from
from Hambach Forest(en)
Yesterday (23rd September), around noon, an excavator was stopped which was working at the old railway of the lignite industry close to Cologne, Germany. The railway as well as the open pits and the power plants belongs to the company RWE.
The railway was used for the transport of the lignite directy from the pits to the power plants. But now, parts of the railway and the highway A4 were build new some kilometers more south to make space for the growing mine.
The company H.-B. Kaiser, Abbruch und Erdbewegungen, in 52388 Nörvenich“ is in charge of removing the old railway.
Furthermore, the security company KÖTTER Security and the foresting company Krobbach“ from Melsbach are taking part in the destruction of the nature that RWE is commiting.
These companies are also to mark, to block and to sabotage!
Every day is an action day! – Earth First!
September 19th, 2014
September 19th, 2014
Three volunteer members of Sea Shepherd’s pilot whale and small cetacean defense campaign Operation GrindStop 2014 were arrested today just outside the Faroese capital of Torshavn for protecting a large pod of hundreds of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, preventing them from approaching the dangerous killing shores of the Faroe Islands.
The Danish Navy chased, boarded and seized Sea Shepherd’s UK-registered boat, the Spitfire, and arrested its three crewmembers — Jessie Treverton of the UK and Celine Le Diouron and Marion Selighini, both from France.
Though it is against Faroese law to interfere with the mass cetacean slaughter known as the “grindadrap” or “grind,” no grind had been called when Sea Shepherd prevented the dolphins from reaching shore. Moreover, white-sided dolphins are a protected species and are not to be killed. The Danish Police, however, have charged the Sea Shepherd volunteers with failure to report the dolphin sightings to the grind master and police and, ironically, with “harassing dolphins.”
Sea Shepherd Founder Captain Paul Watson responded, “Apparently in the Faroe Islands it is perfectly legal to kill a protected species, but it is illegal to push them back out to sea in order to keep them from harm’s way because that is considered ‘harassment.’ So these three Sea Shepherd women can proudly say that they successfully ‘harassed’ the dolphins for the purpose of saving their lives.”
“The good news is, however, that a pod of hundreds of white-sided dolphins were successfully ‘harassed’ away from the vicious knives of the whalers. Last year, in August 2013, 450 white-sided dolphins fell to the cruel knives of these cetacean-slaughtering thugs. Fortunately the hundreds spotted today remain safe at sea,” added Captain Watson.
Sea Shepherd currently has an attorney involved. The crew and the Spitfire were released late this evening in the Faroes. They were escorted to the Spitfire and permitted to leave. The crew is to appear in court tomorrow at 2 pm Faroes time. However, the volunteers face deportation from the Faroe Islands by Denmark, and if deported, would not be allowed to return to the Faroes for at least one year.
Despite being an anti-whaling member nation of the European Union, subject to laws prohibiting the slaughter of cetaceans, Denmark continues to show its support and even collaboration with the Faroese whalers to kill small cetaceans.
The Spitfire is the fourth vessel seized by the Danish Navy in the Faroe Islands during Operation GrindStop 2014, as Sea Shepherd’s three small boats — the Loki, the Mike Galesi and the B.S. Sheen (sponsored by actor Charlie Sheen) were seized on August 30th. They are being held as evidence awaiting the trial of eight Sea Shepherd crew from those boats. Along with the small boat crew, 6 members of Sea Shepherd’s onshore team were also arrested for attempting to prevent the brutal slaughter of a pod of 33 pilot whales on August 30.
“Though three volunteers have been arrested and the Danish Navy has once again acted in defense of the brutal grind by seizing one of our boats, Sea Shepherd considers this a victory. Hundreds of dolphins are still swimming safely as a family because of our brave volunteers, and Sea Shepherd will continue to act in defense of its clients,” said Lamya Essemlali, President of Sea Shepherd France and GrindStop 2014 Offshore Leader.
There are two Sea Shepherd vessels currently operating in the Faroes — the Spitfire, and the Clementine, from France. Thor had to be removed from the water earlier today, as foreign vessels can only be in Faroese waters for a maximum of three months.
Sea Shepherd has led the opposition to the mass slaughter of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands since the 1980s. Operation GrindStop 2014 is Sea Shepherd’s largest Faroese campaign to date, and a multi-national team of Sea Shepherd volunteers has been patrolling land and sea in the islands since mid-June. Sea Shepherd will remain in the Faroes until the beginning of October. The campaign spans the typically bloodiest months of the grindadrap hunt season, in an effort to save as many lives as possible.
September 18th, 2014
Clatskanie, OR—Climate justice activists, local Clatskanie farmers, and oil train opponents from all over Columbia County are blockading the tracks that lead to Port Westward on the Columbia River. The blockade consists of a 20-foot-high tripod of steel poles, its apex occupied by 27-year-old Portland Rising Tide activist Sunny Glover.
Any train movement would risk her life, as would any attempt to remove her from the structure. A banner suspended from the tripod reads: “Oil trains fuel climate chaos.” She has vowed to stay as long as she is able. Massachusetts-based Global Partners ships oil by rail from the fracking fields of the Bakken Shale to the blockaded facility.
From there, it is loaded onto oceangoing vessels bound for West Coast refineries. The facility was constructed with public clean energy loans and tax credits to manufacture ethanol in 2008. The owners declared bankruptcy almost immediately, and in a twist of savage irony, it became a crude oil terminal.
“Fossil fuels are catastrophically destructive,” Glover said. “Extraction ravages land, water, and the health of local communities – transport results in deadly explosions, toxic spills and dust – and as they are burned, the Earth is forced ever deeper into immense climate instability. Fossil fuel production is violence, and on an incredibly vast scale.”
Dozens are joining Glover on the tracks.
The increase in US oil production in recent years, and the consequent rise in oil train traffic, has outraged a diversity of groups and communities. Rising Tide activists, hoping to deter the most severe effects of climate change, are demanding a rapid dismantling of fossil fuel infrastructure throughout the region and the world.
Residents of areas effected by oil train traffic are horrified by the propensity of Bakken crude trains to derail in fiery explosions—a May, 2014 emergency order by the US Department of Transportation describes the trains as an “imminent hazard.”
Residents of the patchwork of farms, dikes, and waterways north of Clatskanie are fighting to protect agricultural land and salmon habitat from industrialization.
“When the crude oil trains began rolling through Columbia County, we had no prior warning—not from DEQ, not from the Port of St. Helens, not from the county, and not from the State of Oregon,” said Nancy Whitney.
“With the close proximity of our towns, and particularly our schools, and considering the track record of crude oil derailments, my fear is that the potential devastation from leakage or explosion could be astronomical—and it will happen unless these trains are stopped.”
This is the fifth oil train blockade in the Pacific Northwest since June.
“This is only the beginning,” said Noah Hochman. “We will continue to blockade until it is financially, logistically, and politically untenable for oil trains to threaten climate and communities.”
Update:
Police Risk Protester’s Life to End 9-Hour Oil Train Blockade
Yesterday afternoon, climate justice group Portland Rising Tide and allies from Columbia County erected a 20-foot-tall tripod of steel poles to blockade the Port Westward oil terminal. Dozens of police, working at night under floodlights, were mobilized to remove 27-year-old Sunny Glover from the tripod’s apex. After an initial attempt to remove her with a bucket truck—which she foiled by locking her neck to one of the tripod’s poles—the police resorted to far more drastic and perilous measures.
In a surreal scene, the amassed law enforcement officers began using a circular saw to cut through the tripod’s legs in approximately foot-long increments, gradually lowering the structure to the ground amidst a shower of sparks from the saw. Glover’s neck remained locked to a pole the entire time. Each precarious cut threatened to topple the structure. About 40 protesters shouted words of encouragement from a nearby road until she was arrested and driven from the scene around 11:30pm.
“The courage my friend Sunny exhibited tonight was tremendous,” Scott Schroder said. “Unfortunately, she lives in a world of terrifying scenarios. She can either have her life jeopardized by the police or by catastrophic climate change and exploding oil trains. She chose to resist because she understands acquiescence is the greater peril.”
The terminal, operated by Massachusetts-based Global Partners, has been controversial since its inception. At the protest today were residents of the Columbia County towns of St. Helens, Scappoose, and Clatskanie, whose homes and businesses are within the blast zone should an oil train derail and explode. Rising Tide activists are demanding a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels in order to avert a climate catastrophe that would be felt for millennia.
Protesters were critical of the tremendous mobilization of public resources to dismantle the blockade—there were approximately 40 combined fire, police, and medical personnel on site—saying it amounted to essentially another subsidy for the fossil fuel industry.
“Taxpayers have already given Global Partners millions of dollars in clean energy construction subsidies, when we thought their facility was going to be an ethanol plant,” said David Osborn. “Now the public is handing over thousands more to keep the train tracks free of people outraged by their bait-and-switch.”
This summer, Rising Tide collectives have blockaded oil train facilities in Washington and Oregon five times. The groups say they are working toward mass mobilizations that will significantly impede the ability of oil to be transported by rail in the Pacific Northwest.
“We will be back,” Schroder said. “Over and over again. And we’re bringing more people every time.”
PHOTOS, VIDEO, AUDIO: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8Tw30qC0uQib2xlLXk0cERaeVk&usp=sharing_eil
09/18 ACTION PRESS RELEASE: https://drive.google.com/?usp=folder&authuser=0#folders/0B8Tw30qC0uQib2xlLXk0cERaeVk
BACKGROUND ON OREGON OIL TRAINS AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS:http://portlandrisingtide.org/oil-trains-oregon-bakken-shale-uinta-basin-climate-crisis/
September 17th, 2014
September 17th, 2014
Two men were arrested on September 16 after chaining themselves to pipe being laid for Vermont Gas’ fracked gas pipeline. The action took place a day before the Vermont Public Service Board begins a process which could result in the revoking of the permits required for Vermont Gas to continue construction.
Construction was halted around 3:45, and did not resume for the rest of the day. The two men were charged and released.
“Vermont Gas lied,” said Will Bennington, a spokesperson for Rising Tide Vermont. “They’ve lied about the climate and environmental impacts of the project, they’ve lied to landowners and broken promises, and now they’ve lied about the cost of this project. The Public Service Board, and ultimately Governor Shumlin, have no reason to believe Vermont Gas is acting in the public good.”
In July, Vermont Gas announced a 40 percent increase in the cost of construction for Phase 1 of the fracked gas pipeline. The company hopes to pass this cost on to ratepayers, increasing the price of gas at a time when many Vermonters are already struggling to heat their homes.
Demonstrators oppose the pipeline because it will lock Vermont communities into decades more of dirty fossil fuel use, at a time when a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and extreme energy use is needed. They are also concerned with impacts to local landowners and the lack of transparency surrounding the permitting process.
The Public Service Board is hosting a hearing tomorrow in Montpelier to decide whether or not to re-open the company’s Certificate of Public Good.
“This isn’t the beginning, and this isn’t the end,” Bennington said. “We are going to continue to do everything we can to stop this pipeline. It is morally reprehensible to be building new fossil fuel infrastructure in this day and age, especially in a state that has already banned fracking.”
Local coporate video coverage
here and
here
The Hambach is a forest in Germany proposed for lignite (brown coal) strip mining. There is currently a forest occupation underway, as well as an action camp, and action days at the end of every month.
September 16th, 2014
from Hambach Forest
español
deutsch
Today, the new part of the Autobahn, which they built to help further the expansion of the mine, will be opened with an official celebration. Apparently, the police chose the same day to disturb our resistance in the forest and on the meadow. They appeared as early as 8:00h this morning and are giving us trouble since then. Follow us here today, we will regularly publish new updates, ticker-style.
8:00 First appearance of cops in the forest and on the meadow, building up to around 100 cops at 8:30
8:20 Person attacked by police for now reason, except asking what they want
8:30 Removal of barricades on the forest paths, takes them about 2 hours
10:20 Police are trying to evict beech town (tree occupation) destroying everything on the ground – climbing units are present
10:30 Police are amassing at plane hangar close to meadow – we‘re no longer reachable by car
11.20 Police van by the meadow occupation
11.40 Police and RWE on way to destroy kitchen near meadow
11.50 Food packs for the police (it locks that they want to work longer)
12.00 The opening of the highway A4 starts – 400 people on official opening (honored guests) The demonstration against it with 50 people works, but not directly by the opening party, 50 police are there – traffic minister talking shit
12.10 the barricades to düren are evicted and the police are blockading the way to beech town
12.28 the police start to come on the meadow occupation, hiding duty numbers. Policeblock from Aachen: (License Plate NRW-4-4623, picture of police standing on the meadow )
12.50 the official opening at the highway is over.
13.10 police „retreats“ a bit, leaving oaktown, a treehouse occupation, for now.
13:20 Police no longer visible on the meadow
13:25 News from the forest – one harvester (machine for cutting trees) is damaged (fluids leaking out)
13:30 People are doing a sitting blockade in the Forest, on the way to beech town occupation
13:40 A small group of people got controlled by Police, one person arrested for lack of I.D.
13:40 Harvester is driveable again, but is leaving the Forest, protected by RWE and Police
15:00 No more police or other enemies in the Forest – one security car was passing through the removed barricades, but left again quite quickly. The ticker will go on break for now, if there’s any more action we‘ll be updating again.
some pictures of today: 16.09.14
Last week, occupiers buried themselves in the ground to defend La ZAD du Testet. Photo from @seamymsg
September 16th, 2014
Occupied since October 2013, the ZAD du Testet is one of the many “zones a defendre” which were created after the mediatization of the ZAD at Notre-Dame-des Landes in October 2012. The collective in Testet, a valley in the Tarn region of southeast France, is a mix of “zadistes, farmers, clowns and people in revolt”, resisting a dam project which would destroy a wooded, wetland area with over 100 threatened species, to supply 24 agro-industrial farms with water.
The squatted forest was violently evicted in February 2014, the 10-20 opponents chose to use nonviolent tactics, and then reoccupied. They were evicted again in May of 2014.
August 15, a larger re-occupation was organized, under heavy police and military attention, with arbitrary arrests and road blockades preventing building material from arriving on site. August 25th, biologists came to give their expertise and fill out paperwork to approve the project, and evictions began. People resisted with burning barricades and molotovs, and there has been almost daily confrontation ever since. The region went under martial law on August 31st, with the police chief declaring- “the law must remain strong”, and workers began cutting the forest on September 1. A press release from the collective against the dam- “Tant qu’il y aura des Bouilles” said- “…these new events show the disdain that the Tarn Regional Council shows for dialogue and for the opponents of this project. We condemn this show of force. This kind of behavior breeds rage, even in the most pacifist of opponents, and so one can understand that actions will become more and more radical.”
People have resisted in a variety of ways- a hunger strike by locals in their 50s and 60s, numerous blockades using tractors, fire, buried people, tripods, bulls, human chains etc, a 24/7 occupation of the square in front of the city council, climbing on machines and in trees, and fighting on the ground. There are about 800 people against the project currently in and around the forest, and they frequently encounter tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets. Today (September 15th) action centered around the Gaza(d) treehouse, which still hasn’t been evicted, although 5 people were hospitalized (no thanks to the police, who blocked the ambulances). There are still quite a lot of people in the trees, and the actions are slowing or blocking work every day.
There have also been numerous solidarity actions, from a high school walkout in Gaillac to occupying the offices of the dam construction company in Nantes. The bourgeois media, perhaps afraid of another snowball effect like in October 2012, has kept almost total silence about Testet, despite countless reports of police brutality. In addition to the theft or destruction by the police of medical supplies, food, vehicles, tents, sleeping bags, anything they can get their hands on, the farmers who stand to benefit from the dam and local suspected facists have formed a gang with iron bars, rocks, dogs, molotovs and hunting rifles- with as of yesterday about 80 people, and they are patrolling the roads.
A last word from those on the ground: “Thank you to all who are mobilizing in solidarity with the struggle in Testet, everywhere it’s the same thing, everywhere the same system of rotten politicians who decide amoungst themselves what they’re going to do and call it “democracy”, and who have only one goal: develop their businesses to strengthen the chokehold of this system of machines and technology on the natural environment and people. Those who think they are protected are already dead. We refuse to be isolated and so we struggle, we humbly resist.”
a film in french
website of the occupation
from
from In the Belly of the Beast
September 14th, 2014
A £15 million wooden chemistry laboratory will continue to burn for a further 24 hours, firefighters confirmed today.
The Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry at Nottingham University was destroyed after it several fires broke out inside the state-of-the-art building on Friday night.
The laboratory, which was part-funded by a £12 million grant from pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline was due to open for the first time next year.
Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene at 8.30pm after residents spotted the blaze…
…The building was designed to reach carbon neutral status in 25 years to make up the energy expended during its construction.
‘The GlaxoSmithKline Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry is a landmark building which is the embodiment of the University’s commitment to sustainability in all its forms, particularly in the area of green chemistry and we will be working closely with our partners at GSK, and the contractors Morgan Sindall, to develop a positive plan of action for rebuilding.’
It is not yet known what caused the blaze and a spokesperson for NFRS said work to establish the cause of the blaze can only begin fully once the fire is entirely out.
source: the daily heil
No-one was injured and no other buildings were affected
images from many sources, national & local media scum:
Guadian UK Video
13/9/14
13/9/14
Rising Tide Coast Salish Terriories reports that protesters have used bicycle locks to lock themselves to a Kinder Morgan facility in Burnaby, in unceded Coast Salish Territories in so-called British Columbia.
Kinder Morgan has begun surveying and cutting trees in conservation and parkland on Burnaby Mountain, unceded Coast Salish Territories. The giant US oil pipeline company plans to clear parkland in preparation for boring a tunnel through the Northridge of Burnaby Mountain contrary to city bylaws.
The purpose of the tunnel will be to transport crude tar sands oil from the storage tanks at Forest Hill to Westridge Terminal. Many geologists and seismologists are concerned that the Northridge will be subject to extreme shaking in the event of even a moderate earthquake putting at risk the pipeline, the huge oil storage tanks at Forest Hill and the Aframax tankers at Westridge terminal. A moderate earthquake to the huge tanks, pipeline and terminal would make the 2007 pipeline spill at Westridge minor in comparison.
The protesters, at the time of writing, were still locked to the gate.
Update: Six people were arrested after thirteen hours locked-down and subsequently released.
For updates on the situation check @risingtide604
Correction: We mistakenly reported that this was a Rising Tide Coast Salish Territories action.
10/9/14
After a summer of protests aimed at mining companies, members of the Tahltan Nation in northern B.C. say they have shut down an exploratory drilling operation by taking over the site.
“HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!!!!” states a Monday night posting on the Facebook page for Tahltan elders. “The Klabona Keeper members are occupying a black hawk drill pad above Ealue Lake!!!”
The elders’ group, which is based in Iskut just south of Dease Lake, has staged several protests in the area in recent years blocking resource companies from working in a place known as the Sacred Headwaters. The region is highly valued by the Tahltan because it holds the headwaters of three important salmon rivers – the Stikine, Skeena and Nass.
Rhoda Quock, a spokeswoman for the Klabono Keepers, said Tuesday a group of protesters hiked to the remote drill site and took it over.
She said Black Hawk Drilling Ltd., a Smithers, B.C., company that works for Firesteel Resources Inc. of Vancouver and OZ Minerals of Australia, flew its drilling crew out after the occupation began.
Protests against the mine exploration work began in 2006-07, said Ms. Quock, when Firesteel Resources began examining a copper-gold deposit in the Sacred Headwaters region.
The Klabona Keepers set up roadblocks at that time and the company withdrew, before returning earlier this summer, she said.
“In July … we saw drilling equipment near the road,” she said. “We told them they had until noon to remove the drill or we’d take it over. And they did [remove the equipment].”
But Ms. Quock said helicopters were later seen flying overhead.
Company officials could not be reached for an interview, but on its website, Firesteel Resources states that in July it began working with OZ Minerals on a drilling program in the area.
In a brief e-mail, Michael Hepworth, President and chief executive officer of Firesteel Resources, said the drilling crew has approval to do exploratory drilling.
“We are working in the area under [Tahltan Central Council] approval and are fully permitted by the B.C. government to work in the area,” said Mr. Hepworth, who is travelling outside Canada.
Although the Tahltan Central Council is the main governing body of the Tahltan Nation, the Klabona Keepers operate independently. The two groups are sometimes at odds, but generally support one another.
Chad Day, recently elected President of the Tahltan Central Council, could not be reached for comment.
David Haslam, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines, said in an e-mail that Firesteel Resources “has all the necessary tenures and permits” it needs and the government is working with the Tahltan Central Council “to develop a shared vision for land and resource use.”
Mr. Haslam urged “everyone to remain respectful of one another on the ground while we seek a resolution to the situation with the Klabona Keepers.”
Ms. Quock said members of the Klabona Keepers hiked through the mountains on the weekend looking for remote drill sites.
“They found the drill, the spill tray on it was overflowing with oil and water,” she said. “We shut the drill down. They are staying there and they are not allowing the drill to leave.”
Asked what message she wanted to deliver, she said: “We want them out. Why are they continuing to put more money in to a project that will always be protested? We will never approve it.”
The Klabona Keepers blockaded Imperial Metals’ Red Chris mine in August because of concerns about a tailings pond, but stopped the protest when talks began between the company and the Tahltan Central Council. Last year, the group blocked Fortune Minerals Ltd. from doing work on a coal deposit. On Monday, the B.C. government announced a temporary hold on coal exploration permits in the area.
“I don’t want people to get the impression we’re against all development. We’re not. But these places are sacred and we want to keep it [untouched],” said Ms. Quock.
Klabona Keeper website
Video
#TESTET #ZAD
About an hour's drive north of Toulouse (sw France) there is an area of wetlands called the Testet, in the forest of #Sivens . This is the last area of wetlands ("Zone Humide" in French) in the department of the Tarn. It is home to rare and endangered species.
This area (13hectares) will be drowned by a dam. The purpose of the dam is principally to irrigate large-scale maize production.
It will also be used to regulate the levels of water in the river Tescou, so that pollution will be diluted and the local authorities can claim to respect European environment legislation. The water can also be used if difficulties arrive at the Golfech nuclear reactor.
Maize production is not appropriate to this region, it is a highly polluting form of agriculture. European and French rules say that it should no longer receive subsidies. (Dam financed by local, regional and European budgets)
The projected dam is not necessary, smaller, higher dams exist upstream, and are not used.
The studies of water availability and use, of the cost, impact and of the need for the dam are flawed and partial. (Local politicians who favour the project have interests in the company which produced the studies – which just happens to be the company which will pocket the money for building the dam….)
Claims about the need to dilute industrial pollution downstream are nonsense: the milk cooperative which used to pump effluent into the Tescou has had filters since 2006.
Environmentalists have been defending the wetlands for almost a year. Logging started on the 1st of september, the army and military police corps have commited acts of violence against non-violent protestors.
A hunger strike is in progress.
Hundreds of dam opponents are active on the site ( blocking roads, slowing the chainsaws, negociating and demonstrating). Other activists are demonstrating in front of local governement offices (and being savagely beaten for their efforts)
Calls for the public to show opposition to this unnecessary and destructive project are online.
Welcome groups exist for participants in direct action. The struggle is gradually growing, all and any help is needed. Sadly, at the time of writing the GIGN (special forces) are clearing resistance from the Zone.
Futher info:
http://collectif-testet.org/
http://tantquilyauradesbouilles.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SoutienTestet
