Tell #BidenAdministration: Protect greater sage grouse.
#GreaterSageGrouse is a remarkable species unlike any other. This iconic species is losing its #habitat. Since 1965, the population has declined by 80%.
The #sagebrush plains are the only place where the greater sage #grouse lives. Losing more habitat to drilling, mining or other human activity would threaten this #bird and its wondrous mating display.
#SignPetition
https://environmentamerica.org/texas/take-action/tell-the-biden-administration-protect-the-greater-sage-grouse/
USGS Friday's Findings - Adaptive Management, Fire, and Restoration in the Sagebrush Biome - May 24, 2024, at 2:00 pm Eastern/11:00 am Pacific (Free webinar). #wildfires #sagebrush https://www.usgs.gov/index.php/mission-areas/ecosystems/news/fridays-findings-may-24-2024
#ThackerPass #Protectors File First-Ever '#BiodiversityNecessityDefense' in #Nevada Court
While pursuing a '#ClimateNecessityDefense,' and making allegations that #mining company has violated their rights, their attorney said, 'They’re not criminals; they’re heroes.'
Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu: “#LithiumNevada is a #greedy #corporation on the wrong side of history when it comes to #EnvironmentalRacism and desecration of #SacredSites. It’s ironic to me that I’m the trespasser because I want to see my ancestral land preserved.”
By #ProtectThackerPass, #CensoredNews, March 26, 2024
"In a first for the American legal system, the lawyers for six people sued by Lithium Nevada Corporation for protesting the Thacker Pass mine are arguing a ‘biodiversity necessity defense.’
"The necessity defense is a legal argument used to justify breaking the law when a greater harm is being prevented; for example, breaking a car window to save an infant locked inside on a stifling hot day, or breaking down a door to help someone screaming inside a locked home. In these cases, trespassing is justified to save a life.
.
"This week’s filing states: 'Defendants possessed an actual belief that their acts of protest were necessary to prevent the present, continuing harms and evils of #ecocide and irreversible #ClimateChange.'
"'We’re in the midst of the 6th #MassExtinction of life on Earth, and it’s being caused by human activities like mining,' said attorney Terry Lodge, who is representing the #protesters. 'Our lives are made possible by #biodiversity and #ecosystems. Protecting our children from pollution and biodiversity collapse isn’t criminal, it’s heroic.'
"Currently Earth is experiencing one of the most rapid and widespread extinction events in the planet’s 4-billion-year history.
"Biologists report that habitat destruction, like the bulldozing of nearly 6,000 acres of biodiverse #sagebrush steppe for the Thacker Pass mine, is the main cause of this '#6thMassExtinction.'"
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/03/thacker-pass-protectors-file-first-ever.html
An op-ed by our Policy Director and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER):
"These loopholes are being exploited by the energy industry and local BLM managers to the detriment of the sage grouse and the fragile sagebrush habitat they depend on."
#BureauofLandManagement #sagegrouse #sagebrush #Advocacy
Photo: Tom Koerner/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Construction begins on controversial #lithium mine in #Nevada
Opponents say the Thacker Pass lithium project was rushed in the name of the green transition.
by Gabriela Aoun Angueira, March 3, 2023
"'It’s an important place not only because a terrible massacre occurred, but also because it’s a place where people gather, it’s a place for ceremony, for hunting,' said Michon Eben, tribal historic preservation officer for the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, a government that includes members from the the #Paiute, #Shoshone and #Washoe tribes. The colony is advocating for Peehee Mu’huh to be on the National Register of Historic Places. 'It’s really hard to be a tribal member and see our homelands destroyed,' said Eben.
"#ThackerPass also comprises thousands of acres of #sagebrush and is a nesting ground for the sage grouse and a migration corridor for pronghorn #antelope. Environmental groups including the Great Basin Resource Watch and Western Watersheds Project say the mine would cause irreversible #ecological damage, and that the project’s impact was not adequately studied.
"'It got by the environmental impact statement process in just under a year and I would expect a project of this scale and complexity to take 3 to 5 years,' said John Hadder, director of Great Basin Resource Watch. 'That’s sloppy permitting on the side of the federal government.'
"Tribes, #environmental groups and a cattle rancher are all plaintiffs in a combined case against the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, and #LithiumNevada, a subsidiary of #LithiumAmericas. On February 6, a federal judge in Reno ruled that the BLM had complied with federal law in approving the mine, with the exception of one matter regarding waste disposal, which the judge ordered the BLM to revisit. The plaintiffs filed an appeal in the 9th Circuit and an emergency motion to block construction before the appeal hearing. The appeals court rejected the injunction and set the hearing date for June. "
https://grist.org/climate-energy/construction-begins-lithium-mine-nevada-controversial/
Um yeah. There has to be a better solution. #Mining companies are notorious for #EnvironmentalRacism and destruction of plant and animal life. We need to recycle the #Lithium we have, and switch ASP to #CarbonDioxide and #FlowBatteries that don't involve Lithium!
US judge won't block huge lithium mine on Nevada-Oregon line
A federal judge has sided with the Biden administration and a mining company in a fight with environmentalists and tribal leaders trying to block a huge lithium mine in Nevada near the Oregon line
by Scott Sonner, February 24, 2023
"Opponents say the mine would destroy key #wildlife habitat and sacred #cultural treasures, harm #groundwater and pollute the air. They argued in their request for an emergency court order last week that without it, the developer would begin to rip up a high-desert sea of #sagebrush that holds some of the most critical habitat still intact for the dwindling sage #grouse in the West.
"Friday's ruling marks the third time in two years Du has refused to grant injunctions sought by the conservationists, #NativeAmerican tribes and a Nevada rancher who lives near the mine."
#WaterIsLife #OnlyOnePlanet
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/us-judge-block-huge-lithium-mine-nevada-oregon-97453028