in any budget deal.”

In September, NCAI released a paper outlining the impacts of sequestration on tribal nations – Tribes Urge Congress to Honor Treaty Promises and Stop Sequestration.

Background on the impact of the government shutdown on tribal programs

In the 1995, 1996 shutdown, the impact on American Indian/other Native Americans was that all 13,500 Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees were furloughed; general assistance payments for basic needs to 53,000 BIA benefit recipients were delayed; and an estimated 25,000 American Indians did not receive timely payment of oil and gas royalties.

With respect to funding for governmental services, more than half of the federally recognized tribes are self-governance and provide services to their citizens through contracts and compacts. If the shutdown is not reversed soon, these tribes and their citizens will be hit particularly hard. Based on the contingency plans for the Departments of Interior and Health and Human Services, IHS would continue to provide direct clinical health care services as well as referrals for contracted services that cannot be provided through IHS clinics. However, IHS would be unable to provide funding to tribes and urban Indian health programs, and would not perform national policy development and issuance, oversight, and other functions, except those necessary to meet the immediate needs of the patients, medical staff, and medical facilities.

With BIA, programs are funded and operated in a highly decentralized manner, with 62 percent of appropriations provided directly to tribes and tribal organizations through grants, contracts, and compacts. Officials said that if tribes have carryover, they can spend it, but tribes won’t receive any new money during a shutdown to reimburse tribes providing those services. While the role of Indian Affairs has changed significantly in the last three decades in response to increased utilization of Indian self-governance and self-determination, tribes still look to Indian Affairs for a broad spectrum of services. Fortunately, law enforcement and detention centers will remain operational, as will social services to protect children and adults. Firefighting, emergency response, and water and power should remain. However, trust asset management, such as lease compliance and real estate transactions would not.

Examples of impacts to tribal governmental services and other assistance to tribal citizens include:

— General assistance payments (BIA) to needy individuals and to vendors providing foster care and residential care for children and adults will stop, which will be difficult for many tribal communities. General assistance provides approximately $42 million for approximately 12,400 clients on a monthly basis. These clients include individuals and families whose income is below state standards and who do not qualify for state-operated programs. Provided that these individuals are facing some of the most difficult employment opportunities, the loss or delay of these payments truly impact the neediest in Indian country. Generally, disbursement of tribal funds for tribal operations including responding to tribal government requests will be halted.

— There will be new funds to support the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). While there would be some inventory available for use in food packages, no carryover, contingency, or other funds are available to support continued operations. The Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) program is administered at the Federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. FDPIR is administered locally by either Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs) or an agency of a State government. Currently, there are approximately 276 tribes receiving benefits under the FDPIR through 100 ITOs and 5 State agencies. FDPIR provides USDA Foods to low-income households living on Indian reservations, and to American Indian households residing in approved areas near reservations or in Oklahoma. Many households participate in FDPIR as an alternative to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), because they do not have easy access to SNAP offices or authorized food stores. Average monthly participation for FY 2012 was 76,530 individuals.

— The Administration for Children and Families would not continue quarterly formula grants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Child Care, Social Services Block Grant, Refugee Programs, Child Welfare Services and the Community Service Block Grant programs. Additionally new discretionary grants, including Head Start and social services programs, would not be made.

Limited Services Provided by Indian Affairs During Government Shutdown

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

With the government shutdown now in its second day and around 800,000 non-essential government workers being furloughed, some offices working directly with Indian country will have limited services.

The Department of the Interior – Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) will provide limited services to tribes, students and individuals during the shutdown of the federal government. Of the total 8,143 employees, a total of 2,860 will be furloughed.

The BIA that provides direct services to 566 federally recognized tribes that include contracts, grants and compacts will continue functions that are necessary to protect life and property. These services include law enforcement and operations of detention centers; social services to protect children and adults; irrigation and power – delivery of water and power; firefighting and response to emergency situations according to a BIA press release.

As for the BIE, school operations are forwarded funded meaning operations should carry on as normal during the shutdown. BIE funded schools will remain open and staffed; transportation and maintenance of schools will continue. Other schools that will remain open are tribally-contracted schools that are also forward funded. Education services are provided by BIE to approximately 41,000 Native students through 183 schools and dormitories and providing funding 31 colleges, universities and post-secondary school according to the release.

Additional information on Indian Affairs’ contingency plan for operations during the government shutdown can be found at: www.doi.gov/shutdown.

October 2, 2013 syəcəb

SYS 10092013 Oct 09 2013 Download

Deadly Combo: 91 Elephants Slaughtered by Poachers Using Cyanide From Illegal Gold Mines

AP PhotoElephant carcasses rot, the stench hanging on the air, in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, on September 29, 2013. Officials said that at least 91 animals had been poisoned with cyanide by poachers who hack off the tusks. Poachers poisoned the salt licks around the majestic beasts' watering holes with cyanide, authorities said. — AP Photo
Elephant carcasses rot, the stench hanging on the air, in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, on September 29, 2013. Officials said that at least 91 animals had been poisoned with cyanide by poachers who hack off the tusks. Poachers poisoned the salt licks around the majestic beasts’ watering holes with cyanide, authorities said.

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The mineral-rich salt licks scattered around watering holes commonly draw elephants and other animals. But these familiar fixtures became death traps sometime in the past month for at least 91 elephants when poachers filled them with cyanide taken from illegal gold-mining operations.

The horrific tactic killed not only the majestic beasts but also lions, hyenas and vultures that fed on the remains or drank the water, authorities in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, where the slaughter took place, told the Associated Press. The lethal chemical “attacks the bloodstream, kills almost instantly and causes rapid decomposition,” the AP noted.

Once the elephants were dead, their tusks were hacked off and smuggled out of the country.

“The magnitude of what we are witnessing today is much higher than what has occurred previously,” Zimbabwe’s environment minister, Saviour Kasukuwere told reporters as he toured the scene.

Authorities have arrested nine people suspected of poaching, the AP said, with three men sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The situation of elephants in Africa as a whole is dire, with poaching putting the species at risk for extinction. The Central African Republic is another site of unremitting elephant slaughter, The New York Times reported in a series a year ago.

At least 35,000 elephants were killed in Africa during 2012 alone, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. That’s 96 per day.

Last December the United Nations flagged illegal wildlife trafficking, including that of elephant and other endangered animal parts, as a dire problem—and an illegal global trade worth copy9 billion per year.

National Geographic detailed the slaughter and how it is fueled by the Chinese ivory market in an October 2012 series, Blood Ivory. And in 2011 Vanity Fair gave a haunting portrayal of elephant slaughter by the poverty-stricken Maasai, who once revered them, in Agony and Ivory.

Those poachers commonly shoot from helicopters with high-powered assault rifles. But the poison method has caused an environmental crisis as well as hurt elephant populations, the AP said. Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Authority will burn the cyanide-laced carcasses and will have to remove the toxin from the areas where it has been spread. The salt licks must be dug out, the AP said, and the top layers of soil removed—everything that has been contaminated with cyanide granules.

Moreover, two deep wells that supply the watering holes may also be poisoned and need to be sealed, the AP reported, and new wells are needed. This will be hard because the agency is underfunded and understaffed in Zimbabwe’s struggling economy.

Nevertheless, Kasukuwere said the country would stand firm against poaching.

“We will cooperate with international organizations such as Interpol to crack down on the pay masters,” he told reporters. “So the war is on, it’s a war which we will win, we are not going to surrender.”