The Assault on Environmental Protest | American Civil Liberties Union

More than 50 state bills that would criminalize protest, deter political participation, and curtail freedom of association have been introduced across the country in the past two years. These bills are a direct reaction from politicians and corporations to the tactics of some of the most effective protesters in recent history, including Black Lives Matter and the water protectors challenging construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock…

more: The Assault on Environmental Protest | American Civil Liberties Union

Stand with Nebraska against the Keystone XL - NRDC

The Trump administration gave the Keystone XL pipeline the green light, but the pipeline can't move forward without an approved route through the state of Nebraska. This disastrous tar sands pipeline poses a grave threat to our land, water, communities and climate — but the state of Nebraska has the power to stop it in its tracks. Stand with the people of Nebraska who are united against the Keystone XL and urge the Nebraska Public Service Commission to block the pipeline.

SIGN NOW: Stand with Nebraska against the Keystone XL - NRDC

Tell Bank CEOs to Defund Keystone XL - Rainforest Action Network | #DefundKXL #NoKXL

The Trump Administration has approved the final federal permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. But we still have a chance to stop Keystone XL — if we get 21 banks to drop TransCanada, the company behind this disastrous tar sands pipeline.

We need you to show banks that we won’t tolerate threats to clean water, clean air, and Indigenous rights. Sign this petition to tell banks to drop TransCanada and Keystone XL! #DefundKXL #NoKXL

SIGN NOW: Tell Bank CEOs to Defund Keystone XL - Rainforest Action Network

People's Climate Movement 2017

Join the People’s Climate Movement this April 29th in Washington, D.C. and across the country to stand up for our communities and climate.

Throughout the first 100 days in office, the People's Climate Movement is organizing a country-wide arc of action, culminating on April 29th in Washington DC in a powerful mobilization to unite all of our movements. To change everything, we need everyone.

Click here to say that you are with us: peoplesclimate.org

We’re ready to fight back, and we are ready to build a resistance to Trump and Congress’ attacks on our climate, our communities, and our jobs that stands alongside the unprecedented Women’s Marches and other powerful rallies that shook the globe in the hours and days following the inauguration of Donald Trump and the 115th Congress.

On April 29th, we will march for our families. We will march for our air, our water, and our land. We will march for clean energy jobs and climate justice. We will march for our communities and the people we love.

In 2014, we said that it takes everyone to change everything. Now, with everything at stake, everyone has a part to play.

People's Climate Movement 2017 | Facebook event page

People's Climate Movement ::: March on April 29 ::: Lets Do This!

Join the People’s Climate Movement this April 29th in Washington, D.C. and across the country to stand up for our communities and climate.

Throughout the first 100 days in office, the People's Climate Movement is organizing a country-wide arc of action, culminating on April 29th in Washington DC in a powerful mobilization to unite all of our movements. To change everything, we need everyone.

People's Climate Movement 2017

Why we’re marching

There is no denying it: Donald Trump’s election is a threat to the future of our planet, the safety of our communities, and the health of our families.

This new administration is attacking the hard-won protections of our climate, health, and communities, and the rights of people of color, workers, indigenous people, immigrants, women, LGBTQIA, young people, and more.

If the policies he proposed on the campaign trail are implemented, they will destroy our climate, decimate our jobs and livelihoods, and undermine the civil rights and liberties won in many hard fought battles.

It’s up to us to stop that from happening before it starts.

Our fights are tied together, and we will only succeed together. That’s why, from now through the first 100 days and beyond, we are taking action and standing up for everything and everyone we love — and we are calling on everyone to join us on April 29th; for a massive march to bring our demands to the streets of Washington, D.C.

We’re ready to fight back, and we are ready to build a resistance to Trump and Congress’ attacks on our climate, our communities, and our jobs that stands alongside the unprecedented Women’s Marches and other powerful rallies that shook the globe in the hours and days following the inauguration of Donald Trump and the 115th Congress.

On April 29th, we will march for our families. We will march for our air, our water, and our land. We will march for clean energy jobs and climate justice. We will march for our communities and the people we love.

In 2014, we said that it takes everyone to change everything. Now, with everything at stake, everyone has a part to play.

People’s Climate Platform –
Directly and rapidly reduce greenhouse gas and toxic pollution to successfully combat climate change and improve public health

Mandate a transition to an equitable and sustainable New Energy and Economic Future that limits the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels

Provide a Just Transition for communities and workers negatively impacted by the shift to a New Energy and Economic Future that includes targeted economic opportunity and provides stable income, health care, and education

Demand that every job pays a wage of at least $15 an hour, protects workers, and provides a good standard of living, pathways out of poverty, and a right to organize

Ensure that in the New Energy and Economic Future, investments are targeted to create pathways for low-income people and people of color to access good jobs and improve the lives of communities of color, indigenous peoples, low-income people, small farmers, women, and workers.

Make bold investments in the resilience of states, cities, tribes, and communities that are threatened by climate change; including massive investments in infrastructure systems from water, transportation, and solid waste to the electrical grid and safe, green building and increasing energy efficiency that will also create millions of jobs in the public and private sector

Reinvest in a domestic industrial base that drives towards an equitable and sustainable New Energy and Economic Future, and fight back against the corporate trade-induced global race to the bottom

Market and policy based mechanisms must protect human rights and critical, native ecosystems and reduce pollution at source

Sign up! – People's Climate Movement 2017

President Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

February 24, 2015: President Obama vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline bill after it was sent to his desk today. It is the third time President Obama has used his veto power. But, the fight over the pipeline isn’t over yet, as the U.S. State Department’s long approval process for the Keystone XL continues.


more: President Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Pipeline Bill | EcoWatch

Keystone XL Vote Planned for Friday in the House | EcoWatch

Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner think that building the Keystone XL pipeline is American’s top priority. Photo credit: MSNBC’s The Ed Show

With Congress back in session, Republican leadership is putting at the top of its agenda an item that probably isn’t at the top of most Americans’ agenda: approving the Keystone XL pipeline.

READ: Keystone XL Vote Planned for Friday in the House | EcoWatch

Debunking 8 discredited talking points pushed by Keystone XL proponents in Senate debate | Anthony Swift's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

As the Senate debates the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, proponents of the Keystone XL tar pipeline are pushing discredited talking points. The move would skip over the essential executive permitting process of determining whether the project is in the national interest in the first place. During the first half of the Senate debate this morning, Senator Pat Robertson, Senator Manchin, Senator Thune and Senator Landrieu pushed eight talking that unsupported by the facts.

Let’s update these talking points with the facts.

READ: Debunking 8 discredited talking points pushed by Keystone XL proponents in Senate debate | Anthony Swift's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

more from NRDC –

SIGN THE PETITION
Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Project | NRDC

Why it is time to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would carry some of the world's dirtiest oil from under Canada's Boreal forests to the Gulf Coast for export to overseas markets. It is all risk and no reward for America. Yet, Senate Republican leadership has made it clear that approving the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is top of their agenda. Members of Congress should hold strong and allow the ongoing presidential permit process to continue. And the President should follow the reasons he has laid out, not only to veto any bill that does attempt to approve Keystone XL, but also to reject this dirty energy project. The President has the information he needs to deny the permit for the tar sands pipeline as a danger to our climate and waters.

 more: Why it is time to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline | Susan Casey-Lefkowitz's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Project | NRDC Petition

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would transport raw, toxic tar sands oil right through the American heartland — from Alberta, Canada to refineries in Texas — and threatens to wreak environmental havoc on both sides of the border.


SIGN THE PETITION! Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Project | NRDC

EU pressing Obama to expand U.S. fracking, offshore drilling in secret

Twitter / PCGTW: Leaked Text: #EU pressing #Obama ...

Global Trade Watch‏@PCGTW

Leaked Text: #EU pressing #Obama to expand U.S. #fracking, offshore drilling in secret #TAFTA: http://huff.to/1jMFklf  pic.twitter.com/ciFMQvpAwv

 

#NoFRACKING #Fracking ::  #NoKXL |  #RE_TOOL NOW!

Keystone XL Controversy: Investigation Reveals Scientific Misconduct, Abuse of Whistleblowers in Review of Pipeline

For Immediate Release, August 8, 2013

Contact: Noah Greenwald, (503) 484-7495

Keystone XL Controversy:
Investigation Reveals Scientific Misconduct, Abuse of Whistleblowers in Review of Pipeline

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Scientists Punished for Objecting to
Downplaying of Pipeline Impact to Endangered Species

WASHINGTON— Yet another scandal surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline surfaced today: Media are reporting that an investigation by the Interior Department’s inspector general has found that agency scientists were improperly retaliated against after blowing the whistle on flaws with a map of American burying beetle habitat along the pipeline’s southern route.

“Here we go again: Keystone is at the center of another controversy, this time over an apparent attempt to downplay how this pipeline is going to hurt endangered species,” said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Good policy decisions require good science and an honest review of the facts. That’s especially true for Keystone, whether you’re talking about harm to wildlife or the impacts on climate change.”

Last month, the Interior Department’s inspector general asked Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to take “immediate action” to address an “unreasonable and inappropriate response” by agency officials in response to three U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists who questioned the use of a new map that reduced the range of the American burying beetle in Oklahoma along the route of Keystone’s Gulf Coast segment.

The new map would have replaced an existing map that delineated the beetle’s range based on spatial models rather than county lines, reducing the beetle’s Oklahoma range from 17 million acres to 12.6 million acres and making it more palatable to TransCanada, the proponent of Keystone XL. 

After the three biologists filed a 29-count complaint about the new beetle range map and other issues related to the Interior Department’s scientific integrity process, the map was withdrawn. However, in retaliation, two Fish and Wildlife Service supervisors docked the biologists’ pay and transferred their duties. After the biologists complained about the reprisals, the inspector general investigated and found wrongdoing, but the officials have yet to be disciplined.

“The biologists should be applauded for standing up for good science, not punished by their own supervisors,” Greenwald said. 

The map that was withdrawn could have lessened the need for mitigation or avoidance measures in connection with the Gulf Coast Segment of the Keystone XL pipeline. The segment has been constructed pursuant to a separate path than the northern segment, which is currently being reviewed by the State Department for a permit to cross the U.S.-Canada border.

In 2011, the Center and allies brought legal action and successfully halted the preemptive relocation of endangered American burying beetles in the Nebraska Sand Hills. That lawsuit resulted in a change of Fish and Wildlife Service policy regarding the use of “recovery permits” for endangered species, making clear that scientists may not use such permits on behalf of industry.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 625,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Keystone XL Controversy: Investigation Reveals Scientific Misconduct, Abuse of Whistleblowers in Review of Pipeline | Center for Biological Diversity

Tell Secretary of State John Kerry: Investigate Big Oil’s Influence on the Keystone XL Review

The State Department’s environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline is a joke. Contrary to evidence from the EPA and others, it claims that the pipeline will have minimal environmental impacts on the climate and communities along the pipeline route.

How did this happen? It turns out that he report was written by a contractor with deep ties to the oil industry. What’s worse, State Department employees attempted to hide these ties.

Send a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry demanding that he halt the Keystone XL review process until he gets to the bottom of this cover-up and blatant conflict of interest

Tell Secretary of State John Kerry: Investigate Big Oil’s Influence on the Keystone XL Review | Friends of the Earth

Zuckerberg promoting dirty fuels? DISLIKE.

Zuckerberg promoting dirty fuels? DISLIKE.



@SierraClub
 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151432359047572&set=a.72328147571.77213.6204742571&type=1&theater

see also
what next: FWD.US: Stop running ads supporting fossil fuels | RAN

#ForwardOnClimate videos

WASHINGTON DC

Forward On Climate Rally & March - Washington DC - YouTubeThe Largest Climate Rally in History: February 17, 2013 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. RSVP today or find more info at ForwardOnClimate.org. Presented by 135 different organizations and their members, including 350.org, the Sierra Club, the Hip Hop Caucus, Greenpeace, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Green For All and Forecast the Facts.

LOS ANGELES

National Day of Protest Against Environmental Destruction - YouTubeNational Day of Protest Against Environmental Destruction, Los Angeles 2.17.13The Eco Logic Channel - YouTube

Tens of Thousands Rally to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline & Urge Obama to Move "Forward on Climate"

We play highlights from the "Forward on Climate" rally that drew tens of thousands to Washington D.C.’s National Mall Sunday. Protesters from across the United States and Canada urged President Obama to reject the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would deliver tar sands oil from Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast. Organizers described Sunday’s protest as "the largest climate rally in history," and Reverend Lennox Yearwood compared it to Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington for civil rights. We hear from speakers including Van Jones, Obama’s former Green Jobs advisor, Canadian indigeous leader Chief Jacqueline Thomas of the Saik’uz First Nation, and Bill McKibben of 350.org. [Includes rush transcript]

GUESTS:

Van Jones, President Obama’s former Green Jobs Advisor.

Jacqueline Thomas, Chief of the Saik’uz First Nation from British Columbia, Canada.

Bill McKibben, longtime environmentalist and founder of 350.org.

Evangeline Lilly, Canadian actor.

Casey Camp, indigenous leader with the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma.

Tens of Thousands Rally to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline & Urge Obama to Move "Forward on Climate" | Democracy Now!

more from DNow! Keystone XL Oil Pipeline | Democracy Now!

see also

what next: #ForwardOnClimate - photos | 350

whats up: photos: Coalition Against Nukes U.S.A. joins with Forward on Climate! to Bust the Nuclear Myth in Washington D.C.

#ForwardOnClimate - photos | 350

photos of #ForwardOnClimate in Washington, DC, on February 17, 2013 via 350.org's flickr stream

more: Largest Climate March in US History |  350.org

see also: whats up: photos: Coalition Against Nukes U.S.A. joins with Forward on Climate! to Bust the Nuclear Myth in Washington D.C.

photos: Coalition Against Nukes U.S.A. joins with Forward on Climate! to Bust the Nuclear Myth in Washington D.C.

photos courtesy Lisa Marie Prescott

Nuclear Energy Information Service

"Nuclear has a huge carbon footprint from the mining and milling to the enrichment process and all the way through the fuel cycle," said Priscilla Star, executive director and founder of Coalition Against Nukes. At todays rally in Washington D.C., C.A.N. joined with our partners Beyond Nuclear, the Nuclear Information Resource Services, Sierra Club Nukefree Campaign, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Friends of the Earth and the Green Party to march in unity and solidarity to demand POLITICAL CHANGE not CLIMATE CHANGE! and a Green New Deal for America that will be both Carbon and Nuclear Free!

more: whats up: photos: Coalition Against Nukes U.S.A. joins with Forward on Climate! to Bust the Nuclear Myth in Washington D.C.

see also

whats up: Coalition Against Nukes U.S.A. joins with Forward on Climate! to Bust the Nuclear Myth in Washington D.C.

whats up: 2.17 #BustTheMyth :: Forward on Climate Rally
whats up: "Nukes are not carbon-free" | C.A.N. Coalition Against Nukes
whats up: NUCLEAR POWER’S OTHER FOOTPRINT

whats up: NO NUKES • #RE_TOOL NOW

Join the #ForwardOnClimate Rally on 2/17!

At 12 Noon on Sunday, February 17, thousands of Americans will head to Washington, D.C. to make Forward on Climate the largest climate rally in history. Join this historic event to make your voice heard and help the president start his second term with strong climate action.

Crippling drought. Devastating wildfires. Superstorm Sandy. Climate has come home – and the American people get it.

The first step to putting our country on the path to addressing the climate crisis is for President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. His legacy as president will rest squarely on his response, resolve, and leadership in solving the climate crisis.

350 | Join the #ForwardOnClimate Rally on 2/17!

see also:
whats up: 2.17 #BustTheMyth :: Forward on Climate Rally

It is time to bust nuclear power myths starting with the myth that nuclear power is climate-friendly! This rally provides an incredible opportunity to educate the 20,000+ rally attendees. Many are unaware that nuclear power contributes to climate change and devastates the environment!

A Big Day for Climate on Capitol Hill | 350.org

FEB. 14, 2013: There's a new sense of momentum around climate change here in Washington, DC. It started with President Obama’s inauguration, when the President broke the climate silence and called for action to address the crisis, saying a “failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

Obama then ratcheted up the rhetoric in this Monday’s State of the Union. “We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence,” said the President. “Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science -- and act before it's too late."

Now, members of Congress are beginning to act, as well.

This morning, 350.org founder Bill McKibben and a group of allies joined Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and California Senator Barbara Boxer to launch a new climate bill. The bill would end fossil fuel subsidies, invest in job-creating climate solutions like energy retrofits, and pass a stiff price on carbon, 60% of the profits of which would be rebated, per capita, to ever legal U.S. resident.

“The legislation that Senator Boxer and I are introducing today with the support of some of the leading environmental organizations in the country can actually address the crisis and does what has to be done to protect the planet,” said Senator Sanders at an event in the Senate office building. “It can reverse greenhouse gas emissions in a significant way. It can create millions of jobs as we transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and such sustainable energies as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass.”

“This bill establishes a really important principle,” said Bill McKibben at the event. “And that’s the fact that if the sky belongs to anybody it belongs to us and not the fossil fuel industry.”

Sanders and Boxer will spend the next few months marking up the bill, debating its provisions, and bringing on cosponsors. Senator Boxer said that she hopes to bring the bill up for a vote this summer (we’ll see if another summer of record breaking temperatures helps make the case). While it’s going to be a tough row to hoe in Congress, both Senators are confident that they’ve got the will of the American people on their side.

“No Big Oil company can sit down in someone's living room and say Superstorm Sandy didn't happen," said Senator Boxer.

"We're going to win this fight when millions of people stand up and say you must protect my children," Senator Sanders concluded.

Luckily, millions of people are already standing up to say no to the Keystone XL pipeline. And this afternoon, they found some new allies among progressive members of Congress. At a press event in front of the capitol, representatives from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black, Hispanic, and Asian American caucuses released a letter calling on President Obama to say no the Keystone XL pipeline. The letter was signed by 23 members of Congress, including long-time progressive champions like Rep. John Lewis and new members of Congress like California Representative Mark Takano.

“You cannot be talking about doing something proactive about climate change while approving the Keystone XL pipeline,” said Arizona Representative Raul Grijalva at the event. “We're now in a position to lead, rather than follow the worn, tired path industry has laid for us.”

Other Representatives went directly at the fossil fuel industry for the misinformation they’ve been spreading about Keystone XL. “The idea KXL will deliver energy independence isn't just a lie, it's a sad lie,” said Florida Representative Alan Grayson.

The Congressional letter will help build political momentum for this weekend’s “Forward on Climate” rally, when we’re expecting tens of thousands of people to rally for climate action and protest Keystone XL.

“At the rally, Americans will ask you [President Obama] to take a stand for the climate and reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, limit carbon pollution from our nation's dirty power plants, and fire up our clean energy economy,” wrote the members of Congress. “As progressive Members of Congress, we support those who will be part of the largest climate rally in America’s history.”

From the growing fossil fuel divestment movement that’s now spread to over 250 campuses across the country to this weekend’s massive rally in Washington, DC, the climate movement is beginning to fire on all cylinders and our politicians are taking notice. For the first time in awhile, it really feels like we’re moving, well, #forwardonclimate.

A Big Day for Climate on Capitol Hill | 350.org

350 | Join the #ForwardOnClimate Rally on 2/17!

At 12 Noon on Sunday, February 17, thousands of Americans will head to Washington, D.C. to make Forward on Climate the largest climate rally in history. Join this historic event to make your voice heard and help the president start his second term with strong climate action.

Crippling drought. Devastating wildfires. Superstorm Sandy. Climate has come home – and the American people get it.

The first step to putting our country on the path to addressing the climate crisis is for President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. His legacy as president will rest squarely on his response, resolve, and leadership in solving the climate crisis.

see also:
whats up: 2.17 #BustTheMyth :: Forward on Climate Rally

#BustTheMyth –

Join Coalition Against Nukes

at #ForwardOnClimate Rally

We want you to take part in the Forward on Climate Rally, in Washington, DC, on Sunday, Feb. 17, from 11:30 am – 4 pm.

It is time to bust nuclear power myths starting with the myth that nuclear power is climate-friendly! This rally provides an incredible opportunity to educate the 20,000+ rally attendees. Many are unaware that nuclear power contributes to climate change and devastates the environment!

Help spread the word about the rally and the bust nuclear power myths campaign to your anti-nuclear groups and contacts. Encourage all to take part in this historic event!

Please attend the Forward on Climate Rally! We need a huge turn-out to get our message across. —> There are buses from many parts of the country. <—

Let’s make a bold statement using creative signs and costumes. Bust nuclear power myths with fact sheets and conversation with other rally-goers.

tinyurl.com/BustTheMyth

twitter - #BustTheMyth

Join the #ForwardOnClimate Rally on 2/17 @ Coalition Against Nukes 

Join the #ForwardOnClimate Rally @350.org

Join the #ForwardOnClimate Rally on 2/17 @Sierra Club

Alberta Oilsands: Researchers Doubt Damaged Land Can Be Restored To What It Was

In this file picture taken on October 23, 2009 An aerial view of an oil sands mine near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON

"It makes us angry because they will put some kind of plants back on the landscape, but it will not look the way it was and it will not have the same type of functions," said Suzanne Bayley, a University of Alberta biologist who has been studying the region for nearly two decades. "Thinking that wetlands, or in (the oilsands) case, those peatlands are going to go back to natural states, it's basically unlikely," said David Moreno-Mateos, a biologist at the University of California Berkeley who recently published an analysis of 621 restored wetlands around the world. "We don't know the right way to bring them back."

EDMONTON - In a small corner of the vast scrape the oilsands have left on northern Alberta, a small sampling of seeds is gradually warming up in the slow boreal spring.

Painstakingly hand-gathered last fall from sedges, grasses and shrubs at undisturbed marshes and bogs, the seeds were carefully strewn atop a former Syncrude tailings pond, now a crucial pilot project in wetland reclamation. If they sprout, much will rest on those slender shoots of water sedge, slough grass, marsh cinquefoil and bog birch.

There's the fate of a huge ecosytem being disrupted at an increasing pace. There're the millions of dollars companies have spent studying how to rebuild wetlands destroyed by oilsands mining. And there's the social licence of an industry that promises to restore land — in the words of one ad — to "where you'd never know there'd been a mine in the first place."

"The probability of success is extremely high," said Warren Zubot, a Syncrude senior engineer who's working on the Sandhills project, the rebuilt fen that is home to those scattered seeds.

"I'm very confident that we have the ability to create reclaimed wetlands," said Christine Daly, wetland reclamation director for Suncor, which has restored a marsh and is working on a fen project of its own.

But academic reseachers point out at least half the region's wetlands will be permanently lost. They say millions of tonnes of carbon will be released.

Stable ecosystems may take generations to develop and their final state is unpredictable, while hundreds of square kilometres of pristine bogs, marshes and fens are slated to be torn up at a pace that far outstrips reclamation...

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more > Alberta Oilsands: Researchers Doubt Damaged Land Can Be Restored To What It Was

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