Direct Action Part 1
7-9 pm at SUNY purchase in Social Sciences 1004
(Lecture – bring stuff to take notes with!)
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///Friday, April 19///
Tree Climbing Workshop
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clear-cutting increased dramatically in California and lead to a resistance movement spearheaded by Earth First!
… But on May 24 in 1990, a bomb blew up in the car of two of the most prominent Earth First! redwood activists: Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney – while they were driving through Oakland, CA.
The FBI and Oakland Police immediately accused the pair of carrying their own bomb and of being environmental terrorists.
Direct Action Part 2
“Who Bombed Judi Bari?” Earth First! Film Screenings
Film Screenings in Orange County, New York
Presented by Hudson Valley Earth First and Occupy Orange NY
”Best Documentary” at the Santa Cruz and Desert Rocks Film Festivals
“Best Feature Film” at the Davis Film Festival
Winner of the CINE Golden Eagle Award
We look forward to you joining us in watching this powerfully moving documentary about Judi Bari’s fight for environmental and social justice. Stricken by cancer and close to death, Judi Bari–a staunch radical activist and old-guard Earth-First!er; and co-founder of the movement to save California’s old growth redwoods–gives her testimony about the attempt on her life and her lawsuit against the FBI for trying to frame her and Darryl Cherney. Catch the trailer here.
Refreshments will be provided. The film screens at 7PM sharp, following a brief introduction of Hudson Valley Earth First! and Occupy Orange. Open discussion will follow.
Your suggested donation of $5-$20 supports the efforts of the filmmaker, Darryl Cherney; Hudson Valley Earth First! campaigns; and Occupy Orange campaigns.
There will be a 90-minute nature walk in Stewart State Forest on Saturday at 3:00PM,sharing some of the OC’s beautiful land and discussing NY’s own efforts for deep ecology and social equality.
There are 2 screenings!
Earth First! Climbers Guild Camp in NY – 2 weeks away
OUT OF YOUR HOUSES AND INTO THE TREES!
When: March 24th – 30th
Where: Finger Lakes National Forest, NY
EF! Climbers Guild benefit show – 3/8 NYC
Come support Earth First’s Spring Climber’s Guild camp
happening this year in late March (24-30).
Listen to Earth First speakers talk about their experiences with environmental direct action and learn how to help in the fight for environmental justice.
Come early for folk musicians, speakers and a potluck//Stay late for dancing and punk!
$5-10 sliding scale (all proceeds go to EF!)
POTLUCK/FOLK/Speakers:
Under Some Bridges (http://undersomebridges.bandcamp.com/)
GI Dave: A Wobblie In NYC feat. Will Table
(http://genuineimitaitons.bandcamp.com/)
The Amazing Octopus Septet
(www.facebook.com/TheAmazingOctopusSeptet)
DANCING/CELEBRATING RESISTANCE
Cutters
(http://cuttersmusic.bandcamp.com/)
Los Peeps
(http://www.facebook.com/lospeeps?fref=ts)
No More Victims
(http://nomorevictims.bandcamp.com/)
Wawayanda board will reply to gas-plant plans (Orange County NY)
The site plans for a proposed natural-gas powered generating plant in the Town of Wawayanda will be before the town’s Planning Board on Wednesday night.
The plans were filed last month, and Competitive Power Ventures — the company that hopes to build the 650-megawatt power plant between Route 6 and Interstate 84 — will be receiving comments Wednesday, the company’s vice president, Steve Remillard, said.
He said a public hearing would likely be scheduled sometime later. The project will also go before the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals soon, Remillard said, to get needed variances.
Remillard said he hopes the state will approve the power plant as part of expanded generation in the region to replace capacity lost when the Danskammer power plant flooded during Superstorm Sandy, and which would be lost if the Indian Point power plant is shut down.
A week ago, Consolidated Edison and the New York Power Authority asked regulators to solicit proposals for projects that could be operable by 2016, to ensure that New York City’s power needs are met.
Remillard said he thinks the project is in a good position to be approved, and because they’ve been working on it since 2008, the company already has many of the approvals it needs.
Nathan Brown
Earth First! Climbers Guild Camp spring 2013 – March 24th – 30th – New York
Industry Consultants Warn Frackers: Do Not Underestimate the Global Anti-Fracking Movement
By Mike Ludwig, Truthou
(Photo: CREDO: Cuomo Policy Summit / Flickr)
The bitter battle over fracking has gone global, and according to pro-business consultants, the oil and gas industry has every reason to be concerned.
Oil and gas rigs are popping up in communities across the world as the fossil fuels industry races to exploit reserves with the controversial drilling technique known as fracking. In response, a global anti-fracking movement has emerged, and activists are winning victories in countries across world.
A report recently released by the international consulting group Control Risks warns the oil and gas industry that it has underestimated the “sophistication, reach and influence” of the global anti-fracking movement. The report contends the opposition is not simply a spotty, not-in-my-backyard phenomenon “masquerading as environmentalism,” but a diverse and well-organized coalition that is unlikely to be swayed by the industry’s well-funded public relation campaigns.
The report’s findings may come as no surprise to activists. The grassroots anti-fracking movement spread “organically” across the world as drilling continued to expand and spark controversy in new areas, according to the Control Risks report. Online social networking, rising media coverage and widespread distribution of Josh Fox’s controversial 2010 documentary Gasland has stimulated the movement, and now there are hundreds of anti-fracking groups in the United States, Canada, Australia and countries across Africa and Europe.
Fracking Unites Activists and Communities
The global anti-fracking movement may be grassroots in nature, but communities and activists across the world share the same concerns about the “significant” impacts of fracking, according to Mark Schlosberg, an anti-fracking organizer with the US-based group Food and Water Watch.
Environmentalists and drilling opponents say fracking threatens to drain and contaminate local water supplies, cause air pollution, industrialize pristine rural areas and contribute to global warming.
“The issues people are facing in different parts of the world are the [same] issues that people are facing in the US,” Schlosberg said.
Schlosberg said fracking directly affects those living near the rigs, but climate change and dependence on fossil fuels affects everyone. Recent studies that fracking operations can release considerable amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas, and concerns over global warming have united climate change activists with the global anti-fracking movement.
In many parts of the world, activists also are pushing the industry to invest locally and provide better economic compensation to the communities where drilling is taking place, according to the Control Risks report.
Global Activism Puts Fracking at Risk
The most significant “risk” posed by the anti-fracking movement is bans and moratoriums on drilling, according to Control Risks.
In France, fracking was banned indefinitely in 2011 after significant public outcry, and the French government reaffirmed the ban in September 2012.
Food and Water Watch, which supports a national ban on fracking in the US, has tracked 308 local measures to address fracking in municipalities across the nation. Some communities banned fracking altogether, while others put limits on fracking activity or symbolically endorsed statewide bans.
Public outcry also has pushed some governments to conduct safety reviews of fracking that could pave the way for tighter regulations.
Under orders from Congress, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently conducting a study on fracking and its potential impacts on water supplies. The agency recently released a progress report, but a final report will not be released until 2014. Meanwhile, fracking is rapidly expanding across much of the US with little federal regulatory oversight.
The industry also should be wary of radical and direct action activists, according to Control Risks. Activists have peacefully blockaded fracking sites in the US, Canada, Australia and Poland as direct action-oriented environmental groups like Earth First! rally opposition to fracking. Isolated acts of minor vandalism and sabotage to drilling equipment also have been reported in the US and Poland.
“They would not have commissioned this report if they didn’t think the anti-fracking movement was effective,” Schlosberg said.
Control Risks spokesman Chris Levy told Truthout the company released the report to attract the fracking industry to its consulting services. The firm helps companies and large industries manage “hostile environments” and threats to international business ranging from anti-corruption investigations to anti-industry activism, kidnappings, maritime piracy and even terrorism, according to the firm’s web site.
Steve Everley, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, a US-based information service created and funded by oil and gas industry groups, said the Control Risks report accepts that fracking can be done safely, and he is not convinced that the anti-fracking movement has been successful in stopping drilling with “false claims and manufactured science.”
“As for the supposed successes that opponents have had, I think they’re pretty much limited to headlines and maybe an uptick in their fundraising efforts, because they really haven’t stopped the industry from drilling wells,” said Everley, who added that fracking is creating jobs across the country and expanding domestic energy production.
Schlosberg, however, said the report demonstrates what activists already know – the global anti-fracking movement is a threat, and the industry will continue to ramp up its tactics to “ram this through.”
The Control Risks report advises the industry to quell the opposition by reforming its practices. Instead of flatly denying any wrongdoing and accusing reported fracking victims of spreading “fear” and “hysteria,” fracking companies should acknowledge the negative impacts of drilling and the grievances of those impacted, like residents who believe their water supplies have been contaminated. Frackers also should put more resources toward protecting the environment and disclose the chemicals they pump into the ground during drilling, the report said. Activists in the US have fought for such disclosure for years.
Control Risks also suggests that simply telling the public that drilling will lower energy prices is not enough to gain support, and the industry should “create more winners” in the communities where fracking occurs. Drilling firms should invest in communities by buying local supplies, hiring and training local workers and paying all required taxes. Most crucially, drillers should make long-term local investments to ensure sustained economic benefits to communities, even after drilling is complete.
Schlosberg, however, said environmentalists and anti-fracking activists want long-term solutions to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, not simple reforms offered by an already wealthy industry. Activists, he said, must remain “very vigilant, mobilized and organized” as the industry wakes up to the reality of the global anti-fracking movement.
News Wire
- Emergency Peoples’ Relief Taking Place in OK May 21, 2013In case you didn’t know, a tornado touched down in Oklahoma, killing at least 51 people (20 children among them). We can’t control the weather, we can try to stop climate change before it gets worse, and we can definitely help build solidarity networks to respond to emergency situations. FEMA is too busy picking which […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- BREAKING: Occupy the Pipeline Disrupts NYC Gala May 21, 2013Cross Posted from OccupythePipeline BREAKING! OtP took to the high seas today to interrupt the New York League of Conservation Voters’ Spring Gala, which was funded by the hydro fracking industry and thrown in honor of Michael Bloomberg. The New York League of Conservation Voters is hosting a Spring Gala tonight, May 20, 2013, honoring New […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- Nation’s Largest Uranium Mine Planned for N.M. May 20, 2013Michael Hartranft / Albuquerque Journal It’s been more than a dozen years since the last uranium ore was mined in New Mexico, but a Canada-based company and a Japanese partner propose to break that spell soon. The U.S. Forest Service expects to close the comment period in mid-June on a draft environmental impact statement prepared […]Earth First! Journal Sonoran Office
- Farmer Suicides Soar in India May 20, 2013By P Sainath, Counterpunch Suicide rates among Indian farmers were a chilling 47 per cent higher than they were for the rest of the population in 2011. In some of the States worst hit by the agrarian crisis, they were well over 100 per cent higher. The new Census 2011 data reveal a shrinking farmer […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- Coalition of Immokalee Workers Targets Wendy’s in Fair Food Campaign to Improve Wages, Conditions May 20, 2013Cross Posted from Democracy Now Click here for full video Hundreds of farm workers and their supporters are in New York City ahead of Wendy’s shareholder meeting to demand improved working conditions for those who pick its tomatoes. The fast-food giant — which has nearly 6,600 restaurants in the U.S. and around the world, ranking […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- Oxford University Student Union Votes to Oppose Shell Investment May 20, 2013By Adam Vaughan, The Guardian Oxford University’s Shell Geoscience Laboratory is funded with £5.9m from the oil company. Students and alumni of Oxford University will protest this afternoon at the opening of a new lab in its Earth sciences department that is funded with £5.9m from oil company Shell. Campaigners say the partnership – which will see the clima […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- Dissent or Terror: New Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide May 20, 2013Cross Posted from PRWatch DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy today released the results of a year-long investigation: “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, In Partnership With Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.” The report, a distillation of thousands of pages of records obtained from counter terrorism/ […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- Activists Fume at Tree Felling, Golfing Association May 20, 2013Cross Posted from Times of India Dozens of locals from Golconda protested the axing of 81 trees in Naya Qila, demanding the arrest of the guilty persons and speeding up of the probe by the forest and district administration into the incident. Locals said heritage and environment violations were unheard of in Naya Qila, until Hyderabad […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- Forest Deal ‘Greenmails’ the Green Groups May 20, 2013By Bob Brown, ABC The Swift Parrot is flying towards extinction. Yet the forest ‘peace deal’ signed between loggers and theWilderness Society, Australian Conservation Foundationand Environment Tasmania (I am a founding member of the first and a life member of the second) threatens unprecedented penalties for forest campaigners who try to stop swift parrot ne […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
- New Laws Would Make Environmental Protest Terrorism May 20, 2013By Will Poter, Vice Most people have heard of tree-sitting—a tactic environmentalists use to prevent old-growth trees from being cut down and whole forests decimated. In its heyday, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, members of groups like Earth First! climbed 100-foot-tall Redwoods and stayed there to save them. Beginning in 1997, one woman […]Earth First! Journal Cascadia Office
