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 Ishan Raval / TechnicianOnline
The Edward Snowden affair has become the event of our moment in history. I do not remember living through a single political saga that was so much of a spectacle — in terms of diplomatic sparring and the comedy of errors from governments, publics and media in the “Where is he?” wild goose chase — that it could well have come out of a Hollywood movie. I’ve seen people from normally politically apathetic youth in India to ordinary people in Austria talking about Snowden, and I, too, have contributed to this hullabaloo.
Some have pointed out that with the focus on Snowden, his asylum-seeking from the shadows, the U.S.’s search and the waltz of the international community around all of this, nothing substantial will happen in regard to the actual information he brought us about the National Security Agency and the PRISM surveillance program. That is a valid concern.
“A gathering of wild hearts”The Round River Rendezvous is the annual gathering of the Earth First! Movement.
Each Summer, this week-long camp-out attracts several hundred Earth First!ers from around the world. The gathering is coordinated by a volunteer committee and includes workshops, campaign discussions, campfire music and a rally with performers and speakers. Perhaps the most important part of the Round River Rendezvous is the informal networking that goes on.
In addition, many international, national and bioregional rendezvous are held throughout the year. Announced in the Earth First! Journal, these gatherings are particularly important for developing a cohesive activist network and planning actions on a local level.
We are thrilled to announce that Croatan Earth First! will be hosting next summer’s rendezvous in North Carolina.
Resist the Tree Biotechnology 2013 Conference
May 26 – June 1 Asheville, NC
Join Earth First!, Global Justice Ecology Project and the STOP GE Trees Campaign for a week of resistance to genetically engineered trees. At the end of May the International Tree Biotechnology 2013 Conference is taking place in Asheville, NC. This conference is a gathering of many of the major players in the genetically engineered tree business and we intend to greet them with spirited protest.
Timber and utility corporations want to plant millions of acres of genetically engineered trees throughout the South to burn for electricity, as well as to continue supplying the unsustainable lumber and paper industries. These trees would be engineered to produce their own pesticides, grow straighter and faster, tolerate manufactured pesticides, produce sterile seeds, and reduce lignin content (this is what makes the wood in a tree strong enough to stand up). If these traits escaped into native tree populations, the effects would be devastating and irreversible. Continue reading
Posted from Green is the New Red
North Carolina is the latest state to consider a new law targeting whistleblowers, undercover investigators, and journalists who expose factory farms. The legislation was introduced on the same day that a fifth Butterball employee pled guilty to criminal cruelty to animals — charges that wouldn’t be possible without the undercover investigations that bills like this aim to criminalize.
The wave of legislation called “ag-gag” bills has been met with increasingly mainstream media exposure and outrage, such as the excellent front page story in the New York Times this week.
North Carolina’s SB 648, the “Commerce Protection Act,” is a good example of how corporations and industry groups are responding to the media backlash. Continue reading
A banner posted to the fence at the disputed CVS building that was squatted/occupied last year as a campaign of resisting corporate development; at the corner of Weaver St. and Greensboro St in Carrboro, NC on Sunday January 27th. This banner was posted the day after a local eco-prisoner letter writing night in celebration of Marie Mason’s birthday. reposted from croatanearthfirst
Everglades Earth First! and friends sing happy birthday to Marie at the Monkeywrench Cafe in Lake Worth, Jan 27, 2013
Adapted from her support page: “January 26, 2013, is Marie Mason’s 51st birthday, which she is celebrating locked in a special control unit in the federal prison in Carswell, Texas. Marie is three years into her almost twenty-two year sentence.
Following a December call-out, events for Marie’s birthday have been held in countries around the world. They include Wellington, New Zealand; Haifa, Israel; Nijmegen, Netherlands; Vancouver, Canada; and Oakland, Baltimore, Chapel Hill, Bloomington, Minneapolis, New York City, Lake Worth, Philadelphia, and Troy, New York in the United States. Supporters have sent birthday cards, held yoga classes, had afternoon tea, shown movies, and had cake to celebrate with her and let her know that she is neither alone nor forgotten.
Corporate polluters are taking aim this year at states with renewable energy laws, starting with an attack on North Carolina’s clean energy economy by a corporate front group known as ALEC with support from Duke Energy, ExxonMobil, and Koch Industries.
Croatan Earth First! lock-down in front of state office building in Raleigh, NC
Seven members of Croatan Earth First! and participants from our Piedmont Direct Action Camp locked together today, barricading the front of North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) building in downtown Raleigh. Providing physical, active resistance against fracking in North Carolina, CEF! has chosen DENR for an action as they are responsible for helping legalize fracking, and will be responsible for regulating it. They have also hired a corrupt Mining and Energy Commission board, which includes people with vested interests in hydraulic fracturing occuring. We are letting them know that this farce won’t stand! No compromise in defense of Mother Earth!
We are thrilled to announce that Croatan Earth First! will be hosting next summer’s rendezvous in North Carolina.
We’re already scouting out some beautiful locations that will have lots of swimming and hiking. The location will most likely be in the Piedmont or the Eastern end of the mountainous regions. We’re hoping to bring in more primitive skills and plant/mushroom identification to the next gathering. We’re looking for folks to host workshops, and to submit ideas for workshops/panels they’d like to see. We’re going to need lots of funds to put on the rondy, and we’ve already begun fundraising with a recent puppet show that brought in 400 dollars. If you have access to money please consider donating to our wepay. If you have money you can put aside for us as bail money, that will also make a difference with our upcoming action next summer, and you can get that money back!
How you can help:
Donate material support: tarps, rope, climbing gear, walkie talkies, water filtration systems, REI Gift cards, bail money, money for supplies. Bring your mountain bikes, canoes or kayaks for others to use over the week.
Donate your time: Offer to host a workshop, or to help with the kitchen crew, help us haul supplies in or out of the forest with your truck. Help with set up/breakdown/clean-up before or after the gathering.
Offer workshop ideas or speakers by e-mail suggestions to croatanearthfirst (at) gmail.com
Donate To our Rendezvous Fund Now!
On May 19th, roughly 200 people gathered in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, to participate in a colorful march organized by Croatan Earth First! on Occupy Well Street’s Day of Action Against Extraction. Protesters marched through downtown with giant puppets, emulating earth spirits and elements, and arrived at the legislature where they plan to legalize fracking in the next coming months. After a talk about the importance of civil disobedience and direct action, hundreds of people recited a pledge of resistance outside the legislature promising to personally take action to stop hydraulic fracturing if it’s legalized. A sermon for the water was delivered as a coffin filled with water was presented to the legislature. A wide range of people and organizations participated in the march including Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Cumnock Preservation Association and Raleigh Occupy. Speeches were given by NC WARN, a representative of Red Hat, the Neuse Riverkeeper, W.A.L.L of Anson County, and Clean Water for North Carolina. Banners read, “No Jobs On A Dead Planet,” “Don’t Frack North Carolina – Earth First!,” and “We Can’t Drink Money.” Croatan Earth First! is planning to organize a direct action training camp in late summer to prepare if hydrofracking is legalized in the state.
For more photos and video see: http://www.croatanearthfirst.com
EF! DAM
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