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Citizens shouldn't be jailed for protecting their community from mining companies

Several Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) leaders, -- known as the KI Six, along with Ardoch Algonquin First Nation spokesperson Robert Lovelace -- were sentenced to six months in prison for peacefully asserting their rights. These leaders have been working to demonstrate their communities opposition to proposed platinum mining activities on traditional lands in Northern Ontario.

Tell the premier of Ontario to release the KI Six and Robert Lovelace.

Thanks to the thousands of you who sent letters in to their Representatives, on November 1, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act (HR 2262)!

This spring, the Senate Energy Committee is writing a mining reform bill of its own. If passed, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act will change the way that mining occurs on public lands and is a giant step toward bringing mining on public lands into the 21st century.

Urge your Senator to support REAL mining law reform.

Already, 29 leading jewelry retailers have signed on to the Golden Rules criteria for more responsible metals sourcing. Harry Winston, the jeweler to many Hollywood favorites such as Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie and Susan Sarandon, has yet to join the efforts of these companies.

We've tried to get Harry Winston on board through letters, phone calls and in-person meetings, but we need your help to nudge them in the right direction.

Tell Harry Winston to stop using dirty gold.

On February 17, 2009, TVs in 21 million American households could become obsolete due to a national transition of TV stations from analog to digital broadcast signals.

This planned obsolescence will mean that older TVs could be dumped into trash sites in Africa and Asia, resulting in more toxic wastes and public health risks from the beginning to the end of this product's life cycle.

While some companies are implementing responsible recycling programs for their old TVs, most companies are ignoring the problem.

Tell the CEOs of major electronics firms to take responsibility for their toxic TVs.

The federal government is proposing to let the world's largest multinational gold mining company, Canadian-based Barrick Gold, build a gold mine on the slopes of Mt. Tenabo in Nevada.

Mt. Tenabo has been sacred to the Western Shoshone Indians for countless years. The mountain is central to their religion and contains Western Shoshone gravesites.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is currently reviewing the proposal to build the Cortez Hills gold mine. If approved, the project would be one of the country's largest gold mines and operate on almost entirely public land.

Tell the BLM: Mines shouldn't trump community or environmental rights.

In 2000, a massive cyanide spill in the Romanian town of Baia Mare, polluted local rivers, contaminating the drinking water supplies of 2.5 million people and killing 1,200 tons of fish.

The Romanian community of Rosia Montana is now faced with a proposed gold mine that would involve building an unlined tailings pond filled with cyanide-tainted mine waste.

Places such as Montana, Costa Rica and the Czech Republic have enacted legislation banning cyanide in mining. Romania's legislatures are now voting on a bill to ban cyanide in mining.

Urge Romania's leaders to support communities' right to a toxic-free future.