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Monday, December 7, 2015

College Student Helps Lead Campaign that has Divested over one Billion Dollars from the Fossil Fuel Businesses

By Earthscope Media Reporter, Jillian Johns
Fossil fuels have been proven to release harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and the recent integration of the process of hydraulic fracturing only exacerbates the harmful effects the usage of these fuels have on our environment and ourselves. Jess Grady-Benson is a leader in the Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network, which aims to help people divest from using fossil fuels. She also recently won a Brower Youth Award for her work. As a recent graduate of Pitzer College in Claremont, California, she has left behind an inspirational legacy. Pitzer is part of the Claremont Colleges, a group of five colleges in which students can attend classes at any of these participating schools when needed.
Benson co-funded the Claremont College Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network--a group of highly intelligent and determined individuals that influenced the college so much that they recently agreed to switch to alternative fuels and away from the fossil fuel industry. Now, as more than one hundred schools followed suit, the total savings on energy cost is expected to reach one billion dollars.
Students rallying for the divestment of fossil fuels. (
“This campaign, I think, is incredibly powerful because it’s really redistributing wealth, it’s building a powerful base of young activists on student campuses, and it is also opening up a political window so that we can actually shift public conjugate...lower influence of fossil fuel industry elections and policy in general, and [the upcoming generations] are all really critical to transitioning us to a cleaner and more just economy,” Benson stated. Not only does the public receive more opportunities to improve their living costs and standards, they also create an improved community aspect of accomplishing something that helps everyone, not just an elite few.   
Benson also stated that, “I think the transition into a cleaner economy is actually an opportunity to redistribute wealth, create more community ownership and democratic practice around community energy production and usage, create more jobs at a local level that is actually empowering the community and move us away from the corporate control that we see over the energy economy currently.”
In discontinuing our uses of products distributed by hugely powerful corporations, we gain a more locally based system, allowing for personal needs to become higher on the list of priorities. By divesting from fossil fuels, we can help save our earth, our atmosphere, our community, and ourselves.
Our tremendous thanks to Jess Grady-Benson. For more on her incredible work, visit

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Could a watery grave be coming for local salmon populations?

Could a watery grave be coming for local salmon populations? 
Humans must look to fix a problem they single-handedly began
by Katherine Podoll

The Salmon population is devastatingly low in Northern California, and it is only getting worse. Over the past decades, a steady decline in these species has led to an in depth investigation of what, exactly, has caused this decline. Salmon are what is known as a keystone species for all other organisms living near or around a creek, meaning that they proved important resources for the surrounding species. Salmon, whose lifecycle brings them from a creek out to the ocean and back to the same creek to spawn and die, carry important nutrients inland which can be spread through the ecosystem by species such as insects and trees, known as vectors. Preston Brown is a biologist who works for SPAWN, an organization based in West Marin whose focus is on preserving and restoring salmon habitat through the restoration of the local Lagunitas Creek as well as reigning in the support of those along other endangered areas throughout Northern California. Brown said that one of the most intriguing things about salmon to him was how “they recycle huge amounts of marine fertilizer into the streams and the forest.” In fact, “some scientists a long time ago figured out that redwood trees that grow next to salmon creeks grew bigger and taller than trees that grew away from salmon creeks." Now what, people have been asking, is the most prominent reason for the Coho Salmon's decline, if they are such a critical species? This blame, like so many others, must be placed solely on ourselves, human beings.
With the increase of man-made infrastructure in recent years, people have looked to turn to anything available to get their resources from. In the mid to late 1900s, dams became a popular form of infrastructure to control water in given areas and also create energy from this water. However, this practice has revealed more problems than solutions. Brown explained how “developing this one resource, water, came at the expense of all the other resources: salmon and wildlife, and the processes in which these forests grow and floodplains are developed and nutrients are deposited, because dams interrupt a lot of natural processes.”
In addition to providing issues on its own, dams exacerbate all other problems in an ecosystem as well. The drought which has plagued California the past four years has, according to Brown, simply been the piece which pushed the salmon over the edge. He describes how over the tens of thousands of years of their existence, the Coho Salmon have experienced other serious droughts and environmental changes, but “because they’re in such low numbers, because they are usually bumping up against the needs of humans, they’re getting even less water in the drought.” The drought is the “nail in the coffin,” Brown says, grimly adding, “and the coffin was built by us.”

Therefore, as the primary cause of such catastrophic ecological problems, it is up to us to fix them, as well. Brown and SPAWN work around the clock in the Lagunitas Watershed to restore destroyed habitat along the creek in order to create a more inviting and safe place for returning salmon. In addition, people in watersheds around Northern California, the United States, and even the world, are working to reduce infrastructure near waterways. “The era of big dams is over,” remarks Brown. He explains how in some places, people are taking dams down due to their environmental harm and cost of upkeeping. In addition, bills are being created to protect these areas, and most simply need a stamp of approval before they are put into action. People are making a difference on a personal level, too, by spreading awareness about salmon issues and working to restore their local watershed. No matter what else is going on in our lives, no matter what other issues present themselves as urgent at a particular moment, it is always essential to remember: it is our fault salmon are in the endangered position they are today, and therefore it is our duty to do everything in our power to fix it.

To learn more about SPAWN or how you can help out, visit their website: