UPEC Livestreams return on Thursday November 9, 2023 at 6:00pm EST. We’re pleased to announce a new monthly email newsletter from UPEC and Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior (CSCLS), EnviroNews, where we’ll highlight some of the most important environmental issues for the UP and the Great Lakes.
Along with our informative articles, we’ll be hosting monthly livestreams to bring you updates from organizations working to protect our land and water. In addition to updates from UPEC, the Mining Action Group, and CSCLS, we’re pleased to host Haze Harrison and Joseph Mogul from the Talong mine campaign from Honor the Earth, Tom Anderson from the Tamarack Water Alliance, and Chris Baldwin, mining lawyer and former mining engineer.
Join Evan Zimmermann, UPEC and Jane Fitkin, CSCLS on Facebook or Zoom live on Thursday or catch up time on UPEC’s Facebook Live page. Stick around for questions and answers for all of our presenters, and keep up to date on the latest news on the UP environment every month.
Watch on Facebook Live
Join the conversation on Zoom:
Zoom Meeting ID: 822 2967 2245 Passcode: 2023
Our Guests:
Haze Harrison, Talon Communications Organizer
Haze, she/they, has been fighting extractive industry on Anishinaabe and Dakota lands since she moved to Minnesota in 2017. She is now working with Honor the Earth to resist destruction of the Great Lakes region by Talon Metals, Rio Tinto, and other mineral prospecting profiteers. As a descendant of white settlers on Turtle Island, she considers it her responsibility to develop a relationship with the land and water and to join in the fight to protect them for future generations.
Joseph Mogul, Talon Campaign Organizer
Joseph, he/him, is a recent Macalester college graduate and an organizer who currently resides in the Twin Cities (Dakota territory). He is an Anti-Zionist Jew and committed advocate for decolonial movements across the globe. He is a Twin-Cities based organizer at Honor the Earth and his current work revolves around opposing false climate solutions, including nickel-sulfide mines in Anishinaabe territory, while simultaneously working towards a transition based on repairing relationships with land and water.
Tom Anderson, The Tamarack Water Alliance
Tamarack Water Alliance is a group of local residents and landowners working together with others from across Minnesota to protect water and community health from the dangers of sulfide mining near beloved lakes and wild rice beds, at the headwaters of the Kettle River and the Mississippi River watershed.
A proposal by Talon Metals to mine nickel near Tamarack in Aitkin County threatens the health of our communities. This kind of sulfide mining, especially in water-rich environments, has never been done without severe impacts to water and to the health of those who live downstream. Mining here is also a threat to environmental justice and the long-term economic security of nearby native and rural communities.
Chris Baldwin, Mining Lawyer, Former Mining Engineer
As a mining engineer and graduate from the Colorado School of Mines, I dedicated my career to extracting minerals to support a modern society. Now my engineering and operating experience in 12 different open pit and underground salt, iron, uranium, and gold mines across the U.S. over the past 45 years, tells me Minnesotans should be deeply concerned about the long-term impacts for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) watershed if the sulfide-copper and nickel minerals of the geologic Duluth Complex of northern Minnesota are mined according to the proposed Twin Metals mine plan.