earthfirst – Page 56 – Earth First!

Paddlers Charge Silver River, Protesting Expected Cattle Ranch

30 June 2013 Grassfed beef ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Take Adena Springs Ranch, a proposed cattle ranch being developed by billionaire Frank Stronach in Florida. The beef project is expected to span 10,000 acres and, according to their website, hold up to 15,000 cattle. Adena Springs Ranch plans to raise the cattle on a grassfed diet, calling their industrial farming practices “healthier” and “better for the environment.”

This past Saturday, individuals concerned with the proposed ranch gathered alongside the iconic Silver River, a river formed from the discharge of Silver Springs, one of the largest natural artesian wells in the world. Silver Springs historically discharged over 550 million gallons of water per day. In recent years, though, its flow has decreased significantly. According to the New York Times, the “flow rate has dropped by a third over 10 years.” If Adena Springs Ranch gets the go ahead from state officials, its farming practices will have a direct impact on the flow and water quality of Silver Springs.

A flyover by the Putnam County Environmental Council showing the Adena Springs Ranch property. Photo: PCEC

Adena Springs Ranch is currently applying for a consumptive use permit that will allow them to draw 5.3 million gallons of water per day from the Floridan Aquifer, the underground reservoir of water that provides drinking water to Florida residents, draws tourism money to the state and encourages residents and visitors to get out into the wilds of Florida and experience its natural beauty.

The permit, if approved, will allow the ranch to draw water from the area surrounding Silver Springs, impacting the entire springshed, all for the purpose of watering the grass that will feed the cattle. When asked about the impact their water withdrawals would have, Adena engineer – and Frank Stronach puppet – William Dunn said that “they do not consider current hydrological conditions when they do their calculations.”

About the only thing natural in this intensive cattle operation will be the release of cow shit and urine into the 130-acre grazing lots. Adena Springs Ranch says they will complete regular soil tests to ensure that they’re “not sending runoff downstream to neighbors or nearby waterbodies.”

The Floridan Aquifer, however, can be thought of as a giant limestone sponge forming the foundation of the state. Rainwater and runoff seeps through topsoil and permeable limestone and slowly flows through the Aquifer until it rushes out through natural springs or is drawn up for drinking or irrigation purposes. If cow manure – a nitrogen-rich fertilizer sold in garden shops everywhere – coming from Stronach’s cows somehow manages to have a neutral effect on the environment, and on the nutrient levels of the surrounding area, than the makeup of that cowshit would defy vegetable gardeners everywhere.

A paddler on the spring-fed Silver River. Photo: Matt Keene

Find out more information about the protest and the issues surrounding Adena Springs by checking out the Water Action Team website.

Notes from White Castle

29 June 2013

Last night I slept in a warm, soft, bed, my housemates murmuring and playing music a floor below; tonight I lay on the cold, damp, ground a Yew Tree right above me, with cinnamon red bark and a trun

29 June 2013

Last night I slept in a warm, soft, bed, my housemates murmuring and playing music a floor below; tonight I lay on the cold, damp, ground a Yew Tree right above me, with cinnamon red bark and a trunk that twists and curves, an old gnarled body reaching for the sky.

I hear the Yew Tree grows quite slowly, curving and bending its way toward the much taller, Douglas Firs. Swaths of pale-green lichen hang from the branches and blanket the trunks of these giants, a sign that the air is clean and moist. I look down. I am stepping on decaying logs, turning into fecund soil, right below my feet. There is a mass of life and death out here, feeding into itself, again and again: a perfect, waste-less, system.

To remove any part of this forest would be an injustice to what is truly wild: the self-containing, self-informed, ecosystems that make up the biosphere. To think that humans could come into a place, so perfectly, and delicately balanced, with trucks and machinery, destroying the undergrowth, the trees, the canopy, to think that they would do this place a favor, creating “early seral habitat.” It is not just a ridiculous idea: it is utterly dangerous and ecocidal.

We are talking about laying a pristine forest, never before logged, on the cruel alter of industry and human experimentation, and justifying it by saying that it is for the butterflies. Well, I’ve seen the butterflies here, and I’ve seen the birds and the trees and the deer, and they seem quite content with the way the forest is, as it stands. They have the sense that exists before defined ideas and suppositions that tells them how to be in this place: no heavy machinery need interject.

Tomorrow, I will wake up to the morning chorus. It starts with a few distant chirps and builds and eventually crescendos: hundreds of birds singing their love of this place and the day that has arrived. And I will get up with them and I will climb up into a tree and I wont leave, to protect the day, and days to come, here at White Castle.

http://www.forestdefensenow.com/

Cardiff Shell petrol station rooftop occupation

A report of the rooftop occupation of the Shell petrol station in Pontprennau, Cardiff on 29th June 2013.

In solidarity with the protest camp in County Mayo Ireland, as part of their anti-Shell week of action, on Saturday morning a group of individuals from South Wales dropped banners and held a rooftop occupation of a Shell petrol station on the outskirts of Cardiff. The activists handed out leaflets to motorists and passers by, explaining the issues, and had some in depth conversations with passers by. There were no arrests.

The occupation started at 9:50 and protestors distributed leaflets and informed local consumers of Shell's actions internationally and in County Mayo, until they ran out of flyers. The occupier came down in their own time at 11.30, due to the fact that business continued operating as usual, and the point had been made. 3 banners were left on the roof of the garage, reading "Solidarity with Mayo", "One Earth (A)", and "Occupy Oil- Shell Kills". Comrades from Italy, London and Brighton sent messages of solidarity, along with local comrades.

Solidarity with all peoples and communities affected and dispersed by Shell's (and other profiteers') despicable greed and profit-driven ecocide. From Alaska to Ireland, from Japan to Nigeria, and here in Cardiff also, the struggle against the suicidal convenience culture continues.

Fuck fracking! South Wales will resist!

Love and Rage
Some Anarchists

49 Acts of Powerline Sabotage, 19 Acts of Oil Pipeline Sabotage in Last Six Months

Smoke rises over a recent pipeline attack in Marib governorate, a tribal region in Yemen.

Smoke rises over a recent pipeline attack in Marib governorate, a tribal region in Yemen.

28 June 2013

According to compiled reports from the Yemen Times over 60 acts of industrial sabotage have taken place since January within the tribal area of the Marib governorate in Yemen, cutting power to Sana’a, the nation’s capital 170 miles to the east, and crippling the government’s oil and gas infrastructure. Oil and gas revenue provides 70 percent of the state’s budget.

Media sources have not been able to explain the reason behind the attacks, but Yemeni sources all point to armed tribespeople in Marib. Attacks on Yemen’s oil and gas pipelines and electric grid greatly escalated following the eruption of protests against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011. Officials in Yemen have argued that the tribes are loyalists of the former president while other, unnamed sources, have proclaimed the tribes to be separatists from the concept of central government all together, functioning in a power vacuum.

This infographic offers some detail on the attacks on Yemen’s electrical grid.

According to the Yemen Post, “Residents in the capital Sana’a have had to endure long spells of darkness over the past couple of weeks as power lines were attacked within hours of their repair, leaving people no respite what so ever. While Yemenis are accustomed to blackouts, never before did the capital face so many and lengthy power outages.”

In mid June, the Public Electricity Corporation in Yemen issued a statement requesting more government and military support to suppress the attacks, warning that the power station could collapse completely if attacks continued.

An infographic on pipeline attacks in Yemen since January 2013.

Between January 1 and June 24, there have been 18 attacks on Yemen’s main pipeline, which runs through Marib to the coast for export. Another attack struck the pipeline on June 27th. According to Yemeni officials, armed members of tribes blocked the road leading to the area of the pipeline that had been attacked, preventing technical crews from making repairs. Yemeni troops were sent to reopen the road. Clashes between government forces and the tribes are expected.

Back in December of 2012, the Yemeni army launched an offensive against suspected groups of saboteurs. Twenty people were killed but infrastructure attacks only increased.

It remains unclear which tribes, or which groups within the region’s tribes, are carrying out the attacks. Earlier in June, the largest tribes in Marib, the Al Hutaik and Al Jardan tribes signed, according to the Yemen Times, “a tribal order declaring the legality of executing those behind oil and gas pipeline attacks.” Similar decrees were signed last year as well without results.

Yemen’s oil production has declined from more than 400,000 barrels per day at the beginning of 2000 to the current 270,000 barrels per day when the pipeline actually flows.

Willits Bypass “Crane-Sitter” Resupplied in Stealth Climb

A protester perched atop a wick drain stitcher being used to build the US 101 highyway bypass in Willits, CA, 28 June 2013

A protester perched atop a wick drain stitcher being used to build the US 101 highyway bypass in Willits, CA, 28 June 2013

A mysterious climber ascended Caltrans equipment on the Willits Bypass Project Wednesday evening in order to resupply a protester who has been perched 50 feet up in the air on a construction tower for a week.

Last week, 31-year-old Ukiah resident Will Parrish climbed one of the two pieces of Caltrans equipment used to install wick drains at the site in order to stall work in the Mendocino County highway construction zone.

Fellow activists argue that Parrish has been denied food and water, while authorities state that Parrish is free to leave the tower for food and water and that protesters attempting to bring him supplies are trespassing on Caltrans property.

On Saturday evening, 45 protesters attempted to send supplies up to Parrish in a bucket. According to Earth First!, CHP officers cut the rope and arrested six individuals. According to CHP, four individuals were arrested.

On Wednesday, a second person climbed the second wick drain tower. Jamie Chevalier, a spokeswoman with Redwood Nation Earth First!, said the mystery climber was “like a ninja.”

”He climbed the tower in full daylight with CHP everywhere,” she said. “Then after around six hours he managed to traverse a line over to the other tower 60 feet away for supplies and vanished into the night.”

Chevelier estimated that the entire event took place between 5 p.m. and midnight. She said the supply line is still in place and has a 5,000 pound breaking

strength.

District 1 Caltrans Public Information Officer Phil Frisbie Jr. confirmed that Parrish had been resupplied and said Caltrans personnel are not at the site that late at night.

”He was gone by the morning,” Frisbie said of the resupplier.

Frisbie said the machinery cannot operate with the protesters on it and that protests over four months have directly cost taxpayers $1.2 million by causing delays.

No Shale by Rail: Maine Activists Block Fracked-Oil Train

(Maine Media Today photo by Michael G. Seamans)

28 June 2013 A great two-for-one action against fracking and oil-by-rail transport!

From Common Dreams:

Six Maine residents were arrested late Thursday night after a larger group of climate activists blockaded a set of tracks passing through the small town of Fairfield in order to prevent a train carrying 70,000 barrels of “fracked” oil headed to a refinery in neighboring New Brunswick, Canada.

Associating themselves with a growing national campaign of direct action against the fossil fuel industry called “Fearless Summer,” the protesters at the scene erected a large scaffold over the tracks and held signs reading “Trains for people, not for oil” and “This train’s bound for Gory” (pun intended).

Police arrived, and after several warnings for the protesters to disperse, the six who refused were arrested as the scaffolding was destroyed with a chain saw.

Local media reported a surprisingly large law enforcement response with police from numerous towns showing up at the scene, including troopers from the State Police.

350 Maine*, the statewide group associated but independent from international organization 350.org that led the action, said the goal was to draw attention to the “fracked oil” that is quietly passing through the state on a regular basis. Local members of Earth First also participated in the action.

The groups say that the trains running through Maine carry crude from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and are especially toxic because “fracked oil” is extracted by blasting a high pressure toxic cocktail deep into the ground to release the oil from shale rock, polluting air and water in surrounding communities.

“People say that this new oil boom in the US will make us energy secure,” said Meaghan LaSala, student at University of Southern Maine and an organzier with 350 Maine. “But there is nothing secure about runaway climate change. This is our moment to change our trajectory before it’s too late.”

One of those arrested, 63-year old Read Brugger from the town of Freedom, was clear about his motivations.

“We feel there has not been enough awareness about the millions of gallons of crude shell oil that shipped across Maine each month,” Brugger told the local Bangor Daily News. “We feel need to move beyond fossil fuels and get away from the poisonous ways oil is being extracted.”

The BDN, which reported that many at the scene “said they did not know that fracked oil was being transported through Maine,” made it seem like the action, at least on local level, may have had the desired result.

But the campaigners acknowledged their concerns go beyond even the dire threats faced by Maine communities if one of these trains rerails or a spill occurs.

“We believe the moment we’re in, in terms of climate change, is a dramatic one and it calls for dramatic action,” said LaSala in an interview with the Morning Sentinel.

“We oppose the continued extraction of fossil fuels, but we also oppose its transportation over thousands of miles of environmentally sensitive areas,” added Sarah Linnekin, a student at Maine’s Unity College. “Since my number one job is to protect my children, I feel an obligation to take action.”

[*Full disclosure: This writer is a sometimes volunteer for 350 Maine, though had no involvement with this action.]

Garda violence retaliation against week of action

28th June Garda violence breaks out again in mayo directed by sgt. Butler Gill and Murphy. 5 arrests today, 2 are being held till court in Castlebar tomorrow at 10.30 one has been sent to mountjoy.This was an attempt of retaliation by the garda to break the high spirits at camp.These attempts to wreck the campaign's collective buzz have resolutely failed and spirits on the camp remain high. Actions and protest against the project will continue, unrestrained and unbroken by the violence and scare tactics of the Gardaí.

Navajos Launch Direct Action Against Big Coal

Photo by Black Mesa Water Coalition

27 June 2013 Navajo Nation members launched a creative direct action Tuesday to protest the massive coal-fueled power plant that cuts through their Scottsdale, Arizona land.

After a winding march, approximately 60 demonstrators used a massive solar-powered truck to pump water from the critical Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal into barrels for delivery to the reservation.

Flanked by supporters from across the United States, tribe members created a living example of what a Navajo-led transition away from coal toward solar power in the region could look like.

Participants waved colorful banners and signs declaring ‘Power Without Pollution, Energy Without Injustice’.

“We were a small group moving a small amount of water with solar today,” declared Wahleah Johns with Black Mesa Water Coalition. “However if the political will power of the Obama Administration and SRP were to follow and transition NGS to solar all Arizonans could have reliable water and power without pollution and without injustice.”

The demonstration was not only symbolic: the reservation needs the water they were collecting.

While this Navajo community lives in the shadow of the Navajo Generating Station—the largest coal-powered plant in the Western United States—many on the reservation do not have running water and electricity themselves and are forced to make the drive to the canal to gather water for cooking and cleaning.

This is despite the fact that the plant—owned by Salt River Project and the U.S. Department of Interior—pumps electricity throughout Arizona, Nevada, and California.

Yet, the reservation does get one thing from the plant: pollution.

The plant is “one of the largest sources of harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the country,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

While plant profiteers argue it brings jobs to the area, plant workers describe harrowing work conditions. “We are the sweatshop workers for the state of AZ, declared Navajo tribe member Marshall Johnson. “We are the mine workers, and we are the ones that must work even harder so the rest don’t have to.”

These problems are not limited to this Navajo community. Krystal Two Bulls from Lame Deer, Missouri—who came to Arizona to participate in the action—explained, “We’re also fighting coal extraction that is right next to our reservation, which is directly depleting our water source.”

The action marked the kickoff to the national Our Power Campaign, under the banner of Climate Justice Alliance, that unites almost 40 U.S.-based organizations rooted in Indigenous, African American, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander, and working-class white communities to fight for a transition to just, climate friendly economies.

GMO Crops Torched in America

27 June 2013 Though the controlled corporate media apparatus is suppressing the story, 40 tons of GMO crops were torched, prompting an FBI investigation. There has been a COMPLETE MEDIA BLACKOUT, outside of local circles has dared to mention it, perhaps because government fears that if the public learns that other people are getting fighting mad (literally), they might join in, and become an actual revolution. It was only reported locally live on KXL Radio and echoed by the Oregonian, where the ONLY web mention exists, hard to find because the headline wording is carefully avoids the most likely keywords for a search.

Here’s what happened — 40 Tons of GMO Sugar Beets were set ablaze in Eastern Oregon, yesterday. FORTY TONS — the entire acreage of two full fields of crops IN THE GROUND were set ablaze over a THREE NIGHT PERIOD OF TIME. That means ARSON.

Evidence is that 6,500 plants were destroyed BY HAND, ONE PLANT AT A TIME. That, in turn, implies A LOT OF PEOPLE were involved: would you want to stick around once a fire was going and wait to be discovered? No, someone (many someones) probably wanted to move as quickly as possible. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A MOVEMENT, a kind of ORGANIZED REVOLT — and this is exactly the kind of retribution that many have warned was coming; when lawmakers and corporations refuse to honor the Constitution and instead engage in ‘legalized’ criminal acts such as enabled by the ‘Monsanto Protection Act.’

More than decade ago, environmental saboteurs vandalized experimental crops across the country in a revolt against high-tech agriculture. Foes of genetic engineering also struck in 2000, when members of the Earth Liberation Front, with roots in Oregon, set fire to agriculture offices at Michigan State University. ELF’s position was that genetic engineering was “one of the many threats to the natural world as we know it.”

But ELF cells normally come forward immediately to claim responsibility, because to them, its all about publicity to educate the public. Since there has been no statement about the recent arson this may have simply been Oregon Farmers who have said, ‘Enough!’ Another clue that may be the case is that this comes on the heels (two weeks) of Japan’s rejection of the entire Oregon Wheat crop for the year (a tremendous financial blow because over 80% of Oregon Wheat is exported) because ONE report said ONE field was contaminated with at least ONE GMO plant.

The rightful fear is, because of pollination processes, once you introduce a GMO crop of a given variety ANYWHERE, the wind and insects will spread its genetic contamination to non GMO fields, and thereby ruin the ENTIRE INDUSTRY for a region. In fact, Oregon farmers have tendered a multi-billion dollar class action law suite against Monsanto, joining a long list of states doing so. Monsanto has experimented with GMO crops before they were approved in 16 states. They were supposedly all destroyed, but state after state is finding out the hard way, that Pandora’s box has been deliberately left open.

But while other governments in Europe and elsewhere are passing laws to ban GMO crops, and burning entire crops themselves, in America, our government is passing laws protecting Monsanto from legal repercussions, and therefore, it seems, farmers are forced to burn the crops, themselves. This means that where in other countries, citizens are being protected from corporate crimes, in America, citizens are forced to become ‘terrorists’ to survive. That’s how blatantly corrupt our corporate police state has become, I’m afraid.

Can GMO spark an armed revolution? Recall this report on the Putin’s comments about how the protection of Monsanto (through things like the “Monsanto Protection Act”) could lead to armed revolt and war. This story was reported on by Political Blind Spot after verifying the claims we had seen circulating, and omitting those which we had heard but could not verify. Still, Monsanto public relations employees were literally paid to track down articles such as ours and try to argue that they should be taken down (we may publish these exchanges with them from official Monsanto email addresses).

In this case, both fields belonged to the same Corporate Agricultural giant known for embracing GMO, though trying to do so quietly, another reason perhaps big media has kept the story from reaching the Internet. We are talking about Syngenta. Nowhere on their US web site will you find mention of GMO, but that is exactly what the company is about. They have even lied publicly in writing on this issue with a public declaration. Yet their very corporate name shouts GMO.

But the FBI, and local media knows better (and now, you)… because apparently someone from the Syngenta operated farms mentioned the fact as a possible motive for the arson. This is a serious matter in many respects. It throws down the gauntlet and says, WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND ARE NOT GOING TO LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS BULLSHIT ANYMORE! But it also raises the stakes and put lives and property at risk, and if it goes wrong, could indeed end up sparking an armed revolution, just as Putin indicated to President Obama.

Colombian Military Massacres Peasants in Oil-and-Coal Related Protests

Police violently disperse unar

Police violently disperse unarmed peasant protesters in Catatumbo, Colombia, Jun 2013 (photo by Telesur)

27 June The Colombian military has killed at least four peasant protesters in the region of Catatumbo, wounded dozens more (including 21 gunshot wounds) and arrested hundreds.

From Alliance for Global Justice:

In Catatumba, peasants have been holding protests, blocking roads and occupying facilities to protest to the government’s chemical spraying of Monsanto’s RoundUp Ultra herbicide as part of coca eradication efforts; and the refusal of the government to establish a Peasant Reserve Zone, as authorized by legislation in 1994 and 1996. That legislation would provide protected land for collective farming. Protesters say that they are being denied this in favor of concessions made to foreign coal [and oil] companies.

Learn more about the background of the protests here, then send a letter to Colombian officials demanding an end to the violence.