Activists Blocking Coal Train in Germany

from Linksunten Indymedia

Rhineland Coalfield – Germany: Around 200 activists are occupying the coal train tracks which is the main way to transport coal between the open-cast coal mine “Hambach” to the big power plants which emit 100 millions tons of CO2 per year. The action is happening in solidarity with the Climate and Reclaim the Fields Camp that is taking place from August 23 to September 6 2013 in the Rhineland coalfield.

The activists went onto the tracks at around 1pm. At the time of writing (5.30pm), they are still there, surrounded by a lot of police. The fire fighters have arrived to fell trees, to make way for the police. It is expected that the occupation is going to be evicted within the next hours.

Already in the last two years, there have been blockades like this. The tracks are an extremely vulnerable point in the coal complex ca. 40km west of Cologne, which consists of three open cast lignite mines and four coal-fired power plants. Usually, wagons loaded with coal run here every 15 minutes to supply the power plants. The plants have storage capacity for only two days.

Honduras: Three Indigenous Murdered for Defending Territory from Resource Extraction

by Curtis Kline / Intercontinental Cry

photo: larepublica.pe

While carrying out peaceful actions to defend their territory from the illegal exploitation of natural resources and forest clearing, three Indigenous Tolupan from Yoro district in Honduras, María Enriqueta Matute, Armando Funez Medina and Ricardo Soto Funez, were murdered on Sunday.

At the time, the Tolupan community of San Francisco de Locomapa was carrying out a peaceful demonstration to protest the installation of a mine in their territories. Exercising their legitimate right to the protection of their environment and their livelihoods, the community organized a roadblock, preventing all vehicles from gaining access to any minerals.

Syria Intervention Plan Fueled by Oil Interests, Not Chemical Weapon Concern

by Nafeez Ahmed / The Guardian

U.N. chemical weapons experts visit people affected by an apparent gas attack, at a hospital in the southwestern Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

On 21 August, hundreds – perhaps over a thousand – people were killed in a chemical weapon attack in Ghouta, Damascus, prompting the US, UK, Israel and France to raise the spectre of military strikes against Bashir al Assad’s forces.

The latest episode is merely one more horrific event in a conflict that has increasingly taken on genocidal characteristics. The case for action at first glance is indisputable. The UN now confirms a death toll over 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom have been killed by Assad’s troops. An estimated 4.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. International observers have overwhelmingly confirmed Assad’s complicity in the preponderance of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Syrian people. The illegitimacy of his regime, and the legitimacy of the uprising, is clear.

Animal Rights Groups Infiltrate and Expose the Barbaric China Dog Meat Trade

by Last Chance for Animals & Animal Equality / Marketwired

ZHANJIANG, CHINA–(Marketwired – Aug 30, 2013) – Last Chance for Animals (LCA) and Animal Equality have joined forces to infiltrate the dog meat trade in China and expose the cruelty behind the slaughter of dogs for food. Undercover investigators, pretending to be part of the dog meat industry, entered several slaughterhouses and markets. Shocking footage and photos were taken of workers dragging terrified dogs across blood stained floors, bashing their skulls with metal poles and slitting their throats with knives. Other dogs, in paralyzing fear, are forced to watch while awaiting their turn to be tortured to death. Millions of people believe that cat and dog slaughter for human consumption is absolutely unacceptable.

At one slaughterhouse in Zhanjiang, the investigators noticed one trembling dog (later named Vita) trying to get their attention by scratching a metal door with her paw and staring with pleading eyes. The investigator explained, “We gained the trust of the workers, we then tricked them and managed to take Vita out.” Shortly after her rescue, Vita was taken to Europe and adopted by a caring family.

Vita, like millions of dogs every year in China, was probably stolen from a family before being butchered and sold for meat. It is estimated that approximately 50,000 dogs are killed each day in China for their meat or fur.

Navy: Training May Kill Hundreds Of Dolphins, Whales

by Audrey McAvoy / Huffington Post

HONOLULU — Navy training and testing could inadvertently kill hundreds of whales and dolphins and injure thousands over the next five years, mostly as a result of detonating explosives underwater, according to two environmental impact statements released by the military Friday.

The Navy said that the studies focused on waters off the East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, Southern California and Hawaii from 2014 through 2019, the main areas that the service branch tests equipment and trains sailors.

The studies were done ahead of the Navy applying to the National Marine Fisheries Service for permits for its activities. The Navy said that it if hadn’t done so and was later found to have harmed marine mammals, it would be found in violation of federal environmental law and have to stop its training and testing.

Most of the deaths would come from explosives, though some might come from testing sonar or animals being hit by ships.

Updates from the Buffalo Field Campaign

Public comments needed for year-round wild bison habitat in Montana, and BFC Roadshow announced!

from Buffalo Field Campaign

The Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) is the only group working in the field, everyday, to stop the slaughter and harassment of Yellowstone’s wild buffalo. Volunteers from around the world defend buffalo on their traditional winter habitat and advocate for their protection. Our daily patrols stand with the buffalo on the ground they choose to be on, and document every move made against them. Volunteers spend all day, from sunrise until sunset, watching and documenting actions taken against the buffalo. We run patrols from cars, skis and snowshoes to protect buffalo outside the park. Tactics range from video documentation to nonviolent civil disobedience.

TAKE ACTION: Comments Due September 13 on Year-Round Habitat

The public comment period is currently open on Montana’s proposal for some year-round bison habitat in both the Hebgen and Gardiner Basins, west and north of Yellowstone National Park. Comments are being accepted until 5pm on September 13, 2013.

Click here to send your comments now, and to review Montana’s Environmental Assessment.

Activists Start Public Hunger Strike by Stealing ‘Carbon Bomb’

by Sarah Moles / OverOurDeadBodies.net

Photo: Andrew Bartlett (foreground) and Ben Pennings. Photo credit is Katie Bennett.

Seven environmental activists today stole a ‘Carbon Bomb’ from the offices of transport company Aurizon (link www.aurizon.com.au) in Brisbane, Australia. The action signified the launch of their shop front hunger strike, pressuring Aurizon to withdraw planned capital from the largest coal complex in the world, planned for the Galilee Basin in their state of Queensland. Burning the coal from this complex is forecast to release over 700 million tons of carbon pollution each year, more than the total emissions Australia, the UK or Canada.

The hunger strike is part of the Over Our Dead Bodies (link www.OverOurDeadBodies.net) campaign, run by 40,000-strong Generation Alpha (link www.facebook.com/GenerationAlpha). Campaign coordinator Ben Pennings told the gathering media:

“We’re here because Aurizon plan to bail out debt-ridden Indian company GVK, allowing them to dig up the first 3 coal mines in the Galilee Basin. Mining the Galilee is like setting off a bomb. This amount of carbon pollution is a deadly catastrophe, an environmental crime. So we’ve taken this carbon bomb from Aurizon to symbolize our intentions to stop them.”

Last Call for Earth First! Journal Submissions: Samhain 2013

Hey Readers,

First off, thanks to everyone who has sent us submissions in the past few months! We have received amazing articles, stories, poetry, and even some stimulating hate mail. Y’all are holding it down, and thanks to you the next issue is going to be bursting at the seams with the heartbeat of revolution and the wild howls of eco-resistance.

While we are always accepting submissions to the Journal and Newswire, we would like to remind you all that the deadline for submissions for the next issue of the Journal, Samhain, is September 1st. The issue will be published digitally this year.

You can email submissions to collective@earthfirstjournal.org, or mail them to:

Earth First! Journal
PO Box 964
Lake Worth, FL 33460

We’d love to see anything you’d like to share, but are especially interested in original art, comics, and other creative pieces on the less-heavy side of things. It’s easy to get bogged down by ever-looming perfect storm of ecological destruction, so please, feel free to make us laugh!

Thanks, and keep an eye out for the next issue!

For the wild,
Earth First! Journal Collective

Destruction of Police Facility Claimed by UK Anarchist Groups as Response to Badger Cull

by Sunita Patel-Carstairs / The Telegraph

Radicals from two groups – the Angry Foxes Cell and the ACAB (All Coppers Are Bastards) – said they started the fire to coincide with the start of the cull.

They claim they poured accelerants on electrics at the half-built centre on Monday night and “left it with flames licking high”.

Their strike was part of a “night of action” against the authorities, which included attacking two vehicles used by prison security services.

A fire at a police training area in Portishead, Bristol, sends out a giant plume of smoke. An anarchist group opposed to the badger cull has claimed responsibility for the fire which gutted a £16million police firing range Photo: SWNS.com

Firefighters on Wednesday were still battling to extinguish the blaze at the Black Rock Quarry centre in Portishead, near Bristol, 36 hours after it was started.

The statement by the ‘Angry Foxes Cell in collaboration with ACAB’ said: “It put smiles on our faces to realise how easy it was to enter their gun club and leave a f*** you signature right in the belly of the beast, with a curious fox as our only witness.

Alpha Natural Resources Sued for Desecrating Family Cemetary with Mountain Top Removal Mine

by Associated Press / Washington Post

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Maria Gunnoe/Associated Press – In this June 2010 aerial photo released Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013 by Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, mining equipment is seen on a mountain top near a cemetery is inside the forested area on that tiny knob of land in the middle of the mine complex. Six southern West Virginia residents are suing Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources over damage to a family

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Six southern West Virginia residents are suing Alpha Natural Resources to stop further damage to a family cemetery they say has become “an island in the sky,” barely accessible and literally surrounded by a massive mountaintop-removal mining operation.

They sued Virginia-based Alpha and its Independence Coal Co. subsidiary in Boone County Circuit Court last week after discovering that activity at the Twilight Surface Mine has come within 30 feet of their ancestors’ graves in Jarrell Cemetery.

But Alpha spokesman Ted Pile said late Wednesday the lawsuit has no merit, and allegations that Alpha has “willfully and maliciously” violated a 100-foot buffer zone, toppled headstones and denied relatives access are false.

Alpha has instead “gone above and beyond the letter and spirit of the permit and the law” to protect both the cemetery and the relatives’ access to it, he said. Alpha also is offended by suggestions it would deliberately harm the cemetery, Pile said.

“Our miners are men and women of character who themselves have lost loved ones in the past and understand what these grave sites stand for and mean,” he said.

The cemetery sits on a tiny knob of tree-topped land in the middle of what the Jarrell family descendants say is one of the biggest strip mines east of the Mississippi.