Earth Democracy

Earth Democracy’s mandate is broad, and so we created the four subcommittees: Human Right to Water and Health; Rights of Nature, Food Sovereignty and Local Economy; and Global Warming and Renewable Energy.

To integrate these broad subject areas under Earth Democracy, we highlight two framing initiatives – the Precautionary Principle and Guardianship of Future Generations.  

 

WILPF asks – What’s in Our Drinking Water? Why this public health crisis?

What’s in our drinking water is a huge range of industrial and agricultural chemicals and substances. Why is because corporate and government interests choose not to acknowledge the dangers these substances pose. This article, about WILPF’s project, The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water, focuses on one group of highly toxic chemicals, called PFAS.

Today, over 110 million Americans are exposed to PFAS-contaminated drinking water. Over 99% of us have PFAS in our blood. PFAS is found in umbilical cord blood, in the placenta, and in breast milk. It is linked to thyroid disease; to kidney, liver and testicular cancer and to immune system disorders; and it leads to abnormalities in the developing fetus and young child.

You can find out more about PFAS by seeing the new movie Dark Waters and by learning about Earth Democracy’s project – The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water.  

DuPont developed PFAS chemicals, a family of 5,000 chemicals, in the 1940s; and they have been widely used since then in both consumer and military products. PFAS chemicals are described as “forever chemicals” because they are extremely persistent and take many decades to break down in the environment and in our bodies. The result is a drinking water and public health crisis.

Dark Waters, a recently released feature film, tells the true story of a corporate defense attorney, Robert Bilott (portrayed by Mark Ruffalo) who ended up representing farmers in the small town of Petersburg, West Virginia. They believed their cattle and crops were poisoned by toxic waste dumped by DuPont in local landfills. This contamination also led to a public health crisis in the community and deaths. Read more of the actual story in “Chilling True Story of Corporate Indifference.”

Help inform your community about this ongoing threat! Offer movie goers our brief handout as they enter or leave the theater, to tell them more about PFAS and our project. Download this page and cut the copies into quarter-page handouts.

PFAS was first developed for consumer products by DuPont in the 1940s to make heat-resistent cookware, stain- and water repellent fabrics, and is used in cosmetics, paints, food packaging, dental floss, artificial turf, and many other products. Since then, those chemical and manufacturing plants are sources for PFAS contamination of surface and ground water used for municipal water systems. Landfills and dumps also leach PFAS from these consumer products into the environment. Just these sources of water pollution lead to a public health crisis, but those are not the only source of PFAS pollution.

Photo by Michael Golembesky / US Air Force.Our project, the Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water, tells the story of military PFAS contamination. PFAS is an active ingredient in a special fire-fighting foam used at military bases since the 1970s in routine fire-fighting exercises. Both commercial airports and the military also use this foam to put out aircraft fires.

This Earth Democracy project focuses on California, which has the most military bases and facilities in the US. The project includes a California speaking tour and features a database of military bases and their contaminants searchable by base name and by zip code.

People can find what’s in their drinking water at the Environmental Working Group site. California residents can match what they learn about their drinking water to the evidence found at the project database to find what nearby military base may possibly be the source of PFAS or other contamination.  

Detailed factsheets will be posted on this webpage soon.  

On the March 2020 tour, Pat Elder will be speaking in cities across California. Two forums –  March 21 in Berkeley and March 22 (World Water Day) in San Francisco – will offer more in-depth and cross-linked information. Watch for upcoming details.

At US military bases across the country and at NATO and other US military bases abroad, PFAS foam has been allowed to seep into the ground to contaminate surface and ground water. Many of the personnel and families living on base have been exposed to unsafe drinking water and suffered chronic and life-threatening diseases for years.

Those in nearby communities have also been exposed to unsafe drinking water and suffered as a result. Gavin P. Smith, founder of Civilian Exposure tells about how his father worked as a loyal civilian Department of Defense employee at Camp Lejeune, NC for 25 years. Only after his father’s death did Smith begin to learn about extensive water contamination on the base and the ongoing PFAS health effects.

Since California is a state with many military bases and extensive military pollution, our project  focuses there. Yet we are telling the story of the health crisis at all bases where this foam is used. Maintaining military equipment to be constantly ready for war involves many other hazardous chemicals. Now is the time to question eternal wars and to cut the military arms budget, so we can free up hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up this deadly  contamination!


The Human Right to Health and Safe Food
Two of WILPF US’s issue committees, Earth Democracy and Women, Money & Democracy (formerly Corporations v Democracy) are uniting on this joint campaign. We have an information-packed website, easy to distribute Infographic cards, and news.


See the Take Action Tool Kit

It’s time to build a movement of movements for people, planet and peace over profit.  Six WILPF-US Earth Democracy team members and friends converged for the NYC Climate Summit, Sept. 19-20, to hear great speakers, attend inspirational workshops, and march on Sunday 9/21, under the Earth Democracy banner. Learn more about the efforts under way. 

We now have fracking brochures available for printing and distribution. This brochure was originally designed for use by the Santa Cruz Branch. Under "What You Can Do," please add the contact information for your own Congressional, State and Local representatives and your local Branch. Click on the images below to download Earth Democracy fracking brochures in English and Spanish:

Fracking brochure: English      Fracking Brochure: Spanish

Download Earth Democracy posters here (click on the images to download the poster in 8.5" x 11" size. If you would like a larger or custom size, please contact newsletter@wilpfus.org and we'll get one right out to you via email.):

Earth Democracy Color Logo   Earth Democracy B&W Logo

The WILPF Earth Democracy logo was designed and donated by www.ciafront.org.