Residents Blockade Injection Well One Week After 1,000 Gallon Fracking Waste Spill

[For updates check ohiofracktion.com]

Concerned residents blocked access to an injection well in Trumbull County this morning, protesting the failure of Ohio regulators to adequately test and monitor dumping of toxic fracking waste. At least one protestor has been arrested and at least two others have been detained.

Trumbull County residents, along with supporters from Frack Free Mahoning and Ohio Fracktion, are gathering at the well site on Sodom Hutchings Road in Vienna Township, to express concerns about the contents of the 1,000 gallons of fracking wastewater that spilled along five miles of road in Fowler Township, a nearby residential area on July 7.

Four chickens liberated from Oregon egg farm

This week, Bite Back received an anonymous communique from the Animal Liberation Front claiming responsibility for the liberation of four chickens from an Oregon factory farm. The ALF communique stated this was the same farm from which six hens were liberated in January.

The communique reads, in full:

“During the second week of May 2012, two activists entered an egg farm located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. 4 hens were removed from the premises and placed in good homes where they will live out the rest of their natural lives. This is the same farm where 6 hens were liberated last January.

This action was done to save these individual animals from the torture and misery intrinsic to industrialized egg production, as well as to demonstrate that although we may not be able to free every animal, we can free some. This was done in full solidarity with the anarchists and animal liberationists facing state repression here on the west coast and abroad.

Freeing the prisoners.
ALF

**We are intentionally omitting the name, address, and specifics of the farm targeted. The relatively small number of animals taken will most likely, once again, go unnoticed by the farmer and will hopefully allow us to take advantage of the non-existent security on this farm for future raids and investigations.”

Climate Activists Disrupt UK Energy Summit

cross posted from IndyMedia UK

Borisaurus Rex – Fossil Free Future

On May 3rd,  hundreds of protesters from climate and anti-cuts groups across the country teamed up to block the UK Energy Summit in the City of London. [1] They descended on the conference venue at 11.45 am, saying they intended to remain there to disrupt the UK Energy Summit. At least 300 protesters targeted all of the main entrances to the Summit venue, attempting to push past police to enter the conference.
The UK Energy Summit [2] involves CEOs of the Big Six energy companies, who have recently come under widespread criticism for drawing in record profits whilst one quarter of UK households have been pushed into fuel poverty. [3] The event took place at The Grange Hotel, near St Paul’s Cathedral.

The protest congregated at four locations before descending on the summit: Tate Modern, St Paul’s, City Thameslink and Canon St. En route to the summit venue, protesters used “any means necessary” to get their message out by using stickers, chalk and noise to draw attention to the protest. Once they arrived at The Grange Hotel, they attempted to enter the hotel building with banners and giant model dinosaurs as a reference to the outdated “dinosaur technology” of fossil fuels. Reports have been of police violence when at least two people were arrested, with one protester possibly knocked unconscious by police.

Washington Post Claims Environmental Activism has Declined Due to Increased FBI Presence, Let’s Plan Something!

Ben Kessler, a student at the University of North Texas and an environmental activist, was more than a little surprised that an FBI agent questioned his philosophy professor and acquaintances about his whereabouts and his sign-waving activities aimed at influencing local gas drilling rules.

“It was scary,” said Kessler, who is a national organizer for the nonviolent environmental group Rising Tide North America. He said the agent approached him this past fall and said that the FBI had received an anonymous complaint and were looking into his opposition to hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking.” The bureau respected free speech, the agent told him, but was “worried about things being taken to an extreme level.”

Even as environmental and animal rights extremism in the United States is on the wane, officials at the federal, state and local level are continuing to target groups they have labeled a threat to national security, according to interviews with numerous activists, internal FBI documents and a survey of legislative initiatives across the country.

Iowa Gov. Terry Brandstad (R) signed a law this month, backed by the farm lobby, that makes it a crime to pose as an employee or use other methods of misrepresentation to get access to operations in an attempt to expose animal cruelty. Utah passed a similar bill, nicknamed an “ag-gag” law, on Wednesday. Last month, Victor VanOrden, an activist in his mid-20s, received the maximum sentence of five years in prison under a separate Iowa law for attempting to free minks from one of the state’s fur farms.

At the same time, though, acts that might be defined as eco-terrorism are down. In recent years, the broad definition has included arson, setting mink free at fur farms, campaigns to financially bankrupt animal testing firms and protests in front of the homes of some of those firms’ executives.

Michael Whelan, executive director of Fur Commission USA, estimated that in the 1990s “there were close to 20 attacks per year on our farmers” and that since 2003 there have been fewer than two attacks a year on American mink farms.

Read entire article here.

Five Lakota Arrested for Forming Blockade on Pine Ridge Reservation

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Challenges.

PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION – Five Lakota were arrested Monday evening in Wanblee, South Dakota when they formed a blockade to halt a convoy of trucks going through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

At issue was there were two trucks that appeared to be hauling pipes through the reservation on their way to Canada. The new trucks that were delivered in Texas from South Korea were carrying pipes used for tar sands pipeline. Totran Transportation Services, Inc., a Canadian company apparently wanted to avoid paying the state of South Dakota $50,000 per truck or $100,000 to use its state highways. Instead Totran Transportation thought they would use the roads on the reservation. Some 75 Lakota thought otherwise.

The two trucks marked “oversize load” on them had in its convoy several pick up vehicles that were first spotted on the reservation in the late afternoon.

Once alerted about the convoy and its whereabouts, Alex and Debra White Plume decided to go and stop it. They were joined by others who formed a human blockade

Activists Detained Over Reef Protest

Great Barrier Reef

Police detained several environmental activists after they painted a sign on the side of a coal ship in Gladstone Harbour in central Queensland, Australia, saying the Great Barrier Reef is in danger.

About a dozen Anti-Coal activists led by Greenpeace staged a protest at Gladstone Harbour this morning.

Greenpeace spokeswoman Julie Macken says the activists used two boats to paint the message, “the reef is in danger” on the side of a coal ship.

Police took some of the protesters away in cars this morning.

A United Nations mission visited Gladstone today to assess the impact of gas and port developments on the reef. They declared a federal government claim that coal seam gas developments would have minimal impact on the Great Barrier Reef “may be untrue.”

Representatives from the organization will spend the next nine days visiting the reef

No Coal Eugene Banner Drop

(EUGENE, Ore.) – Yesterday at approximately 1:36 PM members of No Coal Eugene dropped a banner reading “STOP THE COAL TRAIN” from the parking garage on 10th and Oak in Eugene, Oregon.

This action was done in solidarity with Rocky Mountain Powershift and to bring attention to the coal trains that will soon be coming through Eugene.

In October 2011, the Port of Coos Bay signed a contract with an anonymous company to ship coal out of their harbor. Coal will be coming from the Powder River Basin in Montana through several cities, including Eugene, to be exported out of Coos Bay to Asian markets.

An estimated 15,000 tons of uncovered coal will be on every train. The Sightline Institute estimates that 500 lbs to a ton of coal can escape from a single loaded car. With one or two trains coming through Eugene everyday, Eugenians will be inhaling an unsafe amount of coal dust.

No Coal Eugene is in opposition to the coal trains for three reasons: We support the community of Coos Bay which is already impacted by environmentally destructive industries – including strip mining, deforestation, dredging and pollution.

We are opposed to the use of fossil fuels as a non-renewable energy source because of its effect on the global climate and global health. We are also opposed to large coal companies using public money for their own profits.

 

We are opposed to the use of fossil fuels as a non-renewable energy source because of its effect on the global climate and global health.

Malaysian Indigenous Communities Demand Referendum on Mega-Dams

cross posted from Environment News Service.

In a picture taken on August 20, 2009, Penan tribespeople man a blockade with banners and spears to challenge vehicles of timber and plantation companies in Long Nen in Malaysia's Sarawak State. Hundreds of Penan tribespeople armed with spears and blowpipes have set up new blockades deep in the Borneo jungles, escalating their campaign against logging, dams, and palm oil plantations. AFP PHOTO/Saeed KHAN

MIRI, Sarawak, Malaysia, February 19, 2012 (ENS) –

Malaysian communities are asking the government to stop all 12 planned mega-dam projects in the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo and to hold a referendum on dam construction.

A conference of some 150 representatives of indigenous communities and civil society groups concluded Saturday in the city of Miri with demands that the state government address the adverse impact of existing hydroelectric dam projects in Sarawak and stop planning for more to power industrial development of the rainforest.

Organized by the newly formed Save Rivers Network, the conference brought local civil society organizations together with indigenous peoples organizations and concerned individuals for three days. Discussions centered on the adverse impacts of dam construction on the environment and on the livelihoods of dam-affected communities.

Corporate Power vs. Animal Rights

*Cross Posted from Mickey Z at Infoshop News*

“We know we cannot be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them—exploiting animals in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food.”

– César Chávez

If anyone requires proof that dark green ethics and radical earth defense are becoming more and more widespread, consider how the all-purpose smear of “terrorist” is being increasingly used by governments and private groups to criminalize eco-dissent.

Mic Check: So, what exactly is a terrorist?

By current standards, you can pack a calf into veal crate or pump food down a goose’s gullet or grind up live male chicks to fertilize your fields—and you’d run no risk of being called a terrorist.

You could also clear-cut forests to make way for doomed livestock or blow off mountain tops in search of coal or pump toxin-filled smoke into the atmosphere and you’d garner virtually no attention at all—let alone be labeled a terrorist.

But if you choose a lifestyle based on compassion and logic or speak out against vivisection or protest use of fur? Well, thanks to the Green Scare, you deserve an orange jumpsuit and a one-way ticket to Gitmo.

Green Scare refers to “the federal government’s expanding prosecution efforts against animal liberation and ecological activists, drawing parallels to the ‘Red Scares’ of the 1910′s and 1950s.”

This term was first known to have appeared in 2002 in the wake of congressional hearings titled “The Threat of Eco-Terrorism” which discussed groups including the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

Whale Wars Victory – Activists to be Released

Three Australian Activists Released from Detention on a Japanese Whaler in Australian Waters

10 Jan, 2012 07:45 AM

An unscheduled meeting between Japan’s whalers and environmental activists on the high seas seems an unlikely backdrop to an outbreak of détente.

But Australia was quietly celebrating a minor victory for diplomacy on Tuesday after Japan agreed to release three anti-whaling activists who illegally boarded one of its whaling ships over the weekend. 

The trio, all Australian citizens, have been detained on the Shonan Maru 2, which is providing security to the fleet, after clambering aboard early Sunday morning to protest Japan’s annual hunts in the Antarctic. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows Japan to hunt a limited number of whales for “scientific research.” The fleet left port last month with plans to kill some 900 whales this season.

The incident threatened to cause tension between Australia and Japan, close trade and security partners. Soon after the men were detained it seemed likely that they would be kept aboard the Shonan Maru 2 and taken to Japan, where they faced a trial and possible imprisonment for trespassing.