Hey guys, this is Calvin from the Sac BHC Youth Media team and I just want to share about our visit to the State Capitol last week. For many of us at our team we had visited the State Capitol prior to this visit and what was excited was that Senator Dr. Richard Pan’s staff arranged a visit for us to learn about the legislation and a behind the scenes of a senator’s office. Our first stop was visiting the legislative hearing and we got to see our Senator Pan working on the floor. It was so important for us to learn about the process behind any bill and how hard the senators work to make them into law. On our second stop we got to talk with Senator Pan and take some picture and since he was in session our time with him was cut short, non the less we were excited to meet him since we saw him for the first time at the HEAT press conference a week prior and we saw how he cares for his community as he supported many community orgs and residents of Sacramento on making sure that UC Davis Health System takes Medi-Cal patients back and helps them get the services they need and deserve.

Up next we got to meet a legislative assistant and she share about her experience working with media and in the state capitol. She mentioned that it was an exciting place for her since it is a fast-phase atmosphere and she is constantly challenged to meet the needs of her boss. Gave us a behind the scenes of what we could do in our future if we end up in communications.

Overall we got a chance to almost see how many senators are supported by a team of many and their work most of the times goes unheard and unseen. For us, it was a great way to thank them and share with them our ideas and also learn from them, as an exchange of best practices was the highlight of our meeting.

With what it has to be the highlight of the trip we met an actual real-life newspaper reporter. Her name is Cynthia Moreno who works for Vida En El Valle a Spanish newspaper that serves the Latino community on many issues affecting them. But what was our highlight was been able to hear Cynthia’s story and how she ended up being a reporter. It was a very inspirational story and it also brought us to reconsider our social media activity and how people portray us via social media. Cynthia shared many best practices and experiences that we will implement and share with our team. Over all she made us look at reporters in a way we never knew them.

We also want to extend our gratitude to the people that made this trip a reality. Senator Dr. Richard Pan’s staff Claire Colon and Karen Abrego, without them this would have not been possible. Thanks for allow us the youth to visit our State Capitol in a way we had never seen it. We learn so much just from our 4-hour visit and we hope that this will become an annual visit for others to learn about our legislative system and get to meet awesome people that always work so hard and seldom get or receive their due credit. Thanks so all who made our trip possible.

Hi, my name is Jasmine Duong, and for a while now, I’ve always been passionate in nursing and health. I love making people happy and laugh similar to making videos and making your audience pleased. I’m passionate in film, but health was on a different level. I get hot headed and excited about the topic. I want to help others make changes in their lives for the better.

This whole summer I have been working with the Sac BHC Youth Media Tea, and I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself, others, and film. Originally, I joined because they focused on using social media to share meaningful messages as well as explore one of my other passions, which was filming. Health is a big issue and social media would be a great stage to address health issues. I’ve experienced a lot this summer and I made so many cool memories with the crew! They’re funny, cool, and weird people. We’ve done a variety of video projects, and each time we filmed, it’s another practice to improve and learn something new!

For my summer project, I wanted to create a video sharing my strongest passion which is health and nursing. I want to use film as my stage and share my passions and thoughts. Health is a really important topic to me.

I believe once you lose your health, you lose almost everything. You could develop diabetes, and that connects to being able to develop heart diseases, kidney failure, vision loss amputations. You could have depression because of lack of confidence or being bullied or family problems leading to eating disorders and self-harm. You could be obese and develop heart diseases and atherosclerosis, a disease where cholesterol and other substances are stuck in your arteries.

It’s all interconnected. That’s whats’ fascinating. Diseases can cause you to develop another disease or complication.

Health is something that affects all of us, including myself, I’ve learned just as much about myself through health as I have about the profession.

Health is made up of two parts: mental and physical. A good balance is needed in order to achieve good health. I’ve got to admit, I’m not the most healthiest person. I’m struggling with both parts, but this is a journey and I’m trying to better my health. I have anxiety, so I’m trying to cope and deal with this condition, as well as being slightly overweight, I’m losing weight to better my health and choosing to eat more healthier. I still do eat junk food, but in moderation.

I want people, including myself, to be aware of their health and to live the longest they can and make memories, experience, learn, and teach the next generation the past. People often say if you don’t look forward, you can never move on. That’s true, but if you never look back in the past and reflect, you never learn and you make the same common mistake that can be avoided. I’m not just refering to physical or mental health, but learning and growing as a person.

I want people to learn and make healthier choices to live a healthy and happy well-balanced life. And it’s easier said than done, which is why being healthy is such a struggle!

I want to make a difference. I want to use the knowledge I gained from school and apply it to real life. I have seen someone collapse in front of me and I stood frozen. I couldn’t do anything because at that time, I knew nothing about health. Now, I have more knowledge and I want to be someone who people can rely on. I find health and nursing really enjoyable.

Learning about health wasn’t easy because I needed to know biology and chemistry as well; It has been a really tough journey. And to be honest, I wasn’t particularly interested in health or the medical field at first. It seemed cool and amazing if I was capable of doing it, but I had no interest in pursuing the health profession. But as I continue learning more about health and seeing what I can do, I find it really enjoyable and a strong passion of mine. I keep finding myself falling more in love with this profession. I’m not confident that I’m going to make it through since nursing isn’t easy in college or in nursing school. There’s actually a lot of competition. As cliche as this sounds, I won’t give up.

I hope that the video I create will display how important nursing and health is to me.

What happens when your mobile phone dies? Which country is most likely to recycle? And do people repair their phones or just simply throw them away? We did the research to find out...

Believe it or not, the humble smartphone puts enormous strain on our environment - from the moment they’re produced to when they’re disposed of to be buried in a huge pile of e-waste. That’s why we commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct a survey across six countries: USA, Germany, Russia, Mexico, South Korea and China. We wanted to find out what people look for in a smartphone, what their habits are - do they repair, who do they think should be responsible for recycling?

And the findings surprised even us!

Check it out.

1. Keeping up with the Jones’ is tiring! Most people think too many new phone models are being released.

More than half of respondents surveyed think that mobile phone manufacturers release TOO MANY new models, and agree that they could live with changing their mobile phone models LESS often.

2. Who should recycle your phone when it dies: you or the company that produced it?

What do you do if your phone dies? Does it sit in your draw, end up in a e-waste site in Ghana, or does it get recycled and reused?

Nearly half of respondents surveyed in all countries think that mobile phone manufacturers are the MOST responsible for providing access to recycling to their customers. Wouldn’t it be cool if companies made it as easy as possible to recycle, from the way it’s designed, to collecting it for re-use?

3. *Nearly* everyone wants a mobile phone that lasts longer.

This seems obvious. 4 in 5 respondents believe it is important for a new smartphone to be easily repaired if damaged. This rises as high as 95% in China, 94% in Mexico and 92% in South Korea.

But with nearly three million metric tonnes of e-waste generated from small IT products alone such as mobile phones, it still seems a LOT is going to waste!

4. China leads the world in getting their phones repaired!

....Well, at least out of the six countries we surveyed! We found that respondents in China (66%) and Korea (64%) are more likely to have had their phones repaired, compared to those in the US (28%) and Germany (23%).

5. Hazardous chemicals in my smartphone? No thanks!

I bet you didn’t know that many hazardous chemicals are used to make your smartphone. For instance, some hazardous chemicals that are used in the manufacturing processes, like benzene and n-hexane, are carcinogenic while others can cause various adverse health impacts.

4 in 5 respondents consider it important that a new smartphone is produced without using hazardous chemicals.

So what does this all mean?

It seems most people are sick of the way phones are so easily disposable and the way we are marketed a never ending cycle of new trends. But really, we just want to own a phone that lasts, is easily repairable, and can be recycled. What’s more, we don’t want it produced with nasty hazardous chemicals or disposed of in e-waste sites around the world.

It’s time tech companies catch on.

That’s why we’re helping bring together techies, designers, and people that love their gadgets together to demand a new way of thinking about our electronics. We need gadgets as innovative for the planet as they are for our lives...

The future is in our hands, let's change it! Find out how YOU can get involved.

Chih An Lee is the Global IT Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, based in Taipei

Hello, my name is Calvin Szeto and I have been working with the Sac BHC Youth Media Team throughout this summer. I am grateful that I am part of such a wonderful team who supports each other and I plan on returning next summer. Through my summer project, I am going to put my skills to the test by doing a recap of this summer.

As I previously stated above, my summer project will be a recap from my perspective of my summer spent with the youth media team.  I have always been intrigued of professional photos and films. Going into this program, I was nervous of who I would meet and what I would encounter, but they helped me learn new skills and taught me how to use professional equipment. This summer has been memorable as my team and I have all bonded together through numerous activities and events, such as attending the Boys and Men of Color Summit, and Friday breaks. Furthermore, I would love to show everyone not only how my summer was, but how much I have learned and progressed throughout the year.

Not only I have taught myself, but my peers as well. My first day coming here, I had some personal experience with a DSLR and editing, but not a lot. I had a small test to see what myself and my other intern at the time, Jasmine, could do. Both of us had decent footage, but we both knew that both of us needed obvious improvement. Within that first week, we had went to the Girls on the Rise Conference. I had met two new interns, Breanna and Matthew. Editing the video I learned how Jasmine’s and my styles of editing were different. Our second event was the Block Party presented by the Crocker Art Museum. Alberto, Bobby, Jasmine, and I attended and filmed. The Block Party was live and vivid, and editing the video felt like a breeze as I had practice using Final Cut Pro. Through that event, we had saw one of my classmates Vanna. A week or so had passed by, and I heard that two new interns were coming, the following day, Caleb, Malika, and Weyman had came. I had already known Weyman and Malika, so it was a refreshing experience as I had not seen them in a while. Caleb was a new person that I had met, I initially did not like him, but the day after I grew to like him. We had training from RYSE in Richmond, and I learned how everyone’s style of editing was like. Then, we attended the Boys and Men of Color Summit. There were mistakes made by all of us on the crew, but we pulled through together as a team. Within that same week, Vanna had joined the team, and we made two others videos, Pokevote and the Full House intro. I decided to partake in one video, but both were recorded and edited by me. I am proud that I was able to produce both within a day. Breanna was finished with her part, so we made the Full House intro/HCC video for her. Pokevote was to get the message to vote but also be trendy as Pokemon go is a hit now. Finally, all of us on the team have our own personal projects, so stay tuned! I hope you will enjoy how summer sixteen was for me!

Thanks to all! The chances are high but possibilities are endless…

To apply: Submit cover letter and résumé to humanresource@downtownsac.org by 5 p.m. on August 24, 2016.

The post DSP is hiring: Research Analyst appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

Guarani citizen Noemi Cruz bears witness to forest destruction by industrial soy farming in Argentina for the international market. Photo: Greenpeace / Julio Pantoja

Although concerns about immigration appeared as factors in Britain’s exit from the European Union, the Brexit vote was also a referendum on the failures of globalisation. Traditional economists promoted globalisation based on the theory that nations can best compete in capitalist markets by specialising, exporting resources for cash, often sacrificing local manufacturing, culture and self-reliance.

In 1957, European nations formed a “Common Market,” allegedly for economic protection, but the deal primarily protected the corporate elite. By the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher in the UK, Ronald Reagan in the US and François Mitterrand in France, presided over a neoliberal takeover, privatising economies and eradicating public power. They claimed that the benefits of enriching the rich would “trickle-down” to the peasants, but of course, this did not happen.

Privatisation 

European and American manufacturing declined as corporations moved to sweat shops in poor nations with cheap wages and corporate-friendly laws. A leaked World Bank memo, signed by Chief Economist Lawrence Summers, openly urged rich nations to export pollution and ecological destruction. Poor nations sank into debt and suffered from plundered resources, cultural disruption, war, loss of security and a rising income gap between rich and poor. 

The harsh impact of these policies finally sparked riots at the 1999 World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle, and an anti-globalisation movement emerged. By 2008, the free-wheeling investment banks, enriched by swindles and propped up by debt, collapsed, then demanded bail-outs from the working poor and middle class taxpayers. 

The Brexit movement in England was, in part, a rebellion by those for whom globalisation’s “trickle” never arrived, the working poor, who suffered unemployment, austerity policies and degraded social welfare. Nations in the European Union lost economic sovereignty to the banks and corporations, who punished small nations such as Greece and Cyprus for defying their orders. Former Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, blamed “the EU’s anti-democratic institutions,” that made it “impossible to stay in the single market and keep your sovereignty.” Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told the Guardian: “Brexit [will have a] domino effect with anti-European parties gaining a lot of support".

Globalisation and neoliberalism eroded public health, education and social security, replacing local self-reliance and common decency with an industrial corporatocracy that undermined family and community. Globalisation appears now as a privatisation scheme, designed for the rich to seize control of economic and political power.

Pollution havens

In 1987, the Brundtland report introduced the idea of “sustainable development,” suggesting that market economies could continue to grow, and that market forces could be used to regulate the environmental impacts of globalisation. However, the market-driven environmental policies hastened consumption and resource depletion, increased fossil fuel consumption and global warming, enriched the rich and left a trail of toxins, dry rivers and depleted soils in the world’s poorest nations.

The real costs became evident in 1984, when a methyl isocyanate gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India killed about 4,000 citizens immediately, some 20,000 over the next two decades, and left over 100,000 people suffering from respiratory dysfunction, deformities and blindness. In 1991, Bhopal courts charged Union Carbide’s CEO, Warren Anderson, with manslaughter, but neither the American nor Indian government helped extradite him for trial. The practice of corporations exporting their environmental impact became known as the “Pollution Haven Effect.”

In 2013, a ten meter sperm whale washed up dead on the coast of Spain with 17 kilograms of plastic garbage in its stomach. Annually, human enterprise adds some 15 billion kilograms of garbage to the oceans from consumer waste and container ship spills. Fish and marine mammals eat the plastics, which cannot be digested, their organs become blocked and they perish from starvation and gastric rupture.

Globalisation has encouraged, and in some cases forced, nations to relax environmental laws. The result has been deforestation, the spread of harmful invasive species, a loss of global biodiversity and a diminished genetic diversity among agricultural crop varieties. 

In 2003, David Ehrenfeld, at Rutgers University in the US, published “Globalisation: Effects on Biodiversity, Environment and Society” in the Conservation and Society journal. “The market cannot be relied on to control the environmental and other costs of globalisation,” he concluded. “The architects of globalisation have ignored the social, biological and physical constraints on their system.”

Social and economic impacts

Warfare has been the most destructive social cost of globalisation. The suffocating global arms trade, driven by transnational corporate profiteering, undermines real security around the globe.

Globalisation enriched a few elite in poor nations, but the net effect has been a wider income gap between the rich and poor, lost jobs, low wages, sweat shops, union-busting and diminished human rights. In debt, and under pressure from the World Bank, nations cut public services. 

The economics have proven predominantly one-sided, favouring westernised corporations and plundering the poorer resource colonies. Building a national economy on a single resource export has proven disastrous. In the 1970s, the UK and Dutch economies experienced the North Sea oil and gas boom, giving the illusion of prosperity while eroding local manufacturing and economic security. Britain’s corporate-friendly Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, used the oil revenues to subsidise corporate expansion, wage war and enrich banking empires. 

Resource exploitation can make a nation's currency appear stronger for a while, but this makes their exports more expensive, undermines manufacturing and local economy and leaves working class citizens without jobs or security. In 1977, The Economist magazine coined the term “Dutch disease” to describe these effects.

In The Paradox of Plenty, author Terry Karl explains that oil is a “resource curse” as experienced by Nigeria, Indonesia, Venezuela, Iran, Canada and other nations. Oil rich nations attract oil industry patrons, who finance friendly political candidates. These resource colony nations suffer human rights atrocities and see their environments devastated. In Canada, the petroleum-backed former government handed out over CND$14 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel companies, while losing over 340,000 industrial jobs. 

Globalisation put pressure on nations to privatise public assets, devalue their own currency to keep exports prices “competitive” and to abandon tariff structures that protect local economies. Neoliberal policies shifted taxation away from corporations and onto working class citizens. Finally, centralised global banking made the entire world vulnerable to the schemes of a few banks, as the world experienced in 2008. 

None of this appears as an accident of history, but rather as the design of neoliberal corporatocracy. 

Trade deals

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, 1994), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP, 2016) and other trade deals were designed to serve corporate profits. NAFTA and TPP allow corporations to sue governments — in private, secret tribunals — for enforcing environmental or human rights laws that limit profits.

In 2013, when the Canadian province of Quebec passed a moratorium on oil and gas fracking to stop the contamination of land and water, US oil and gas company Lone Pine Resources filed a $250-million NAFTA lawsuit against Canada, claiming that the moratorium was an “arbitrary, capricious, and illegal revocation" of the company’s right to mine oil and gas. When the province of Ontario passed a Green Energy Act, Texas energy company Mesa Power sued them. When the Canadian government banned MMT, a neurotoxin linked to Alzheimer’s disease, the Ethyl Corporation demanded and won US$13 million. Canada has been sued by S.D. Myers, a US toxic waste disposal company for banning PCB exports; by the US Sun Belt corporation for passing water protection legislation; and by other corporations, for hundreds of millions of dollars. When the US rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline, Canadian company TransCanada sued for $15 billion.

Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical and other corporations have launched over 600 similar lawsuits against governments around the world. Economists Joseph Stiglitz and Adam Hersh wrote in Marketwatch that these trade deals “restrain open competition and raise prices for consumers … applied even where rules are nondiscriminatory and profits are made from causing public harm.” 

This is the face of globalisation, a corporate coup d'etat against democracy. Smart nations can reverse these trends, localising rather than globalising. In 2008, Iceland presented the model by taking criminal bankers to court rather than bailing them out. They established new boards and management in the banks, capitalised them and regulated and supervised the banks to safeguard public interests. They devalued the currency, the Krona, by 60 percent, which kept wages high, limited imports and encouraged a renaissance in local manufacturing, fishing and tourism. 

Localisation is the cure for the sickness of globalisation, a first step in restoring human rights and protecting a nations’s ecosystems. 

Rex Weyler is an author, journalist and co-founder of Greenpeace International. The opinions here are his own.

Notes and sources:

“Globalisation: Effects on Biodiversity, Environment and Society”: David Ehrenfeld, Conservation and Society journal 

“Globalisation’s Direct and Indirect Effects on the Environment,” Carol McAusland, 2008: Global Forum on Transport and Environment in a Globalising World

“Twelve Reasons Why Globalization is a Huge Problem”: Gail Tverberg, 2013, Our Finite World.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership charade: TPP isn’t about ‘free’ trade at all”: Joseph E. Stiglitz, Adam Hersh, 2015, Marketwatch

“Environment and Globalization: Five Propositions”: Adil Najam, et.al, International Institute for Sustainable Development 

The Paradox of Plenty, Terry Lynn Karl, University of California, 1997.  

“Four reasons to reject TTP”:  Greenpeace USA  

“Trans-Pacific Partnership Would Harm Our Environment,” Sierra Club

“TPP in Depth,” Council of Canadians  

“Brexit, Globalization and the Bankruptcy of the Globalist Left,”  Global Research

“Brexit is a rejection of globalisation,” Larry Elliott, Guardian 

A major palm oil company, which had its sustainability certificates suspended for violating rules designed to prevent the destruction of Indonesia's forests and peatlands, has had those certificates reinstated. This shocking decision by the industry's own sustainability group to lift the suspension sends a message that it's OK for palm oil companies to continue trashing forests in pursuit of profits.

Tree stump in the PT Bumi Sawit Sejahtera (IOI) oil palm concession in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

IOI, one of the biggest palm oil suppliers in the world, was suspended by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in April 2016 for clearing peatland areas and developing land without obtaining required permits. As a result, many of its big-name customers walked away such as Unilever, Cargill, Mars, and - after tens of thousands of you emailed its boss - General Mills, maker of Betty Crocker cake mixes.

Yet even though IOI still cannot demonstrate it can produce palm oil in a responsible manner and has not shown how it will restore the forests and peat it has damaged, the RSPO last week announced it was lifting the suspension. This means IOI can once again promote its dirty palm oil as 'sustainable'.

This has happened because, as far as the RSPO is concerned, IOI has a plan to deal with the specific details of the complaint raised against it, which relate to a couple of its subsidiary companies working in a particular part of Kalimantan. However, these are minor corrections affecting only a small part of IOI's operations, while the company continues to create problems elsewhere.

Drone footage near the PT Bumi Sawit Sejahtera (IOI) oil palm concession in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, reveals the impact of repeated forest fires. 

Over the years, IOI has left a trail of devastation across Indonesia. Back in 2008, we revealed how the company had destroyed peatland forests as well as areas of orangutan habitat. More recently, it was clearing areas which its own assessment surveys identified as being of particular value for conservation and carbon storage, contravening its own policies. And just this year, our investigations showed IOI had planted oil palm saplings in areas burnt during last year's catastrophic fires, despite government instructions to the contrary.

Previous complaints about IOI have been raised in public and with the RSPO and each time IOI has promised to lay out new plans or policies to show how it will become a more responsible palm oil company. Each time it has failed to live up to the promise of substantial change.

The policy IOI published this week in response to the most recent RSPO complaint continues this tradition - it makes no attempt to address the most serious problems IOI faces and lacks a solid plan with clear dates when improvements will be made on the ground. There's also the question of how IOI will repair the damage done to the peatlands it has drained - the Indonesian government has instructed plantation companies to immediately re-wet peatland areas in an effort to reduce fire outbreaks.

Our 2008 report, “How Unilever Palm Oil Suppliers are Burning Up Borneo” revealed how IOI had destroyed peatland forests as well as areas of orangutan habitat.

Letting IOI back into the fold so soon is a big mistake. The RSPO is supposed to be preventing its members from destroying forests, but this alarming decision sends the message that even the worst offenders will be let off with little more than a slap on the wrist.

It also highlights just how weak the RSPO's standards are - many of its members have palm oil policies much stronger than its own, undermining the RSPO's claims to be pushing the industry towards true sustainability. It also suggests the RSPO is more concerned about giving the all-clear for IOI's old customers to start buying its palm oil again, rather than forcing it to make any kind of serious reforms.

However, many of IOI's ex-customers have said they will only start buying again once it has shown it can radically improve its approach to protecting forests and peatlands. A sensible decision, because until IOI proves it's serious about ending its role in deforestation and peatland drainage, resuming business with this toxic company will be a decidedly risky business.

Annisa Rahmawati is the Forest Campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia

Some point in our life we have all experienced stress. It could be from starting your essay the night before it is due or interviewing for a new job, but what exactly is stress? The American Physiological Association defines stress as “the feeling of being overwhelmed, worried, or run-down.” Sometimes this “feeling” can control your life by affecting your productivity or and the way you handle things. You may not know this but stress can also affect your physical health. Stress can make it difficult to breathe, cause nausea, and increase the risk of heart disease.

My name is Malika You and I am a senior in high school. Senior year is stressful because there is so much to do, but so little time. I am going to have to start applying for colleges, learn how to manage and make money, and start driving. My friends and family struggle with stress and even sometimes to a larger extent. I know that there are many teenagers out there with the same problem so for my summer project I want to help those who suffer from stress try to learn how to manage it. I will give tips on what to do when under stress and why you should control the problem instead of ignoring it. I hope that you will learn something new and use it to your advantage to live a less stressful life.

Racism, deforestation, powerful mining companies, colonialism, the oil industry – Indigenous People across the world are fighting so many things in the struggle for climate justice.

From Canada to Honduras to Brazil to Finland, Indigenous Peoples face systematic oppression, government ambivalence and corporate greed - and with a changing climate their battles have gotten even bigger. When your life, existence and culture is threatened, you can't run away - speaking truth to power is the only way to live.

It is only Indigenous People that can tell us what it’s like to be at the forefront of Indigenous resistance. That’s why, in honour of Indigenous Peoples Day, I spoke to Indigenous People from across the world. Here’s what they had to say about the struggles they face.

Arnaldo Kabá Munduruku - General Chief – Cacique

Dams in the Tapajos region of the Amazon could be about to force the Munduruku Indigenous People to leave their home against their will, losing their way of life, culture and livelihood. One million people worldwide have backed the Munduruku’s call for an end to destructive dams in the fragile Amazon, and the world is beginning to listen. Just last week, the license for the first dam was cancelled. The Munduruku people are now fighting to stop the other dams which threaten their land. Most importantly, they are fighting to get their land recognised by the government. Respect for their ancestral home will stop the dams for good.

As with all of the people I interviewed for this article, Arnaldo is full of the kind of energy and determination that makes it clear that he will win. Here is why Arnaldo continues to fight:

"The river and the forest give us everything we need to survive. They give us our food, our water, our medicine. If they build this dam they will kill the river, they will kill my people, our culture. The future of our children is threatened by the ambition of the companies and the government. The forest is also important for other people from other countries because its belongs to everybody."

Jenni Laiti - Saami – Artist and Activist - Souhpanterror

Jenni, a member of the Saami People, is an artist and activist. She is a climate warrior with an unstoppable energy that can make the impossible possible. The Saamis, and their way of life, are currently under threat. They have won in the past and they will continue win.

"We are not included, we are not questioned nor answered, and we are not in the agenda. It's all the same with all the politics in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia and these countries are devastating and dividing us. We use our land in sustainable ways with traditional Saami livelihoods, but at the same time we have to live in colonial countries with their systems and their legislations where our own Saami customary law is not recognised. Our heritage, language and traditional knowledge vanishes everyday while it's covered under the Settler's culture.

"They see Sápmi and its last wilderness in Europe through a colonial perspective; they see us as an empty territory that they can still colonise, take away and practice any type of extractive and land grabbing activities. Once someone asked 'What local people?' We local people! We are not only fighting against colonialism and capitalism every day, but we are fighting against climate change as well: we see that our way of life is threatened and we are standing on the edge. For us to survive, there is no space for colonialism. There is nothing more to give for capitalism, we are already standing on the edge. I feel that me - my family, my people, my area - we are all threatened."

Gaspar Sanchez - COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras)

Gaspar is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met. He is part of the Lenca Indigenous Peoples and a member of the Indigenous Lenca organisation COPINH co-founded by Berta Cacerés. There are 51 concessions for hydroelectric projects in the area and COPINH has complaints against 49 of them. Their struggle has taken away the lives of the people fighting against them.

"All of these projects are illegitimate and illegal. Illegal because they don’t follow international conventions such as article 169 that establishes the right to prior, free and informed consent (article 169 of the International Labour Organisation Convention). It's illegitimate because not one or the other decision is taken with any type of consultation from us.

Our territories are vastly militarised. When the communities decided to raise their voice and make it loud and clear, they are criminalised, harassed and killed. Comrades have been murdered because they protect our rivers, our territories. In the case of the defence of the sacred Gualcarque and Blanco rivers five comrades have been killed. Six, counting Berta Cáceres assassination. But, before them, there have been others because it’s clear than in this country there are no institutions to respond to the need of Indigenous Peoples. Currently we are defenceless: the State and any of the public institutions work together with politicians and corporations in collusion with drug traffickers, organised crime and there’s absolutely nobody left to protect Indigenous Peoples."

Clayton Thomas-Müller - Mathais Colomb Cree Nation - Stop it at the Source Campaigner, 350.org

Clayton, a member of the Mathais Colomb Cree Nation (Pukatawagan) in Northern Manitoba, Canada, spends his time being one of the coolest and most wonderful human beings I’ve ever met. He is a Cree activist for Indigenous self-determination and environmental justice.

"I feel very strongly that the shared consensus among many Indigenous Peoples here in Canada on the discourse of mitigating climate change and the development of adaptation programs to the global crisis is: the solutions lie in a much deeper dive into addressing colonialism and reconciliation. For Canada’s current economic model to be successful, They must enact policies that lead to the removal and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples from our lands to extract natural resources to sell to the highest bidder on the international free market. This must change.

The neo-colonialism playing out through Canada's economic extractive policies in Indigenous territories is a double-edged blade. Here, in our lands, we are disproportionately affected by industries' impacts and also by climate change which affects our constitutionally protected inherent rights to hunt, fish and trap. G8 economies are using the climate crisis for profit. Through free trade agreements and institutions like the World Bank, Canada is banking on using carbon offset initiatives such as REDD and REDD+. By privatizing forests through the international carbon trading facility to be bought and sold as commodities, Canada can plant a million palm oil trees in the Global South to justify expanding controversial developments like the tar sands in the north. We have such a huge responsibility on our shoulders to keep the oil in the soil living in a region with the second largest carbon pool on the planet. If Canada’s tar sands are developed to the fullest of its capacity it's game over for humanity"

So what can be done to support Indigenous Peoples?

When asked what people could do to support Indigenous struggles Clayton said "Check your privilege at the door" and continued, "When organising, my resources are not focused on the ruling class. Instead, I look to communities whose liberation is tied to my liberation; whose oppression is tied to my oppression: solidarity is the most powerful device we have in our social movement's toolkits."

There are various ways you can put solidarity into practice: get versed in the issues, spread the word, send a message of solidarity, pressure companies and governments and take direct action. We need to build a diverse and inclusive movement, understand how race and class are barriers across the globe and ask ourselves: how can we work alongside and in solidarity with front line communities?

For more information about Indigenous struggles:

Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous Climate Action

Environmental Justice Atlas

Indigenous Rising

No REDD

Martin Vainstein is a social media intern with Greenpeace UK

With contributions by Suzanne Dhaliwal, co-director UK Tar Sands Network.

As a Brazilian, it saddens me to see so much bad press around my country now that the Olympics Games are happening. Two years ago, during the World Cup, it was a great conversation starter. People would ask if I was excited about it, and if I was going to the stadium to watch the teams play. Now, when someone wants to talk to me about my country, they ask me if I am glad that I am not there for the Games.

There is such a complex mix of political, social and economic issues happening in Brazil right now, it is hard to know where to start. Should I mention the president’s impeachment? What about the corruption scandal involving so many Brazilian politicians right now? And don’t get me started on the Zika virus.

I’ve lost count of how many articles I’ve seen talking about the water pollution in Rio and concerns for the health of the athletes and tourists. Even though I knew deep down that Brazil was not going to be able to meet the world’s expectations — or my own — before the Olympics started, I really hoped that they would somehow figure it out. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Don’t get me wrong, amongst so much bad media, there is still good news. Brazil just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Soy Moratorium, an agreement that helps protect the Amazon from deforestation for soy farming. And I cannot forget to mention the huge news that the license for building a mega-dam in the heart of the Amazon was cancelled just last week. But there is always more to be done.

Brazil may have missed the opportunity to have the sustainable event it planned, but the silver lining is that in this international spotlight, Brazil’s leaders can make the right choices for the environment. There are still other hydroelectric dam projects in the Amazon that should be cancelled. Brazil’s focus needs to be on clean energy options like solar and wind instead — energy sources that protect Brazil’s biodiverse ecosystems and the climate.

Watching the opening ceremony, I was glad to see that at least one opportunity was not missed: bringing climate change front and center. Two powerful messages were delivered during the event. The first was a video about global warming. Seeing Amsterdam, Rio, Florida and so many other places around the world being flooded due to the rise of sea level gave me chills. These are the real consequences if the whole world does not commit to fight against climate change. The second message announced that more than 11,000 trees will be planted in Rio, representing each Olympic athlete.

This part of the opening ceremony was just a symbolic act, but I hope that both messages serve as a wake up call for everyone who watched it — and that the sense of togetherness it provided can make people feel that it is possible to make a difference, even through small acts like planting a tree. The fight against climate change is everyone’s fight. Even some Olympic athletes are recognizing the role they can play.

The whole ceremony was amazingly beautiful, inclusive and exceeded my expectations. It made me feel proud of being Brazilian, because it showed the whole world our culture, history and diversity. And it reminded us all that, if we are capable of joining forces to celebrate Olympic Games together, we can make the world a better place as well.

Diego Gonzaga is Americas Communication Hub Intern at Greenpeace USA

Hi, my name is Vanna Hoang, and I am form the Sacramento BHC Youth Media Team. For about a year now, I’ve been practicing and learning how to dance. As time had passed, I have learned that many people are affected physically and mentally from dancing. Many people dance, and I want to discover and learn even more as I keep on dancing.

For my summer project, I want to open up a small part of the dancing world to those who are not into dancing. I was first interested in dancing when I went to dance shows because a friend had encouraged me to go, and dancing seemed really fun afterwards. I still go to shows, but I do not perform in them because I do not believe that I am good enough.

Of all the kinds of hip hop dancing, the main five kinds are social dances, boogaloo, breaking, popping, and locking. I do best in popping and locking. My summer project will not be just about the two dances I specialize in, but it will show as much of the dancing world that I experience when I attend shows and meet-ups.

This week marks 71 years since atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and devastated the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Often we do not mark a 71st anniversary - unlike a 25th or 50th anniversary, a 71st is simply one more year among many. To many however, 2016 doesn’t feel like just any year. It’s been a year of conflicts, of political turmoil and instability in many countries, of violent and indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations.

Peace doves fly on the eve of the 60th Anniversary of the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing in 2005. The message of peace reads: "No More Hiroshima" 

The media depicts a world that is unpredictable and at times frightening, and it feels appropriate to take time to listen to the voices of people who - more than most - have lived through the aftermath of conflict and war, and are asking the world to hear their words as a compelling plea for peace and action.

Earlier this year the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings - the Hibakusha, as they are known in Japan - launched an initiative to get hundreds of thousands of people to join them in asking the world to completely ban all nuclear weapons by the year 2020.

The people in this photo - all women and young children - lived in Nakajima-honmachi, the place that is now the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park. The flash from the blast sent temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees C, completely obliterating them. There were no bodies to recover. (Photo provided by Mr. Noboru Katayama)

In their own words:

“The average age of the Hibakusha now exceeds 80. It is our strong desire to achieve a nuclear weapon-free world in our lifetime, so that succeeding generations of people will not see hell on earth ever again. You, your families and relatives, or any other people, should not be made Hibakusha again.”

These heartfelt words are having an impact: people from around the world have added their voices to those of the Hibakusha, and the call for a nuclear-free future continues to build.

President Obama amplified this message when he met with some of the survivors in Hiroshima in May, the first time a sitting President has ever done so. He spoke of them, and of all those who died in the horrific aftermath of the bombings when he said:

“Their souls speak to us. They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are, and what we might become… (there) is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare, but as the start of our own moral awakening.”

Monks pray beside the A-Bomb Dome Memorial during the 60th Anniversary of the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing in 2005.

It is of course, not enough that we reject only nuclear warfare. As humans, we have to strive to reject violence of all kinds, to find and embrace peaceful ways to resolve our conflicts. But this week, as we join our hands and voices with the Hibakusha and call for the abolishment of all nuclear weapons, we make a start, and in a small way we pay homage to all those who have gone before us, irreparably impacted by the devastations of war.

Add your voice.

Join Nihon Hidankyo, a local non-government organisation in Japan that is gathering signatures before September from people in Japan and around the world to deliver to the United Nations, calling for nuclear disarmament. Please email your name and address to <kj3t-tnk[at]asahi-net.or.jp>

Tamara Stark is acting Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan.

This Wednesday, I had barely had breakfast when I was surprised by some absolutely amazing news: the Brazilian environmental agency – IBAMA – announced it would cancel the process for licensing the São Luiz do Tapajós (SLT) megadam in the heart of the Amazon. Once my heart rate returned to normal, I started to call my colleagues and Munduruku leaders, seeking confirmation.

Today, it’s official: IBAMA has cancelled the São Luiz do Tapajós megadam. It’s time to celebrate this incredible news! I'd like thank all of you who stood with the Munduruku Indigenous People and helped make this victory possible. 

Over these last months we truly believed that sooner or later IBAMA would need to recognise the megadam project's significant environmental and social impacts in the region. Now, with IBAMA's decision, the approval process for the megadam cannot move forward.

More than 1.2 million people around the world joined the Munduruku Indigenous People to say no to the SLT dam and pressure multinational companies like Siemens to distance themselves from the project.

Other Brazilian agencies like FUNAI (National Indigenous Foundation) and federal public prosecutors in the Brazilian state of Pará had recommended that IBAMA cancel the license because the project would displace Munduruku communities, making it unconstitutional. Part of the Munduruku Indigenous land called Sawré Muybu – an area in the process of been officially recognised as Indigenous Land – would have been flooded by the dam. 

Now that the megadam’s license has been cancelled, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice must recognise its obligation and move swiftly to officially demarcate the Sawré Muybu territory.

Although, we are celebrating this incredible victory, we know there is a lot more to do to keep the Tapajós and other Amazon rivers free from hydrodams. Our campaign has not finished yet!

There are 42 other hydrodam projects planned in the Tapajós basin and hundreds earmarked across the Amazon rainforest - part of an aggressive economic model that doesn't consider the critical importance of protecting the Amazon forest and its inhabitants. Previous dams build in the Amazon have negatively impacted local communities, devastated the environment and even been mired in corruption scandals.

We need to stop them, one by one! 

There is another way. Brazil must focus on truly renewable energy and become a world leader in wind and solar. With the right investments, it is possible to generate the same amount of energy that dams like São Luiz do Tapajós would produce, by harnessing the power of wind and sun.

Danicley Aguiar is an Amazon campaigner for Greenpeace Brazil.

Good news! Plastics bans across the world have been hitting the headlines lately.