Facebook Billionaire’s Lavish Wedding Put Redwoods, Threatened Species at Risk

Sean Parker ordered to pay $2.5 million in settlement over unpermitted wedding site.

Alexandra and Sean Parke tie the knot in a lavish $10 million affair.

from SF Gate

Entitled Internet billionaire brat Sean Parker loves Big Sur so much that he couldn’t let permits, penalties or threatened species get in the way of his plans for a lavish wedding amid the redwoods.

The California Coastal Commission slapped the Napster co-founder and early Facebook executive with a $2.5 million fine, after it discovered his $10 million ceremony last weekend entailed major construction on a public campground, without any oversight or permission.

Deforestation Outweighs Climate Change for Coral Reefs

Better land use is the key to preventing further damage to the world’s coral reefs, according to a study published this week in the online science journal Nature Communications.

from ScienceDaily

The study, by an international team including a researcher from The University of Western Australia’s Oceans Institute, has important implications for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The study authors write that preventing soil erosion and sediment pollution arising from human activities such as deforestation are crucial to reef survival.

Billionaire Climate Activist Puts Obama On Notice About New Anti-pipeline Push

The “green” billionaire sitting with a jar of crude.

by Zack Colman / The Hill

Billionaire and climate activist Tom Steyer intends to target voters who supported President Obama’s reelection bid in a new campaign to sharpen opposition to the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

Steyer said the arguments for building the Canada-to-Texas pipeline have “collapsed.” He said his NextGen Action political action committee would announce its new campaign June 20.

“Given that none of the chief arguments being put forth by supporters of the pipeline remain standing, NextGenAction is going to be working with our friends and allies who are opposed to the development of Keystone XL to intensify our efforts in communicating what is the right policy choice to your Administration,” Steyer said in an open letter to Obama that was obtained Monday by The Washington Post.

Underreported Struggles #74 May 2013

Image by Gord Hill (Coast Salish), author of the graphic novel 500 Years of Resistance. Taken from Alarm Press article by Summer Block.

by John Ahni Schertow / Intercontinental Cry

In this month’s Underreported Struggles: a shocking report on Genocide in Brazil suddenly appears after being ‘lost’ 40 years ago; Tahoe Resources security chief ‘caught on tape’ ordering the assassination of Indigenous activists; The Gwich’in Nation speaks out against Alaska’s Governor Parnell’s $50 million dollar drilling proposal in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Oh Damn, Chuck Norris Fights Monsanto and GMO Crops

Better watch out Monsanto, the Golden Haired Dragon has his sights on you!

by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! News

Ok, weird but true: Say you wanted to know real, real bad what ole Chuck Norris, the black belt actor that once fought Bruce Lee, thinks about genetically modified foods. You can actually just ask him. That’s right, you can “write to Chuck Norris with your questions about health and fitness.” Some guy named Tobias D. from California raised the question with Chuck thusly:

Chuck, did you hear about the 2 million people who marched around the world against genetically modified foods? And what’s the truth about genetically modified organisms, seeds and crops?

And I’ll be damned if Chuck (despite being a Republican hack from time to time) didn’t give it some thorough thought and a pretty darned decent response condemning GMOs, which you can read below.  But first, a few gratuitous Chuck Norris facts.

Monsanto Set to Halt GMO Push in Europe

The march against Monsanto, Germany. (Image from twitter user@@HarvestPM)

from RT

Monsanto plans to halt lobbying for its genetically modified plant varieties in Europe due to low demand from local farmers, a representative from the US agricultural giant told a German daily.

“We are no longer working on lobbying for more cultivation in Europe,” Brandon Mitchner a representative for Monsanto’s European branch, Tageszeitung, said in an interview set to be published on Saturday.

“Currently we do not plan to apply for the approval of new genetically modified crops. The reason is, among other things, low demand of the farmers,” he continued.

A spokeswoman for Monsanto Germany, Ursula Luttmer-Ouazane, admitted that Monsanto recognizes that GMO crops were currently not embraced on the European market.

Unapproved Monsanto Crop Found Growing in Oregon

from RT

A genetically modified strain of wheat that was never approved by the United States Department of Agriculture as been discovered growing in Oregon, triggering a federal probe that is now spanning several states.

Investigators with the USDA want to know why the GMO crop, made by biotech company Monsanto but never approved for use, sprouted up in a field in the Pacific Northwest.

Help Fund the Ecosexual Revolution and End Mountain-top Removal Mining in Appalachia

by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! News

Kick in and help out yall.

The film Goodbye Gauley Mountain weaves together the topics of sex, class, hillbillyism, queerness, capitalism and nature into a epic tale that will make you proud to be called a dirty environmentalist. This is, without compare, the sexiest nature documentary and one of the most profound films to deal with the beauty and tragedy of the Appalachian Mountains in the age of King Coal. It’ll make you fighting mad, then you’ll laugh, then you’ll get turned on. Hopefully you’ll fall wildly in love and get out there and defend your Lover Earth with a lust befitting the world’s most ancient and biodiversely kinky mountains. And the film could use your help.

From director Beth Stephens: “We are in the last 2 and a half days of the Kickstarter campaign for our film Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story. Please join us in getting the word out about the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains in the face of the devastation caused by mountain top removal. This unique documentary film squarely faces the horror of environmental devastation and even confronts it with love, joy and ecosexuality to entice others to stop MTR and stop it now!!”

Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story is currently in post production and nearly ready to be unleashed on the world.

I’ve had the chance to meet with and interview Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, whom I consider friends, and a snippet of that can be read below. The full interview has been printed in the soon to be mailed Earth First! Journal.

Crees Challenge Shady FSC Certification and Resolute Forest Products

by Intercontinental Cry

(Nemaska, May 15, 2013)  Earlier today the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) issued a formal challenge to the FSC Certification for Forest Management Unit 025-51 in the Saguenay Lac Saint Jean region in Québec held by Resolute Forest Products Inc. This is the largest Forest Management Unit in Québec.

In its brief to Accreditation Services International (ASI), the organization overseeing auditors contracted by forestry companies for FSC certifications, the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) contends that Resolute Forest Products’ refusal to respect the Baril-Moses Agreement between the Crees and Québec constitutes a major infringement to FSC’s International Principles 1 (compliance with laws, agreements and treaties) and 3 (compliance with the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples) and by extension, Canada’s Boreal Standard.

Fracking for Uranium

first accidentally and now on purpose.

by John Upton / Grist

What has 92 protons, deforms growing children, sickens adults, and is being squeezed out of its underground lair by frackers operating in Pennsylvania?

U[hh], uranium!

The toxic and radioactive heavy metal is naturally trapped in the Marcellus shale, the fossil-fuel-laden rock formation popular with frackers that stretches from upstate New York through Pennsylvania to West Virginia and Ohio. We know the uranium is in there, and we know fracking sets it free, because scientists have been saying as much for years.