Property developers want to build a super-mall smack dab in the middle of one of America's most breath-taking world heritage sites, the Grand Canyon. The mall would include an IMAX, shops, hotels and fast food cafes. The National Park Service has called the plans 'a travesty'.
The ludicrous project is being proposed by property developers Confluence Partners as a way to make more money from the millions of people who want to see one of nature's greatest marvels.
We cannot let big business get away with monetizing our national parks! The company is already facing huge outrage over the plan from many sides. If thousands of SumOfUs members speak out about this monstrosity, it will be forced to back down.
Tell Confluence Partners to keep its hands off the Grand Canyon!
Besides destroying the beautiful, untouched landscape of the canyon, the plan tramples all over the rights of indigenous people. The site for the proposed development is called 'the Confluence' and is a sacred place for the Navajo. This is the place where their people first emerged; as told in their creation story.
But it's not just the Navajo whose sacred sites are being threatened by the development. The Hopi people and the Zuni tribes are also fighting for their spiritually significant sites.
Developers are hoping to start the building of the mega mall as early as the spring of 2017. Local activists are planning to put up a tough fight, and they need our support now.
SumOfUs was created in part to stop corporations from destroying our precious natural environment. We've been fighting hard to end the vast deforestation caused by unsustainable palm oil. Just last year we forced Kellogg's and palm oil producer Wilmar to change their rainforest destroying ways. Now we're called on to take the power of our movement to protect the Grand Canyon.
We need to speak out and show Confluence Partners that the public will stand up for Indigenous rights and stop one of the most horrendous shopping malls in the beautiful, unspoiled nature of the Grand Canyon! We simply cannot let it get away with this.
Sign the petition to Confluence Partners: We don't want a super mall in the Grand Canyon.
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More information:
Grand Canyon Development Plan Sparks Dispute Among Navajo, NBC News, 8 Februray 2015
Where 2 Rivers Meet, Visions for Grand Canyon Clash, New York Times, 3 December 2014
Grand Folly, Earth Island Journal, Spring 2015