It’s Getting Hot In Here

Written in collaboration with local organizers

Several pipelines are planned and due to be built through Northern British Columbia, carrying tar sands crude to ports off the west coast of Canada for exporting this bottom-of-the barrel oil. In Smithers, BC, with the leadership of the ‘Unist’ot’en of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, many grassroots indigenous activists along with their allies and supporters rallied to assert their title and rights on their own ancient lands. The rally primarily targeted the Ministry of Forests offices and the Ministry of Environment office. The following is the list of demands that were delivered to the Ministry offices who issue permits and licences for industry and private interests.

Float of the Tar Sands Gigaproject

1. The Unist’ot’en are a legitimate governing body who have never ceded our surrendered our ancient lands to any party. A regulatory regime will be resurrected to ensure that all interests on ‘Unist’ot’en lands are solely and primarily directed to the rightful owners;
2. The ‘Unist’ot’en law (‘Inuk nu’ot’en) for any outside parties who want to do business on ‘Unist’ot’en Yintah (traditional territories) requires meaningful “Free, Prior, and Informed Consent” with legitimate Clan/House Group membership prior to any development on unceded traditional territories. This is a measure that will be enforced to prevent the infringement of their section 35(1) rights and title and infringement on ‘Unist’ot’en ‘Inik nu’ot’en;

The resurrected regulatory regime will give power to the ‘Unist’ot’en people to manage their lands unimpeded by institutions or agencies who have previously assumed jurisdiction or authority over their traditional lands.

The rally also provided the ‘Unist’ot’en with an opportunity to offer support to the allies who have come to Smithers to support this action. The Tsilhqot’in Nation members from Tl’etinqox(Anaham)  and Tl’esqox are asserting their rights to stop a proposed plans for Prosperity Mine to develop a copper and gold body that will destroy and drain a sacred lake called Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) in their traditional territories. The Lubicon Cree of central Alberta are working at having their rights and title asserted on unceded lands. The Athabasca Dene and Mikisew Cree of Northeastern Alberta are fighting for their very lives with the ongoing Tar Sands contamination of their aquifers and ecosystems which are creating a deadly epidemic of rare cancers among their population.

With the help of some reputable Non-Governmental Organizations and Indigenous Peoples organizations such as the Indigenous Environmental Network, Rainforest Action Network, the Council of Canadians, Oil Sands Truth, and No One is Illegal, as well as many helpful and generous volunteers, the ‘Unis’to’t’en have erected a permenant camp on the Morice River to cease plans with all Oil and Gas Pipelines, including the KSL and Enbridge Gateway Projects, from traversing their lands and waterways. These proposed projects threaten the livelihood of the ‘Unist’ot’en people and the delicate ecosystems which they depend on and will be stopped by any means necessary.

Local resistance towards tar sands expansion projects are beginning in different communities across Turtle Island and all over the world. Organizers are targetting local tar sands refineries and corporations involved in the dirty industry and tomorrow will mark the first International Stop the Tar Sands Day.

For more information contact:

Freda Huson, spokesperson for the ‘Unist’ot’en people in the C’ilhts’ekhyu Clan. Any communication regarding ‘Unist’ot’en business will be brought to the attention of the new ‘Unist’ot’en company called Tse Wedi ‘Elh at: (778) 210-1100 or tsewedielh@explorenet.com

Knedebeas (Warner William), Hereditary Chief of the ‘Unist’ot’en. Home: (250) 847-3694, or Cell: (778) 210-1949

With our shores covered in oil and Congress debating a climate bill, it’s time for President Obama to pull out all the stops and start promoting a clean energy economy as key to our economic recovery and saving the planet.

Today, we began to get a taste of what that could look like. This afternoon, President Obama spoke in Holland, MI at the site of a new factory being built by Compact Power, an advanced battery company.

The President made a powerful pitch his economic recovery plan. He spoke of cutting taxes for 95 percent of working families in Michigan and across the country and the importance of the federal government laying a foundation for small businesses to build on.

Obama was at his best when he got down to the specifics of what could be accomplished in the battery sector alone:

And by the way, these aren’t just any jobs.  These are jobs in the industries of the future.  Just a few years ago, American businesses manufactured only 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles — 2 percent.  But because of what’s happening in places like this, in just five years we’ll have up to 40 percent of the world’s capacity — 40 percent.  (Applause.)  So for years you’ve been hearing about manufacturing jobs disappearing overseas.  You are leading the way in showing how manufacturing jobs are coming right back here to the United States of America.  (Applause.)

The President also went after Republicans or blocking progress:

Continue reading ‘What’s better than Obama promoting clean energy at a Michigan battery plant?’

“It was usually around July you could go up there and sit and it was like the annual bear gathering up there… The whole area was full of laurels. The bears had tunnels through them, it was so thick…What’s going on today you know with the Brushy Fork of course, that whole area has just about been stripped out now, and that’s all been taken away.” Ed Wiley on Coal River Mountain.

MARFORK, W.Va. – Protestors associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice have locked to and shut down a highwall miner on Coal River Mountain today. Colin Flood, 22, and Katie Huszcza, 21, are locked to the mining equipment on Massey Energy’s Bee Tree Surface Mine, near to the Brushy Fork Sludge Impoundment.  Their banner states “Save Coal River Mountain” alongside images of ginseng, a morel, a deer and a bear.

The human rights activists locked down in order to bring attention to the many local resources that will be lost if blasting on Coal River Mountain continues. This destruction led the four protesters, including 22-year-old Jimmy Tobias and 20-year-old Sophie Kern, both of whom acted as direct support, to take part in the action. “These mountains are home to some of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world and contain a variety of precious flora and fauna including edible and medicinal plants that can save lives, a wide array of extremely nutritious mushrooms, old growth forest and an abundance of deer and trout,” Huszcza said. “Coal River Mountain is priceless.” Continue reading ‘Breaking:Activists Stop Strip Mining Machine on Coal River Mountain’

This is f–cking fantastic. Enjoy, debate, and pass the f–ck on!

This country has been built and influenced by each generation that has come to pass. While we still face major social issues, these previous generations have contributed some of the most impressive feats known to man, developing unique and marketable skills and tools that have fueled an extraordinary amount of growth and set the highest standard of living the world has ever seen. However, our generational brethren also left behind something else: a very specific mind set on the world.  A mind set that can be seen today powering our infrastructure, shaping our culture, and instilling our values. One that was relative to the times of our mothers and fathers, grandparents and great-grandparents but now stands outdated and dangerous.

Bob Dylan was right when he said “the times, they are a changin’.” In fact, times have changed.  One doesn’t need to look very far to see that our previous generation’s systems, values and ideas were built to be supplied by a finite source that right now is exhausting our planet’s resources, while destroying its species and environment.  It is here we can witness most explicitly our generational divide. One in which past generation’s values, skills and mind sets are no longer suitable or sustainable for us. We need to embrace this divide. But we must do so carefully and in a way that equips our peers with new skills, values and perceptions, and also enables older friends, families and neighbors to partake and share in building a new holistic, clean energy economy.  It’s time to have exponential learning overcome exponential growth. It’s time to value accumulated wisdom overcome accumulated wealth.

BUILDING A BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE

To bridge this multi-generational divide we need to integrate education and training,  applying both to communities and peoples who need it the most. Continue reading ‘Green Economy Leadership Training’

Cross posted from the RAN Understory

By Nell Greenberg

On July 8th, activists with the Rainforest Action Network have staged a super creative and gutsy sit-in at the EPA headquarters to demand stronger protection for Appalachia’s drinking water and an end to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining once and for all.

With the nation’s eyes on the BP disaster, the EPA, without publicly announcing the action, recently gave the green light for a major new mountaintop removal coal mining permit in Logan County, West Virginia. The permit would allow the destruction of nearly three miles of currently clean streams and 760 acres of forest, in a county where at least 13 percent of the land has already been permitted for surface coal mining. This was despite EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s promise last April to enforce new rules to end the reckless practice of mountaintop removal mining.

We have no intention of letting the EPA conduct business-as-usual when it comes to blowing up America’s mountains and poisoning precious drinking water for coal.

That’s why at about 9:00 am today five people entered the headquarters of the EPA in Washington DC. Once inside, the activists sat down in the center of the lobby, locked themselves together with metal ‘lock boxes,’ and began to play West Virginia’s adopted state song, John Denver’s ‘Take me Home, Country Roads,’ mixed with intermittent sounds of Appalachia’s mountains being blown apart by MTR explosives. It’s well worth listening to the audio track, which has been playing for about 2 ½ hours now on loop inside the EPA lobby, and profoundly illustrates the difference between EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s rhetoric in Washington and the reality in Appalachia. Continue reading ‘Activists Sit Down so EPA Will Stand up to King Coal’

I just got back from the Earth First! Rendezvous in Stratton, ME where activists from all over the country gathered under the banner “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth.” True to the slogan, EF! activists ended the camp with civil disobedience against a controversial industrial wind project being built in the Maine North Woods. Activists blockaded the entrance to the construction site while others stopped a semi-truck carrying a massive turbine blade and locked themselves to it. This action will no doubt be controversial within the environmental/climate movement. Hopefully it will spark RESPECTFUL debate in our movement about the role industrial wind should play in combating climate change. Is our movement diverse and resilient enough to have communities like Coal River fighting for wind pr0jects in their backyard, while others are fighting against them? Are we ready to get beyond unquestioning support of all wind power and really confront some of the major problems that are presented by industrial wind projects being built by multinational corporations?

While I am not from Maine I felt compelled to lend my solidarity to this action for a number of reasons:

-It is important to make clear that this action was not against ALL wind. It was against corporate run industrial wind projects that impact rural communities and sensitive ecosystems. We are in full support of small scale, community run wind projects.

-The wind power being built in Maine is not replacing any fossil fuel plants. It is all additional capacity, so in reality no emissions are being reduced. We would be far better off reducing consumption and improving efficiency rather than producing more electricity.

-These wind farms are being built in sensitive wild areas that are home to the endangered lynx and migratory birds as well as rare alpine ecosystems. We can’t ignore the impacts that industrial wind has on an ecosystem. We cannot right these impacts off as collateral damage.

-The wind farms are being built by Transcanada, a major player in the Alberta tar sands. These wind farms are not producing electricity for Maine. It is all being sold to other states. Maine residents shouldn’t have to have their wildlands carved up so that an oil company can greenwash its image while turning a profit selling electricity to the grid.

With that said lets get a discussion going on these issues around large scale wind projects.

Here’s the press release from the action:

Stratton, Maine- At about 8 a.m., Tuesday July 6, at least fifty Earth First! activists blockaded Goldbrook Rd, the access point to the Kibby Mountain wind project outside the town of Stratton, halting the construction of 22 industrial wind turbines on the delicate Alpine ecosystems of Maine’s western boundary mountains. The action comes just before the Land Use Regulation Commission’s (LURC) meeting July 7 to consider a proposal for a similar project on neighboring Sisk Mountain, and on the heels of the national Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, hosted this year by Maine Earth First! Continue reading ‘Earth First! blocks industrial wind project under construction in the Maine North Woods’

Last week I visited an anaerobic methane digester in Skagit County, Washington. The plant, owned by Kevin Maas and his brother of Farm Power Northwest, produces 750 kilowatts of electricty, enough to power 500 homes and accounts for 0.5% percent of the county’s total electricity usage.

Continue reading ‘Visiting an Anaerobic Methane Digester’

I discuss how the Green Movement is a core part of stopping gun violence in Chester City and why the Green Movement is a core part of improving education in our cities. I lastly give an up date as to what is going on between Ocean City Maryland and their trash dumping on Chester.

SHOUT OUT TO: http://checktheweather.net/

An argument for abolition.

Every second of every day, we emit climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, threatening the stability of our planet’s climate and the vitality of civilization as we know it.  Mountain glaciers are melting away, threatening the water supply of billions.  Rainfall patterns are changing in unpredictable ways, increasing floods in some places and droughts in others, making it harder for farmers to predict which crops to plant.  Islands are falling beneath the waves, while low-lying lands are threatened.  The world’s poor, who have had a virtually immeasurable contribution to the problem, are being forced to bear the brunt of the effects, as they suffer higher rates and ranges of tropical diseases, more powerful storms that threaten to destroy their structurally unsound homes, higher food prices, decreasing access to fresh water, and forced migrations.

The same activity that is the primary cause of all of these horrible things – burning fossil fuels – is also responsible for countless other calamities.  From funding petro-regimes, like Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, etc, to increasing the rates of asthma, cancer, and airborne illnesses in our communities, to lung cancer and mine collapses for coal miners, to massive spills in oil tankers and on deep-ocean rigs that cause untold destruction to our natural world, fossil fuels are just bad.

They kill people.  They destroy nature.  They make us less safe, less healthy, and deny our children the future they deserve.

And what, after knowing all of this, is our response?

“We should reduce our emissions.”

Excuse me?  Reduce our emissions?

Did abolitionists call for us to reduce the number of slaves?  Did the Civil Rights Movement call for reduced segregation?  Did Gandhi rally the people of India around a goal of reducing Britain’s domination of their homeland?  Did suffragettes demand reduced barriers to the ballot?  Did our forbears call for reduced taxation without representation?

NO!

What successful social movement has ever been formed around the notion that something is so bad that we must have less of it?

Continue reading ‘Why ‘Reducing Emissions’ is Killing Us (Literally)’