by at Al Jazeera America February 13, 2014
Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the massive coal ash spill into North Carolina’s Dan River, targeting both the energy company responsible for the ash pond that leaked and the state’s environmental regulator. Continue reading
by Amanda Lickers from Reclaim Turtle Island
As yall know, self-representation and independent media are key.
You might have heard about Reclaim Turtle Island , which is a budding platform for Indigenous-run grassroots media projects. Right now we need your support! Literally all across Turtle Island, Indigenous Nations are combating reservation apartheid and industrial genocide. This means fierce ‘n’ frontline resistance to resource extraction! Everything from tar sands, pipelines, fracking, to mining, Land Defenders are throwing down to protect our lands and build up our communities, regaining identity and reclaiming territories.
Born in late 2013, we focused on supporting the Mi’kmaq Warriors fighting fracking, and put out our first short film! Co-produced with subMedia.tv, titled Kahsatstenhsera – Indigenous Resistance to Tar Sands Pipelines.
Reclaim Turtle Island is a form of anti-colonial cultural production and is primarily focused on producing media for and by Indigenous folks, helping to inspire to strive for total liberation. We are raising funds for a few simple reasons.
#1 is equipment. We want to produce high-quality short films that educate and elevate! This means audio, post-production editing tools, data storage (so many hard drives), etc!
The other main reason is that we are in the midst of production right now!!!!
*Funds from this project will go to:
Film production, including Dine’ resistance to frack-sand mining, uranium mining and cultural revitalization and sovereignty projects, Lakota and Ponca resistance to tar sands pipelines, Innu resistance to Plan Nord, and more…
Travel for an ACFN grassroots organizer to attend an important gathering in Lakota territory, marking their 2014 Liberation Day and furthering conversations about tar sands resistanc…
Equipment needed for film-production, such as audio, post-production editing, etc…
Even a small donation will help us reach our goal!!
Nia:wen’kowa – Great thanks! Your support can help make this happen.
Twitter @defendourlands / Facebook
(amanda lickers, turtle clan/ onondowa’ga haudenosaunee is a curator for Reclaim Turtle Island an anti-pipeline organizer based in tiotiah:ke, so-called montreal @amandalickers)
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.
by Ryan Koronowski / Think Progress
Credit: (AP Photo/University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, David Giessel)
The FAA issued an approval in July that paved the way for a “major energy company” to fly unmanned drones in U.S. airspace. Yesterday it became clear which corporation would be using drones to aid its Alaskan oil drilling efforts: ConocoPhillips.
This marks the first time a private company has received permission to fly “unmanned aircraft systems,” UAS — or drones — in America for non-experimental purposes.
“Until now, obtaining an experimental airworthiness certificate — which specifically excludes commercial operations — was the only way the private sector could operate UAS in the nation’s airspace,” the FAA announced last month. FAA hailed the move as “a milestone that will lead to the first approved commercial UAS operations later this summer.”
“A major energy company plans to fly the ScanEagle off the Alaska coast in international waters starting in August.”
That “major energy company” is ConocoPhillips, as reported by Petroleum News.
AeroVironment, one of the two companies that manufacture the drones approved for use by ConocoPhillips, hailed the approval at the time: “This marks the first time the FAA has approved a hand-launched unmanned aircraft system for commercial missions.”
Charleston, W.Va. – This morning at 7:30 a.m. two activists paddled out onto the 2.8 billion gallon Shumate slurry impoundment in Raleigh County with banners reading, “Slurry Poisons Appalachia” and “Gov. Tomblin, Put Health Over Profit.” Later this morning, one activist locked himself to a barrel of black water in front of Gov. Tomblin’s mansion in a Tyvek suit reading “Locked to Dirty Water”. Activists are calling attention to the failure of the state government to protect its citizens from the abuses of the coal industry and the threats posed by coal slurry disposal.
“I grew up in Eunice drinking water poisoned by coal slurry, went to Marsh Fork Elementary under that dam, breathed the dust from that prep plant, and I’ve suffered the lifelong health consequences of that. These same abuses are taking place today across our great state, and the blame for that lies squarely at the feet of Gov. Tomblin,” said Junior Walk of Rock Creek, W.Va. who attended today’s protest at the Governor’s mansion.
Coal slurry, the toxic byproduct of “washing” impurities out of coal before it is sold, has long been a matter of deep concern for area residents. Its common disposal methods have created tragic disasters such as poisoning the public water supplies of Prenter and Eunice, W.Va., and slurry floods in Martin County, Ky., and Buffalo Creek, W.Va.. Despite this, evidence mounts that West Virginia regulators continue to fail at adequately regulating impoundments.
from RAMPS
Charleston, W.Va. – This morning at 7:30 a.m. two activists paddled out onto the 2.8 billion gallon Shumate slurry impoundment in Raleigh County with banners reading, “Slurry Poisons Appalachia” and “Gov. Tomblin, Put Health Over Profit.” Later this morning, one activist locked himself to a barrel of black water in front of Gov. Tomblin’s mansion in a Tyvek suit reading “Locked to Dirty Water”. Activists are calling attention to the failure of the state government to protect its citizens from the abuses of the coal industry and the threats posed by coal slurry disposal.
More Full Time Direct Action campaigns about to kick off this Summer…
At the 2012 Earth First! Rendezvous, during the 4th in a series of workshops intending to “Give EF! a Kick in the Ass,” facilitators proposed what was initially called the “FTDA Pledge” [FTDA = Full Time Direct Action]. The result was a list of people who expressed the desire to be contacted when crucial campaigns were in need of support at critical times.
The workshop discussed what sort of criteria would be used in making these “call-outs” for support.
What was decided together was that they should be: (1) Strategic and well thought-out campaigns, (2) Community-led with strong local organizing looking for support, (3) Against mega-infrastructure
With goals being strong participation in actions that can strengthen the EF! network; renew the culture and spirit of ecological resistance; and radicalize other movements, groups and individuals.
According to EF!ers on the ground last year in East Texas, the Tar Sands Blockades fit very squarely in these criteria, so we called for support from EF! activists around the US, and they came.
There has since been a suggestion to call the FTDA pledge “the Crunch” (a nod to the Movement for a New Society), highlighting the limited window of space that is often present for a rapid escalation of direct action tactics and strategy.
The following text is modified from an email sent out to EF! activists nationwide regarding organizing efforts which have been discussed and found to also fit the above criteria. If you can plug in to these campaigns over the next few weeks with skills, supplies, time, energy, funds, etc, it could be pivotal moments for the growth of the movement.
Check out the details below. Send it out over local EF! lists. Hope to see you out there. Continue reading
by Jeffry Ruigendijk / Al Jazeera
One of Abu Zechariah’s sons covers his mouth and nose while working with the refinery to avoid inhaling smoke emitted from the rusty tank.
Ras al-Ain, Syria – Abu Zechariah and his two sons are farmers in the Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain, in northeastern Syria. They are one of many families throughout Syria that have decided to start privately refining crude oil as a way to make money.
Trucks come from Ramlan to Ras al-Ain, where they then begin to extract the low-quality fuel using rudimentary and dangerous equipment.
Rival rebel groups and regime forces continue to battle for control of strategic oil and gas fields in Syria’s northeast. Since the war began, local demand for oil has soared due to the disruption in supply from the West, which has led to small, privately owned refineries being built throughout Syria. Though profitable, this process of refining “rock oil” is unhealthy, and explosions are always a risk.
Cross posted from KPAX
MISSOULA – The giant load of equipment has been parked in Bonner all day after navigating its way off the Bitterroot Divide, and through a handful of protesters that turned out overnight Tuesday in Missoula.
This load being moved by Oregon-based Omega Morgan is water purification equipment bound for the Alberta Tar Sands oil fields. Previous “megaloads” two years ago had generated some protests, and lawsuits, that eventually halted shipments for a time over the Lolo route.
But this shipment has struck an even sharper note with opponents, including environmentalists, local residents and the Nez Pearce Tribe, who turned out last week to slow the load as it made its Idaho crossing.
However, the shipment had a much easier time coming through Missoula. For the first time, a “megaload” made it all the way from Lolo Pass and through the Garden City in a single night. About 30 protesters showed up on Reserve Street, briefly blocking the way until officers convinced them to move along or face arrest.
reposted from Unist’ot’en Camp
We cannot fight for our space on Mother Earth using colonial tactics; autonomous self-determination includes asserting our responsibility to defend ourselves by any means necessary. No surrender. No compromise.
August 8, 2013 – On the unceded lands of our Beautiful Turtle Island
Emerging from the 4th Annual Unist’ot’en Action camp grassroots members of the present nations have formed an alliance against industrial exploitation within their respective sovereign territories.
We have been suffering assault after assault at the hands of the settler nation since first contact. Our land, water, and freedom are continuously abused for profit to feed the genocidal wave of corporate greed. Indigenous nations are facing an onslaught of industrial exploitation and expansion that is outright killing our Peoples and all that sustains us. We recognize that we are all connected and that our decisions affect other nations. We have an inherent responsibility to ensure our actions are not negatively impacting our neighbouring nations and will not tolerate others who are inflicting harm on our Peoples. Emerging from this responsibility we formed the Indigenous Action Alliance.
EF! DAM
Ecodefense
Earth First! Newswire 