Update on tar sands megaloads in the Northern Rockies

Cross Posted from Wild Idaho Rising Tide Facebook Page

TWO MORE TAR SANDS MEGALOADS ON HIGHWAY 12 ON MONDAY & TUESDAY.

We received this news release today and will provide monitoring and protesting prompts soon:

Equipment shipments may travel on U.S. 12 starting Monday

BOISE — Over-legal equipment shipments could start moving on U.S. 12 as early as Monday if weather conditions are favorable, the Idaho Transportation Department announced.

Omega Morgan is transporting two shipments eastbound on U.S. 12 to Montana. They will enter Idaho from the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Wash., using Idaho 128.

Celebrate a global justice holiday today at the EF! Film Fest! in Lake Worth

Thirteen years ago today, a grassroots movement took to the streets of Seattle and shut the city down, effectively ruining the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) summit and turning the global tide against corporate rule. Four years later, we faced off with the one of the most well-funded police forces in the world in the streets of Miami to expose the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) summit.

This evening we will be celebrating these amazing events of Novembers past at the first annual Earth First! Film Fest, hosted by the EF! Journal Collective, with independent films from about the mobilizations in Miami and Seattle, along with other films on industrial globalization and its discontents.

Dozens Wounded in Mayanmar Coppermine Protest

Cross Posted from Twin Cities

Security forces used water cannons, tear gas and smoke bombs to clear protesters from a copper mine in northwestern Myanmar, wounding villagers and Buddhist monks in the biggest use of force against demonstrators since the reformist government of President Thein Sein took office last year.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who arrived in the area hours later on a previously scheduled visit, said she would try to negotiate a solution.

Monks and other protesters had serious burns after the crackdown at the Letpadaung mine near the town of Monywa. Protesters who oppose the mine’s impact on villagers and the environment had occupied the area for 11 days.

Opposition to frack waste in Ohio continues to grow

Rally on Nov 28 after ODNR kicks public out of “open house”

Ohio-based direct action group Appalachia Resist! released the following statement today:

Last night, Nov 28, soon after the ODNR invited the public into an “open house” about  injection wells, they thought better of it and ordered the public to leave. 

Though over 100 community members requested a public hearing about a newly permitted well, the ODNR had instead opted for an “open house” format, designed to diffuse agency accountability and community solidarity.

Tar Sands Blockaders Lock Themselves to Trucks Outside Valero’s Houston Refinery

Activists Begin Sustained Hunger Strike, Demand That Valero Divest from Keystone XL Pipeline

HOUSTON, TX – THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012 8:00AM –-Longtime Gulf Coast activists Diane Wilson and Bob Lindsey Jr. have locked their necks to oil tanker trucks destined for Valero’s Houston Refinery in solidarity with Tar Sands Blockade’s protests of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. Valero Energy Corp. is among the largest investors in TransCanada’s toxic tar sands pipeline that will terminate near the community of Manchester, located in the shadow of Valero’s refinery. Not only are Wilson and Lindsey blockading the Valero refinery, the two lifelong friends have also vowed to begin a sustained hunger strike demanding that Valero divest from Keystone XL and invest that money into the health and well-being of the people of Manchester.

With a 90% Latino population, Manchester’s relationship with the Valero refinery is a textbook case of environmental racism. Residents there have suffered through decades of premature deaths, cancers, asthma and other diseases attributable to the refinery emissions. With little financial support for lawsuits and without the political agency necessary to legislatively reign-in criminal polluters like Valero, the community suffers while Valero posts record profits.

Genetically Engineered Labeling Campaign in the US

Mice with tumors caused by GE Foods

Genetic engineering (GE) is not disclosed on product labels, giving consumers no idea what kind of scientific tinkering has been done to the growing number of food items that use technology to create “better” foods. While consumers are often fooled by generic labeling such as “natural ingredients,” they are also being lead to believe that genetic engineering not only produces a better product but that it can help world hunger. Some of us have seen through the industry’s myths. But, what about the consumers who are not hip to the dangers GE foods are doing to our bodies, minds and environments?

Resistance sprouts against Bt maize in India

Cross Posted from India Times

CHANDIGARH: Even as Punjab government is showing keenness to introduce Bt maize in the state by giving go-ahead to Monsanto to set up a research and development centre for the crop, the decision has ruffled feathers of environmentalists who are grouping for an agitation against it.

While farmer groups are divided on the issue of introduction of Bt maize, Kheti Virasat Mission, an environment organization that led the front for banning of Bt brinjal, is up in arms against the government and planning to hit the streets in protest. “No state in the country has given a go-ahead to Bt maize as its detrimental impact on health, if it enters food chain, is well documented. The state governments logic that a private company will help the government work towards food safety and security is flawed as corporate firms are interested only in profits,” said Umendera Dutt, heading Kheti Virasat Mission.

Mapuche Indians Fight New Airport in Southern Chile

 

The Rofue community centre, covered with slogans from the Mapuche struggle for land and rights. Credit: Marianela Jarroud/IPS

TEMUCO, Chile , Nov 28 2012 (IPS) – “This is a project that reflects the occupation…of Mapuche territory,” said Iván Reyes, an indigenous leader staunchly opposed to the construction of an international airport in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía.

Reyes, an agricultural technician, said the construction project was approved thanks to an environmental impact study “based on lies” that was carried out by Arcadis Geotécnica, the Chilean subsidiary of a Netherlands-based international consulting and engineering company.

Demonstrators rally in Westwood against ‘fracking’

Demonstrators from a slew of environmental groups across Bergen County took to the streets this morning in Westwood to rally against Governor Christie‘s move to veto a bill banning hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” waste in New Jersey.The clique of protesters from Pascack Sustainability Group, Food and Water Watch, Climate Mama and Suburban Foragers walked around carrying colorful signboards reading, “Don’t let frack waste poison our water,” “I love clean air” and “Ban Fracking Now. What the Frack” before they gathered around the grounds of the legislative office of District 39 Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi, who voted in favor of the bill in June.

French police fire tear gas on second day of airport protest

crossposted from RT.com

[Read about last month’s epic eviction attempt of La ZAD here on the EF! Newswire]

Eight people were arrested and three injured after protesters clashed with police in western France, as authorities tried to evict protesters camping on a future airport site located on protected swampland in Notre-Dame-des-Landes.

Officers fired tear gas, and protesters retaliated with gas bombs and stones. The activists claim that the future airport will destroy woodland in the area and cause pollution.

On Friday, French police fired tear gas in hopes of dispersing the demonstrators, while protesters responded by hurling bottles, stones and firecrackers, slightly injuring a police officer and two television journalists. Police deployed two backhoes and a large waste receptacle while attempting to clear the site.

Rallies were also held in Paris and Nantes in support of the airport protesters, and several dozen demonstrators were arrested in the French capital.

The airport is planned to be built near the city of Nantes in western France by 2017 to replace the area’s existing airport. The project has the backing of Socialist Party Prime Minister Ayrault, who was the mayor of Nantes from 1989 until this year.

France’s Green Party and several other politicians opposed the construction of the airport over environmental concerns.