GreenWatch- Annie Leonard Comes to Buffalo

March 12, 2014 

http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2014/03/12/greenwatch-annie-leonard-comes-to-buffalo/

GreenWatch, The Story of Change

On Tuesday night, March 11, 2014 Annie Leonard presented the keynote speech at a program sponsored by theUB Sustainability Academy.  

She is best known for her Story of Stuff series of online viral videos, campaigns, and projects (The Story of Stuff, The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Cosmetics, the Story of Electronics, and the Story of Change.

This night focused on her newest campaign- The Story of Change.  “Everyone knows and everyone cares about our problems,” she said. “This is not enough”. “We are always being told  -here are 10 or 50 ways to save the world -recycle, change the light bulb, take shorter showers, don’t use bottled water, drive less, buy Fair Trade, have reusable shopping bags, eat less meat” -these are all important and critical things that individuals can do. “The sad truth is”, she said,  “that if everyone one on earth did everyone of these things, it would not be nearly enough to stave off what is coming.” 

What is coming of course is characterized by the onrushing train of climate change and the dramatic alteration and wholesale elimination of the worlds ecosystems, and biodiversity, the physics and biology that sustains life including human life. Catastrophic collapse and social dystopia may be on the way:  Guy McPherson/http://vimeo.com/76238541

“Making better and informed choices are always important”, she said, “but there are barriers to real change that we are not addressing.”  She says that the reliance on “consumer muscle” to promote better freemarket practices is a false model because products are driven by what she calls “non-informational obstacles” such as bad business practices which limit real choice.  She told the crowd that while it is important to know and care about the world’s problems that are exposed in her videos and activism work, it is also critical and possible to take larger social actions to address systematic solutions.  In her video, “The Story of Change” she uses the example of Gandhi- “Be the Change is a great way to start” she says in the video. But it is a terrible place to stop.”  After all would we have ever known who Gandhi was if he just made his own clothes and then sat back waited for the British to leave India?

“One of the main barriers” she says, “is that we have forgotten how to be citizens.  Our basic understanding of how to make change has vanished. We have lost our civics lessons, lost our way to engage in democracy.”  It could be argued that we have been deliberately been forced away from participation.  How?- “the corporate influence in politics and media.” She says. She is of course talking about “Dark Money “and all of that. 

See: Bill Moyers/Dark Money and Politics 

From The Story of Change: “Its not enough to nag people into making change, we have to change the rules of the game.  Why don’t we put safe products, happy people and a healthy planet first?”  “Trying to live eco perfect in today’s economy is trying to swim upstream, and the current is pushing us the other way.”  “Changing our economic priorities is a way of changing that current.”

“Why don’t we just stop making things that are poisonous?” she asked the UB gathering. “Our systems promote this. Change is not easy.”” Leonard said.

Do you know that the European Union has banned a total of over 10,000 toxic substances? The USA has banned only 11!

GreenWatch Readers may remember that Artvoice published a special GreenWatch essay, A Sepulcher of Profit in 2011 which described the complete submersion of the planet and of the human species in a for-profit produced toxic soup.  Sources include industry, food, containers, packaging, cosmetics, and virtually every product created for consumption. That essay described how 1 in 3 children born in the USA today are born sick, often with lifelong consequences. One out of two Americans can expect to have cancer, probably as a result of human made poisons. 

Leonard’s “The Story of Stuff helps to tell a part of that story.  Last night she told the UB crowd-  “Tested umbilical blood from newborns reveal over 150 human produced toxins.” Other studies have indicated that as many as 800 human made chemicals are found in newborn bodies.

Leonard is adamant that there are ways to solve problems. Besides the direct actions that she says that we must engage in, she said that she is excited to know that there are important strides in how we make and use stuff.  She talked about a new movement in chemistry called “Green Chemistry” in which a new breed of scientists that are rethinking how we make things and how we can use nature to model safe, durable, and cost-effective, non waste producing products.  She also spoke briefly about  “biomimicry” which was popularized by Janine Beynus in her book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. 

Biomimicry is a growing science that explores how human products and systems can be made more sustainable by an “imitation of nature”.  In an interview last year Janine told me that “nature is both genius and generous.   3.5 billion years of R&D has created a life support system that we need to and can imitate.  Humans have spent just a short period of time destroying what nature knows. “ A review that I wrote of her presentation at the BALLE Conference held last summer in Buffalo and links to her work can be found here: “From Me to We”

 Leonard told us that “Systematic changes and challenges to the way we do business and live on this planet are not easy. Discussions and choices can be challenging. I get criticized a lot -but it is so important to engage in these discussion and arguments so that we can find solutions and common ground. It is important to argue and discuss so that we can engage ourselves in finding and fighting for solutions and overcoming institutional barriers.”

“We have plenty of support.  We have to find ways to make change happen. Young people and students have always been in the forefront of change. Today we have a large majority of Americans that are opposed to corporate influence and that are aware of the institutional systems that are obstacles. Did you know that less than 25% of Americans were behind Martin Luther King and Civil Rights, women’s rights, and virtually all other justice and rights movements throughout our history?

Today polls show that 85% want corporations out of government

74% want tough toxic chemical laws

83% want clean energy laws.”

 Leonard concluded by saying “You can be part of that change!”

“We need investigators, communicators, builders, resisters, nurturers, and networkers.  Be the Change.“

To borrow from Guy McPherson, linked on this page- “It’s time to act like our lives matter”

Click Here: Annie Leonard on the Colbert Report 

Earth Day 2014- A GreenWatch Report April 22, 2014

http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2014/04/22/earth-day-2014-a-greenwatch-report/

by Jay Burney

Today is Earth Day 2014. Happy Earth Day.

Just FYI- the International Coalition that promotes Earth Day has decided that this year is the year of theGreen City.  http://www.earthday.org/greencities/earth-day-2014/

Earth Day began in earnest in April of 1970 when thousands of events, then called “teach-ins” were held across the USA. I was a junior in High School and I remember talking to students about Rachael Carson and about the dangers of smoking tobacco.  One of the biggest first year Earth Day events was held in Fairmont Park in Philadelphia and was hosted by well known anti-war and ecological activist Ira Einhorn.  Speakers at that event included Maine Senator Edmund Muskie, Ralph Nader, and Allen Ginsberg.   Einhorns activism had focused environmental issues but he was better known for his view on Vietnam and the cold war. Among other things his work helped to expose the US governments experiments in psychotronics also known as parapsychology which was a big deal at the time.  Einhorns story did not end well. In 1977 he is said to have murdered his girlfriend Holly Maddox, put her body in a steamer trunk inside his apartment, and fled to Europe.  He became known as “The Unicorn Killer”.  The media carried the message that he had “composted” the body. In 1997 he was captured, and extradited to the US. He was represented by soon to be United States Senator, the iconoclastic republican, Arlen Spector.  Einhorn claimed that he was innocent, set up by his enemies including the CIA.  Not a totally unreasonable or unfathomable defense. His trial was held in 2002, the jury deliberated for two hours and he was convicted of the murder. Today he is serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania State Correctional facility.

Most of the world has forgotten the Ira Einhorn story. Most of the world recognizes Gaylord Nelson, the one time United States Senator from Wisconsin as the founder of Earth Day.  He was a consumer rights advocate, opposed the Vietnam war, supported civil rights, and a substantial conservation activist. H was instrumental in organizing and publicizing events that helped to establish Earth Day and the concerns for the environment as a national obsession.

By 1990 Earth Day issues had changed focus. Corporate messaging including an investment in Earth Day marketing by Hewlett-Packard, a substantial industrial polluter.  The Earth Day concept began to change away from a grass-roots ecological movement and toward corporate marketing strategies. Advertising and marketing around Earth Day became a toxic by-product of events and awareness and included group focus testing and the evolution of “green” marketing strategies that in reality have done little to change the way we make and distribute toxic products and their ultimate impact on the environment.  Green marketing has helped build wealth however. The greenwashing message works with consumers.

This is not all bad of course because there have been some businesses and business concepts that have become more friendly to the environment, because of the kind of awareness that has been stimulated by Earth Day awareness. Not enough though.  Too little too late.

Which brings me to the topic of cynicism.  It is easy to be a cynic. Especially on Earth Day. Many people that understand science say that humanity is facing extinction and that this could happen sooner rather than later. Issues such as anthropomorphic climate change are bringing it on with threats to the food supply, peace, and prosperity. Is there any hope?  It is easy to be a cynic.

A couple of baseline assumptions- Both nature and society are about change. Society tends to change slowly, and nature tends to change quickly.

We have been extraordinarily aware of the devastation of the environment by society since at least 1970. In these early years of Earth Day awareness our society was able to move quickly to address some of the issues. On a national level we created the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the Endangered Species Act, and a wide variety of federal, state and local regulations and rules that attempted to control if not completely reduce societies impacts on the environment. This had everything to do with personal and individual investment in ideas, ideals, and strategies to both improve and save our own lives and political activism.  By 1990, with the impact of corporate marketing, this personal investment and activism began to reverse. Greenwashing gave us a sense that everything was all right, we just had to buy the right products and continue to support the economy. The economy has continued to grow substantially. Unfortunately and somewhat hidden is the fact that  “the economy” continues to measure growth by treating environment as an externality.  The growth of the economy has included the unmitigated growth of environmental destruction. In other words the costs to the environment remain external to the profits, and these cost are not borne directly by the profit-takers but are substantially borne by the majority of people on the earth in terms of disparity.  This is the 1% v. the 99% argument that almost survived the Occupy Wall Street movement of a few years back.

In January of this year, Oxfam International published a report “Working for the Few-Political Capture and Economic Inequality” in which they stated that 85 individuals control as much wealth as half of the people on the planet. It also says that in the US, the wealthiest 1% captured 95% of the post financial crisis while the bottom 90% have become poorer. 

http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-working-for-few-political-capture-economic-inequality-200114-summ-en.pdf

-The Guardian January 20, 2014: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/20/oxfam-85-richest-people-half-of-the-world

This inequality has created to cynicism, despair and hopelessness. This has all led to a substantial lack of progress on issues central to Earth Day.

Is there any hope?  Here I relinquish my cynicism.  There remain substantial movements locally and nationally to improve our conditions. Its hard to say if more people are thinking about the environment but we have an increasing awareness of climate change and its consequences so this is hopeful. You may disagree but here are some issue we can act on.

Problem:  One of the biggest issues facing our region is the rapid decline of the water quality and the ecological conditions of Lake Erie.  This will quickly evolve and will impact every facet of life in WNY including our economic development capacity. Early this year the International Joint Commission, (IJC) the international organization that services the Boundary Waters Treaty between the US and Canada, issued a report that stated that the quality of water in Lake Erie is in rapid decline and that the Lake should be immediately declared “impaired” which would trigger a series of regulations focused on agricultural practices and urban sewers systems among other things.

We wrote about that here: http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2014/03/01/introduction-to-greenwatch-and-huge-lake-erie-news/

Besides increased toxics contamination including phosphorous which was the focus of the IJC report- last year a study found that plastics pollution in Lake Erie was as severe as in any waterbody on the planet. Concentrations in Lake Erie exceed what is found in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Great Lakes Echo- Toxic Chemicals turn up in Great Lakes Plastic pollution 4/09/13 http://greatlakesecho.org/2013/04/09/toxic-chemicals-turn-up-in-great-lakes-plastic/

Solutions: In March of this year a group called the Council of Canadians www.canadians.org/ began to promote a project that describes a new way of governing the Great Lakes by creating a “commons” approach. This new strategy would encourage “citizens”  to find new ways to take back the governance of the lakes from government and the corporate interests that buy government influence.  The idea is to prioritize people and the environment over industry and commodification.

Our Great Lakes Commons:

http://www.canadians.org/sites/default/files/publications/GreatLakes%20Commons%20report%20-%20final-Mar2011.pdf

They have a current focus on extreme energy including transportation of hazardous energy materials in the Great Lakes.  www.canadians.org/greatlakes

American partners of the Council of Canadians include Food and Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org who have been very active in New York and in WNY on anti-fracking issues.

This spring new legislation has been introduced to the New York State Senate and Assembly to called the “Microbead-free Waters Act” which would ban microbeads from products including personal care products.

Locally groups like the Citizens Campaign for the Environment www.citizenscampaign.org;  The Sierra Club https://atlantic2.sierraclub.org/content/legislation; And the 5 Gyres Institute http://5gyres.org/posts/2014/02/11/5_gyres_introduces_legislation_with_ny_attorney_general_to_ban_the_microbead/ have been advocating this legislation.

Problem: City of Buffalo dumps 4 billion gallons of untreated sewerage into the Great Lakes. http://www.investigativepost.org/2012/10/10/buffalos-4-billion-gallons-sewage-wastewater/

According to a report by the Investigative Post’s and Dan Telvock published in October 2012, the City of Buffalo is responsible for dumping 4 billion gallons of untreated sewerage into the Niagara River and Lake Erie each year. The Buffalo Sewer Authority (BSA) was requited to submit a long term control plan to the EPA in 2001. They did not. In 2004 the EPA determined that Buffalo was violating the Clean Water Act.  Over the years the BSA submitted several plans that were rejected by the EPA.  Buffalo Niagara RiverKeeper became involved and authored a promising study on Green Sewer Infrastructure.   In 2012 the EPA brought legal action against the City. The BSA hired Julie Barrett O’Neil, formerly director of Buffalo Niagara RiverKeeper to help create the long term plan.

 Solutions: Early this month-April of 2014, the EPA, the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Buffalo Sewer Authority came to an agreement and have adopted a long-term treatment plan for the City’s water.

Investigative Post: Big Victory for Buffalo water quality http://www.investigativepost.org/2014/04/14/big-victory-buffalo-water-quality/

It is too early to determine whether on not this plan will work, and efforts to communicate with city spokespersons and Buffalo Niagara RiverKeeper, which has been a public advocate for this plan, have been unsuccessful.

http://bnriverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/BSA-LTCP-Comments-5-14-12.pdf

The Long Range Plan is an important step. Successful implementation,  and political support for the plan remain issues. Concerns include the cost, whom will pay for it, and how exactly it will be administered and managed. Can this be a model for other Great Lakes Cities? It will require vigilance and transparency.

Problem: Energy v. the Environment.

There are very few energy opportunities that are being discussed that do not have serious impacts on the environment. Some are much more egregious than others.  Any reliance on fossil fuels, including natural gas, have significant impact on anthropomorphic climate change and habitat. Both the release of carbon and methane as greenhouse gasses, and the loss of habitat and biodiversity created by infrastructure development are significant problems that may have catastrophic consequences.  The Showtime television series “Years of Living Dangerously” http://www.sho.com/sho/years-of-living-dangerously/home has told the world that fully 20% of all emission greenhouse gas emission are coming from deforestation, more than the emissions from all the transportation activities on the globe.  Clearly energy infrastructure from all forms of energy and energy supported development results in habitat loss.  If we are to get serious about climate change we have to address habitat loss. http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/topic/emissions/

Solutions: Until April 30 we have an opportunity to comment on the New York State Energy Plan that will shape our economic and environmental future for generations to come. This is a piece that I wrote recently for the Buffalo News: http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/viewpoints/smart-energy-plan-will-chart-our-future-20140419

Here is the link to the NYS Energy Plan and its comment page: http://energyplan.ny.gov/

Are there alternatives to cynicism?

Yes and we have some examples. It would not be a bad idea to learn about these.

-Janine Benyus author of Biomimicry, says that we can model development including product development on ecological systems. We wrote about this here: “From me to We” http://www.growwny.org/green-grab-bag/from-me-to-we/

-EcoMind author Francis Moore Lappe says that we can think of things differently and that our mind is full of thought challenges that prohibit creativity and solution finding.

http://smallplanet.org/books/ecomind

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/9-strategies-to-end-corporate-rule/free-your-eco-mind

-Annie Leonard, founder and producer of the Story of Stuff, who visited Buffalo early this year says that we have to find our way to be citizens and we have forgotten how to make changes: http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2014/03/12/greenwatch-annie-leonard-comes-to-buffalo/

Last year I wrote about how we should not be corporate shills celebrating Earth Day.  Instead we could be working hard to make sure every day is Earth Day and that our personal activism cannot rest in the face of the onslaught of what is coming for us and for future generations, should we be so lucky or as skilled as to have future generations. I wrote about how anti-fracking activist Sandra Steingrabber was currently in Chemung County jail for her activism and how we should consider our personal strategies.  I also said that we should be about making all pollution illegal, period. In the last year, not much has changed.  http://www.learningsustainability.com/1/archives/04-2013/1.html

But change is ineviatable. the questions are can we make change that is proactive and benefits humanity, or will we continue to slough through the muck and mire that some serious scientists are calling the end times.  (Guy McPherson, Nature Bats Last)  http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/

Biomimicry, among other things may make a future possible. The EcoMind may help us find ways to think this through.  Annie Leonard  and the Council of Canadians may help us to rediscover our activism, participation,  and personal commitment strategies.

The big picture of human survivability and thrivability rests almost entirely on how we understand and promote economy.  In the lexicon of sustainability, which connects economy, environment and culture, the environment is always the bottom line. In the real world the economy always comes first, second and third. This makes “sustainable development” a complete oxymoron.

That said,-cynicism is a self-defeating prophecy.  I get up every day with the concept that this is a good time to be alive. We can make a difference individually and collectively if we put our eco-minds to it.  It is hard to characterize that difference, but if it rests on what is in your heart and mind, if you can find a germ of hope for the future, reach in and reach out.  Pardon me if I have a healthy dose of pessimism. But-my personal optimism comes from the belief that humans are designed to solve problems.  Of course I could be totally wrong about that.

GreenWatch March 6, 2014 Huntley Generating Plant Conversations

Clean Air Coalition Community Assembly

Tonight  (3/6)  -6p.m. Northwest Community Center, 155 Lawn Avenue,

 March 13 -6p.m. Tonawanda City Hall, 200 Niagara Street, Tonawanda

This past January, a report released by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis(IEEFA) that says that the NRG owned Huntley power plant, located on the Niagara River in the Town of Tonawanda, does not appear to be financially viable. The report, requested by the Clean Air Coalition of WNY urged the community to begin to think through the economic consequences of closing the plant including the potential loss of 70 jobs, $16 million in annual tax revenue including 5.9% of the Ken-Ton School district budget.

 http://www.ieefa.org/press-release/

 Artvoice partner Dan Telvock of the Investigative Post reported  it here: http://www.investigativepost.org/2014/01/28/nrg-huntley-plant-belching-red-ink/

The Huntley plant is one of three coal fired power plants in WNY that are in the top 10 greenhouse gas polluters in NYS.

http://www.investigativepost.org/2013/07/25/western-ny-has-three-top-greenhouse-gas-polluters/

Options being discussed include keeping the plant open using coal, transitioning the plant to natural gas (as has been planned in Dunkirk), transitioning to other sources of power such as solar or wind, or repurposing the building and the site entirely such as creating a recreational facility and naturalized shoreline. 

 The Clean Air Coalition is using these assemblies to help inform citizens that a major change is coming and that people need to become engaged in making decisions about the areas future. It is clear that operating as usual, or any changes ranging from power source production transitions to retirement of the plant presents a costly future.

 One of the rarely discussed costs of the current coal fired plant has to do with the real economic costs of environmental degradation and subsequent human health costs of pollution. Much of those costs are considered as “external” to the measured economic benefit. In other words, the real economic costs of pollution are born by a wider society and not directly by the profit taker or factored into the political/economic measurements of success and growth. Richard Stockton, a University at Buffalo Biomedical and Environmental scientist wrote us the following:

  “Almost daily the public media warn us of the unaffordable costs of protecting our environment from the ravages of habitat destruction, climate change, toxic pollution, etc. Rarely, however, is there a considered discussion of the “true” costs of degrading the biosphere. Economists call these costs “externalities” as if they should not be considered as part of the calculus of a particular issue.  The current discussion of the closure of the coal-burning Huntley power plant is a case in point. The discussion and local media has been focusing upon loss of jobs and tax revenues. But those easily calculated costs pale in comparison to the real costs of respiratory disease caused by emitted particulates, neurological impairment due to mercury and other heavy metal intoxications, ground water contamination from fly ash, multiple social and environmental impacts from mountain top removal of the source coal.  According to that calculus, the Huntley and other coal burning facilities impose an unaffordable cost upon us all and should be closed down immediately. Davis Suzuki reminds us that it is the BIOSPHERE that is the bottom line.”

GreenWatch/Artvoice Great Lakes Report March 2014

March 1, 2014 Artvoice Introduction to GreenWatch

GreenWatch began in 1996 as collaboration between myself and Paul MacClennan, retired Buffalo News Environmental Reporter, and the Buffalo Institute of Urban Ecology, Inc. The purpose was to help to organize the local environmental community and to deliver a printed newsletter to the offices of elected officials and policy makers. GreenWatch moved online in 2009 as a direct response to the still ongoing Gulf Oil Deepwater Horizon disaster sponsored by BP. For weeks the only media coverage reflected BP talking points.  Our mission became engagement of media producers and consumers on the concepts of environmental and sustainability literacy both in our region and on a wider stage.

Today we have extraordinary and ongoing issues involving climate change, energy use and production, habitat and biodiversity loss, and wide ranging and ever widening environmental and social crisis’s and calamity. This affects our region, which is located on the Great Lakes, one of the planets most significant sources of freshwater and climatic stability. Our wild and built lands, peoples, businesses, governments, and social contexts are deeply affected by our understanding and stewardship of our world-class environmental contexts.

Today, GreenWatch covers the environment unlike any other media outlet. We post links and comments, host and participate in discussions, and promote advocacy of a wide variety of issues linked to environment, society and sustainability.  The bottom line is always the environment. We hope that you will read us, join us on facebook, follow us on twitter, and help us to engage in the critical and pressing questions that face our culture today, and for the foreseeable future.

GreenWatch on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/greenwatching

Twitter: @jayburney1

HUGE News-New IJC Report details rapid decline of Lake Erie waters

This past Thursday the IJC (International Joint Commission) released a startling new report detailing the rapidly declining conditions of the waters of lake Erie.  The report, called “A Balanced Diet for Lake Erie”, recommends that the lake be declared “Impaired” which will trigger action Under the U.S. Clean Water Act. 

The International Joint Commission is an international organization dedicated to Great Lakes water protections and was created as part of the Boundary Waters Treaty signed by the US and Canada in 1909.  Its mission is to essentially prevent and resolve Great Lakes water disputes between the two countries.

 From the IJC Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP) website: “Based on the research of dozens of scientists from both sides of the border, the IJC found that water quality has declined over the past decade, with impacts on ecosystem health, drinking water supplies, fisheries, recreation, tourism and property values.

According to a CBC report: “The acting Canadian chair of the IJC, Gordon Walker, told the House of Commons environment committee that Lake Erie is in a crisis. Something has happened, he told federal MPs. It was all right 10 to 15 years ago, but not now. That something, according to Walker, is phosphorus from agricultural fertilizers getting into the lake.

The report concludes that phosphorus is getting back into Lake Erie from agricultural fertilizers used in growing corn for ethanol and other crops. Domestic lawn fertilizers are also a source of the phosphorus, said Walker. Every home wants to have it on their front lawn, he said. It all runs into the river and it’s untreated and that becomes a problem.”

The report says rivers in Indiana and Ohio that flow into Lake Erie are the largest sources of phosphorus, but some of it also comes from Ontario’s Grand and Thames rivers.

“We have our problems in Canada, in Ontario but they’re not nearly the same degree of a problem that we see over in the U.S. states,” said Walker in an interview with CBC News.

The report makes 16 specific recommendations including the banning of the use of fertilizers on frozen fields, and increasing the amount of protected wetlands that serve as a natural filter.

The IJC Report: http://www.ijc.org/files/publications/2014%20IJC%20LEEP%20REPORT.pdf

 Update: March 3, 2013- The IJC PDF file is experiencing occasional technical difficulties.  Here are two additional links to the IJC material regarding the report: 

“IJC Releases Recommendations to Protect Lake Erie”:  

http://www.ijc.org/en_/news?news_id=428

“Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP)”:   

http://www.ijc.org/en_/leep/report