We envision a society that stewards and equitably shares in the care of our planet’s ecosystems now and for future generations.
Our Areas of Focus
Water
Water was essential for life’s origin more than 3.7 billion years ago, and water has been essential for all life on this planet ever since. Water is part of what makes this planet uniquely suitable for life as we know it. As water cycles between the atmosphere, surface waters, and underground aquifers, inherent purification processes help to keep it clean and available for life to flourish.
Human activity over the last few centuries has created pollution at levels that exceed the planet’s built in mechanisms for water purification. As clean water is becoming less and less available and therefore more valuable in the dominant economy, water privatization for profit has become a threat to protecting water for the common good- as a public trust. In addition, global warming creates uncertainty about future water availability.
At W.A.T.E.R. we work to protect water resources from depletion by extraction and corporate privatization, to protect surface and groundwater from contamination by industrial activity, and to restore damaged watersheds.
Forestry
Beyond providing wood products, forests are vital for our environment. As a crucial part of the hydrological cycle, forests regulate the water cycle and transport moisture far into continental interiors, influencing rainfall patterns.
Forests also regulate local temperatures, providing shade and cooling effects.
Globally, forests draw down the highest amount of CO2 from the atmosphere, slowing global warming. Unfortunately, poor forest stewardship is undermining the carbon sequestration capacity of US forests. Ongoing forest degradation also impacts their ability to buffer floods, landslides and storms.
Forests release the oxygen we breathe, enrich and anchor the soil while also providing the habitat for over 80% of terrestrial life. They must be protected.
War, Peace and Corporate Power
Although W.A.T.E.R. is predominantly an environmental and environmental justice group, we recognize the interconnections of the environmental movement with many other social justice movements, particularly antiwar movements.
The current environmental crises that civilization faces are deeply rooted in the injustices of our current economic system. This connection works both ways: (a) environmental crises lead to wars, and (b) wars are themselves environmental crises. The present economic system is distinctly hierarchical, with a very rich and politically powerful elite dominating a relatively poor and even destitute majority. While the elites often benefit immensely from war, both from direct profits of arms manufacturing, and also from the geostrategic control of natural resources, war’s many innocent victims – mainly at the other end of the hierarchy - pay the price with their lives. Moreover, the fight to control resources threatens escalation to all-out nuclear war, which would dramatically destroy Earth’s ecosystems such that civilization as we know it could not survive.
We believe environmentalism in the 21st century cannot be honest or effective without addressing these economic and social justice issues. Thus W.A.T.E.R. has taken, and will continue to take, public stances in opposition to militarism, based on war’s environmental and social justice impacts.
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Our
mission statement
The primary objectives and purposes of this nonprofit organization shall be to:
Embed the climate crisis front and center in our work, given the urgent, existential threat it poses to humanity;
Advocate for the restoration and preservation of the biosphere to ensure a healthy environment, with a primary emphasis on advocating for the ecosystems of the regions encircling Mount Shasta and its watersheds, while recognizing the connections between surface, spring, and groundwater;
Advocate for and participate in long-range community planning and regenerative practices to promote healthy and sustainable communities;
Encourage community-wide participation and volunteerism through education and action;
Engage with government officials and agencies in advancing these issues with active participation, social activism and, if necessary, litigation that benefits public interests.
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