capital blight

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 13, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Neither the TPP Nor National Sovereignty – By Elliot Sperber, CounterPunch, September 9, 2016; [related]: Leading Economists Oppose TPP Provision Giving Corporations Upper Hand in Investor-State Disputes – Lori Wallach interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!, September 8, 2016 | As White House Spotlights Conflict With Democratic Presidential and Congressional Candidates by Escalating Toward TPP Lame-Duck Vote, Sen. Warren and Hundreds of Academics Urge Rejection – By Jeffrey Sachs, et. al., Public Citizen, September 7, 2016 | Good News for the People of Europe: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Is Dead. Negotiations have Failed – By Peter Koenig, Global Research, September 7, 2016 | Obama’s TPP Would Widen the Divide –  By Manuel Pérez-Rocha, Institute for Policy Studies, September 1, 2016
• Humans have destroyed a tenth of Earth's wilderness in 25 years – By Adam Vaughan, The Guardian, September 8, 2016; [related]: The Sick Ocean – By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, September 8, 2016
• Our energy system has changed since 1913; why hasn’t this subsidy? – By Julia Raven, Oil Change International, September 7, 2016
• Frack, Rattle and Roll: Drilling into Oklahoma’s Earthquake Epidemic – By Joshua Frank, CounterPunch, September 6, 2016; [related]: ‘Preemption’ Is Major Obstacle Across the Country as Progressive Laws Like Fracking Bans Passed in Liberal Cities Are Immediately Crushed by Right-Wing State Legislatures –  By Abby Rapoport, The American Prospect, September 2, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• The Clean Power Plan: Justice Delayed — For Whom the Rule Tolls – Joel B. Stronberg, Renewable Energy World, September 9, 2016
• Fox News acknowledged climate change, then promptly took it back – By Katie Herzog, Grist, September 8, 2016
• 13 Academics Who Have Become Shills for Corporate Giants in the Food, Agrochemical and Fossil Fuel Industries – By Lorraine Chow, AlterNet, September 8, 2016
• The Truth Behind The Kochs’ New Fossil Fuel PR Campaign – By Jeremy Deaton, Think Progress, September 8, 2016
• To Fight Clean Power Plan, Fossil Fuel Companies Paid for Private Meetings with Republican State Prosecutors – By Ashley Braun, DeSmog Blog, September 7, 2016; [related]: Confidential Documents Show Fossil Fuel Industry Plotted With GOP AGs to Attack Clean Power Plan – By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, September 8, 2016 | Fossil Fuel Industry Paid for Meetings With GOP Attorneys General to Plan Attack on Clean Power Plan – By Nick Surgey, PR Watch, September 7, 2016 | Republican State AGs Met With Coal, Electricity Companies Before Filing Against The EPA’s Carbon Rule – By Samantha Page, Think Progress, September 7, 2016
• Hillary Clinton Is Raking In Fossil Fuel Money At An Alarming Rate – By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, September 7, 2016; [related]: Big Oil is backing Hillary Clinton – By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grist, September 7, 2016
• U.S. companies tout climate policies, fund climate skeptics – By Richard Valdmanis and Grant Smith, Reuters, September 6, 2016; [related]: New Reuters Exposé On Climate Change Denial Aims At Small Fry, Misses The Big One – By Tina Casey, Clean Technica, September 8, 2016 | Major corporations that claim to support climate action are funding politicians who oppose it – By Ben Adler, Grist, September 7, 2016 | U.S. Companies Publicly Support Climate Action, Privately Fund Deniers – By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, September 6, 2016
• Conservative media bias is inflating American climate denial and polarization – By Dana Nuccitelli, The Guardian, September 6, 2016; [related]: Who's Driving Climate Denial? Big Companies and Conservative Media – By Jax Jacobsen, EcoWatch, September 6, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 7, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• For-Profit Pipeline Company Claims "Public Benefit" in Seizing Private Lands in Pennsylvania - By Larry Buhl, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• If the U.S. is talking about abandoning NAFTA, then maybe we should too - By Gordon Laxer, Rabble.Ca, August 31, 2016
• Study assesses climate change vulnerability in urban America - By Milken Institute School of Public Health, Eureka Alert!, August 31, 2016
• The Billion Dollar Ultimatum - By Chris Hamby, BuzzFeed, August 30, 2016
• Major Insurers to G20 Nations: Stop Wasting Time, Phase-Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies by 2020 - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, August 30, 2016; [related]: Major Insurers With $1.2 Trillion In Assets Urge G20 Leaders To Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, August 30, 2016 | Insurance funds worth $1.2tn tell G20 to stop funding fossil fuels by 2020 - By Karl Mathiesen, Climate Change News, August 28, 2016
• Here’s Why Americans Are Mad as Hell at Wall Street and Washington - By Pam Martens and Russ Martens, Wall Street on Parade, August 12, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Fossil fuel subsidies are “the world’s dumbest policy” – so why won’t G20 leaders end them? - By Alex Doukas, Oil Change International, September 5, 2016
• The Dense web of financial interests - By Mike Spille, The Cost of the Pipeline, September 3, 2016
• Public Relations Firm Claims to Have Ghost Written Thousands of Op-Eds in Major U.S. Newspapers - By David Swanson, CounterPunch, September 2, 2016
• Climate Change Authority cops out – just when we need it most - By Christine Milne, REnew Economy, September 1, 2016
• Network Map of the Koch-Funded Fueling U.S. Forward Campaign - By Brendan DeMelle, Koch vs Clean, September 1, 2016
• Railroad Commission needs transformation, not reform - By Priscilla Villa, Houston Chronicle, September 1, 2016
• When Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts Thanked 9/11 Truthers and New World Order Conspiracists For Their Science Guidance - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, September 1, 2016
• Americans Now More Politically Polarized On Climate Change Than Ever Before, Analysis Finds - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• Canadian Taxpayers Fork Out $3.3 Billion Every Year to Super Profitable Oil Companies - By Kevin Grandia, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• Dutch Wind Power Proponents Face Opposition -  By John J. Berger, Renewable Energy World, August 31, 2016
• Lamar Smith to hold hearing over Exxon climate fight - By James Osborne, FuelFix, August 31, 2016
• Using Trump Playbook, Chamber Of Commerce Invents Absurd Fossil Fuel Claims - By Mary Ellen Kustin, Think Progress, August 31, 2016
• Colorado Senator Says Candidates Who Oppose Fossil Fuels ‘Unfit’ For Office - By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, August 29, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• "We shall not rest until we’ve freed all our political prisoners", affirms Via Campesina - By Iris Pacheco, La Via Campesina, August 30, 2016
• Texas Ranch Owner Battles TransCanada to Restore Her Pipeline-Scarred Land - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, August 28, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Landscapes of Dispossession: the National Park Service at 100 Years - By Nick Alexandrov, CounterPunch, September 3, 2016
• National Energy Board hearings into Energy East pipeline suspended - By Brent Patterson, Rabble.Ca, August 31, 2016
• [Video]: Trailer for COP21 Documentary ‘Not Without Us’ - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, August 31, 2016
• Conservation Efforts Are Still Violating Indigenous Rights - By Andrew E. Miller, Amazon Watch, August 30, 2016
• Governor Ayade’s contradictions on REDD in Cross River State, Nigeria - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, August 30, 2016
• India: The Parliament violates forest people’s rights and promotes further plantations - By staff, World Rainforest Movement, August 30, 2016
• Wildlife conservationists need to break out of their Stockholm syndrome - By Margi Prideaux, Open Democracy, August 29, 2016
• Delta tunnels fail financially - By Alex Breitler, Stockton Record, August 24, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Gulf Oil Leases Spark Outcry But Little Revenue - Anne Rolfes interviewed by Helen Palmer, Living on Earth, September 2, 2016
• Hurricane Katrina, Brought to You by Big Oil - By Anne Rolfes, Bridge the Gulf, September 2, 2016
• Public Cost of Fukushima Cleanup Tops $40 Billion and Is Expected to Climb - By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams, August 29, 2016

By Benjamin Israël, Kim Perrotta, Joe Vipond, Leigh Allard, and Vanessa Foran - Pembina Institute, September 2016

With the phase-out of coal power announced by the provincein November 2015, Albertans stand to avoid significant health impacts caused by coal pollution. By extension, afurtheraccelerated phase out of coal power facilities would both hastenand amplify those avoided health impacts.The health benefits and costs savings in avoided health outcomes would be significant, and should be consideredin the government’s planning of the coal phase-out from now to 2030.

While the provincial government has announced a coal phase-out, they have not yet released a transition schedule. This analysis assesses the relative benefits of an accelerated stepwise transition away from coal, as proposed by the Pembina Institute,versus the back-loaded phase-out that otheranalyses haveposited.

In 2012, when the federal government finalized its coal regulations that —in effect —reduce electricity generation from coal plants, Environment Canada(as it was called at that time)estimated considerable health impacts would be avoided, usinghighly regarded modelling techniques. Logically, thesesignificantbenefits from reducing coal necessarily mean that the use of coal for power generation causesconsiderablehealth impacts in the first place.

By extrapolating the health benefit results from Environment Canada’s analysis, this report highlights the full impact of coal-fired generation in Albertaand indicates attainable benefits associated with the province’s coal phase- out.When the federal government weakened its proposed coal regulations back in 2012 in response to lobbying from some coal generators, allowing coal plants to continue unabated longer than first proposed,it left health savings on the table. Alberta can now grasp these savings byaccelerating our transition away from coal-fired electricity.

Read the report (PDF).

By Rachel Morello-Frosch, Manuel Pastor, James Sadd, Lara Cushing, Madeline Wander, and Allen Zhu - California Environmental Justice Alliance, September 2016

California’s cap-and-trade program is a key strategy for achieving reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act. For residents living near large industrial facilities, AB32 offered the possibility that along with reductions in GHGs, emissions of other harmful pollutants would also be decreased in their neighborhoods. Carbon dioxide (CO₂), the primary GHG, indirectly impacts health by causing climate change but is not directly harmful to health in the communities where it is emitted. However, GHG emissions are usually accompanied by releases of other pollutants such as particulate matter (PM₁₀) and air toxics that can directly harm the health of nearby residents.

In this brief, we assess inequalities in the location of GHG-emitting facilities and in the amount of GHGs and PM₁₀ emitted by facilities regulated under cap-and-trade. We also provide a preliminary evaluation of changes in localized GHG emissions from large point sources since the advent of the program in 2013. To do this, we combined pollutant emissions data from California’s mandatory GHG and criteria pollutant reporting systems, data on neighborhood demographics from the American Community Survey, cumulative environmental health impacts from the California Environmental Protection Agency’s CalEnviroScreen tool, and information from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) about how regulated companies fulfilled their obligations under the first compliance period (2013-14) of the cap-and-trade program. Our methodology is described in greater detail in the appendix to this report.

In this analysis, we focus primarily on what are called “emitter covered emissions,” which correspond to localized, in-state emissions (derived mostly from fossil fuels) from industries that are subject to regulation under cap-and-trade. The cap-and-trade program also regulates out-of-state emissions associated with electricity imported into the state and, beginning in 2015, began regulating distributed emissions that result from the burning of fuels such as gasoline and natural gas in off-site locations (e.g., in the engines of vehicles and in homes).

We found that regulated GHG-emitting facilities are located in neighborhoods with higher proportions of residents of color and residents living in poverty. In addition, facilities that emit the highest levels of both GHGs and PM₁₀ are also more likely to be located in communities with higher proportions of residents of color and residents living in poverty. This suggests that the public health and environmental equity co-benefits of California’s cap-and-trade program could be enhanced if there were more emissions reductions among the larger emitting facilities that are located in disadvantaged communities. In terms of GHG emission trends, in-state emissions have increased on average for several industry sectors since the advent of the cap-and-trade program, with many high emitting companies using offset projects located outside of California to meet their compliance obligations. Enhanced data collection and availability can strengthen efforts to track future changes in GHG and co-pollutant emissions and inform decision making in ways that incentivize deeper in-state reductions in GHGs and better maximize public health benefits and environmental equity goals.

Read the report (PDF).

By Fred Magdoff - Monthly Review, September 2016

Two weeks ago I returned from my fiftieth class reunion at Oberlin College in Ohio. The brief discussions I had there with environmental faculty and students left me feeling a bit dazed. So many good and intelligent people, so concerned, and doing what they think and hope will help heal the environment—this college has one of the best environmental education programs in the country. However, I was left disappointed and profoundly discouraged by the lack of discussion—or even interest in having a real continuing discussion and debate—regarding the root causes of our environmental disasters. Not just climate change, but also pollution of the air, water, soil, and living organisms, the loss of biodiversity both aboveground and in the soil, the extinction of species, and the overuse and misuse of both renewable and nonrenewable natural resources.

It is as though there is a flat tire with perhaps a thousand holes and people are working on the best way to patch this hole or that one. No one there seems to consider that the problem might be the tire itself—that the design and materials utilized are not appropriate to the way it is being used. And, if that is the case, then no amount of patching can solve the flat tire problem. It is of the utmost importance to be able to distinguish between symptoms (that most people call “problems” or “crises”) and underlying causes.

I ran into this confusion between symptoms and underlying causes time and time again in agricultural science and farming practices. Soils may be prone to erosion, store little water, grow crops that are susceptible to diseases and insect attack, become compacted, or have low fertility. Farmers (and extension specialists), usually think of and deal with these as individual problems—using pesticide applications, lots of commercial fertilizers, irrigating more frequently, using heavier equipment, and so on. In fact, I spent a significant portion of my career as a soil scientist helping to deal with the negative side effects of one of these responses—excess fertilizer use, especially nitrogen and phosphorus.

(As an aside, as I was preparing this talk, an unbelievable thirty-five tons of nitrogen in the nitrate form, worth approximately $35,000, flowed down the Raccoon River past Des Moines, Iowa, on the way to the Mississippi and the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. This flushing of nitrate out of the soil by prolonged spring rains, partially the result of nitrate left over after last year’s drought [2012], was mainly a consequence of an ecologically damaging, but profitable, emphasis on growing corn and soybeans without an ecologically sound crop rotation.)

However, what I learned over time was that in reality these are symptoms of an unhealthy soil and a simplified approach to soil and crop management. The same is true of never-ending unemployment, inequality and poverty, the systemic necessity of perpetual growth, and pollution of air, water, soil, and organisms. As harmful as each of these is, they are all only symptoms—of an economic system that is essentially unmanaged. Of course large corporations and politicians that represent them try to manage national and international laws, regulations, and markets in such ways that it becomes easier for them to make more money. But with individual corporations and other private capital making decisions which consider only their own interests, the system as a whole alternates between periods of growth (that nowadays are pretty lackluster) and periods of recession. Addressing individual symptoms alone is not sufficient for the tasks we need to undertake—either to create healthy soils or to create an ecologically based and humane society.

One of the neglected issues regarding thinking and acting about the environment—perhaps the most critical of all—is, to borrow a phrase from the first President Bush, the vision thing. The environmental movement is lacking any kind of meaningful vision as to what a truly ecologically sound and socially just society would look like and how it might operate. I am not talking about a blueprint with all sorts of details, but rather an agreement on essential characteristics of such a system. Without a vision—including some conception of the essential parts of such a system, the chances of actually getting to such a society are essentially zero. Or, as James Baldwin put it in a commonly cited but still very appropriate passage, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” It is my contention that we are not facing the root cause of our problems, and until we do, there is no hope of solving the social and ecological problems confronting the world.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 31, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Fracking and health: What we know from Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom - By Sara G. Rasmussen, Brian S. Schwartz, and Joan A. Casey, The Conversation, August 25, 2016; [related]: New Fracking Study Pulls Rug Out From Under “Safe” Fracking - By Tina Casey, Clean Technica, August 26, 2016 | Health Dangers of Fracking Revealed in Johns Hopkins Study - By Wenonah Hauter, EcoWatch, August 25, 2016
• Scientists Confirm the Impacts of Climate Change Began Right After We Started Burning Fossil Fuels - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, August 24, 2016
• Arctic Death Rattle - By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, August 22, 2016
• Life Itself Is Being Patented, Privatized and Re-engineered - By Mark Karlin, Truthout, August 21, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Coordinator of UK Ocean Acidification Research Attacks The Spectator for 'Willfully Misleading' James Delingpole Column - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, August 26, 2016
• Donald Trump’s Energy Whisperers - By  Joe Wertz, Inside Energy, August 26, 2016
• The American Petroleum Institute’s Desperate PR is Failing - By David Turnbull, Oil Change International, August 24, 2016
• Hard to Handle: Trolling Denial vs Legitimate Skepticism - By Climate Denier Roundup, DeSmog Blog, August 24, 2016
• Revealed: Ex-FERC Commissioner’s Multiple Rulings Favored Energy Companies His Wife Lobbied For - By Itai Vardi, DeSmog Blog, August 22, 2016
• California University Sued for Failing to Release Public Records on GMOs and Pesticides - By staff, Sustainable Pulse, August 18, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Celebrating hard-fought coalfield victories is good, but learning long-term lessons would be better - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, August 26, 2016
• John Hewson pushes “trillion dollar” opportunity in “refined” coal - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 26, 2016
• The troubling evolution of corporate greenwashing - By Bruce Watson, The Guardian, August 20, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Nestle buys more groundwater as drought rages on in Southern Ontario - By Mark Calzavara, Rabble.Ca, August 23, 2016; [related]: Nestlé continues to extract water from Ontario town despite drought: activists - By staff, The Canadian Press, August 21, 2016

Other News:

• Humboldt County's Marijuana Boom Is Destroying Redwoods and Killing Rare Wildlife - By Todd Woody, EcoWatch, August 28, 2016
• The Troubling Disparities Plaguing America’s National Parks - By Jenny Rowland, Think Progress, August 22, 2016
• Kathleen Wynne tried to use First Nations to silence opposition to Hydro One sell-off. She failed - By Fred Hahn, Rabble.Ca, August 19, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 24, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• As Sirens Go Off, Richmond Residents Fear the Worst - By Isabella Zizi, Richmond Pulse, August 17, 2016
• Prepare for TPP’s Big Brother: The Trade In Services Agreement - By Paola Casale, Economy in Crisis, August 17, 2016
• Can a 'green growth' strategy solve climate change? - Samuel Alexander interviewed by Ian Sinclair, Open Democracy, August 16, 2016
• An Indiana City Is Poised To Become The Next Flint - By Alex Zielinski, Think Progress, August 15, 2016
• Political revolution can stop Trans-Pacific Partnership - By Larry Cohen, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, August 15, 2016
• We have almost certainly blown the 1.5-degree global warming target - By Andrew King and Benjamin J. Henley, The Conversation, August 15, 2016
• Free People from ‘Dictatorship’ of the 0.01% - By Vandana Shiva, Common Dreams, August 10, 2016
• As Coal Mining Declines, Community Mental Health Problems Linger - By Roberta Attanasio, The Conversation, August 1, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Ohio Residents Clash With State and County Government in Fight to Ban Fracking via the Ballot - By Simon Davis- Cohen, DeSmog Blog, August 20, 2016
• British Columbia’s cynical new climate plan proposes new fossil fuel subsidies and banks on climate catastrophe - By Alex Doukas, Oil Change International, August 19, 2016;  [related]: Christy Clark Hopes You’re Not Reading This - By Emma Gilchrist, DeSmog Canada, August 18, 2016
• Changing the Language of Renewable Energy, the Electric Monopoly’s Newest Ploy - By Nick Stumo- Langer, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, August 18, 2016
• Koch Brothers Waging War Against Local Effort to Expose Dark Money - By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, August 17, 2016
• Scott’s Undeclared Polluters’ Holiday Stains Florida - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, August 17, 2016
• The Steel Magnate Helping Trump Assail Pollution Regulations - By Marianne Lavelle, InsideClimate News, August 17, 2016
• Clinton Transition Team Headed by Anti-Climate 'Powerbroker' - By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams, August 16, 2016; [related]: Clinton’s Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold - By Norman Solomon, Common Dreams, August 22, 2016 | Why Did Clinton Just Tap a Pro-TPP, Pro-KXL, Pro-Fracking Politician to Head Her Transition Team? - David Sirota interviewed by Juan González and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, August 17, 2016 | Clinton’s Salazar Pick Undermines Her Climate Promises, Putting Fracking Industry Before People - By Molly Dorozenski, EcoWatch, August 16, 2016
• Feeling Cornered, Coal Industry Borrows From Tobacco Playbook, Activists Say - By John Schwartz, New York Times, August 16, 2016
• Instead of Supporting Trump, Here's What the Koch Brothers Are Doing With Their $750 Million - By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, August 16, 2016; [related]: DeSmog Reporter Interviewed on Thom Hartmann About New Koch-Funded Initiative, Fueling U.S Forward - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, August 18, 2016 |  As Renewables Soar, Oil Industry Launches New PR Offensive - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 16, 2016 | Koch bros want you to think fossil fuels are great for the whole family - By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 16, 2016
• Environmentalists split over Jay Faison and his push for “conservative clean energy” - By Ben Adler, Grist, August 15, 2016
• WEA lawsuit appears to blame BLM for low oil prices - By Chris Saeger, Western Values Project, August 12, 2016
• Why Bill Gates Is Hugely Misinformed About Renewables & Loves Impractical Nuclear - By Zachary Shahan, Clean Technica, August 11, 2016
• Ending Tax Dodging by Utilities Can Prompt Clean Energy Transition - By Janet Redman, The Real News Network, July 21, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• The spirit of Berta Cáceres: The power and playful defiance of Indigenous women at the World Social Forum - By Rachel Warden, Rabble.Ca, August 17, 2016
• Did federal agents spy on offshore oil lease protesters in New Orleans? - By Sue Sturgis, Facing South, August 11, 2016
• In Latin America, environmentalists are an endangered species - By Lindsay Fendt, Mongabay, August 11, 2016

By Michele Oberholtzer - Occupy.Com, August 18, 2016

This week, the emergency is officially over following the Flint Water Crisis. One year ago, the city of Flint, Mich., joined the ranks of Sandy Hook, Ferguson and other previously obscure cities that became a metaphor for man-made tragedy. In Flint the trauma came not at the barrel of a gun but through the faucet of a sink, as the infrastructure that was meant to provide life-sustaining water was made toxic through a negligent cost-cutting measure that altered water sources and treatment procedures. Flint entered a Federal State of Emergency to respond to the crisis, and that emergency expired this week.

First, the good news. Reports have showed significant improvements to water quality in a large number of Flint homes. State money amounting to $25 million and additional federal money is under consideration to address the temporary and long-term needs of residents, while charges have been brought against nine past and current state employees for their involvement in the crisis.

However satisfying one's reaction to this might be, the reality is that the water emergency in Flint continues. The ending of the state of emergency and the felony charges have a mollifying effect on the accumulated outrage, but no amount of federal appropriations or scape-goated employees can begin to address the root of the crimes that transgressed human rights in Flint.

Before considering the charges now being brought again Michigan employees, consider the true crimes of the Flint Water Crisis. First, there was the poisoning of the water itself, which involved switching from treated Detroit water to improperly treated water taken out of the industrial and highly polluted Flint River. Second, there was the failure of local and state governments to identify the problem or heed the immediate vocal outcries coming from residents and local businesses for over a year. Third, there was the capitalization of government that started with “emergency management” and ended with single-bottom-line decisions like the water conversion.

The charges brought against these individuals address a small aspect of issue number two: specifically, that government officials destroyed emails with incriminating evidence of lead level tests. Those emails revealed that the information about the low water quality was known and not acted on. According to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, “Each of these individuals attempted to bury … information that contradicted their own narrative… and their narrative was ‘there’s nothing wrong with Flint water.'”

There appears to be convincing evidence of a coordinated effort between Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) employees (those who received the lead reports) and Department of Environmental Quality employees (those who issued the lead reports) to delete emails that contained alarming and actionable data showing high levels of lead in the blood of Flint residents.

What reason could these people have for deleting emails that contained such alarming information? A person is not guilty of neglect unless s/he fails to act, yet these emails contained new and vital information that the recipients could have conceivably acted on and avoided any need for burying information. The destruction of the emails suggests that either the employees already considered that they had previously ignored information, or knew that they would be unable to correct the problem (since that would involve acknowledging the city's failed water system). Righting this kind of wrong would be terribly expensive, and the whole premise of Flint’s new water system was to cut costs. Delete.

As offensive as the willful neglect of these individuals has been, the fact is that the charges against those people refer to events that took place in July 2015, when the water crisis had already been ongoing for more than a year.

Conspicuously absent are charges against the engineers of the water switchover plan – including Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, the architect of Flint's subverted democracy, and Gov. Rick Snyder – not to mention the premise that these individuals represent government-as-business and profit-over-people. Those pillars will go unshaken regardless of whether a few middlemen take the heat. A recent report by the Water Advisory Task Force placed the responsibility for the crisis on the state (specifically the DHHS). Note: This task force was appointed by Gov. Snyder.

Michigan can lock up the guys who buried the dirt, but people should not be distracted from the individuals who created the mess in the first place. The cognitive leap here, for the Attorney General’s investigation, is not to necessarily uncover hidden actions but to consider the crimes that took place in broad daylight. The decision of Flint leadership to switch from Detroit to Flint water sources was a financial one, made under the guardianship of emergency management. (“Emergency” in this case refers to a financial emergency, not a human one, which only came later). In this crisis, it is clear that decisions to prioritize money over people were not incidental, but rather inherent in the emergency management process.

Much has been said about the destruction to the physical infrastructure of Flint in recent years. But just as important was the destruction to the political infrastructure that began deteriorating not when the water sources were switched, but when emergency management was declared. The checks and balances between government and constituents were dismantled across cities in Michigan, with a direct hierarchy that led all the way to the governor. While a total of nine former state employees spend time awaiting trial, the architects of democratic deconstruction rest easy. Meanwhile, the rest of Michigan dreams of a world where “emergency management” is only used for human crises, not financial ones – in which case it may be about time find an Emergency Governor.