Save our planet – Our Water, Our Future – No to Nestlé

Dear Readers,

If you’ve been following The Story of Stuff Project this last year, you probably know that it’s high time Nestlé changes how it does business. All around the world, Nestlé has been a leader in the effort to privatize our public water, and sell it back to us in little plastic bottles. But more brave communities are starting to fight back. One group in Cascade Locks, Oregon is doing something truly historic, and we need your help to spread their story.

The more people who learn about this campaign against Nestlé, the harder it will be to ignore. Nestlé puts millions of dollars each year into advertising, trying to convince people around the world that bottled water is good for people and our planet. Upon discovering that The Story of Stuff Project planned to release a new film about Cascade Locks, Nestlé even tried to preempt us by releasing a misleading video of their own. But we know the truth: a sustainable society and a healthy planet requires protecting water as a public right, NOT as a source for corporate profits!

We may not have Nestlé’s financial resources, but our community of a million supporters worldwide is a force to be reckoned with. With your help, we can spread this story even farther than Nestlé’s advertising dollars.

Will you help us share this story with your friends and neighbors?

https://www.facebook.com/storyofstuff/videos/10154741725385884/

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We’ve already gotten Nestlé’s attention; now we need to keep up the pressure. Nestlé thinks it can continue expanding its water bottling operations indefinitely, until public springs run dry and our oceans fill with plastic. We need to let Nestlé and communities know that a better alternative exists.

We’re standing with the people in Cascade Locks as they defend their community against the influence of Nestlé and other bottling corporations. Our demands are simple: we want clean public water for everyone, and we want Nestlé to stop bottling in communities like this one, where citizens are protesting the privatization of their resources. This Story belongs to everyone, and you can help write the ending. By sharing our new video, you can help us increase public pressure on Nestlé AND connect with more communities making a difference.

When enough people act together, we can change the way corporations do business – for the better. To challenge global giant Nestlé, we need your help growing this movement, from coast to coast and country to country.

Will you help spread the word by sharing the story of these brave changemakers’ campaign to defend their public water from Nestlé on Facebook?

Thank you for all you do!
Emma Cape, on behalf of The Story of Stuff team

Warhead ransom

Click the words above “Warhead Ransom” to see this entire post

President Mora, we have your warhead.

If you wish to recover your device, you must do exactly as we say.

Any deviation from these instructions will result in your warhead being delivered to the Plasteekans.

Deliver 100 billion pieces of free-floating pelagic plastic to each of the following:

Diddams

The Container Store

Nestle

China

For those of you unclear on the danger imposed by this potentially devastating discovery made on Limantour Beach this morning at 0740 hours 12 March, 2016 at location 38.02522 N 122.88107 W datum = WGS84

Watch this

Or have a read here to learn about the green sturgeon tagging project.

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As always, click on an image to see a larger version

Visit this link to learn about this amazing tag technology.
Honestly, I think I am letting these guys off easy at 100 billion x 4 pieces of pelagic plastic!

Mysterious discovery on Limantour Beach... ©Richard James - coastodian.org

Mysterious discovery on Limantour Beach… ©Richard James – coastodian.org


Datum = WGS84 on above lat/lon

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NOTE: the following two images show a white sturgeon, NOT a green sturgeon which is the subject of the study that this tag I found is part of.

This is the only sturgeon I have ever seen, hence the only sturgeon images I have. Though I still thought they were cool enough to share.

©Richard James

©Richard James

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©Richard James

©Richard James

Save our planet – Ho ho ho, Nestlé’s got to go!

Here is another post from the people at “The story of stuff”. They are doing a great job and I want to share this with all of you.

Please have a read then take action!

 

This is an exciting time for The Story of Stuff Project. Last year, after nearly half a million people worldwide signed our petition calling on Nestlé to stop privatizing public water, we knew it was time to turn this Community’s passion into action. Since then we’ve seen these efforts pay off in a big way.

Thanks to support from Story of Stuff Community members like you, we made a film and filed a lawsuit to stop Nestlé from illegally pumping water from California’s drought-scarred San Bernardino National Forest. In doing so we grabbed worldwide news headlines and the attention of Nestlé Waters’ CEO Tim Brown, who reached out to our Campaigns Director to request a meeting.

In the weeks after we launched our campaign in San Bernardino, we heard from communities across North America that are fighting their own battles against Nestle’s water privatization agenda. From California, Oregon, Maine and Pennsylvania to British Colombia and Ontario, one thing has become crystal clear: these brave folks on the front lines of efforts to protect our public water need our support to hold Nestlé accountable.

Will you help us make a movie about the communities worldwide fighting Nestlé, so that their stories go viral until Nestle cleans up its act?

By talking to concerned citizens all over the world, we’ve learned a lot about how Nestlé operates. The company has interfered with local politics, aggressively tried to elect Nestlé friendly officials to change zoning laws, and even attempted to bribe townships with “community development funds” and donations of…yup, bottled water!

But while the communities fighting Nestlé on the ground are all too familiar with these tactics, there is a world full of Nestlé consumers who are unaware they’re supporting these bad practices. By telling this story, we can bring unprecedented visibility to these local struggles, and harness the power of public opinion — and our Community — to curb Nestlé’s unethical business practices.

We’ve already been in touch with two communities whose stories we think are worth telling:

Story 1: In Cascade Locks, Oregon, Nestlé has proposed to bottle over 100 million gallons of water per year from Oxbow Springs, a publicly owned water source in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Local activists and tribespeople have united together to defend this water, on which the region’s fishing, tourism and farming industries rely. These activists not only want to stop Nestlé from drawing water in the Columbia River Basin for bottling and sale, but to pass a law to stop all future water exports from their beautiful state, creating an example for people worldwide.

Story 2: In Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, dozens of local residents are fighting Nestlé’s attempt to draw hundreds of thousands of gallons of water daily from a well in the town for its Deer Park bottled water brand, a proposal they fear will permanently alter the quality of life. According to these residents, zoning laws have been changed to accommodate Nestlé without the proper degree of public oversight or comment. These residents want to defend their democracy against Nestlé’s interference, and we want to help.

Community members are excited to work with us on this project: “I’m thrilled that The Story of Stuff Project wants to make a film about our experience in Oregon,” says Aurora with the Local Water Alliance in Oregon, “The increased exposure from the film can help us win against Nestlé, and I hope that we can in turn show communities around the world how they can defend their local resources.”

Will you chip in to help give larger visibility to the communities fighting Nestlé, so that our movies result in real change in these communities and worldwide?

Thanks to the support of our Community members, we’ve accomplished great things this year. We’ve made two new movies that have inspired Changemakers to action. We’ve banned polluting plastic microbeads in California, and our national legislation is on the way to winning. We’ve also made real strides in holding Nestlé accountable for bottling water in National Forests during California’s drought, by launching a lawsuit with our partners from Courage Campaign and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Now with your help, we can make the holidays in the communities fighting Nestlé a little brighter by showing them that people around the world care about their story. With our support they can win in the fight to protect their public water against Nestlé, and inspire more people to get involved worldwide.

Whether it’s protecting watersheds in the drought stricken North American West, or working to protect small towns from corporate meddling, we’re building power and solidarity so that all communities fighting Nestlé’s water grab speak with one voice against corporate greed. By telling these important stories, we can create a movement like no other.

Are you in?

Yes, I’ll pledge $10

Yes, I’ll pledge $25

Yes, I’ll pledge $50

Yes, I’ll pledge $100

Yes, I will pledge another amount

Thank you for all you do!
Michael O’Heaney
Executive Director
The Story of Stuff Project

Save our planet – Nestle pays next to nothing to take your water and make millions!

Click on the words above “Save our planet – Nestle pays next to nothing to take your water and make millions!” to see this entire post.

In the midst of California’s historic drought, Nestle Waters—the largest bottler of water in the world—is drawing millions of gallons of water a year from the San Bernardino National Forest. Nestle’s permit to remove this precious resource expired in 1988, at which point the Forest Service should have turned off the spigot.

In this four-minute documentary, experts and activists explain the impact Nestle’s operation is having on the forest and demand that the company and our government ensure this shared public resource is protected for future generations.

Visit the folks at The story of stuff, who made this video here

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Nestlé’s permit to transport water through a pipeline across southern California’s San Bernardino National Forest expired in 1988. But the U.S. Forest Service, which is charged with ensuring public land resources are well managed, has bowed to pressure from Nestlé to allow the corporation to continue pumping water.

Every year, Nestlé has paid $524 to the Forest Service to operate its pipeline, nowhere near what the water it removes is worth. Nestlé then turns around and sells that water back to Californians and others in plastic bottles, making millions in the process.

And while California residents and businesses have significantly reduced their water use to combat the drought, Nestlé has refused to do its part. In fact, when asked if Nestlé Waters would consider stopping its bottling operations in California, CEO Tim Brown told KPCC public radio, “Absolutely not…In fact, if I could increase it, I would.”

Nestlé is feeling the pressure from the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who’ve spoken out through petitions and other actions. Now it’s time to up the stakes, and send a message to Nestlé’s corporate headquarters. That’s why we’ve filed suit: to force the Forest Service to stop Nestlé’s illegal operation and undertake a full review of its permit once and for all.

Save our planet – say no to Nestle privatizing our water

This came to me recently and is important enough to share with you all.

Please take action and sign this petition.

Don’t let a private company take control of the world’s water.

Nestlé is locking up local sources of water around the world, pumping them dry to get rich at locals’ expense.

Across the globe, Nestlé is pushing to privatize and control public water resources.
Nestlé’s Chairman of the Board, Peter Brabeck, has explained his philosophy with “The one opinion, which I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution.”

Since that quote has gotten widespread attention, Brabeck has backtracked, but his company has not. Nestlé is bullying communities around the world into giving up control of their water. It’s time we took a stand for public water sources.

Tell Nestlé that we have a right to water. Stop locking up our resources!

At the World Water Forum in 2000, Nestlé successfully lobbied to stop water from being declared a universal right — declaring open hunting season on our local water resources by the multinational corporations looking to control them. For Nestlé, this means billions of dollars in profits. For us, it means paying up to 2,000 percent more for drinking water because it comes from a plastic bottle.

Now, in countries around the world, Nestlé is promoting bottled water as a status symbol. As it pumps out fresh water at high volume, water tables lower and local wells become degraded. Safe water becomes a privilege only affordable for the wealthy.

In our story, clean water is a resource that should be available to all. It should be something we look after for the public good, to keep safe for generations, not something we pump out by billions of gallons to fuel short-term private profits. Nestlé thinks our opinion is “extreme”, but we have to make a stand for public resources. Please join us today in telling Nestlé that it’s not “extreme” to treat water like a public right.

Tell Nestlé to start treating water like a public right, not a source for private profits!
Thanks for all you do!

Emma Cape, Campaigns Manager, on behalf of The Story of Stuff team

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Sources and further reading:
Nestlé: The Global Search for Liquid Gold, Urban Times, June 11th, 2013
Bottled Water Costs 2000 Times As Much As Tap Water, Business Insider, July 12th, 2013