Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

December 7, 2015

COP21 Paris quiet about coal-fired power plants poisoning Navajos and the world

Navajo Generating Station on Navajo Nation at Page, Arizona, poisoning
Navajos and emitting the brown haze over the Grand Canyon
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=3125

COP21 in Paris is very quiet about coal-fired power plants poisoning the world. 
Navajos remain poisoned by Peabody Coal and the Navajo Generating Station, while Phoenix and Tucson reap the benefits of electricity.
"The Navajo Generating Station is the nation's third largest emitter of carbon dioxide, climate warming gases, of any power facility in the country. In addition to the carbon dioxide, it has historically emitted enormous amounts of nitrogen oxide, mercury, going back some years, sulfur dioxide and a slew of other pollutants that have essentially blanketed that part of the country in a fog of haze and smog," NPR reported in 2015.
Navajo Generating Station is responsible for the dirty brown smog you see when you fly over the Grand Canyon. 
The profiteers behind Peabody Coal and this power plant are responsible for the relocation of 14,000 Navajos and forcing the resisters into harsh lives of survival. 
Navajo Generating Station is one of three coal-fired power plants located on the Navajo Nation, with the electricity primarily going to non-Navajos in the Southwest. 
The media in the region has failed the people, and failed to expose it, resulting in more misery and death. 
At COP21 in Paris, the corporate sponsors include some of the world's top financiers of coal-fired power plants.

In the news: COP21's dirty sponsors

Financial Times reports COP21 sponsor BNP Paribas financed dirty tarsands exploration in Canada.


The Ecologist reports on BNP Paribas financing tarsands. "BNP Paribas, also a COP21 sponsor, continues to be a massive financial driver behind fossil fuel expansion globally. For almost 50 years, it has been behind Canada's tar sands extraction. It is now one of the largest coal financiers in France, having provided half of the total financial support (€15 billion) for the country's coal industry between 2005 and 2014."


Internatonal Business Times reports, "Engie and EDF are reported to own 46 coal-fired power plants worldwide, which produce more than 190 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions a year, according to a study by Corporate Accountability International, an environmental group."


The New Internationalist points out in its headline, 'Paris closed to civil society, open to greenwashers.'
"Sponsored by the likes of dirty energy giant Engie (formerly GDF Suez, also an official sponsor of COP21) alongside fracking enthusiast Suez Environment and agrofuels giant Avril-Sofiproteol, the event at the Grand Palais will also welcome Vinci, the company behind the proposed airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, coal financiers HSBC and BNP Paribas, and Coca-Cola, among many others."

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