Category: Fracking

Affirmative: Fracking Awareness North Somerset is go, go, GO! 30th April

Frack­ing Aware­ness North Som­er­set (F.A.N.S) is a new organ­i­sa­tion seek­ing to mobi­lize com­mu­ni­ty based resis­tance against frack­ing. We aim to build a net­work of groups all over North Som­er­set to col­lec­tive­ly strug­gle against the insid­i­ous threat posed by frack­ing to our local com­mu­ni­ties and land­scape.

Frack­ing Aware­ness North Som­er­set (F.A.N.S) is a new organ­i­sa­tion seek­ing to mobi­lize com­mu­ni­ty based resis­tance against frack­ing. We aim to build a net­work of groups all over North Som­er­set to col­lec­tive­ly strug­gle against the insid­i­ous threat posed by frack­ing to our local com­mu­ni­ties and land­scape.

F.A.N.S. will encom­pass and offer sup­port for all anti-frack­ing/en­vi­ron­men­tal groups in North Som­er­set, pro­vid­ing them with up to date infor­ma­tion, encour­age­ment and sol­i­dar­i­ty in fight­ing this cause.

Our Face­book page is now up and run­ning and we are cur­rent­ly in the midst of design­ing our new North Som­er­set focused leaflets. We are also cre­at­ing a new web­site so that we are eas­i­ly con­tactable and can pro­vide infor­ma­tion and help for oth­er groups around North Som­er­set.

Once our leaflet and web­site are fin­ished, we are plan­ning F.A.N.S Fort­night – two weeks of talks, pre­sen­ta­tions, meet­ings, work­shops and film show­ings around the towns and vil­lages of North Som­er­set. F.A.N.S Fort­night aims to edu­cate the res­i­dents of these areas on the often com­plex issue of frack­ing. We seek to show them how they may be affect­ed by frack­ing in the com­ing years, but also that there is light at the end of the tun­nel.

So it’s all go from North Som­er­set! Please feel free to get in touch if you are inter­est­ed in sup­port­ing us or have a new group that would like to join F.A.N.S. We would also very much like to hear from any­one inter­est­ed in help­ing out with fes­ti­vals or ideas for pro­mo­tion.

Frack­ing will bring indus­tri­al North Sea gas extrac­tion to our very doorsteps. Togeth­er, we can stop it.

Com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance will be one of the most effec­tive tools deployed against the frack­ing cor­po­ra­tions. Despite what may appear at first glance to be a very bleak sit­u­a­tion, hope can be found by stand­ing togeth­er in focused sol­i­dar­i­ty.

There­fore, we will be encour­ag­ing and pro­vid­ing sup­port for any­one who would like to start their own local group. Our aim is to help as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble take their first ten­ta­tive steps in this strug­gle. Unit­ed com­mu­ni­ties are key to end­ing (with a firm and res­olute full stop) frack­ing’s threat to North Som­er­set.

A lot of pro­mo­tion is need­ed to ensure that res­i­dents know who we are and when we will be in their area. There­fore, mem­bers of F.A.N.S are plan­ning to vis­it a large num­ber of local South West sum­mer fes­ti­vals this year to man­age stalls, run work­shops and hold talks. We will also be pro­mot­ing F.A.N.S Fort­night and the events/meetings that are going to be held dur­ing that time.

Last on our cur­rent agen­da is ‘Love and Rage’ — a month­ly spo­ken word poet­ry and acoustic music night held in Bris­tol. Love and Rage will be a reg­u­lar fund-rais­er to help con­tribute towards the mon­e­tary demands of our cam­paign. It will also be a plat­form from which to inform peo­ple of the dan­gers posed by Frack­ing and, at the same time, hope­ful­ly mobilise them into action.

Relat­ed Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/FANS-Fracking-Awareness-…07437

Earth First! Summer Gathering: 7th-11th August 2013

This year’s the Sum­mer Gath­er­ing will be in the Hast­ings area near the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road cam­paign. It will run from the evening of Wednes­day 7th August and fin­ish on Sun­day 11th August.

 

This year’s the Sum­mer Gath­er­ing will be in the Hast­ings area near the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road cam­paign. It will run from the evening of Wednes­day 7th August and fin­ish on Sun­day 11th August.

 

The Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing takes place each year to pro­vide a space in which the rad­i­cal ecol­o­gy move­ment can share skills and plan for future cam­paigns and actions. Any­one who is inter­est­ed in eco­log­i­cal direct action will have a valu­able part to play and is wel­come to come to this fam­i­ly friend­ly gath­er­ing. If you’ve not been to an Earth First! Gath­er­ing before and are think­ing about it, please do come, we are a very friend­ly, wel­com­ing bunch and would love to have you get involved

 

Pro­gramme: Work­shops, skill shar­ing and plan­ning action, plus low-impact liv­ing with­out lead­ers. Meet peo­ple, learn skills.

Transport/location: exact loca­tion will be announced 2 weeks before gath­er­ing on web­site.

Cost: £20-£30 from each per­son to cov­er all costs except food. (If you real­ly can’t afford this, please come any­way and give what you can).

Food: Deli­cious veg­an food will be avail­able, and meal tick­ets will be on sale at the gath­er­ing.

What to bring: Every­one will be camp­ing so bring a tent, sleep­ing bag etc.

If you have any par­tic­u­lar accom­mo­da­tion, access or dietary needs please tell us asap but at least two weeks in advance so we can plan suit­able facil­i­ties. There will be a small amount of liv­ing vehic­u­lar space if booked in advance, on a first come first served basis.

 

Con­tact: summergathering-at-earthfirst.org.uk

http://efgathering.weebly.com

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.

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.

 

 

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.

Earth First! Winter Moot 2012 — 24–26th February 2012. Updated: location & what to expect

A week­end of dis­cus­sion and net­work­ing for those tak­ing direct action against eco­log­i­cal destruc­tion.

Please note date & loca­tion change (due to date clash & venue prob­lems):

24–26th Feb­ru­ary 2012, near Glas­gow

Near­est train sta­tion: Lanark.

See earthfirstgathering.org.uk for fur­ther infor­ma­tion about loca­tion,  pro­gramme and con­tact details

Update:

Where — this years Earth First Win­ter Moot will take place in Gle­spin Vil­lage Hall, South Lanark­shire. Gle­spin is a small vil­lage about 14 miles south of Lanark, and 35 miles south of Glas­gow. South Lanark­shire also has many beau­ti­ful areas with rivers, hills, forests and peat bogs.  Full direc­tions

What to expect — this years Earth First! Win­ter Moot takes place in South Lanark­shire, Scot­land. In a months time envi­ron­men­tal­ists from across the UK and beyond will con­verge to dis­cuss and debate. Below is an update from the organ­is­ing col­lec­tive who are work­ing on the pro­gram.

The Moot 2012 col­lec­tive has felt that at pre­vi­ous EF! Gath­er­ings groups have pri­mar­i­ly attend­ed to recruit for their respec­tive cam­paigns. Yet those who attend EF! Gath­er­ings are pre­dom­i­nant­ly already active, mak­ing them good places for net­work­ing, but not nec­es­sar­i­ly for out­right recruit­ment. We recog­nise the effort gath­er­ing organ­is­ers put into plan­ning agen­das but often the more dis­cur­sive aspects of the gath­er­ings focus on larg­er,  abstract ques­tions and debates have often been framed by self-appoint­ed experts. We feel that these dis­cus­sions inef­fec­tive­ly attempt to find answers or reach con­sen­sus where this is inap­pro­pri­ate.

For exam­ple at the first EF! Gath­er­ing 20 years ago the ques­tion was asked: ‘What is EF!?’ 20 years lat­er in 2011 at the last Moot the same ques­tion was still being asked …

The answer is EF! is what we make it, and this year we are going to make it a space in which we can approach our cam­paigns both crit­i­cal­ly and ana­lyt­i­cal­ly by ask­ing more spe­cif­ic and prac­ti­cal ques­tions. Our activism should be con­stant­ly evolv­ing not stuck in a rut ask­ing the same ques­tions again and again.

The agen­da will be designed to ask ques­tions around four key issues: the tac­tics we use; the strate­gies that we employ in our cam­paigns; com­mu­ni­ty sol­i­dar­i­ty; and sus­tain­able activism. There will be no attempt to reach con­clu­sions or con­sen­sus espe­cial­ly about what EF! is. Instead we want to have dis­cus­sions that lead to new ideas that could evolve ongo­ing cam­paigns or give cre­ative inspi­ra­tion to ones that are just get­ting start­ed.

A free space will be pro­vid­ed in which cam­paigns will be able to hold meet­ings and have fur­ther dis­cus­sions if they wish, and there will also be some space giv­en for cam­paign updates with an empha­sis on hon­est analy­sis rather than pro­mo­tion.

For updates and more info check the web­site or email us.

efwintermoot@noflag.org.uk

New EF! Action Update

In an end of the sum­mer com­pact EF!AU, find news about kick­ing shell in the teeth in Ross­port again and then some more, sol­i­dar­i­ty with the com­mu­ni­ty at Dale Farm, and anti-GM resis­tance — Spuds you Don’t Like demo in Eng­land, sab­o­tage in Ger­many, France and Scot­land.

On top of the usu­al con­tacts and dates, read about sol­i­dar­i­ty with jailed Swiss nan­otech activists, resis­tance against steel plants, mobile phone masts, min­ing and ener­gy projects here & across the world — stay angry and don’t car­ry on as usu­al!

The quar­ter­ly EF!AU, August 2011