[Oe List ...] 12/11/08 CNN "Planet in Peril" segment on La Oroya, Peru

[elliestock at aol.com]

Hi folks--
Just wanted to alert you to the 12/11/08 CNN "Planet in Peril" program hosted by Anderson Cooper and narrated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.  This program features a segment concerning La Oroya, Peru, a village in the Andes chronically contaminated by lead and other heavy metal pollutants from the Doe Run Peru smelter, owned by The Renco Group, Inc., which is owned by billionaire Ira Rennert, NYC.  97% of the children in Old Town La Oroya are severely lead poisoned and need medical attention.  The contamination affects the detrimentally affects the people, but the air, water, soil, vegetation, animals and aquatic life not only in La Oroya but also in the Mantaro River Valley, the breadbasket of Peru.  Blacksmith Institute has named it one of the ten most polluted places in the world. Our presbytery has a partnership with Peru (Joining Hands), and this has been a focus of the Environmental Task Force, which I chair and also a larger network Friends of La Oroyo which I coordinate.  The purpose of Joining Hands is to address hunger and poverty at the systemic level.  Doe Run Resources, a sister company of Doe Run Peru, also owned by Renco, owns the largest smelter in the USA. which is located in Herculaneum, MO (within our presbytery boundaries).  Over the last 10 years we have been getting information out about this situation.  The CNN program is another step.  Below is info about the program.  I hope you have the opportunity to view it a
nd to share this info with others.  Please email/phone re comments, questions, additional info, etc.  Will be sending a flyer about the info separately.

Ellie Stock
elliestock at aol.com 


FRIENDS OF LA OROYA INVITE YOU

 

Most scientists and environmental experts agree that indeed planet Earth is in peril.  On Thursday, December 11, 2008, 8:00 PM (Central)/ 9:00 PM (EST), CNN program “Planet in Peril”, hosted by Anderson Cooper and narrated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, will feature a segment on the lead and other heavy metal contamination by Doe Run Peru in La Oroya, Peru where 97% of the children are severely lead-poisoned; and the earth, air, water, vegetation, animals, and aquatic life are being destroyed. People interviewed include:  Fernando Serrano, St. Louis University School of Public Health, designer and coordinator of the first independent health/environmental study in La Oroya and the Mantaro River Valley; and Missouri residents Jack and Leslie Warden who blew the whistle on contamination in Herculaneum, MO, home of the largest lead smelter in the US, also owned by Doe Run Resources.  Both Doe Run Peru and Doe Run Resources are subsidiaries of The Renco Group, Inc., based in New York City and owned by billionaire philanthropist Ira Rennert.  In this new era of awareness of caring for the earth, this case study is symbolic of what is happening not only in mineral rich Peru but of what is happening across the world, to the detriment of all of its inhabitants.

 


On behalf of Earth, our only home, and La Oroya, you are invited:

 

1) to come to a public gathering, media dialogue, and viewing of the program to be held in St. Louis at St. Louis University December 11, 7:30PM, (place to be announced).  Bring a friend.  For more information please contact:  Elinor Stock, Coordinator, Friends of La Oroya, (314) 867-2881;

2) to host a group or join with others  to view this program and afterwards to discuss these issues;

            3) to distribute this email and attached flyer to those who might be interested
            4) to learn more about Friends of La Oroya and the movement to address this issue in order to bring
                 health and wholeness to La Oroya and the Mantaro River Valley (www.savelaoroya.org) 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20081121/be2f12c7/attachment.html>