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GAIA wishes everyone a happy and safe end of 2011. It has been a year of remarkable struggles and successes in our collective efforts to challenge waste and pollution, and to promote healthy, sustainable solutions. We're pleased to share some of the most recent successes—including victories in Brazil and the United States, and zero waste events in Italy. We're also pleased to profile Alliance for a Clean Environment (ACE) in Western Australia, and share their recent victories.
By the Land Reseach and Action Network
In "Birthing Justice: Women Creating Economic and Social Alternatives," 12 women from movements around the world invite us into their lives, sharing their vision of what the world can and must become, and showing us what they and their community are doing to build that world. From Idla Martines de Souza organizing with the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, to Emem Okon building peace in middle of a resource war in Nigeria, to Juana Ferrer and Via Campesina turning towards food sovereignty to end gender violence, each of these women have important wisdom and vision to share with us all.
Two new stories out this week highlight the ways indigenous peoples are protecting their land from environmentally destructive mining and energy projects, while leading the way towards sustainable and renewable power. On October 21st, organizers in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala undertook a massive task: at 93 voting centers across the municipality, they consulted 98% of the adult residents about whether or not they supported mining, dams, and other destructive mega-projects in their communities. 
The United Nations voted Weds. to declare that access to water and sanitation is a fundamental human right. Forty countries abstained from voting, including the US, Canada, and most of Western Europe. This historic vote represents another barrier preventing companies and governments from treating water as a product that can be bought and sold, rather than a part of the commons, to which all humans have shared rights and responsibilities.
After years of struggle, protest, and advocacy, indigenous communities in Guatemala and their allies around the world have succeeded in closing the Marlin gold mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The mine, operated by the Canadian firm Goldcorp, has polluted rivers, destroyed sacred mountains, poisoned the people who live around it, and divided their communities. In response, the communities impacted by the mine protested, organized popular consultations to demonstrate their opposition to mining, and filed complaints with international agencies.
Many of the problems that face our planet seem overwhelming and unsolvable, until suddenly one day they aren't. Whether through community organizing, legislation, or scientific innovation, problems as pervasive as polio, child labor, or access to voting rights can go from being seen as unchangeable problems to a thing of the past from one generation to the next.
Over the last several months, attention has drifted away from the country of Honduras and the ongoing conflict there. The mainstream media and international officials have repeatedly insisted that democracy has been restored, that there is no need to speak of the brief interruption in the democratic process that Honduras experienced in 2009. But the people on the ground in Honduras know that this is not the case.