<
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231204-native-americans-are-building-their-own-solar-farms>
'It was at Standing Rock, as he watched a fellow protester be cuffed and
manhandled into a police car, that Cody Two Bears, member of the Sioux tribe in
North Dakota, decided he would build a solar farm.
"I realised I didn't want to just talk about it, protest about it," he says,
reflecting on the months-long protests that took place in 2016, to prevent the
Dakota Access Pipeline from being built on sacred tribal land. "I wanted to be
about it."
At the time, Two Bears was on the tribal council of the Cannon Ball community
of Standing Rock. He was a key member in organising the pipeline protests,
which had hoped to prevent a 1,172 mile (1,886km) long underground pipe to
transport crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The pipeline was eventually
built despite multiple appeals to have the line shut down. However, a lawsuit
brought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was successful, requiring a complete
environmental review of the pipeline.
"I learned about the impacts of fossil fuels on communities like ours, who
don't really have a voice," says Two Bears. "And it seems these large
infrastructural projects always happen in places of low-status communities. And
one came to my back yard."
When Two Bears left politics in 2017, he formed Indigenized Energy – a
native-led energy company installing solar farms for tribal nations – free of
charge. Not only have tribes struggled to tap into the billions in renewable
energy incentives offered by the government, they've struggled to have access
to any electricity at all.'
Via
The Fixer December 13, 2023:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/silve-tsunami-worker-cooperatives-as-baby-boomers-retire/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
