Prominent Russian environmentalist sentenced in Pussy Riot trial

Maria Alekhina, center, a member of feminist punk group Pussy Riot is escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012. The trio Pussy Riot face up to seven years behind bars after staging a performance in a Moscow cathedral calling on the Virgin Mary to remove President Putin from power. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

One member of the punk trio, Maria Alekhina, has a history of involvement with environmental , working with Greenpeace Russia, and animal liberation activism (she has a support page demanding vegan food in prison).

During trial, prosecutors reportedly tried to humiliate her for her ecological activism. Meanwhile the Russian Orthodox church is building on more than 500 acres of parks and other green spaces in Moscow.

The group was found guilty of “hooliganism” two days ago and sentenced each to two years

Nuclear warhead factory shut down by protests

Sister Megan Rice, center, 82, and Michael Walli, back waving, 63, were greeted by supporters when they arrived at Federal Court Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012 in Knoxville. The third protester Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, is still in custody and was brought by authorities from the Blounty County jail. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

The Y-12 Uranium bomb-making plant was closed for two weeks after anti-nuke peace activists breached security and redecorated the place a bit last month.

On August 9, a federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment against the Y-12 protesters, consolidating the previous charges lodged against them and adding another felony count of “depredation” of government property, involving cutting, painting and defacing that resulted in damages exceeding $1,000.

Salmon First! Action Camp Against Mining in Alaska

During the weekend of September 14-16, Castle Mountain Coalition, the Alaska Action Center, and partner organizations will be sponsoring the first annual Alaska Mining Action Camp. The event will be held at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) on Farm Loop Road outside of Palmer, Alaska.

We have invited a number of activists, organizers, trainers, and community members who are involved in the movement to abolish mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. We will hear about the impacts of large scale surface mining from those who live with it every day. We will learn about community organizing and resistance from those involved in a struggle against King Coal that dates back over one hundred years. The camp will consist of workshops, activities, entertainment, and discussion. The focus will be on community organizing, building solidarity across cultural and social divides

Earth First! group calls for eco-action during RNC in Tampa

EEF! blockades Loxahatchee FPL plant construction, 2008

by Clinton Tyree

Organizers from Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) invite eco-activists far and wide to join us in bringing our message to the RNC this month.

While we stand in solidarity with those who will be out struggling for social and economic justice, we also feel there is a need to contribute an action-based analysis which views the ecological crisis as a central concern for those of us struggling to change the direction of this society.

BREAKING: Blockade Stops Construction of Keystone XL

Cross Posted from TarSandsBlockade.org

**UPDATE 12:40PM – Our first action in Oklahoma! TransCanada is starting construction at the beginning of the  Keystone XL route in Cushing, Oklahoma. Tar Sands Blockade organizers are there with a clear message, that while this project has started, we will not allow it to be finished.  

**UPDATE 11:30AM – As TransCanada quietly breaks ground on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline landowner advocates climb atop stacks of pipes in an East Texas construction yard. Organizers unfurled a banner and flew a “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden Flag to demonstrate the diverse and unlikely alliance of environmentalists and Tea Partiers who all oppose Keystone XL.

‘A Great Victory’: Controversial Brazilian Dam Construction Halted

Cross Posted from Common Dreams

A victory came to activists in Brazil on Tuesday when a federal judge halted construction on the controversial Belo Monte dam in the Amazon, saying that the indigenous peoples had not been consulted.

The impacts of the dam, which would have been the third largest hydro-electric dam in the world, had long been slammed by indigenous groups and environmental activists who said that it would have displaced thousands and wreaked havoc upon the ecosystem while contributing to greenhouse gases.

Animal Liberation News

Animal Liberation graphicFur Farmers Release Guide to Prepare for ALF Raid Season

Fur Farmers Release Guide to Prepare for ALF Raid Season

The Fur Commission website is full of information for fur farmers of America, including classic definitions like this one, that assure the farmers that they are protected by the US Government:

ECOTERRORISM: ”The FBI defines eco-terrorism as the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.” James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, FBI; Testimony to the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, Feb. 12, 2002.

The Commission also warn farmers that, “Historically, June is the beginning of “fur farm raiding season,”

Trapwire and the Creepy Dystopic Surveillance Empire You’ll Probably Get Accustomed To

Trapwire, the total-surveillance system, promises to make your life far more creepy, exposed and boring than any science fiction dystopia.

See the video below about Wikileaks newly release information about what Trapwire will mean to you:

Occupying the Montana Capitol… Again!

The Beehive Collective presents their “True Cost of Coal” poster in the occupied Montana capitol yesterday

“Greetings. I have been here since Friday working in Montana’s capital city, Helena, with the Coal Export Action team comprised of folks from Montana as well as from around the country and our movements.

We’ve been rocking it. To say the least. But it’s been busy days. Very busy days.

The Coal Export Action is an eight day series of rolling civil disobedience pressuring the Montana Land Board to prevent the mining of Otter Creek in southeast Montana and raise awareness about coal exports at large. We’ve been building buzz for it globally through social media and outreach to corporate media for months. Buzz has been building locally and regionally through organizational and one on one outreach.

Yesterday was the first day and 100 activists stormed into the Montana state capital

Teribe Tribe of Costa Rica Fights for Indigenous Autonomy, End to Hydroelectric Projects

by Jaime Lopez

Pablo Sibar, a grassroots leader from the Teribe native tribe of Costa Rica celebrated the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9^th with a protest before the National Assembly. He has been doing so over the last ten years, sometimes at the steps of the Assembly, others just outside the Presidential Office in Zapote. Mr. Sibar wants the voice of his people heard on a legislative proposal that has been stuck at the Assembly for the last thirty years: autonomy for the indigenous people of Costa Rica.