Tar sands
For all the latests updates on climate direct actions taken around the world, including in Paris parallel to the UN climate negotiations, see our twitter feed
For all the latests updates on climate direct actions taken around the world, including in Paris parallel to the UN climate negotiations, see our twitter feed
Update: see earthfirstgathering.org for an inspiring and exciting programme and more.
Exciting plans are taking shape. Get involved by coming along to the EF! Winter Moot in Bristol.
Email: summergathering AT earthfirst.org.uk
Update: see earthfirstgathering.org for an inspiring and exciting programme and more.
Exciting plans are taking shape. Get involved by coming along to the EF! Winter Moot in Bristol.
Email: summergathering AT earthfirst.org.uk
A weekend gathering for people involved or wanting to know more about ecological direct action around the UK including fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power, new road building and quarries with discussions and campaign planning – emphasis on the tactics and strategies, community solidarity and sustainable activism.
Sharing stories, skills, tactics, updates & analyses of the radical ecological movement
Cost scale £20 to £30 . This includes full vegan meals and accommodation. Arrive Friday evening (programme starts at 7pm), leave Sunday (ends by 4pm). It will be an indoor floor sleeping space so bring a warm sleeping bag and mat to…
Kebele Community Centre 14 Robertson Road Easton Bristol BS5 6JY
Train—To Stapleton rd , two stops from Bristol TM then 7min walk —
Earth First! is a network of people and campaigns who fight ecological destruction and the forces driving it. We believe in non-hierarchical organising of Direct Action, to confront, stop and eventually reverse the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the Earth and its inhabitants. EF! is not a cohesive group or campaign, but a convenient banner for people who share similar philosophies to work under and doing it ourselves rather than relying on governments or industry.
For info or offers southwest.earthfirst@riseup.net www.earthfirst.org.uk
Download the (ready-to-print) flyer
Programme subject to change:
Starts 7pm Friday with dinner, followed by films & an intro to EF!
On Saturday, breakfast is before the 9:30am start with campaigns round-ups and legal & security workshops. After lunch we'll be looking at strategic thinking (see below) and at 5 exploring the relationship between Reclaim the Power and EF!
On Sunday we'll continue those explorations from 10am. After lunch, there'll be a workshop on sustainable activism, and a chance to get involved in organising the EF! Summer Gathering. Please stay for that if you can and get involved.
Workshops include:
“Intelligent Resistance: strategy and its implementation in the modern world”
Summary: Strong strategy has always been a key element of successful resistance movements. Whether it be the anarchist movements of revolutionary Spain, or the contemporary fight against fracking, a solid strategy is proven to be indispensable.‘Intelligent Resistance’ is a basic introduction to strategic thought and action and looks to provide those in attendance with a practical set of theoretical tools to take away and apply to their own movements and practice.
“Sustaining Resistance: avoiding ‘Burn out”
This is a taster workshop from a much longer ten day workshop and offers a range of tools, collective and personal, which can make our activism more effective and help us avoid burn out staying in for the long haul.
Reclaim the Power meets Earth First!”
How can Earth First! and Reclaim the power coexist in the future struggles and is there a need for collaboration between other camps or a consolidation of resources?
Legal Defence Monitoring:
A taster session in how to be an effective LDM on actions and demos.
Campaigns go-round:
Dates for your diary and what resistance is going on around the world and your back yard..
For the past five months, activists from the Utah Tar Sands Resistance have camped out on the sage-swept, high plateau lands known as PR Springs in eastern Utah. From the site—where the first tar sands mine in the United States is planned, and preliminary clearing work is already underway—you can’t miss the majestic Book Cliffs that tumble from the East Tavaputs Plateau and the canyons full of tall conifers.
Book Cliffs is an area cherished by sportsmen and sportswomen—the public lands a place where Rocky Mountain Elk roam free, a place beloved by hunters and anglers and campers and backpackers.
Book Cliffs is also an area presently threatened by oil, gas, and tar sands development. Activists with Peaceful Uprising and the Utah Tar Sands Resistance are working to stop the tar sands projects in their tracks.
Since May, a group of protesters have sat in a permanent vigil of peaceful resistance at the site of the US Oil Sands project at PR Springs. The camp has at times swelled to as many as 80 activists.
The ongoing vigil has been punctuated with a handful of non-violent, direct action protests. Over the past few months, a total of 27 activists have been arrested for acts of civil disobedience during three such actions. The activists have effectively shut down work at the site on multiple occasions.
On June 17th, US Oil Sands’ work was temporarily suspended, when members of a group called Women of Action Against Violent Extraction joined the Peaceful Uprising and Utah Tar Sands Resistance activists at the PR Springs vigil, and swarmed a bulldozer, halting work.
A letter from the EPA to US Oil Sands made public in July revealed that the proposed tar sands development at PR Springs was actually on official American Indian land, straddling the border between the Uintah and Ouray Reservations of the Ute Tribe.
In all, 21 were arrested during the protests, and the legal ramifications of theEPA letter are still pending.
Jessica Lee, who volunteers with the Utah Tar Sands Resistance, told DeSmogBlog that her group is continuously monitoring construction work at the PR Springs site, which some believe is now illegal based on the EPA‘s letter.
Two other groups, Living Rivers and the Western Resource Advocates, are also working through the courts to put a stop to the mining, an effor that was given a boost by the EPA letter.
On September 23rd, five more non-violent protesters—dressed as chipmunks, which are threatened by the development—were arrested during an action atPR Springs.
According to Lee, the vigil will continue as long as work continues at the site, and future actions will be encouraged and planned according to the situation on the ground.
“Part of the reason we are here is to monitor what’s going on, to see the work underway and what the construction crew is doing.”
Lee says that because of winter conditions, they expect that work will likely halt within a month.
“The campaign will continue through the winter in some form,” said Lee, explaining that the group will be based in Salt Lake City and will continue to raise awareness and support the legal battles. “If work resumes in spring, we will be back,” said Lee.
Besides US Oil Sands, two other companies are working to develop their own tar sands projects in the area. MCW bought an existing asphalt mine at the Asphalt Ridge in Vernal, Utah, and is retrofitting it to extract tar sands. The company has recently embarked on the second phase of development, and is building a tar sands processing plant.
Nearby, American Sands is developing a tar sands mine in the Sunnyside area, roughly 60 miles west and across the Green River from PR Springs in Carbon County.
While work stops for winter at the mining sites, campaigners will focus some of their attention on five oil refineries in the Salt Lake City Valley. Chevron, which operates one of Salt Lake City’s refineries, has gone on record saying that they won’t refine American tar sands at that refinery.
According to Lee, if the refineries aren’t willing or equipped to process tar sands crude, it will present another significant hurdle for the extractors.
Infrastructure to ship tar sands crude to the West Coast or Gulf Coast—where the bulk of refineries that handle tar sands crude are located—is limited. Without a nearby destination for the tar sands crude, the local activists hope, an investment in Eastern Utah tar sands becomes financially undesireable.
If any of the local refeneries do sign a contract to accept tar sands from Utah, or if the govertment approves a new rail line or pipeline from the Uintah to Salt Lake City area, Lee says that the Utah Tar Sands Resistance will be there ready to engage in direct action.
With each action—halting clearing and mining operations, taking legal actions, reducing sales opportunities at refineries—the Utah activists are slowing down extraction and making it more expensive for companies to dig tar sands out of Eastern Utah. This is the people-powered carbon tax at work.
20th November 2014
[UPDATE: Recent arrest number is around 18 as of 2:30pm]
Local activist and video journalist Devin Gillan has reported that RCMP officers admit shooting the treesitter with a “less-than-lethal” shotgun round. (The same thing occurred when police extracted protestors from the Willits treesit in California.)
The Burnaby Mountain protest persists, however, as one protestor has locked herself to a cement block on site, and refuses to move.
Police are reportedly shoving people towards a new cordoned off area.
According to Burnaby Mountain Updates:
“RCMP arrests on Burnaby Mountain will not deter opposition to Kinder Morgan
“So far, as of 2 pm, RCMP have arrested fifteen Burnaby Mountain land defenders standing upto Kinder Morgan’s injunction. Twelve of those fifteen have already been released, with minimal civil contempt of court charges. The three others are visible to our legal and jail support team. None have been taken to jail.
“Those arrested include and pictured here are the brave land defenders Erin, Kaleb, Adam and Sut-lut who have all been maintaining the camp for months, as well as our tree-sitter friend who has been camped out above borehole 2.
“Hundreds of supporters are on-site to witness and to send a clear message that the arrests will not deter opposition and this pipeline will not get built!”
More than 70% of the residents of Burnaby disapprove of Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline passing through Burnaby Mountain, and stress that the pipeline is passing unlawfully through public lands. First Nations have demonstrated that it is unceded land, and Kinder Morgan is not abiding by the treaties in place.
The pipeline threatens to increase oil flow from the Alberta Tar Sands to the Pacific coast via British Columbia threefold.
Sirens are blaring on Burnaby Mountain this morning as the Canadian RCMP storm the blockade against the TransMountain pipeline.
According to the Burnaby Mountain Updates Facebook page:
“9 am update from Burnaby Mountain. Four arrests confirmed including two caretakers who have been holding down for months Kaleb and Erin, six additional people are holding in the campsite and refusing to leave. There is a public rally—which is completely safe—on the other side of the police line, 30-40 people are here already, everyone please come to the hill. Police have blocked road to traffic so you need to walk in and you will be informed to stay within ‘protest area’.”
According to the most recent updates, the number of arrested has reached elevent, including Kaleb and Erin who have stayed at the camp for months, and Adam Gold from the Heiltsuk First Nation. Donate to the legal fund here.
According to the latest reports, the treesitter has warned RCMP officers against shooting him with beanbag munitions, and is not wearing a harness. He has threatened to jump if police attempt to remove him. Police with climbing gear are currently on site.
First Nations members have arrived with drums, and have joined the protest.
Burnaby Mountain is the site of Kinder Morgan’s projected TransMountain’s pipeline, which would triple the amount of oil moving from the Tar Sands to the Pacific Ocean.
An injunction against the protest camp was granted to Kinder Morgan on Monday, but the RCMP did not move into the camp until this morning.
According to Staff Sergeant Major John Buis of the RCMP, “RCMP have strived [sic] to balance the need to maintain public safety and civil order with a democratic right to hold demonstrations. In many cases, the Burnaby RCMP has facilitated that right, and in the case of the protesters on Burnaby Mountain, we have established a lawful assembly area for those who wish to continue to protest peacefully and lawfully.”
Protestors assert that the RCMP is acting violently in a colonial reaction to a peaceful encampment on public lands (unceded Indigenous lands) that has the support of over 70 percent of the local population.
There is a livestream broadcasting the events as they unfold.
Land defenders at Burnaby Mountain are calling on people to come and support the camp at the site. There is a “safe zone” for protesters, and the road in is still accessible at the moment.
On Tuesday, Sept. 23rd, three brave “chipmunks” stopped word at US Oil Sands construction site, on the East Tavaputs Plateau, by physically putting their bodies in front of the machines being used to destroy this amazing land in order to strip-mine tar sands.
On Tuesday, Sept. 23rd, three brave “chipmunks” stopped word at US Oil Sands construction site, on the East Tavaputs Plateau, by physically putting their bodies in front of the machines being used to destroy this amazing land in order to strip-mine tar sands.
There will be a press release, and a statement from the “chipmunks” will be available on Sept. 30, 2014 at: http://www.tarsandsresist.org/chipmunks/
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.
July 17th, 2014 – from Swamp Line 9
Individuals from Six Nations and their allies have interrupted work on a section of Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline. The work stoppage began around 10am this morning. Individuals involved asked workers to leave, asserting that the land is Haudenosaunee territory guaranteed under the Haldimand deed, and that Enbridge’s workers were present without consent or consultation.
“Meaningful consultation isn’t just providing information and going ahead without discussion – it’s giving the opportunity to say no and having a willingness to accommodate.” says Missy Elliot.
“Enbridge left a voice message on a machine with one person. That’s not meaningful – it’s not even consultation.” Emilie Corbeau, there in support of Six Nations points out.
Those involved intend to host an action camp, filling the time with teach-ins about Six Nations history, indigenous solidarity and skill shares centering on direct action.
The group states that they’ve tried the other processes available to them and here out of necessity. “We’ve tried pursuing avenues with the NEB, the township and the Grand River Conservation Authority. Our concerns were dismissed. What other choice do we have if we want to protect our land, water and children?” Missy Elliot of Six Nations asks.
Under bill C-45 the section of the Grand River adjacent to the Enbridge work site and pipeline is no longer protected. Approximately half a million people rely on drinking water provided by the Grand River.
“This isn’t just about line 9 – or Northern Gateway, Energy East or Keystone XL. This is about pipelines – all of them.” Daniell Boissineau, of Turtle Clan, asserts. “This is about the tarsands and how destructive they are to expand, extract and transport.”
“This is a continental concern. It’s not just a Six Nations issue or an indigenous issue. We share the responsibility to protect our land and water as human beings.” Elliot states.
Updates: Exact location has been releases – see here.
Travel – book your travel to Castle Cary or Bruton train station, then it's a bus journey and 20 minute walk.
Updates: Exact location has been releases – see here.
Travel – book your travel to Castle Cary or Bruton train station, then it's a bus journey and 20 minute walk.
Bus times are : 8.14am – 9.44am – 11.44am – 12.33pm – 2.14pm – 4.33pm (last bus). There's no Sunday service so we will timetable a shuttle bus to return.
Cycling: Bruton is better if you are cycling as it is a mile shorter, and there is also a bus from there too. The last bus from here leaves later. (Bus times from Bruton are: 9:09am – 10:39am – 12:12pm – 1:39pm – 3:54pm – 5:39pm)
We will post the exact address three weeks before the gathering.
Refreshments – ‘This year there is no bar on site. People are welcome to bring their own but we ask that there's no drinking before dinner/7pm. Anyone causing a nuisance or breaking our Safer Spaces policy will be asked to stop and/or leave. There will be a cafe & snack bar on site.’
Dogs – ‘This year dogs are welcome, but please get in touch in advance, and keep them on a lead at all times on the site.’ Further info
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28th-31st August 2014, in the South West….
A place for people involved in radical green direct action to come together….
to talk….share skills….learn….listen….play….rant…. find out whats going on….
scheme….live outdoors….hang out….laugh….
experience non hierarchical, low impact, family friendly living.
An activist camp that spans 5 days and consists of a programme of workshops throughout each day facilitated by people like you and me who think they have a skill or a level of knowledge in a subject that is valuable to share with others to improve their activism.
Is this camp for you? Whether you're just starting out in the world of direct action or you're an old (glued and paint-stained) hand at it, you're welcome here.
The action dates and protest gatherings page is once again working! Apologies, we accidentally deleted it!
If there's any ecological actions that are openly advertised, protest camps or campaign gatherings, that you want to add to it, do it through the submit report link and in the subject, make it clear it's to add to the calendar. Thanks.
The action dates and protest gatherings page is once again working! Apologies, we accidentally deleted it!
If there's any ecological actions that are openly advertised, protest camps or campaign gatherings, that you want to add to it, do it through the submit report link and in the subject, make it clear it's to add to the calendar. Thanks.
