Capitalism / Globalisation – Page 29

Blockade at Fracking Waste Storage Facility

This morning 19th Feb, protesters blockaded a Fracking Waste Storage Facility in New Matamoras, OH. Truck traffic to the facility was disrupted for 2.5 hours. As of this posting, a monopod is still in place on the site.

In an unprecedented show of unity against the extraction industry members of Appalachia Resist!, Tar Sands Blockade, Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS), a coalition of indigenous leaders including representatives from No Line 9 and the Unis’tot’en Camp, Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, and Earth First! chapters from across the country have gathered in Southern Ohio to participate in and support this action. This is the latest in an ongoing and escalating campaign of resistance to the dangerous and exploitative resource extraction industry that is threatening the existence and survival of the earth and all of it’s inhabitants world-wide.

“Cancel Keystone Pipeline:” Largest Climate Protest in U.S. History

Between 35,000 and 50,000 people rallied in Washington, DC on Sunday, Feb 17th in the largest global warming protest in U.S. history. The primary demand: ditch the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Read some testimonials here from women who traveled to DC to protest the pipeline.

Meanwhile, in spite of vague promises to take action to avert catastrophic global warming, Obama’s administration is gearing up for a big fracking push to accelerate natural gas mining.

Just another manic monday.

Glengad compound invaded and work stopped for over 3 hours. Traffic control out of control.

On a sunny dawn after a successful national campaign meeting at the weekend, campaigners decided to take to the bog and stop work on the Glengad compound where Shell are currently excavating the reception pit for the tunnel boring machine.

All the protesters managed to breach the ragtag fences and two decided to rest themselves upon a Shell digger.
Work was stopped for over 3 hours on the compound.

Protest continued with a road blockade but when diggers recommenced there work, protesters ran back to the compound and tried once more to breach the fences and stop work.

After a short scuffle with Shell security IRMS protesters moved back to blockade trucks for the rest of the day.

Protesters continue to frustrate Shell’s work 17th Feb

This last week has been another week of resistance to Shell controversial pipeline, with numerous truck blockades and disruption to workers

In solidarity with our friend Izzy Ní Ghraidm, we have continued to keep up the pressure on Shell by blocking trucks and workers throughout the day.
Shell workers arrive at 6.30am and there are up to 105 truck movements per day so there's plenty of chance to show your opposition and support the local community.

Shell was forced to admit that they had been experiencing problems with the Tunnel Boring Machine after it was announced on the radio that work on the tunnel had resumed.
However just days after this was announced there are rumours flying of further problems.

As the photo of Glengad shows, the Shell compound has expanded and is now just next to the old camp field. It is a real eyesore on this beautiful landscape but it is not too late to stop it.
Come up and support this community under siege from Shell.

actions against E-On in Nottingham

15.02.2013

Last night the doors to the Nottingham E-on Open House on Lister Gate were d-locked shut in solidarity with anyone struggling to stay warm this winter.

15.02.2013

Last night the doors to the Nottingham E-on Open House on Lister Gate were d-locked shut in solidarity with anyone struggling to stay warm this winter.

Eon and their partners in crime are not only destroying the planet as they extract every last inch of natural resources from the ground, they're also doing their best to fleece each and everyone of us as they raise the prices year in year out. What we did last night was a minor act. Carried out by individuals who are disgusted with the ways in which the corporate power and greed which goes hand in hand with this system. It is destroying the planet, human beings and every living thing. We must fight back.

Update: I work across the road from the open house. It had to open two hours later than usual.

——-

Stop G8 Notts hit the streets of Nottingham yesterday distributing a leaflet that made connecting the everyday reality of poverty in the city, where people are forced to choose between eating or staying warm to the capitalist spectacle of the G8 summit taking place later this year.

Individuals were receptive to the message although many people didn't view themselves as empowered to do anything about the current situation. This re-enforced the importance of us being on the streets talking and engaging with as many people as we can, talking about the problems, their causes and how we can tackle them on micro and macro levels.

Starving to Sttay Warm

Fuel poverty protest against E.on.

Eon and the other five big energy companies (EDF, Centrica, SSE, Scottish Power and npower) are a cartel which controls 99% of the domestic energy market. Domestic energy prices for us are constantly rising whilst every year these companies declare record profits.

According to a recent survey, this winter 1 in 4 families have had to face a stark choice between heating and eating. Whilst e.on executives and shareholders spend bumper profits on second homes and holidays
abroad, people in the UK are freezing because they need to eat.

We are starving to stay warm!

On June the 17th and 18th the G8 world leaders will be meeting in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, to discuss how to maintain the capitalist system which enables and justifies this daylight robbery. While we allow our lives to be governed by these crooks profit will always come before people. The only way to achieve real change is to break from this vicious cycle of exploitation, smash capitalism and reorganise our communities in a way which ensures everyone has access to the necessities of life.

From the 10th of June there will be a week of action, workshops and meetings in London to protest against the G8 and to work towards building the sort of world that we want to live in

stopg8notts@riseup.net

48 arrested in historic act of civil disobedience to stop Keystone XL pipeline

JULIAN BOND, BILL MCKIBBEN, MICHAEL BRUNE, AND OTHERS ARRESTED IN FRONT OF WHITE HOUSE IN CALL FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This morning, 48 environmental, civil rights, and community leaders from across the country joined together for a historic display of civil disobedience at the White House where they demanded that President Obama deny the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and address the climate crisis.

Among the notable leaders involved in the civil disobedience were Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club; Bill McKibben, Founder of 350.org; Julian Bond, former president of the NAACP; Danny Kennedy, CEO of Sungevity; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Connor Kennedy, and Daryl Hannah, American actress.

After blocking a main thoroughfare in front of the White House, and refusing to move when asked by police, the activists were arrested and transported to Anacostia for processing by the US Park Police Department.

“The threat to our planet’s climate is both grave and urgent,” said civil rights activist Julian Bond. “Although President Obama has declared his own determination to act, much that is within his power to accomplish remains undone, and the decision to allow the construction of a pipeline to carry millions of barrels of the most-polluting oil on Earth from Canada’s tar sands to the Gulf Coast of the U.S. is in his hands. I am proud today to stand before my fellow citizens and declare, ‘I am willing to go to jail to stop this wrong.’ The environmental crisis we face today demands nothing less.”

“We really shouldn’t have to be put in handcuffs to stop KXL–our nation’s leading climate scientists have told us it’s dangerous folly, and all the recent Nobel Peace laureates have urged us to set a different kind of example for the world, so the choice should be obvious,” said 350.org founder Bill McKibben. “But given the amount of money on the other side, we’ve had to spend our bodies, and we’ll probably have to spend them again.”

“For the first time in the Sierra Club’s 120-year history, we have joined the ranks of visionaries of the past and present to engage in civil disobedience, knowing that the issue at hand is so critical, it compels the strongest defensible action,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “We cannot afford to allow the production, transport, export and burning of the dirtiest oil on Earth via the Keystone XL pipeline. President Obama must deny the pipeline and take decisive steps to address climate disruption, the most significant issue of our time.”

If approved, the Keystone XL pipeline would boost carbon pollution tomorrow by triggering a boom of growth in the tar sands industry in Canada, and greatly increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that this tar sands pipeline will boost annual U.S. carbon pollution emissions by up to 27.6 million metric tons – the impact of adding nearly 6 million cars on the road.

However, new research by Oil Change International (OCI) shows that the government’s estimates of the carbon emissions associated with Keystone XL underestimates the full impact of tar sands because a barrel of tar sands produces significantly more petroleum coke than conventional crude, which is more carbon-intensive than coal. The research can be found at: http://priceofoil.org/2013/01/17/petroleum-coke-the-coal-hiding-in-the-t….

OCI’s research shows that Keystone XL will produce enough petcoke to fuel five U.S. coal plants. The emissions from this petcoke have not yet been included in climate-impact analysis of the pipeline or the tar sands industry and OCI shows that it will raise total emissions by at least 13 percent.

Shell to Sea campaigner jailed for 3 months. 14th Feb

Ms Ní Ghraidm pleaded guilty to a Section 8 and 9 charge and refused to do community service as she felt her protest was a service to a community under siege from Shell. The Judge then sentenced Ms Ní Ghraidm to 3 months in jail.

Izzy has been a strong supporter of Shell to Sea for years and her commitment to the cause is much appreciated by us here in Mayo.
She has courageously stood up for our struggle to protect our community and is passionate in her fight to reclaim Irish natural resources.

Speaking from the Court, Shell to Sea spokesperson Terence Conway stated "Yesterday in Belmullet District court, we saw a committed environmental campaigner being jailed for a minor public order incident. On the other hand a Shell security guard who was caught dealing drugs is allowed to walk free. Ms Ní Ghraidm has taken a brave stand to support this community's struggle against a greedy multinational that will do whatever it is allowed to by the subservient State institutions".

Mr Conway continued "What we're experiencing is the selective application of the law. Yesterday Providence Resources dropped their Dublin Bay oil drilling licence because the State has not got it's required EU environmental laws in place. The same EU environmental laws apply to Corrib but are being ignored."

Fracking Saboteur Sentenced to 6 Months. 13 Feb

As far as we can tell, there’s been no clear reason expressed about why he did it.

As far as we can tell, there’s been no clear reason expressed about why he did it. But does there really need to be? Anyone who risks their freedom to attack a fracking site in the Marcellus Shale, and in one evening succeeds at delaying operations for three months, is a hero to all who drink water and hate energy corporations.

Tanner Long, 21, from the Trout Run area of Lycoming County, PA, allegedly admitted to an ambitious act of vandalism on August 30, 2012, and was sentenced in late-January to six months of prison (in a “county pre-release center”) and five years probation.

The story was not heavily reported outside the local area, but you can check out a short news clip here, which includes heart warming images of overturned bulldozers at a trashed fracking site on public land. You can also send him a letter here for the time being:

Tanner J. Long #3625
Lycoming County Prison
277 West Third Street
Williamsport, PA 17701

What we know of the story: In September 2012, a $10,000 reward was offered by Brubacher Energy Services for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever vandalized construction equipment in Loyalsock State Forest.

According to Myron Brubacher, an owner of the Lancaster County company.”They basically cut the trees to block access to the road where our equipment was located.”

The vandals, who had somehow acquired keys, used pieces of equipment to damage other pieces of equipment. In total, the company reported $120,000 in damages.

“They rolled several pieces, one of our machines was rolled over on its side. They did a lot of damage,” Brubacher said. “It took three months to repair the damage.”

He added that the company has increased security since the vandalism.

Lycoming County Judge Nancy L. Butts told Long to “grow up.” While we at the EF! Newswire could see the potential for flagrant Bart Simpson-inspired immaturity when facing off with someone named Judge Butts, her honor was apparently referring to Long’s heroic vandalism being immature (as opposed any personal insult to Butts that one may have easily been tempted to utter, as we were.)

While three others reportedly watched on the night of Aug. 30, Long started heavy equipment belonging to Brubacher Energy, of Bowmansville, at a well site off Route 14 north of Trout Run.

Lifelong Oklahoman Youth Pastor Locked to Machinery in Protest of Keystone XL 11 Feb

Earlier this morning, Stefan Warner, a youth pastor who was born and raised in Harrah, OK, locked himself to machinery being used to build the toxic Keystone XL tar sands pipeline through Creek land near Schoolton, OK.

Warner is taking action to protect the health of the North Canadian River, communities and land that this pipeline would run through from being irreversibly damaged by diluted bitumen (tar sands) leaks and spills. He is sending a clear message that the current day colonialism and disregard for the health and sovereignty of indigenous peoples in Alberta, Canada, and along the pipeline is unacceptable—from a Christian perspective, as well as a human perspective.

Tar sands pipelines have a horrendous track record: the existing Keystone 1 pipeline leaked 12 times in its first year, and at least thirty times to date. In 2010, the added dangers of tar sands pipelines were demonstrated by Enbridge’s Line 6B pipeline spill of more than a million gallons of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The Kalamazoo tar sands spill is the costliest inland spill in U.S. history, draining the oil spill coffers and placing the $800 million and rising price tag onto the backs of local and federal taxpayers. But it is not the monetary burden that weighs heaviest. It is the toll on human life and the health of local ecosystems that is immeasurable, especially the toxicity of the diluted bitumen and undisclosed proprietary chemicals has proven devastating.

In addition to the immense dangers posed by the Keystone XL, TransCanada has been misrepresenting the economic effects of the pipeline. The majority of construction jobs are temporary and have been filled by Wisconsin-based contractor Michel’s, not Oklahomans and Texans. Despite TransCanada and the State Department’s rhetoric of energy independence, the diluted bitumen transported by the Keystone XL is destined for export to foreign markets after being refined in Gulf Coast refineries, and the National Resources Defense Council asserts that the KXL will increase domestic gas prices.

“I grew up in a town where the North Canadian River runs right through, and we can’t let the North Canadian become another Kalamazoo,” said Oklahoman youth pastor Stefan Warner. “I figure folks have to take action to stop our beautiful Oklahoma from being marred by a foreign corporation, and stand up to fight big corporations who think that poisoning people and stealing land is acceptable so long as they make a profit.”

Warner is acting with Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, a coalition of Oklahomans and allies fighting to prevent construction of the Keystone XL which will bring dangerous and toxic diluted bitumen from the biome-consuming tar sands gigaproject to refinery communities in the Gulf. This action comes in the wake of dozens of similar actions which have actively fought construction of the Keystone XL in Oklahoma and Texas. In light of reports of shoddy welding by TransCanada whistleblower Evan Vokes and the recent release of photographs depicting holes in the weld of a pipe buried in Texas, the struggle to keep the Keystone XL from being completed is even more urgent.

Updates

At 8 a.m., direct support for Stefan was arrested without warning and placed in police car. Six other people on site are being detained.

At 9 a.m., six people detained now arrested. Seven police vehicles are on scene. Workers have lowered side-boom in disregard of Stefan’s safety and OSHA regulations. Stefan is still locked to machinery but lying painfully face-down on the lowered arm. Police are obscuring Stefan from view and not allowing anyone within photographing distance.

At 9:15 a.m., another individual arrested. This person was not initially detained but was prevented from accessing her vehicle since 8 a.m. Stefan
is still holding strong. It also appears that this action is also blockading an active frack site.

Indigenous resistance forces Malaysia to scale back twelve dam megaproject

A Malaysian state minister Friday said the government would not push ahead with building a dozen new dams on Borneo island, acknowledging they have caused outrage from local tribes and environmentalists.

The proposals sparked fears that the dams would destroy pristine rainforests, endanger wildlife, and displace natives in Sarawak, a Malaysian state crossed by powerful rivers with rich jungle habitats.

“It is not a firm plan to build 12 dams. I don’t think we will need that. We will only need four,” James Masing, Sarawak’s state minister of land development, told AFP in an interview.

Masing said the government was backing off in response to widespread criticism. Protests over the years have seen activists and locals staging blockades of roads into dam areas.

“I’m pleased that this type of thing (protests) takes place. Not all that we do is correct, and this shows we need to refine our plans and think again,” he said.

The now-complete Bakun mega-dam, which is not part of the new dam proposal, has already been dogged for years by claims of corruption in construction contracts, the flooding of a huge swathe of rainforest and the displacement of thousands of tribespeople.

Despite that, the government mooted constructing more dams as part of an industrial development drive to boost the resource-rich state’s backward economy.

Another dam at Murum, also deep in the interior, is nearing completion and two others are in the planning stages as part of the new proposal.

Together the four dams — at Bakun, Murum, Baleh and Baram — are already expected to put out nearly 6,000 megawatts of power, six times what Sarawak currently uses, Masing said.

“The protests are becoming more vocal on the ground so (the dam rethink) is a very good development for me,” said Peter Kallang, member of a Sarawak tribe and chairman of SAVE Rivers, an NGO that has campaigned against the dams.

However, he said plans for the Baram and Baleh dams should be scrapped as well, noting that the Baram dam would displace about 20,000 people, compared to about 10,000 at Bakun, and destroy irreplaceable forest.

He said SAVE Rivers last month organised a floating protest along the Baram river that cruised down river for three days and was met with support along the way by local tribespeople.

Kallang and other activists have also travelled abroad to lobby against the dams, including meeting officials of Hydro Tasmania, an Australian corporation that advises the Sarawak government on the dams.

The Tasmania government corporation pledged in December after meeting the activists that it would pull its personnel out of Sarawak by the end of 2013, Kallang said.

Sarawak’s tribes — ethnically distinct from Malaysia’s majority Malays — fear that they will lose their ancestral lands and hunting and burial grounds, as the government encourages them to make way for projects and move into new settlements.

Those are equipped with medical clinics, electricity, and Internet access. But village elders and activists say alcoholism, drug use, and crime are on the increase and anger is rising over continuing encroachment on native lands.

In one of the blockades in 2011, Penan tribespeople blocked roads into their lands for a week to protest logging and alleged river pollution by Malaysian firm Interhill until the blockade was dismantled by authorities.