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Forward to five friends! |
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We have two important issues in this edition of our Enews. The first is a crucial local Environmental Justice issue on the Jet Fuel Tank Farm which we have covered before. The Austin city council will consider the matter this Thursday. You can help in two easy ways.
The second portion is about climate change and the world’s rapidly growing problems with water. We offer six excellent articles. |
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This Thursday: Protect Neighborhoods From Jet Fuel Tank Farm
Back in the 90’s, Brown and Black East Austin activists fought largely by themselves to defeat a Tank Farm just off Airport Blvd. They won but one consequence was that one of the primary leaders lost his mother due to the toxins being emitted, two of her sisters, and their grandmother. She lived near the Tank Farm and a doctor said her lungs were black like those of a coal miner.
Now City Council is at it again by maybe supporting a new Jet Fuel Tank Farm at the Austin Airport which would place a toxic site very near neighborhoods of people of color. At its core this is an issue of Environmental Justice.
Thursday, April 7th at a time to be determined - mostly likely to be around 6pm - the City Council will vote on Council Member Vanessa Fuentes’ proposal to protect Austin families. The present plan is to place the Jet Fuel Tank Farm next to 1600 homes of hard-working families on the west side of the Austin Airport.
CM Vanessa Fuentes’ proposal is to do a study to locate the jet fuel farm away from families thus making it environmentally safe. The jet fuel fumes cause numerous respiratory problems and cancer. This has been documented all over country and on military bases.
The planning professionals of Austin checked with the airport business community and the state environmental regulations and said it was fine to put the jet fuel fumes next to family homes and children playing in backyards. Texas environmental regulations are the weakest in the country and do nothing to protect families from cancer.
It is important for all environmentalists and progressives to attend the Austin City Council meeting on Thursday, April 7th. Join members of the Sierra Club, Save Our Springs, 350, La Raza Roundtable, PODER, Texas Drought Project, El Concilio, and a number of neighborhood groups. There is no certain time for this being considered by the Austin City Council Thursday but 6pm is most likely. If for COVID reasons you don’t want to go into City Hall you can join people holding signs just outside. You can call or text Jere Locke at 512-203-8858 or the Austin City Clerk at 512-974-2210 for information on the time.
How You Can Help:
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Water and Drought Problems Escalating All Over the World
Drought is already having a huge global impact -- here are just a few examples:
Every year thousands of African migrants die fleeing drought and lack of food.
Researchers have said that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011.
In Texas, a drought from around 2008 to 2011 resulted in water reservoirs drawing down at alarming rates, ranchers selling their cows, and crops failing. Here is the current Texas Drought map. |
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What We’re Doing, and How You Can Help The Texas Drought Project was formed in the fall of 2008 when we worked on the first big US climate bill called Waxman-Markey. In the following years, we did much-need climate education and then a series of large successful campaigns. In the wake of COP26 in Glasgow, we have made a strong push to get people to call, write, and email 6 targeted Texas Democrats in hopes of pushing them and Biden to act boldly for the climate. We need only $2500 per month to sustain this critical push to our last best chance for a safe future. Any donation of $100 or more will be matched! |
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