The Earth First! Newswire Has Moved

9 Sep

The Earth First! Newswire has moved to a new location: newswire.earthfirstjournal.org

Check it out to see the latest news in the world of eco-resistance.

***NOTE: If the links above redirect you back here instead of to the new site, try deleting your browsing history/cache***

You can also find more Earth First! Media resources at earthfirstjournal.org

Thanks for following us to our new location. We hope you enjoy the new layout!

For the wild,
The Earth First! Journal Collective

newswire

“UNC Dildo-Boy” accosts homophobic preacher, releases anti-technology declaration

1 Mar

Protestor heckles Pit Preacher

 

 

By Danny Nett
Protester's self publicized picture on Facebook account.

Protester’s self publicized picture on Facebook account.

 

An unidentified man who went head-to-head with the controversial Pit Preacher Gary Birdsong faced a warning from the Department of Public Safety’s penal system Tuesday.

 

The shirtless individual – whose student status could not be confirmed — had a homosexual slur painted on his chest and a dildo sticking out of his pants. He approached Birdsong and simulated masturbation while waving the sex toy at the preacher.

 

When someone reported the incident to the Student Union, the demonstrator was taken into the Union. Student employees stood with him until DPS arrived to trespass him from campus.

 

“I think normally we would say, ‘Okay, you’re both going to exercise your right to free speech,’ until such time that somebody seems to think something is out of control,” said Joe Singer, senior associate director of events management at the Student Union.

 

“Our office is supposed to be content-neutral. Our role is to provide the space to speak.”

 

Posting on Facebook under the name “Unc DildoBoy,” the demonstrator stated his actions were not made as an attack on Birdsong or anti-gay sentiments, but on a technologically driven, post-industrial civilization. The individual did not give a real name to be interviewed.

 

While he refused to speak on the record, he posted a letter explaining his actions on the Facebook page.

 

“Because of the total penetration of mass media, humans on YouTube or Facebook, or people who are TV stars or politicians are put in a situation we humans are simply incapable of dealing with,” he wrote.

 

DPS spokesman Randy Young said if a person on campus is engaged in a situation or activity that could be considered provocative, results in harm to anyone or interferes with operations of the University or another person’s free speech, DPS may get involved. It is then at the discretion of the responding officers whether the disruptive individual is removed from a specific area like the Pit or from campus entirely, he said.

 

Cathy Packer, a professor who specializes in media law, said legally the Pit falls under what is considered a dedicated or limited forum. That means UNC, as a public university, can limit the forum for certain topics or speakers as long as it does not favor one viewpoint over another.

 

Packer said although she wholeheartedly disagrees with what the demonstrator did, she supports his First Amendment rights. She said his actions would not fall under a judicial definition of obscenity, but that it is irrelevant if he was removed for trespassing.

 

“My view about all of that is that the reason people come to Carolina is to see and hear things they didn’t hear at home,” Packer said.

 

“You go to Carolina and see some of what the rest of the world looks like and all the opinions other people have that your parents didn’t have.”

 

university@dailytarheel.com

Explanations of the Actions of Dildo Boy

Spark of Wildness Website

Facebook Account

Subpoena caps bad week for fossil fuel

1 Mar

by at Al Jazeera America February 13, 2014 

US attorney’s office seeks documents related to Feb. 2 spill of coal ash into a river in North Carolina
ash
The Dan River as it appeared after the coal ash spill Feb. 5, three days after the accident.
Gerry Broome/AP

Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the massive coal ash spill into North Carolina’s Dan River, targeting both the energy company responsible for the ash pond that leaked and the state’s environmental regulator. Continue reading

Less Than 60 Hours Left to Support Indigenous Land Defenders!

18 Feb

Screen shot 2014-02-18 at 11.25.22 AMby Amanda Lickers from Reclaim Turtle Island

As yall know, self-representation and independent media are key.

You might have heard about Reclaim Turtle Island , which is a budding platform for Indigenous-run grassroots media projects. Right now we need your support! Literally all across Turtle Island, Indigenous Nations are combating reservation apartheid and industrial genocide. This means fierce ‘n’ frontline resistance to resource extraction! Everything from tar sands, pipelines, fracking, to mining, Land Defenders are throwing down to protect our lands and build up our communities, regaining identity and reclaiming territories.

Born in late 2013, we focused on supporting the Mi’kmaq Warriors fighting fracking, and put out our first short film! Co-produced with subMedia.tv, titled Kahsatstenhsera – Indigenous Resistance to Tar Sands Pipelines.

Reclaim Turtle Island is a form of anti-colonial cultural production and is primarily focused on producing media for and by Indigenous folks, helping to inspire to strive for total liberation. We are raising funds for a few simple reasons.

#1 is equipment. We want to produce high-quality short films that educate and elevate! This means audio, post-production editing tools, data storage (so many hard drives), etc!

The other main reason is that we are in the midst of production right now!!!!

*Funds from this project will go to:

Film production, including Dine’ resistance to frack-sand mining, uranium mining and cultural revitalization and sovereignty projects, Lakota and Ponca resistance to tar sands pipelines, Innu resistance to Plan Nord, and more…

Travel for an ACFN grassroots organizer to attend an important gathering in Lakota territory, marking their 2014 Liberation Day and furthering conversations about tar sands resistanc…

Equipment needed for film-production, such as audio, post-production editing, etc…

Even a small donation will help us reach our goal!!

Donate here.

Nia:wen’kowa – Great thanks!  Your support can help make this happen.

 

Twitter @defendourlands / Facebook 

(amanda lickers, turtle clan/ onondowa’ga haudenosaunee is a curator for Reclaim Turtle Island an anti-pipeline organizer based in tiotiah:ke, so-called montreal @amandalickers)

Shh! That Zookeeper Is a Total *&^%#!

5 Dec

by the Center for Biological Diversitycottontop

In New York City’s Central Park Zoo, a group of cotton-top tamarins — cute, social, squirrel-sized monkeys — has been caught whispering in the presence of zoo staff they do not like.

According to a new study published in the journal Zoo Biology, researchers have discovered in these tamarins the first example of whispering by nonhuman primates. While investigating the monkeys’ human-directed mobbing calls, whereby the tamarins attempt to confuse would-be predators with loud cries, researchers noticed that the monkeys actually lowered the amplitude of their vocalizations in the presence of one particular zookeeper.

Turns out the zookeeper had been involved in the tamarins’ capture and had also taken part in medical procedures involving the animals. And while the researchers weren’t able to explain just exactly what the monkeys were communicating under their breath in the staffer’s presence, it’s worth noting that every revolution begins with conspiratorial whispers.

Marcellus Shale Earth First! Aerial Blockade Celebrates 2 Weeks

27 Sep

DONATE TO THIS CAMPAIGN NOW! KEEP HELLBENDER & THEIR CREW SUPPLIED!

To get directly involved, reach a spokesperson for comment, or donate supplies (tarps, blankets, bulk foods, hand warmers, ropes, harnesses, carabiners, winter boots/clothing, etc.) please contact MarcellusEarthFirst@Riseup.net

Image

Just south of the “New York” and “Pennsylvania” border a battle is raging to defend the Loyalsock state forest in what isknown as Sullivan County, PA, about a half hour north of what is known as the city of Williamsport which lies at the southernmost part of traditional Haudenosaunee Confederacy territory. The high elevation wetlands, and mature forest ecosystems of Loyalsock are home to rare and threatened species such as the Timber Rattlesnake, Northern Water Shrew, Wild Sasparilla, and carnivorous Pitcher Plants. 114,494 acres of this lush forest sit atop the Marcellus Shale, an underground formation that spans from West Virginia to as far north as Ithaca, NY. Houston based corporation Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC) has been craving to penetrate this shale formation. APC has proposed developing 26 fracking well-padsalong with multiple pipelines, access roads, and other supporting infrastructure which are poised to devastate the lively streams that sustain all animal and plant life in the Loyalsock. In nearby, Sproul State Forest, Anadarko has spilled over 12,000 gallons of carcinogenic drilling mud. Andarko was also a key investor in British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in 2010 killing 11 workers and releasing 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico forever altering the ecosystem. APC was ordered to pay $272 million towards cleaning up the Gulf. Anadarko refused.

People united under the banner of, Marcellus Shale Earth First! (MSEF!), whose tagline is, “No Drilling! No Compromise!”, have sworn to defend the Loyalsock forest from Anadarko’s ecocidal ways.  On September 13th, two weeks ago today, the first aerial blockade was erected at the site of a proposed well pad. Should Anadarko continue with their plans, activists say there could be many more blockades in this forest. High in the canopy of the forest  sits a brave tree sitter on a platform who chooses to identify themselves as Hellbender, the name of the giant salamander of the North East who makes it’s home in the Loyalsock forest.  Continue reading

Sabotaging the Badger Cull

21 Sep

badger-009

By Josh Loeb and Maya Oppenheim / Hackney Citizen

Badger cull ‘sabs’ from Hackney have travelled to the heart of the countryside where government marksmen are engaged in shooting the animals.

Some cull saboteurs have been living at ‘Camp Badger’, an encampment in rural Somerset, for weeks and plan to stay until the start of next month.

They fear the cull in Somerset – one of two pilots being carried out over a period of six weeks – will kill 70 per cent of badgers in the area.

Lisa Brown, 32, from Clapton, said: “The shooters aim to kill 80 badgers a night for it to be successful. This cull can best be described as a badger genocide.”

Continue reading

Occupied Abenaki Lands Desecrated by 9/11 Memorial Protesters Intervene to Address U.S. Imperialism & Genocide

15 Sep

reposted from Indigenous Action Media

U.S. flag receptacle

U.S. flag receptacle

Middlebury College, VT — At 3:00PM on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, five protesters removed thousands of flags desecrating occupied Abenaki lands. The U.S. flags were part of a 9/11 memorial established by Middlebury College students.

Amanda Lickers, a member of the Onondowa’ga Nation, states, “In the quickest moment of decision making, in my heart, I understood that lands where our dead may lay must not be desecrated. In my community, we do not pierce the earth. It disturbs the spirits there, it is important for me to respect their presence.”

“For over 500 years our people have been under attack. The theft of our territories, the devastation of our waters; the poisoning of our people through the poisoning of our lands; the theft of our people from our families; the rape of our children; the murder of our women; the sterilization of our communities; the abuse of generations; the uprooting of our ancestors and the occupation of our sacred sites; the silencing of our songs; the erasure of our languages and memories of our traditions. I have had enough.” stated Lickers.

Lickers was at the college to facilitate a workshop on Settler Responsibility and Decolonization. Continue reading

Massive Mine Proposed at Oak Flat, Sacred Tribal Land

8 Sep
San Carlos Apache Tribe says its spiritual beings reside here, off of Gaan Canyon

San Carlos Apache Tribe says its spiritual beings reside here, off of Gaan Canyon

from AZStar

The planned Rosemont Copper Mine just south of Tucson isn’t the only mining controversy in Arizona.

It isn’t even the biggest.

About 100 miles north of Tucson, Resolution Copper Mining wants to build a mine in Superior, a town of 2,800 people, that could yield 1 billion pounds of copper a year. That’s more than four times the projected output for Rosemont Copper’s planned mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, which would produce an estimated 243 million pounds of copper annually.

Continue reading

Wharton Coal Prep Plant Spill Turns Boone County, WV River White

8 Sep

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By Alanna AutlerWOWK-TV

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection confirmed that a chemical spill from Eastern Associated Coal, a Patriot subsidiary, turned a river off Pond Fork Rd. in Wharton a milky shade of white.

More than 2,000 gallons of a white substance, called DT-50-D, spilled into the river after a spill that occurred some time after 10 p.m. Sept. 4.

The substance is generally used as a suppressant to cover coal and rail cars to cut down on the dust they can spread. Its consistency has the appearance of milky latex.

Continue reading