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2018 Fall Print Newsletter; celebrating 25 years of defending the forest, planting the seeds and building community.
The air was thick and the morning sun was shaded by smoke from the catastrophic Butte Fire, like heroes in an action movie, grassroots grantees braved the bad air and poured into the First Unitarian Church of Oakland for our annual Grassroots Convening.
Twenty-five years after California recognized 1,2,3, Trichoropropane as a carcinogen, the state has finally established maximum contamination levels in drinking water, leaving many residents wondering what to do next about their drinking water which has 123 TCP over these limits.
This year, the Rose Foundation and New Voices are Rising will participate in California’s new Community Air Protection process in collaboration with the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, California Air Resources Board, and other stakeholders, community groups, and West Oakland residents.
I’m choking on toxic air… / the fumes are so hazardous – it just ain’t fair… / I’m calling out every generation before mine… / Our mothers, fathers, grandparents and so on who be telling us ‘it’s fine’…” Last week, New Voices Are Rising student Michelle read her poetry about inheriting toxic pollution to an audience of friends, family, program partners, and other community members at New Voices’ annual Climate Justice Youth Summit.
The early Internet promised the world a wealth of content to watch, read, and listen to. Few would say the Internet hasn’t delivered on this promise, but users everywhere feel unsettled at the potential for web companies to watch, listen to, and observe them. “The online medium opens many new avenues for communication, but also has been structured as a form of ongoing surveillance and manipulation,” says Jeff Chester, the Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a grantee of the Rose Foundation’s Consumer Privacy Rights Fund. Working closely with other civil society organizations, the Center for Digital Democracy is forging solutions for protecting privacy online and expanding the public’s awareness of the use of their data.
Although California-based companies continue to pioneer electric vehicle technology, communities that can’t afford a $70,000 Tesla Model S have yet to enjoy the benefits of gasoline-free vehicles. Residents of Arvin, CA, a city with higher poverty than 99 percent of California cities, face exposure to some of the highest levels of ozone and particulate matter in the state. The Rose Foundation has provided a number of grants to organizations working in Arvin to create solutions for the city’s air quality issues, including the City of Arvin and the Central California Environmental Justice Network
The World Health Organization startled the world this year with its report on finding tiny plastic pieces in 83% of the world’s tap water. At sea, reports of marine life killed from the ingestion of or entanglement in plastic debris continue to reveal the negative effects of plastic pollution on aquatic ecosystems. All One Ocean is using a Rose Foundation grant to mobilize youth to clean up beaches in several counties in and around the Bay Area.
If you’ve ever stumbled upon a coin, arrowhead, or other artifact from the distant past, you probably were happy to pocket the found treasure. Unfortunately, future generations may not be as excited to find some of the innumerable hazardous remnants left behind by today’s society. University Legal Assistance of Gonzaga University School of Law (ULA) is trying to better understand a toxic legacy that affects present-day communities along the Spokane River and will likely continue to affect generations to come.
The Tuolumne River once boasted a plentiful salmon run in the spring and the fall. Now, multiple dams along with irrigation projects that direct water away from the river reduce flow so much that the spring run has ended entirely. Fish collected from the stretch of the river that flows through Stanislaus County display high levels of industrial chemicals, while homeless encampments and illegal dumping often lead to a build-up of hazardous trash along the banks. Rose Foundation grantee the Tuolumne River Trust (TRT) is rebuilding the local community’s relationship to the river and giving them the tools to help restore it. “It’s not just about the infrastructure, it’s about connecting the community near the river to be stewards of the river,” says Edgar Garibay, TRT’s community relations manager.
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