Extinct Cockroach Bears Uncanny Resemblance to Jawa

by Erik Franco / Motherboard

Arizona State University scientists recently released their annual list of 10 recently discovered species, and among the otherworldly-looking group is a luminescent cockroach whose otherworldliness is less hyperbole and actually quite specific. The glowing roach is a spitting image of a Jawa. 

38 Hawaiian Species Awarded Endangered Species Act Protection

by the Center for Biological Diversity

‘Awikiwiki photo by Forest Starr. Photos are available for media use.

HONOLULU— In response to a landmark settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today protected 35 plants and three tree snails on the Hawaiian islands of Molokai, Lanai, Maui and Kahoolawe under the Endangered Species Act.

“Part of what makes Hawaii such a special place is that it is home to some of the most magnificent species on Earth. Endangered Species Act protection will give these extraordinary plants and snails a real shot at survival,” said Tierra Curry, a conservation biologist with the Center. “We sought protection for many of these species almost a decade ago, so we’re thrilled they’re finally getting the help they need.”

Unmasking Chile’s Hooded Protest Movement

[the following report on anarchist and violent protest in Chile was produced by a corporate news source, and while informed and detailed, the opinions therein do not reflect the opinions of the Earth First! Journal. It is cross-posted for discussion and analysis]

by Gideon Long / BBC News

They turn up to almost every demonstration in the Chilean capital Santiago and hurl stones, petrol bombs and even acid at the police.

They spray the walls of the city with graffiti and attack journalists who try to film or photograph them.

They are the “encapuchados” or “hooded ones”, and they have become a regular feature of the protests that have convulsed Chilean society over the past two years.

Protests Over Gas Pipeline in Mtwara Turn Violent, Military Deployed

by Deodatus Balile in Dar es Salaam / Sabahi

Police are dispatched to patrol the streets of Dar es Salaam on Thursday (May 23rd) after violence erupted in Mtwara over the construction of a gas pipeline. [Deodatus Balile/Sabahi]

The Tanzanian government is deploying the People’s Defence Force to Mtwara after mass protests staged by residents opposed to the construction of a gas pipeline from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam turned violent.

Minister of Home Affairs Emmanuel Nchimbi announced the decision to parliament on Thursday (May 23rd). He said the government decided to maintain “law and order” in Mtwara, and should not be blamed for steps taken against aggressors.

Some people in Mtwara were spreading brochures calling on residents to protest with violence against the Ministry of Energy and Minerals budget, which was tabled in parliament Wednesday, if the minister responsible did not promise to stop the gas pipe construction, which has been some residents’ long standing demand, Nchimbi told lawmakers.

Indigenous Peoples Protest Outside International Hydropower Association’s Congress in Malaysia

by Save Sarawack Rivers

KUCHING May 22nd: At 11am today, SAVE Rivers and 300 indigenous people from all around Sarawak protested outside the Borneo Convention Center Kuching where the International Hydropower Association’s biennial congress is being held.

Idle No More & Defenders of the Land “Sovereignty Summer” Call To Action

From Solidarity Spring To Sovereignty Summer: An International Callout To All Indigenous Peoples, Supporters, Allies Of Idle No More & Defenders Of The Land

by Idle No More

Over the past few months, Idle No More has ignited a spiritual fire in the hearts of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples to come together to address issues related to: Honoring Treaties and Indigenous Sovereignty, Human Rights, Deepening Democracy reflecting a meaningful Nation to Nation relationship, and increasing Environmental Protections and protecting Mother Earth.

In March, Idle No More joined forces with Defenders of the Land to launch a Declaration that calls on all People to participate in a campaign that was called “Solidarity Spring” and “Sovereignty Summer”.

Idle No More and Defenders of the Land are now transitioning into Sovereignty Summer and people are calling for increased and escalated activities. The actions aim to bring attention to the Harper government agenda that undermines the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Canadian citizens, and the ongoing policies disrupting Indigenous peoples’ lives – such as land claims, third party management, and no free and prior consent to development on Indigenous lands. We are in a critical time where lives, lands, waters and Creation are at-risk and they must be protected.

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Challenges New Shell Tar Sands Mines

BY John Ahni Schertow

ACFN Indigenous people living downstream from the tar sands explain in their own words why they are saying enough is enough.

Shell Canada is proposing two new tar sands mine projects in northern Alberta, Canada. From the perspective of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations (ACFN), whose lands will be affected by both Shell mines, governments are not fulfilling the promises of Treaty 8. This has led them to file a challenge to the Jackpine Mine proposal under section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.

Learn more at 

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Tar Sands

Narwhals and Unicorns

by the Center for Biological Diversity

The so-called unicorn horns once prized by Renaissance collectors and thought to have magical powers likely belonged not to mythical white horses but to the chunky, odd-looking whales we know as narwhals, which are now among the marine animals threatened by climate change in the far North. Narwhals are hunted by Inuit, polar bears and orca, and mostly live in Canada and western Greenland.

Narwhals’ long, single tusk, it turns out, is in fact an 8-foot-long spiral tooth whose evolutionary mysteries have baffled scientists for decades. Now Martin Nweeia of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine has discovered that narwhals’ extraordinary-looking megatooth actually contains 10 million hypersensitive nerve connections, which can suss out changes in water temperature, water pressure and “particle gradients,” helping the animals navigate and hunt. In other words, these “unicorn horns” do have magical properties after all.

Frackalypse Now: Fossil Fuel Industry’s Psychological Warfare Scandal

By Brendan Demelle / DeSmog Blog

DeSmogBlog partnered with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore to produce this spoof video in the vein of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Making its debut today in honor of Gasland 2, Frackalypse Now features the details of the gas industry’s psychological warfare scandal.

As we originally reported on DeSmogBlog in November 2011: 

At the Media & Stakeholder Relations: Hydraulic Fracturing Initiative 2011 conference [in Nov. 2011] in Houston, Matt Pitzarella, director of corporate communications and public affairs at Range Resources, revealed in his presentation that Range has hired Army and Marine veterans with combat experience in psychological warfare to influence communities in which Range drills for gas.  

Wild & Queer Ecologies

by Russ McSpadden / from the 30th Anniversary Edition of the Earth First! Journal, Vol. I, 2010

Wilderness, the biodiversity of life that exists where sexual creativity and adventure flourish, is pan-sexual, poly-gendered, orgiastic and playful. The sun engages the soil with titillating light, radiation, chemical explosion and the magnetism of its flaring body in a queer ecology that spreads across the Earth.

Flora cast their seed through the embracing bodies of wind and water. Bees enter their petals. Male hummingbirds, moist from floral nectar, thrust frantically to forest canopies to copulate together — not for reproduction, but joy. Groups of female bottle nose dolphins use tails and fins to massage each others genitals, entering the folds of their sexual openings. Female hedgehogs perform cunnilingus. Male African elephants, female grizzly bears, white-tailed deer and flamingos form homosexual bonding trios. Canadian gees and black swans form bisexual trios. West Indian manatees cavort in polyamorous bisexual orgies. Lesbian bird pairs, which engage with males for reproduction only, often exhibit larger nests with more eggs than heterosexual pairings. Transgendered animals thrive. Bighorn sheep, which live in sex-segregated herds for most of the year, nevertheless exhibit male-sexed individuals that adopt female-sexed behavior patterns and remain year-round in the female-sexed herds. Numerous species of fish and bear undergo the their sexual and reproductive system to other sexualities. Testes transition to ovaries. Ovaries transition to include testes. Gender playfulness and genderlessness teem.

To date, scientists have recorded the queer lives of gray wolves, red fox, elk, bison, kestrels, barn owls, ravens, monarch butterflies, walrus, bats, giraffes, lions, penguins, hyenas, dragonflies, humans and so on, to a total of 1,500 species and counting.