Climate Point: 23 species go the way of the dodo. UN says lawyer who fought Chevron should be freed

USA TODAY: 23 species declared extinct. And this land is whose land?

Thursday, September 30

18. San Bernardino, California • Hike recommendation: Daley Canyon Trail in San Bernardino National Forest

23 species declared extinct. And this land is whose land?

As calls for reparations and conservation get louder, the stewardship of public lands is under renewed scrutiny

Bruce's Beach was the first West Coast resort for Black people but today is a part of Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Dean Musgrove/The Orange County Register via AP

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson from Palm Springs, California.

Land, who owns it and how we use it is on my mind this week, after I learned National Forest officials and a Southern California tribe are in discussions about the tribe reclaiming some of its ancestral territory.

Environmentalists who have fought to stop Nestle and its successor, BlueTriton, from bottling public water from the same forest are anxious. But one, a retired federal biologist, is hopeful a deal could actually restore a badly drained watershed and its endangered wildlife.

In late-breaking news, the U.N. Human Rights Council's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled a U.S. human rights attorney who battled Chevron and won $9.5 billion for its pollution of Indigenous Amazon lands in Ecuador should be freed and reparations should be paid him. More below.

Reparations movements like #landback are gaining steam across the U.S., often at the state and local level, and Indigenous practices can help restore returned lands. Even if they don't regain deeds, tribes often fight to protect sacred spaces. Hopi and Navajo officials on Tuesday demanded the Biden administration take "immediate action" to restore protections stripped under President Donald Trump in the Bears Ears National Monument.

Progress can be small, but meaningful. California's transportation department this week returned 172 acres to a coastal Mendocino tribe.

It's not just Native Americans who have had land taken from them, of course. California legislators earlier this month voted to approve the return of what is currently a lifeguard training facility in upscale, nearly all-white Manhattan Beach to the descendants of a Black couple who had their popular resort on the parcel taken from them decades ago.

Here are some other stories that may be of interest.

An ivory-billed woodpecker specimen is on a display at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Friday, Sept. 24, 2021.

Haven Daley, AP

MUST-READ STORIES

Gone forever. The Ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 other species have been declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It's rare for wildlife officials to give up hope, but government scientists say they've exhausted efforts to find these. They warn climate change, on top of other human pressures, could make extinctions more common. Scientists say flora and fauna are now disappearing at 1,000 times the historical rate.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was perhaps the best known of the 23 species, writes Matthew Brown with Associated Press. "It went out stubbornly and with fanfare, making unconfirmed appearances in recent decades that ignited a frenzy of ultimately fruitless searches in the swamps of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida," he noted.

Arbitrary. UN human rights officials are criticizing the two-year home detention of human rights attorney Steven Donziger, who won a $9.5 billion pollution judgment against Chevron on behalf of Amazon Indigenous groups. Enforcement of that ruling was blocked by a U.S. judge, who said the Ecuadorian judgment had been secured through bribery, fraud and extortion.

Donzinger later was found guilty of criminal contempt, and he's been under house arrest for more than 700 days. The UN group's unanimous decision called Donziger's two-year home detention for a misdemeanor "arbitrary" and said it violated multiple provisions of international law. The decision calls the U.S. judges' actions "a staggering display of lack of objectivity and impartiality." Whether the international findings will have any impact remains to be seen; Donzinger is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on Friday and has asked for time served.

Silent. Powerful New York Democrats on Capitol Hill who have family working for Chevron or who received contributions from them stayed mum on the charges against Donziger, their constituent, in his protracted legal battle with the oil company. Andrew Fishman with Intercept reports.

Electrifying. Ford Motor Co. and a partner will spend $11 billion on electric vehicles and battery storage — the single biggest investment in the automaker's 118-year history, reports Phoebe Wall Howard with the Detroit Free Press. The plan for new lithium ion factories and other facilities could create 11,000 jobs, and aligns with calls by President Joe Biden to bolster the domestic supply chain to avoid crippling shortages like the current one of semiconductor chips, per CNBC's Michael Wayland.

Greta Thunberg dismissed the promises of world leaders to address climate change as "blah, blah, blah."

SKY MICO

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Blah blah. Greta Thunberg, the forthright young Swedish activist, and other youth leaders laced into world leaders this week for failing for decades to meet their own pledges to halt disastrous climate change. Speaking at a youth climate summit in Milan, Thunberg said, "Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises. ... They have now had 30 years of blah, blah blah ." Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate, 24, wept after describing the toll of fiercer storms on Africa, which has the lowest emissions yet suffers major impacts.

Cattle call. Millions of acres of public land leased for private grazing should be counted toward the Biden administration's "30 X 30" conservation goals, say top Interior and Agriculture Department officials. The officials this week told grazing advocates that the goal of conserving 30% of the nation's lands and waters by 2030 should include them, though ranchers might need to improve conservation practices. But a Western watersheds advocate tells E&E News' Jennifer Yachnin it's wrong to count them, and federal officials "have no idea" how grazing has impacted the health of the lands.

Separately, a new report found 40 million acres of public land have been overgrazed.

Blowout. Lawmakers urged the European Commission on Tuesday to adopt binding measures to slash methane emissions by 2030. They also want mandatory monitoring, reporting and verification for all methane emitting sectors, and mandatory leak detection and repair programs covering the full supply chain. Kira Taylor reports for Euractiv.

Sprinklers run in July 2013, keeping the lawns green in a neighborhood in Rancho Mirage.

Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

Not hardly. Despite a drought, Californians reduced their water use a paltry 1.8% in July, a far cry from Gov. Gavin Newsom's call for 15% savings. Major cities like Los Angeles and San Diego actually increased consumption, per Ian James with the Los Angeles Times. Desert communities like Palm Springs are among the state's top guzzlers, with residents and golfers alike reluctant to forgo emerald greens, and fall "lawn scalping" underway, as I report for The Desert Sun. Want to know how your city's doing? Check out Paul Roger's data chart for San Jose Mercury News.

Foul waters. An unknown orange substance began spilling from U.S. Steel's northwest Indiana plant Sunday night and flowed into Lake Michigan, forcing Indiana Dunes National Park to close its beaches. The spill comes less than a month after the company signed a consent decree and agreed to pay hefty fines for past major hazardous spills, reports Sarah Bowman with the Indianapolis Star.

Re-use. Could LA water recycling be a miracle for parched West?

Settled. Bitter dispute ends as California water agencies pledge cooperation on Colorado River.

Huge plumes of smoke generated by the Caldor Fire are seen from Kirkwood, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021.

Jae C. Hong, AP

HOT TAKES

Smoking. Western wildfire smoke is choking vast swaths of the country, per an analysis of satellite imagery by California public radio stations and Stanford University.

Danger ahead. Climate "freight train" makes many places too dangerous to live.

Wired. An ecologist explores how wildlife is harmed — or helped — by fencing.

Mist gathers in the valley below Skinner Mountain WMA in Fentress County Tennessee. The region shelters a diverse array of wildlife habitat, from deep caves to babbling mountain streams.

David Johnston/ The Conservation Fund

AND ANOTHER THING

Saved. Skinner Mountain, a biodiversity hotspot on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau, has been bought for conservation purposes, thwarting development and other threats. The mountain rises from the plateau near the headwaters of the Obey River, its sides flanked with white oak and yellow poplar, and its crown topped with shortleaf pine. Tiny golden-crowned kinglets and dramatic cerulean warblers nest in the trees. Deep below the surface, at least 50 caves bubble through the limestone bedrock, writes Knoxville News Sentinel's Vincent Gabriel. Some contain ancient petroglyphs, others are home to rare bat species. The mountain and surrounding terrain are "a gem of biodiversity."

That's all for this week. Hope you land well wherever you are, and for more climate, energy and environment news, follow me @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.