New Rules to Address Fracking on Indian Lands

Piedmont Earth First!

 

Reposted from Navajo Times

By Alysa Landry
Special to the Times

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2013

 

H Hydraulic fracturing on Indian land may become more difficult under new rules proposed by the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management.

The Interior Department on May 16 issued new draft rules for hydraulic fracturing on public and Indian lands.

Fracturing, or “fracking,” is the process of drilling and injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to crack shale formations and unlock oil and gas.

The process is controversial because fracking releases methane gas and other toxic chemicals, which can contaminate nearby groundwater. This can be especially dangerous on the 56 million acres of Indian land in the country. On the more isolated reservations like the Navajo Nation, people and livestock depend on well water for drinking, cooking and washing.

Approximately 500,000…

View original post 775 more words

Eco-Blogger Attacked in Russia After Exposing Chrome Factory Pollution

by Andrey Tselikov / Global Voices

A cliff on the Chusovaya River. One of the color photographs made in 1912 by Prokudin-Gorsky. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Environmental protection has become a dangerous area of public activism in Russia—at least where industrial pollution is concerned. This is because eco-activists often directly oppose regional business interests, who sometimes react with force. A case in point: on May 9, 2013, unknown assailants attacked and severely beat an eco-blogger from the mid-sized industrial town of Pervouralsk (located 40 km from Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains). The blogger, Stepan Chernogubov, claims that the assault was in retaliation for the publicity he is creating over a local chrome manufacturer dumping waste into the picturesque Chusovaya River.

Lakota to File UN Genocide Charges Against US, South Dakota

by Jeff Armstrong / Counterpunch

In April, a grassroots movement led by Lakota grandmothers toured the country to build support for a formal complaint of genocide against the United States government and its constituent states. Though temporarily overturned, the recent conviction of Efrain Rios Montt for genocide against indigenous Guatemalans should give US officials, particularly members of the Supreme Court, pause before dismissing the UN petition as a feeble symbolic gesture.

The tribal elders’ 12-city speaking tour culminated in an April 9 march on United Nations headquarters in New York and an April 18 press conference in Washington, D.C., where the Supreme Court had just heard arguments in a challenge to the landmark 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Attracting support from Occupy Wall Street and other non-Native allies in the New York march, the Lakota Truth Tour delegation was physically blocked by UN security officers from presenting Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s office a notice of charges against the U.S. under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Turkish Activists Resist Destruction of Taksim Square Park

Cross Posted from National Turk

A simple protest by Turkish citizens against the cutting down of trees in the center of Taksim Square in Istanbul turned into a great opportunity for riot police to break out the pepper spray.

Local demonstrators and a number of parliamentary deputies partially blocked the demolition of the last green public space in the center of Istanbul on May 28, despite police forces again resorting to tear gas to disperse the group. The struggle eventually transformed into a night-long sit-in protest by the demonstrators.

“Acid Jobs” – A Hip New Alternative to Fracking

by Rabb!t / Earth First! Newswire

photo: rt.com

I seem to remember a time when sucking oil out of the ground and burning it into the atmosphere was all that climate change activists really had to worry about. But as that oil gets difficult to find and restrictions on unsustainable practices become increasingly commonplace, extraction companies are finding inventive, out-there ways of ruining the planet, and are giving them similarly inventive, out-there names. After years of fighting deep water drilling, mountain-top removal, tar sands extraction and hydrofracturing (fracking), environmentalists now have another crazy energy extraction supervillian to stand up to, and it goes by the name “Acid Jobs.”

Hundreds Protest Against Genetically Engineered Trees

Cross Posted from Global Justice Ecology Project

Hundreds of demonstrators marched on an international forest biotechnology industry conference yesterday, demanding a ban on the release of genetically engineered (GE) trees into the environment.

The protest, the largest yet against GE trees, occurred one day after two Asheville residents were arrested while disrupting a presentation, Engineering Trees for the Biorefinery.

Navajo Nation Plans to Deny Uranium Mining Company Permission to Transport Ore

by Associated Press / Washington Post

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A uranium mining company seeking a mineral lease on state land in northwestern Arizona could have a hard time transporting the ore off-site because of the Navajo Nation’s objections to an industry that left a legacy of death and disease among tribal members.The section of land in Coconino County is surrounded by the Navajo Nation’s Big Boquillas Ranch. The tribe has said it will not grant Wate Mining Company LLC permission to drive commercial trucks filled with chunks of uranium ore across its land to be processed at a milling site in Blanding, Utah.

The Navajo Nation was the site of extensive uranium mining for weapons during the Cold War. Although most of the physical hazards, including open mine shafts, have been fixed at hundreds of sites, concerns of radiation hazards remain.

The tribe banned uranium mining on its lands in 2005, and last year passed a law governing the transport of radioactive substances over its land. The ranch itself is not part of the reservation, although the Navajo Nation owns it.

“Given the (Navajo) Nation’s history with uranium mining, it is the nation’s intent to deny access to the land for the purpose of prospecting for or mining of uranium,” officials from the Navajo Department of Justice wrote in response to the mineral lease application.

Decolonizing Wild Roots Feral Futures

Wild Roots Feral Futures, as an event, takes place on stolen indigenous land. In recognition of this truth, we would like to build relationships with those whose occupied land Wild Roots Feral Futures 2013 occurs on. In this spirit, we would like to reach out to indigenous communities in our area to establish direct lines of communication and extend an invitation to join us at the event in June. We recognize that protocol varies from community to community and Nation to Nation, and we feel that a good first step on our part is to simply reach out and establish contact, as we are doing now. Although we do not expect to have our hands held for us, any contacts and/or guidance regarding specific appropriate protocol would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Feel free to contact us at feralfutures@riseup.net

Read more

Jeremy Hammond Pleads Guilty to Being Involved in the Stratfor Leak

Cross Posted from The Dissenter

The activist accused by the United States government of hacking into the private intelligence firm, Stratfor, and releasing the firm’s emails to WikiLeaks pled guilty to violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). He now faces up to ten years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 6 of this year.

Hammond wrote in a statement published on the “Free Jeremy Hammond” website that he had agreed to a “non-cooperating plea agreement” so he could finally tell the world what he had done and why, “without exposing any tactics or information to the government and without jeopardizing the lives and well-being of other activists on and offline.”“During the past 15 months I have been relatively quiet about the specifics of my case as I worked with my lawyers to review the discovery and figure out the best legal strategy. There were numerous problems with the government’s case, including the credibility of FBI informant Hector Monsegur,” he stated. “However, because prosecutors stacked the charges with inflated damages figures, I was looking at a sentencing guideline range of over 30 years if I lost at trial. I have wonderful lawyers and an amazing community of people on the outside who support me. None of that changes the fact that I was likely to lose at trial.”

The government would not have been willing to let him go free if he was found not guilty. They would have apparently continued to zealously pursue him for his involvement.

Hundreds of Thousands of Dead Fish Float to the Surface of Two Chinese Rivers

by Jake Maxwell Watts / Quartz

Last week was not a good time to be a fish in Yunnan. Just a few days apart, the southern Chinese province suffered two mass die-offs—around 100 tons of fish on a Nanpan River reservoir and a massive 1,200 tons on the Sinan River.

The causes are elusive, but it’s the fourth time that fish have died on the Nanpan in as many years. A previous incident in October 2009 raised suspicions that a chemical plant upriver may have been responsible. Pointing fingers seems like a natural response, given previous cases—just last week eight people were arrested, including legal representatives of a mining company, for deliberately dumping chemicals in another local river. And it’s not just Yunnan. A policeman who saved a 14-year-old girl from a Wenzhou city river on Friday also ended up in hospital from exposure to pollution.