Tell the UN: Give the Botswana Bushmen Their Water Back | Protect Joshua Tree from Garbage Dump

Please click on and sign the following two petitions:

1.  Tell the UN: Give the Botswana Bushmen Their Water Back!

2. Tell the Obama administration to protect iconic Joshua Tree National Park from a proposed garbage dump


1. BACKGROUND | From Hunger Site

Water is one of the most basic human needs. It’s a crucial requirement for survival both in terms of one’s physical health, and for some, their livelihood. Agriculturally-based societies rely on water to maintain their crops and harvests.

In July, bushmen from the Kalahari region of Botswana were denied rights to water. A judge ruled they do not have the freedom to drill for water on their land. The Botswana government has for years tried to push the bushmen out of this territory, and this ruling is yet another attempt at unjustly removing them from their home.

The Botswana bushmen have been suffering without proper access to water for years now. Removing their rights to this fundamental necessity is plain wrong. Write to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking him to intervene and give the Botswana bushmen back their right to water.

MESSAGE TEXT

Dear Secretary Ban Ki-moon,

I am writing to express my concern regarding the Botswana bushmen and the recent ruling that they now are prohibited from accessing water on the Kalahari Reserve. The bushmen are indigenous to this area and have lived off of the land for tens of thousands of years. Denying them their right to water is not only deplorable, it’s completely inhumane.

The Botswana government has been trying to push the bushmen out of the Kalahari Reserve for years now. This latest attempt to deny them water rights is yet another cruel attack on thousands of years of tradition and peaceful existence.

The bushmen have the right to their land and the water on it just like anyone else in the world. With all of the hunger, poverty, and warfare taking place in our societies today, it seems that providing everyone with the basic necessity of water should be the first and least complicated act of care.

I hope you will intervene in this situation and see to it that the Botswana bushmen are once again granted their rights to the water they need to survive.

Thank you for considering my comments.

2. BACKGROUND | From NRDC

For the last two decades, Joshua Tree National Park, a national treasure and premier nature destination, has been threatened by an enormous garbage dump that would devastate the park’s fragile desert ecosystem. Urge Interior Secretary Salazar, before the February 25th deadline, to protect Joshua Tree National Park by opposing the developer’s petition to the Supreme Court and allowing the lower court decisions to stand.

MESSAGE TEXT

I urge you to oppose Kaiser Ventures’ petition to the U.S. Supreme Court and end the longstanding litigation over the Eagle Mountain garbage dump. I am deeply concerned about this landfill’s potential impact on iconic Joshua Tree National Park and its fragile desert ecosystem.

Joshua Tree National Park is one of the nation’s premier environmental resources, where millions of outdoor enthusiasts trek every year to hike, bike, rock climb and marvel at the magnificent rock formations and iconic Joshua tree-studded landscape. It makes no sense to put the nation’s largest garbage dump in the midst of this spectacular natural and recreational area, which also houses imperiled species like the desert tortoise. This project has demanded too much of the Interior Department’s time for too long. I urge you to do whatever you can to stop any further appeals on this issue. Our taxpayer dollars that fund your department’s operations should be used to protect America’s natural resources, not destroy them.

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• Human Rights
• Compassion