Mountain Activists Board Coal Barge In Kanahwa River, WV

Bold and beautiful.

This morning pro-mountain activists launched a summer of actions with two direct actions in West Virginia.

Five of them boarded a coal barge in the Kanahwa River with a banner that read “Coal leaves, cancer stays,” and then locked their bodies to the barge.

On Kayford Mountain, family home to Keeper of the Mountain Larry Gibson, dozens more have blockaded a strip mine haul road.

Keep up with the action at http://action.mountainjustice.org.

Pro-Mountain Activists Board Coal Barge And Blockade Kayford Strip Mine Haul Road

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Contact: Robert Livingston 304.731.1740

http://action.mountainjustice.org

KAYFORD, W.Va. –Mountain Justice and RAMPS activists blocked coal transport in two locations Thursday morning. Five boarded a barge on the Kanawha River near Chelyan, with a large banner that read “Coal leaves, cancer stays,” and locked their bodies to the barge. At the same time, dozens of concerned citizens obstructed access to the haul road on Kayford Mountain, stopping coal trucks from entering or leaving the Republic Energy mine.

“These actions against coal transport were taken because the viability and health of mountain communities are being destroyed by mountaintop removal—the coal and the profits are shipped away, leaving disease and destruction in their wake,” Rebecca Loeb, one of the people on the barge said.

According to Nathan Joseph, another activist on the barge, the struggle against mountaintop removal in Appalachia is linked to the struggles of other fossil fuel extraction communities across North America and the world.

“The coal industry’s continued disregard for the well-being of Appalachian communities is connected to the struggles of other North American extraction communities. Strip mining tar sands for low-quality oil, fracking for dirty gas and deep sea oil drilling are signs we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. The extraction, transport, processing and combustion of these fuels all disproportionately impact low-income communities, indigenous communities,and communities of color,” Joseph said.

According to a study co-authored by Dr. Michael Hendryx in 2011, a researcher at West Virginia University, “Self-reported cancer rates were significantly higher in the mining versus the non-mining area after control for respondent age, sex, smoking, occupational history, and family cancer history (odds ratio = 2.03, 95% confidence interval = 1.32–3.13). Mountaintop mining is linked to increased community cancer risk.” The study’s researchers collected data from 773 adults in door-to-door interviews.

Dozens of Mountain Justice and RAMPS activists blockade strip mine haul road on Kayford Mountain, WV.As people in West Virginia see the lack of opportunities, they often leave the area to pursue a future elsewhere. Larry Gibson, of Kayford said, “Our biggest export in this state besides coal is our young people.”

Marilyn Mullens of Coolridge, W.Va., said “Clean water and air is a human right. My electricity is not worth my human rights being violated–I’ll live with the lights off. I want my children and grandchildren to enjoy the beauty of West Virginia. We’re tired of the corporations lording over us, and no one is hearing our voices, so it’s time to take it further than talking.” Mullens is an organizer of Women United to End Mountaintop Removal, a May 28 event, in which women will shave their heads in front of the W.Va. Capitol in protest of mountaintop removal.

“For the past 150 years the coal industry has been pillaging this place and taking everything, leaving nothing but death and destruction in their wake. I am personally very thankful to these young folks who ain’t from around here necessarily who decided to put their freedom and bodies on the line to stop this vicious cycle, even if it is just for one day,” Junior Walk of Whitesville, WV said, “I would love to see some of my native West Virginia brothers and sisters stand up and tell this industry they can’t do this anymore.”

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Our friends in Wild Idaho Rising Tide waged a tenacious fight against the heavy hauls. Now as the trucks are taking new routes, the fight against the tar sands has moved to Spokane WA where the trucks have been re-directed.

In early May, Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Occupy Spokane began protests late at night as the trucks began their late night hauls.

Here’s their press release:

Washington/Idaho Megaload Resistance

At about 11:30 pm on Sunday night, May 20, a dozen activists from Occupy Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tide converged in Spokane, Washington, to protest megaloads of oversized equipment bound for Alberta tar sands operations from the Port of Pasco.  ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil has been using Highway 395, Interstate 90, and city streets in Spokane and Spokane Valley since mid-October to transport road damaging shipments weighing up to 400,000 pounds and stretching over 200 feet long.  Diverted in Idaho from their originally intended Highway 12 route by court challenges and from their alternative Highway 95 path by Moscow area protests, these pieces of a tar sands/bitumen processing plant will expand Canadian carbon fuel extraction, American dependence on oil, and continental greenhouse gas emissions, while reaping hefty profits for one of the wealthiest corporations on Earth.

From the pedestrian walkway over East Third Avenue near South Regal Street, Spokane climate justice activists draped banners asserting “No Dirty Energy,” “Occupy 99%,” “Climate Killers,” “Highway to Hell,” and other statements (see photos).  While waiting for the megaload convoys’ arrival, they observed flaggers and warning signs posted along Third Avenue, support vehicles cruising the area, and up to six Spokane city police cars parked near the demonstrators.  Between midnight and 1:00 am on Monday, four megaloads traversed Third Avenue, narrowly fitting under the pedestrian overpass and between parked cars and activists with protest signs lining both sides of the street.  Convoys consisting of Washington state trooper escorts, flagger vehicles, and pilot trucks displaying illuminated “oversized load” signs accompanied a silver, cylindrical module, two large, blue, trailer-like boxes, and a frame structure full of pipes and parts.  A protester later saw another megaload among a cluster of vehicles similarly leaving the interstate at the Altamont Street exit in Spokane and the Barker Road off-ramp in Spokane Valley.

Recognizing the international impacts of these transports, citizens throughout the Northwest will continue to coordinate and organize demonstrations to oppose and impede tar sands megaload traffic, to prevent increasing carbon emissions causing global climate change and to dissuade investors in such dirty energy schemes.  The mostly foreign-owned corporations who have mined only two or three percent of the Alberta tar sands are advancing the second fastest rate of deforestation in the world, as they consume more energy, mostly derived from natural gas, than tar sands fuels ultimately yield.  Their largest industrial project on Earth pollutes exorbitant volumes of fresh water and deposits heavy metals, carcinogens, and oil across vast swaths of Canadian boreal forests and wetlands.  Resident First Nations villages practicing subsistence lifestyles suffer rare cancers and disproportionate deaths, as the single greatest contributor of atmospheric carbon in North America bodes “game over” for the Earth’s climate.

People interested in upcoming expressions of First Amendment rights through anti-megaload assemblies in the Spokane area can contact Occupy Spokane and/or Wild Idaho Rising Tide for more information about the time and location of protests.

These camps are great spaces for not only teaching people organizing and action skills, but also networking and building our communities, and our movements. Not to mention lots of fun post-camp direct actions that always accompany them.

It’s the bonding at these camps around late night campfires or in long action planning meetings that builds strong lasting relationships that power us through long hard struggle. I’ve been to lots of action camps over the years and I definitely feel a sense of large family or a clan that bands together in fighting to stop environmental destruction and oppression.

Here’s a list of some of the enviro direct action camps happening this summer.  All free and open to the public.

Mountain Justice May 19-26, Pipestem, WV: “Join us as we build pressure and momentum in stopping strip mining and other exploitative resource extraction in Appalachia. This Summer Action Camp is the place to learn new skills, expand on ones you already have; strengthen ties, meet new friends and get ready for bigger events later in the year.”

Wild Feral Futures June 16-24, San Juan Mountains, Colorado: “We are very happy to announce that, for the 4th year running, the Wild Roots Feral Futures (WRFF) eco-defense, direct action, and rewilding encampment will take place in the forests of Southwest Colorado this coming June, 2012. WRFF is an informal, completely free and non-commercial, and loosely organized camp-out operating on (less than a) shoe-string budget, formed entirely off of donated, scavenged, or liberated supplies and sustained through 100% volunteer effort. Though we foster a collective communality and pool resources, we encourage total self-sufficiency (which we find to be the very source and foundation of true mutual sharing and abundance).”

Earth First! Round River Rendezvous! July 1-7, Somewhere in the Marcellus Shale: “Marcellus Shale Earth First! is working side by side with many local groups, attending meetings, offering workshops and trainings, and helping to build a campaign of direct action that is putting increasing pressure on the drillers, to show all of those fighting fracking that there is effective resistance growing in rural areas. One of MSEF!’s primary goals is to be an uncompromising presence in defense of the healthy waterways and forest ecosystems being polluted and fragmented by the gas industry in the Eastern states.”

West By Northwest:No Coal Exports Action Camp August 2-10, Gillette, WY: “This August, High Country Rising Tide is convening activists and concerned citizens from all over the continent at West By Northwest, the first annual No Coal Exports Action Camp. In the heart of the coal fields, we’ll look over the chasm into the world’s largest strip mines, gather stories from the communities at the heart of the battle, and learn the skills of resistance. Students, ranchers and activists will take to the streets, or the mines, or the rails to take back the power to determine our own future.”

NATO (and the Chicago police) will be meeting Occupy Chicago and thousands of anti-war activists and anti-capitalists in Chicago this week for mass protests. The city has responded with heavy handed repressive ordinances and police tactics (sound familiar?). Regardless thousands will be marching and taking action on a whole range of issues from the war in Afghanistan to austerity to immigrant rights to climate change.

In fact, direct actions began this morning as 8 anti-war activists were arrested in Obama For America’s offices in Chicago demanding an end to the war in Afghanistan.

This is all happening with a climate justice twist as Rising Tide Chicago and Chicago based environmental and climate justice groups, aka Climate Action Chicago, are hosting a number of events, marches and actions in solidarity with the anti-NATO protests.

Noam Chomsky recently remarked that the Occupy has created something that never really existed in the U.S.–solidarity.

“The other aspect, which in my estimation may be more significant, is that the Occupy movement spontaneously created something that doesn’t really exist in the country: communities of mutual support, cooperation, open spaces for discussion”

Now, we are seeing unprecedented amounts of “post-issue activism.” The sort of organizing that transcends single issues and becomes about real transformational work around our economy, our environment and our democracy. Occupy has liberated that space.

Now the corporations and the state are fighting back. But so are we. This weekend in Chicago is another opportunity to link arms and march side by side with folks fighting foreclosures, deportations, the war and environmental injustice.

If you are anywhere near Chicago, go join them.

Here is Climate Action Chicago’s schedule of events if you are going:

Climate Action Chicago Joins NATO Summit Protests

Join Rising Tide Chicago, Chicago environmental groups and their allies for the NATO summit weekend to give corporate criminals, and the governmental lackeys and military who serve their interests a clear message: putting profits over our planet threatens our survival and will NOT be accepted any longer!

This weekend, we’ll call for real solutions to climate change and war by encouraging communities to come together to restore natural ecosystems, create clean power & transportation and establish local food systems.

Let’s create communities that are fair and provide access to basics needs for everyone rather than our current throwaway society that benefits the 1% and destroys our planet.

*Join us for Events during Summit Weekend!

———— —————– ————— ————–
Thursday, May 17th @ 3 pm;
Occupy Chicago Day of Environment — Planet Over Profits & War
Protest Canadian Tar Sands at Consulate with Die-In
Canadian Consulate, 180 N Stetson Ave.
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/446122835402400/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–
Friday, May 18th @ 1:00 p.m;
Crime Busting March on Chicago’s Climate Crooks
March around the loop with us as we issue warrants for arrest for corporations and government organizations responsible for destabilizing our climate.
Daley Plaza (Clark & Washington) @ 1:00 p.m. Directly after the Nurses Union March
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/194508444002886/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–
Friday, May 18th@ 6:30 pm;
Dinner & Overview of Summit Events
@ Holy Innocents Church, 1447 W. Superior (near Chicago & Ashland)
RSVP at risingtide.chi@gmail.com
———— —————– ————— ————–
Saturday, May 19th @ 6:30 pm ;
Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands, Documentary, Dinner & Climate Justice Discussion
@ Holy Innocents Church, 1447 W. Superior (near Chicago & Ashland)
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/426580744037196/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–
Sunday, May 20th @ 12p (noon);
Environmental Contingent in March & Rally to NATO Summit
March with thousands during the NATO summit to deliver our message: Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, Our Pensions and the Environment: Not War!
@ Petrillo Bandshell in Grant Park (Columbus & Jackson)
Meet us at NW side of the Petrillo Bandshell. Look for a big green flag!
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/286684528085764/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–*

To confirm locations and to RSVP, visit http://www.climateactionchicago.org

Over then next 24 hours, our crew at 350.org is going to be working hard to compile these images and get them out to the public and press. As Bill McKibben wrote yesterday, It’s time for each of us to get involved in the full-on fight between misinformation and truth.”

Posted on behalf of Sam Akiha, Communications and Research Intern at Better Future Project

As a reminder that sustainability is not an annual event, Better Future Project today released The State of the Movement: New England’s Transition Beyond Fossil Fuels, a new report that catalogues sustainability efforts throughout the region. The report details dozens of local projects that are not simply about recycling or solar panels; rather, people investing time and energy to transform their community one garden, one street, or one building at a time.  It demonstrates that the movement beyond fossil fuels is diverse and thriving.

The report is the result of Better Future Project’s Climate Summer program. In the 2011 program, 31 cycling college students toured New England spreading a simple message: New England needs to move beyond fossil fuels. The riders collaborated with local organizations and individuals in the towns they visited. They lent hands to their projects, co-organized events, and connected them to other efforts in the area. These Climate Riders will return to towns throughout New England for the program’s fourth year this June, July, and August.

The State of the Movement focuses on the following categories: sustainable economies, sustainable food systems, waste and materials management, transportation, green spaces, building efficiency, renewable energy, environmental justice, and community resilience. In addition, it includes town profiles that provide information of what specific cities and towns are doing to rely less on fossil fuels.

Better Future Project, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a new, grassroots organization dedicated to moving America and the world beyond energy sources that harm human health, human dignity, and human life. The organization’s first report, Energy Casualties, released in February, explores the public health, security, social justice issues surrounding the fossil fuel industry. With a focus on leadership development, network-building, and engagement platforms, Better Future Project’s main programs include Climate Summer, Ride for the Future, which will launch in New Orleans in May, and 350 Massachusetts.

Reposted from the RAN Understory

On Tax Day, RAN Boston activists joined a national day of action targeting Bank of America over….. well… everything.

Bank of America currently pay no taxes to the government, yet received massive bailouts after they crashed the economy. They are currently the largest forecloser of homes in the U.S. and the largest funder of the coal industry. They’ve laid off tens of thousands of their own employees, while bestowing their execs with lavish bonuses. It has just been recently reported that CEO Brian Moynihan’s salary quadrupled in the past year.

Early in the afternoon, RAN Boston activists showed up to Bank of America’s downtown offices at 100 Federal St. with flyers, signs and chants. They were soon joined by over 30 housing activists with Right To The City and then more with Occupy Boston. Tax Day all over the country focused on Bank of America’s misdeeds against the American public and this combination of housing, climate and economic justice activists.

The Boston campaign to highlight Bank of America’s involvement in the coal industry is just beginning. On May 5^th in Sudbury, MA (neighboring community to many BofA execs) will host “The Real Cost Of Coal” forum featuring speakers from coal impacted communities from Appalachia to the Powder River Basin. Then on May 6^th, another forum will happen in Cambridge, MA.

Many of Bank of America’s operations and most important decision-makers reside in the Boston area. And we are there to say no to their financing of coal.

Today I went to Dundas Square, one of the busiest intersections in Toronto to join Rhytms of Resistance-Toronto,“a political samba-inspired band that plays for environmental and social justice.” The band was raising awareness about some of the tar sands pipelines that will threaten forests, waterways, fish habitat, and communities along and near the pipelines. What a way to spend Earth Day, eh?

They were also letting people know how to plug into the resistance against the pipelines! The band’s groupies, who I gladly joined, were letting people know about a rally happening at the Enbridge Annual General Meeting in Toronto on May 9th. I learned about the Yinka Dene Alliance, one of the leading groups of First Nations opposing the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil pipeline, who will be in Toronto on May 8th and 9th to say “No” to the proposed pipeline.

Members of the YDA are traveling from BC to Toronto for the Enbridge AGM and they will be stopping in Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg along the way. Once I am done writing this diary entry, I am going to invite all my friends in those cities. It is Earth Day after all—great excuse to spread the word on how to resist environmentally destructive projects.

I am so glad that so many people are piping up (pun intended) about these pipelines. These pipelines would contaminate water, fish sources, and human health. Communities would be put at risk for the profit of a few greedy oil and gas corporations. Diary, that just isn’t fair!

I mentioned the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would bring dirty tar sands to the west coast of British Columbia for export; but I still haven’t mentioned the tankers that would come to collect that oil. They would have to travel through ecologically sensitive areas and through waters which are known to be rough because of the high winds and waves. Do we really want to repeat some of the horrible oil spills which have destroyed fishing communities and continue to impact human health and livelihoods? This sounds just too risky!

There is also another pipeline which would bring liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Kitimat as well: the Pacific Trails Pipeline. This LNG would be primarily from shale gas development in northeastern BC. This type of gas development involves injecting water and unidentified chemicals into underground shale rock formations at very high pressures in order to extract natural gas below the surface. This process uses up tons of water, while also contaminating groundwater and local drinking water.

But those aren’t the only pipelines blazing through British Columbia. Kinder Morgan is trying to increase the amount of tar sands crude that would be transported through the Trans Mountain Pipeline, a pipeline which brings tar sands to southwestern BC.  There has been local opposition to the pipeline expansion which would require twinning the pipeline and putting communities at significant risk.

Looking east, there is the Trailbreaker project which would bring tar sands across the Prairies, Great Lakes, Ontario, Quebec, and finally to the coast of Maine, USA. The pipeline has faced growing opposition from communities across the route. And rightfully so. In 2010, an Enbridge pipeline leak put over a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River which flows into the Great Lakes. Enbridge may be okay with polluting the largest group of freshwater lakes on the planet, but I won’t sit by and just watch it happen.

And I am not the only one!

This Earth Day, there were over 10 communities that took action specifically against pipelines, tankers, and tar sands expansion. In Montreal, Quebec there was a march so huge that “more than two hours after it began, a large crowd was still waiting to begin at the starting point.” Right on!

Diary, I am so inspired that I am going to explore more ways to take collective action against environmentally destructive operations.

Happy Earth Day, -maryam

April 18, 2012

For more information contact:
Kandi Mossett
Indigenous Environmental Network
Native Energy & Climate Campaign Organizer
701.214.1389
iencampusclimate@igc.org

Front Door Stripped off Mobile Home As Forced Evictions Reach New Low in Bakken Oil Patch

Evictions, Price Gouging, Natural Gas Burn-off, Crumbling Infrastructure, and Death: The energy boom is not progress, it’s waste and extreme violations of human and environmental rights!

New Town, ND – Forced evictions, of local residents from their mobile homes in the New Town area, to provide housing for predominately out-of-state oil workers has reached a new low. On Monday, April 16th, Four Native American residents of the Prairie Winds Mobile Home Park, including a 9-year old child, were forced to leave their home when landlord, Leroy Olsen, removed Heather Youngbird and Crystal Deegan’s front door. Olsen then cut the electricity and turned off the propane to the home, and told them they had to leave their home immediately.

Home of Heather Youngbird and Crystal Deegan after the door was removed Monday afternoon at Prairie Winds Mobile Home Park in New Town.

The battle for housing in North Dakota has been an on-going struggle since the onset of the oil boom in the Bakken Shale Oil Formation, which partially lies in northwestern North Dakota.

The housing crisis has been growing exponentially worse, particularly within the million-acre Fort Berthold Indian Reservation; homeland of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara tribal nations.

Crumbling Infrastructure and Severe Housing Shortages

Tribal members, as a result of this boom, are experiencing some of the most severe consequences from the lack of proper infrastructure to support this intensive extractive industry. Infrastructure is inadequate at all levels in North Dakota- from crumbling roads and the lack of proper sewage facilities in the various man camps that have popped up across the state, to a severe shortage of adequate housing.

Who Is Prospering?

It’s estimated that the state of North Dakota, to date, has collected at least $100 million as a result of the oil boom through revenue generated from Fort Berthold alone, while the majority of Fort Berthold residents haven’t seen a dime. In the meantime, roads are crumbling as semi-trucks take over with no regards for safety. Several deaths have occurred over the past few years as a result of accidents between the semis and local Native American residents; at least 6 of the deaths involved young people under the age of 27 with the youngest being 3 years old.

With the “Boom” Comes Guns and Crime

Crime, drug and death rates have increased all across the state as firearm sales have hit an all time high. Prostitution rings are being formed and rape rates for both men and women are on the rise with police enforcement struggling to keep up and yet North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has said, “Build America back on the same blueprint that North Dakota has adopted and our country will surely be rewarded with the same great economy our state is enjoying.”

Gas Flaring – Why are they burning it off?

Additionally, within the Bakken shale formation hydraulic fracturing is being used to extract the oil but the

A flare burning natural gas glimmers in front of a pumping unit north of New Town.

Wind Has Taken a Back Seat to Oil

Perhaps the greatest irony is that North Dakota has the greatest wind resource of any of the lower 48 states. According to National Wind, LLC, “With all of its wind power a class 3 or higher, North Dakota could supply 1.2 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of annual electricity, which is 14,000 times the electricity consumption in the state.” Unfortunately, programs for wind power generation and distribution have recently been cut back within the state while the focus is on the extraction of the oil, with almost no regard to the human health impacts and environmental devastation occurring.

Divided Communities

“This oil boom has divided the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people and pitted them against each other in a negative way,” says tribal member Kandi Mossett. “It’s really hard to see the damaging and negative effects occurring at Fort Berthold and throughout North Dakota as a result of corruption and greed. The reality is that people in positions of power at both the Tribal and State level are lining their own pockets, while the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara people suffer and in some cases die as a result of this terrible oil boom. I want people to know the reality we are facing here and to realize that at this rate we are heading toward modern-day genocide of the people, while the BIA and others stand idly by and let it happen.”

The Fight For Prairie Winds – Their Homes & Future

Fort Berthold residents protesting forced evictions out of Prairie Winds Mobile Home Park.

Prairie Winds mobile home residents refuse to stand by while their homes are ripped out from underneath them and held a protest this past Saturday in New Town geared toward Mobile Home Park owner, John Reese. Residents of 45 trailers have until August 31st to move after the mobile home park was sold with plans to develop it to house oil workers. Future Housing LLC bought the property and plans to construct housing for employees of United Prairie Cooperative, formerly Cenex of New Town.

John Reese, the CEO and general manager of United Prairie Cooperative and agent for Future Housing LLC, has said the company is trying to work with the residents. Initially, the eviction deadline was set for May 1, but it’s been postponed until Aug. 31. The residents have not been given any restitution to help with moving expenses, therefore, if they cannot afford to move their homes they are left with limited options and facing homelessness.

“Just because there’s a lot oil around here doesn’t mean we all have money,” said Heather Youngbird of New Town. “We were not even given a formal 30 day eviction notice and now that we have been kicked out of our home we are currently homeless.”

Reese said in an interview last month the housing shortage in the area makes it difficult for him to find employees. Available land to develop housing is also difficult to find, he said. “Right now, anything that’s available that has water and sewer on it is very attractive to anybody that’s trying to continue to grow their business.” On Saturday, Reese said he was aware of the protest but he was out of town planting potatoes. Many of the signs and chants targeted Reese directly. “I’m just fine with taking the rock beating,” Reese said. Indeed John Reese has proved that he’s fine with displacing people because this isn’t the first time he’s done it. In 2010 he displaced people from the Four Corners trailer court behind the old Charbee’s and the second time he displaced people from the old movie theater apartments on main street. Tribal members are still paying back loans they had to take from the tribe to help pay for the moving expenses.
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