First segments eventually delivered to tunnelling compound,11 segments to come
On Thursday night Shell's efforts to move parts of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) critical to the Corrib gas project hit another delay as protesters blocked the main gate of the refinery site with a concrete lock-on.
First segments eventually delivered to tunnelling compound,11 segments to come
On Thursday night Shell's efforts to move parts of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) critical to the Corrib gas project hit another delay as protesters blocked the main gate of the refinery site with a concrete lock-on.
Two protesters from the Rossport Solidarity Camp locked themselves into a 400kg reinforced concrete barrel from 7.30pm until the Garda protest removal team finished cutting them out at about midnight. By this stage about 20 people had gathered at the gates in support, but this was out-numbered by a force of about 50 to 60 Gardaí which was clearly already planned to mobilise to move the TBM.
For the hour or two before the Gardai cordoned off the area around the lock-on, campaigners chatted drinking tea and eating scones. It was satisfying to hear that as the lock on was being set up at Shell's main refinery gate, Gardaí were searching the ditches on the Aughoose road (where most of the recent lock-ons have happened).
After the lock-on had been dealt with the Gardaí swept up its remains to clear the way for the TBM parts, then proceeded to clear the section of road outside the refinery with the usual lawless pushing and shoving. After a delay of over 2 months since the first delivery was attempted, Shell and the Gardaí finally managed to deliver some of the TBM parts to the Aughoose tunnelling compound two miles away.
The two lock-on protesters were released from Belmullet Garda station at about 4am this morning each charged with sections 8&9 (obstruction and refusing to obey the directions of a Garda when suspected of committing a crime) of the public order act, and join 5 more campaigners due to appear in court in Belmullet on November 14th.
In a recent letter to local residents Shell have said that they intend to start tunnelling in the coming weeks, but it is thought that there are still 11 sections of the TBM yet to be delivered before they can begin. There are signs that delays will continue – without any help yet another lorry delivering TBM parts went off road earlier in the week outside Bangor – after making its delivery however.
After a lie in today we headed down to remove the windmill – last vestige of the summer camp 2012. The previous week had been a massive moving effort to clear out the field and pack the camp infrastructure away for the winter. The house up the hill at Barr na Coilleadh Pullathomas is now the main camp base again for the winter. Come visit and check out the view for yourself!
See rossportsolidaritycamp.org for info about staying at the camp, email rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com or ring 085 1141170 to let us know you're coming or for other info.
"Ukraine, Kiev. In the night of 02/10/2012 anonymous activists attacked a clearcut site on the 'Bald Mountain'. A LIEBHERR excavator fell victim to their arson. Clearcut coordinates: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=50.3891043&lon=30.5495088&z=16&l=0&m=b We take this opportunity to report about a similar action at the same location on the 20/03/2012 (http://nature-first.info/2012/03/20/forest-svyatoshyno/)."
"Tree spiking in Ternopol municipal park. Ukraine.
This act of ecotage is in response to development plans of a local construction company: it intends to destroy a public park to make room for private living blocks.
We spiked trees with huge nails, so the developer will have to bring in heavy equipment in order to destroy those trees. But construction vehicles can be taken care of as well!"
Environmental activists have been celebrating a victory on Gotland Island, off the coast of southeast Sweden, as tree felling machinery remained idle on Saturday evening.
Environmental activists have been celebrating a victory on Gotland Island, off the coast of southeast Sweden, as tree felling machinery remained idle on Saturday evening.
“It was a smart and brave decision,” field biologist Alva Snis Sigtryggsson told Swedish news agency TT. “It feels like a partial victory.”
Earlier in the day police had to use cutting equipment to remove Greenpeace protestors who had chained themselves to the machinery. The tree clearance was planned to make way for a controversial limestone quarry in the Ojnare forest adjacent to an EU designated Natura 2000 protected area.
The forestry owners’ association, Mellanskog, issued a statement indicating that the forest clearance will be stopped until after a High Court Ruling on the issue.
“We are well aware that Nordkalk has a legal right to start work here but we want to avoid long term splits and bitterness in this community where we have many members,” the association wrote.
The mining company’s communication chief, Eva Feldt, called the decision “deplorable” and blamed the country governor for putting pressure on the forestry group.
Environmental groups, including the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and Greenpeace have pledged to block all attempts to open a quarry in the area which they say should be protected in line with European Union rules on biodiversity.
The Swedish Ojnare Forest has been described as unlike any other on the planet – with unique ancient pine forests, short in stature due to the cold climate, yet with individual trees up to 1000 years old, in ecosystems containing 265 endangered species. These old forests shroud the island’s unique and complex groundwater system, and their destruction will place the island’s biggest freshwater source at risk. The area’s unique natural ecosystem habitats are of high national interest for nature conservation, as the Ojnare Forest is located between and adjacent to two European Natura 2000 conservation areas, and is proposed to become a National Park. The Ojnare Forest and its natural ecosystems are under attack by a large open pit limestone mine that would cover 420 acres with a 26 meter deep toxic hole.
Over the objections of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and despite appeals to the Supreme Court, preparatory work for the mine is already underway. There is a major forest protest occupation ongoing at Gotland Island against this logging and mining. Protesters have been occupying Ojnareskogen since July, and in recent days some 70 police officers have come to remove them, and the number of protestors has risen to over 100 – ranging from self-described rebels against ecocide, to families with small children. Despite having already started clearing land for in excess of what had been approved, Mellanskog decided on Saturday to suspend the ongoing logging on Gotland pending a decision from the Supreme Court. While a positive development, protest continues until the logging and entire project are cancelled.
Although the acutely threatened area is “only” 170 hectares in size, the case reveals Sweden’s weak forest protection legislation and possible resource allocation corruption. Only a few percent of Sweden’s high conservation value forests remain, and only 3.3 percent of the productive forest area is protected. The verdict in this case will be used by other corporations to clearcut and exploit other old natural ecosystems in the country. Ecological Internet has a long history of successfully supporting local Scandinavian old-growth forest protection movements. In 2009, our network sent 1,117,294 protest emails in a successful campaign stopping industrial development in 80% of Finland’s Central Lapland wilderness, covering tens of thousands of hectares. Few thought such protections were possible, yet with strong local organizing backed up by EI’s unprecedented global network’s international campaign, it was one of many great victories for Earth’s old forests.
In the night of 02/10/2012 anonymous activists attacked a clearcut site on the 'Bald Mountain'. A LIEBHERR excavator fell victim to their arson. Clearcut coordinates: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=50.3891043&lon=30.5495088&z=16&l=0&m=b We take this opportunity to report about a similar action at the same location on the 20/03/2012 (http://nature-first.info/2012/03/20/forest-svyatoshyno/)."
"Tree spiking in Ternopol municipal park. Ukraine.
This act of ecotage is in response to development plans of a local construction company: it intends to destroy a public park to make room for private living blocks.
We spiked trees with huge nails, so the developer will have to bring in heavy equipment in order to destroy those trees. But construction vehicles can be taken care of as well!"
WINNSBORO, TEXAS – Monday, October 1, 2012 8:00AM – A Tar Sands Blockade protester has stopped the destruction of a small family farm in East Texas by locking himself in front of oncoming Keystone XL clearing equipment.
WINNSBORO, TEXAS – Monday, October 1, 2012 8:00AM – A Tar Sands Blockade protester has stopped the destruction of a small family farm in East Texas by locking himself in front of oncoming Keystone XL clearing equipment. Houston resident, Alejandro de la Torre, 28, is taking action to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from destroying the home of yet another Texas family threatened by TransCanada’s poisonous tar sands slurry.
In a powerful display of conviction, De la Torre locked his arm into a concrete capsule buried directly in the proposed path of the toxic pipeline. This courageous act is preventing TransCanada’s unwelcomed onslaught of machines from devastating property captured through eminent domain abuse. Follow live updates on facebook and twitter.
“I was raised in New Orleans, so I’ve seen how local communities suffer at the hands of multinational corporations,” attests de la Torre. “I’m willing to risk arrest today to stop this tar sands pipeline because I have the privilege to help protect the safety of those most affected. Keystone XL endangers the health and safety of everyone from the landowners and their families now threatened by cancer causing leaks, to the refinery communities in Houston that have to breathe the dirty air, as well as people of color around the world who are disproportionately affected by climate change.”
In a separate protest just miles away on the other side of Winnsboro, Tar Sands Blockade’s aerial tree protest enters into its second week. Sitters in platforms nearly 100 feet in the air are not deterred by reckless behavior on the part of TransCanada’s work crews. Despite repeated warning of the dangers on the part of the protesters, the company is encouraging the use of dangerous tree clearing equipment within feet of protesters’ trees, endangering their lives.
Today’s blockade comes less than a week after TransCanada supervisors encouraged law enforcement to brutalize two peaceful protesters who were acting in defense of the largest tree blockade in Texas history. One of the abused protesters, Benjamin Franklin, explained why peaceful civil disobedience must continue despite the violence orchestrated by TransCanada, “I encourage everyone to persevere in the face of this type of sheer brutality. To follow one’s moral compass in spite of extreme challenges is the way we move forward towards a more humane, tar sands-free planet.”
Below is a previously recorded video of the landowner, Susan Scott whose land stands to be clear-cut today, confronting TransCanada’s surveyors.
“TransCanada doesn’t have any local community ties, it lies about the safety of its pipeline because it cares more about money than about people,” claims Ron Seifert, spokesperson for Tar Sands Blockade. “If this multinational corporation had any compassion for East Texan’s homes, it would respect our constitutionally protected property rights instead of condemning the land and using it for its own private gain.”
UPDATE: 9:30AM – Police Arrive and Begin to Calmly Access the Situation
UPDATE: 10:30AM – TransCanada Workers Bringing Shovels and Threatening to Dig Alejandro Out
UPDATE: 11:00AM – Police Baffled About How to Respond – TransCanada Helicopter Circling Overhead
UPDATE: 11:30AM – Fire and Rescue Crews Arrive With More Plain Clothes Police
UPDATE: 1:00PM – Police Steal Camera From Observers Standing Nearby on Private Property
After the the torture tactics used on our blockaders last week at the encouragement of TransCanada supervisors we’ve made ever effort to ensure we have observers on the scene carefully watching with a video camera. Observers were standing nearby on private property when police confiscated their camera! Fortunately, TV crews are arriving on the scene and hopefully they wouldn’t be subjected to this same obstruction of civil liberties.
UPDATE: 1:15PM – Police Attach Hand-Cuffs to Alejandro’s Ankles – Undeterred He Holds Strong
UPDATE: 1:25PM – Police Put a Screen Around Alejandro So Observers Can’t Watch and Protect Him
Since the police stole our main camera right now we only have photo of the screen taken far away with a cell phone camera. A backup photographer arrived on the scene later and took high definition photos that we’ll upload on our flickr stream tonight.
UPDATE: 3:00PM – Police Chiseling Away at the Underground Capsule That Alejandro is Locked Into
UPDATE: 3:45PM – Alejandro Has Been Arrested For Helping Save a Family Farm From Keystone XL
After delaying construction for almost an entire day Alejandro has been extracted from the underground capsule and arrested. Through his brave actions he was able to bring to light the disrespect that local landowners have suffered at the hands of TransCanada’s eminent domain abuse and trampling of landowner rights.
UPDATE: 4:00PM – Bulldozer Has Moved in to Level More of the Family Farm
After being delayed almost an entire work-day by Alejandro’s actions Keystone XL construction crews quickly moved in with machinery to get in at least one hour of work bulldozing a local landowners beloved family farm before the end of the work day.
UPDATE: 6:00PM – Read Alejandro’s Story of How His Passion For Environmental Justice Motivates Him
“I’m willing to risk arrest because I have a certain amount of personal privilege that allows me to participate. I don’t live near a Gulf refinery, or on land that’s at risk from a devastating tar sands spill, so I’m able to play a small part in an action that will really help people’s lives. I’m here to stand up for people on the front lines because they’re being trampled to make way for corporate profits.
I’m sick of seeing these devastating affects on a personal and community level and on a grand global scale in which corporations and their profits call all the shots.”
UPDATE: OCTOBER 2nd, 9:00AM – Alejandro’s Bail Set at $10,000
Yesterday Houston resident Alejandro de la Torre delayed Keystone XL clear cutting operations on a family farm outside Winnsboro, Texas for almost an entire day. De la Torre locked himself to an underground capsule in the pathway of Keystone XL to protect the farm, saying simply that “I’m here to stand up for people on the front lines because they’re being trampled to make way for corporate profits.” After Wood County Sheriff Department confiscated peaceful observers camera’s they arrested him for his courageous action.
De la Torre is currently being held on trumped up charges and a bail set at $10,000, an outrageous sum for a nonviolent peaceful protester. As a supporter of Alejandro and the blockade please demonstrate your support with a generous donation to his bail.
UPDATE: OCTOBER 2nd, 10:0AM- Alejandro Released!
Alejandro de la Torre has been released from Wood County Jail. When more information becomes available we will update. For now, check out what Alejandro said before he was arrested on our blog.
After yesterday’s audacious move by TransCanada to cut around the west side of the tree blockade and completely outside of the designated Keystone XL pathway, or easement, blockaders have taken action.
After yesterday’s audacious move by TransCanada to cut around the west side of the tree blockade and completely outside of the designated Keystone XL pathway, or easement, blockaders have taken action.
In the middle of the night blockaders erected a 30 foot high timber pole in the newly clear-cut pathway. Lifelong Texan Mary Germanati has climbed atop the pole and is refusing to come down until the Keystone XL pipeline is stopped for good. The pole is a free standing structure that’s safely supported by numerous life-line ropes to keep it upright. If TransCanada moves to sever these support ropes it could seriously injure Germanati. Yesterday their machinery was operating so close that it shook the timber scaffolding wall and severed ropes attached to nearby trees intended to keep a safe buffer between the machinery and the blockaders. Now that we are livestreaming our hope is that the eyes of the world will prevent them from recklessly endangering peaceful protestors.
UPDATE: 9:00AM – Sheriff Arrives and Tries to Talk Blockader Down From Her Pole
UPDATE: 10:00AM – Livestream is Down Due to Technical Difficulties
Sorry folks, we’re doing our best down here in the backwoods of East Texas. Thanks for your patience as we attempt to bring you live footage of the tree blockade. You can help us buy the technical equipment we need to continually improve the quality of the coverage.
UPDATE: 11:00AM – Workers and Sheriff Unsure How to Get Mary Down – Situation is Steady
Blockaders on the ground have been talking with TransCanada workers to explain how they are unable to proceed with today’s clear-cutting operation because Mary is securely up a 40 foot pole in their pathway. Workers and the sheriff are unsure how to get Mary down from her blockade. A TransCanada worker is filming everyone, hence we’ve been wearing masks for our own legal protection.
UPDATE: 1:00PM – TransCanada Workers in the Distance – Mary Holding Strong After yesterday’s close encounters with TransCanada’s heavy machinery operating dangerously close to peaceful tree blockaders things are calm today. It seems that Mary’s presence on a 40 foot pole in the clear-cut path of the Keystone XL has deterred their operations for the day. Workers and police are still milling around on the ground. The only sound audible from the tree blockade is a wood-chipper and excavator moving slash piles of felled trees further away along the clear-cut scar. Hold strong Mary!
UPDATE: 5:00PM – Mary’s Action Stopped All New Clear-Cutting Today
Lifelong Texan Mary Germanati remains quietly perched on top of her 40 foot pole in the middle of Keystone XL clear-cutting site. TransCanada workers and police, unsure of how to deal with Mary, avoided her all day and didn’t bring the heavy machinery back to the clear-cut they had begun the day before. About a dozen workers on foot and four-wheelers roamed around on the ground.
Campaigners from the Hastings Alliance will be in the High Court this Friday, challenging the Court’s decision not to grant a judicial review of Government funding for the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road: the first and the worst of George Osborne’s ‘hundreds of new roads’.
Come and show your support for their appeal – and your opposition to Osborne’s Roads to Nowhere – this Friday morning.
Action called by the Combe Haven Defenders.
BACKGROUND
Even as scientists report a record Arctic ice melt – indicating that man-made climate change is progressing at a faster pace than had been anticipated – George Osborne wants to spend billions of pounds building hundreds of new roads: many of them pointless and damaging schemes successfully stopped by the 1990s’ anti-roads movement.
Of the 45 transport schemes approved in the past year, the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) – work on which is currently due to start in January 2013 – is the worst in terms of carbon emissions.
The BHLR is a line in the sand: stop it and we have a real chance to halt the whole programme before it gets started.
* The adverse impact of the road on the area’s badgers, bats and dormice is noted in the East Sussex County Council’s own 2007 “Environmental Statement” on the road.
Some 200 people attended the “Stop the Road” Camp & Rally in Combe Haven on 29/30 September, celebrating the beauty of the valley and enjoying an amazing weekend of speeches, workshops, shadow puppetry, children’s theatre, story-telling, campfires, local music and great food. A big thank you to everyone who donated their time, energy, money and / or vegetables to the cause, and helped make it such a great event!
The Camp saw the launch of the “Stop the Road – Save Our Valley” pledge. You can download a copy of the Pledge here.
See below for more pictures from the Camp.
An excellent film about the event by local journalist Jake Bowers:
Media coverage extended to the national press, with both the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times (see below) – both running articles linking the Camp’s preparations for future direct action with George Osborne’s plans to build hundreds of new roads around the UK – and a letter from the Defenders in the Guardian.
Other coverage included BBC Sussex, ITV Meridian, and local coverage on the Hastings [1] and Bexhill Observer web-sites [1][2]
Coverage in the Sunday Times
Defender Emily Johns and badger friend welcome walkers to the Camp on the Saturday
Renowned environmental campaigner John Stewart leads a workshop on “How to Stop a Road”
Local group Las Pasionarias contributed some rousing musical songs.
Intense discussions took place in workshops on campaign strategy and direct action
Over a hundred people came to hear about the proposals from the developers and protest groups in a balanced debate. In the event, the developers represented by Mr. Gerwyn Williams of UK Methane pulled out just hours before the meeting started leaving the floor to the opposition. The meeting was organized by the alliance of groups under the umbrella of Frack Free Somerset.
Coalbed Methane is one of a number of interrelated ‘extreme gas’ extraction technologies (including fracking for shale gas, and underground coal gasification). Coalbed Methane is a process for extracting gas from coal seams fairly close to the surface.
Somerset residents heard from speakers representing various opposition groups including Transition Keynsham, Frack Off, and Bristol Rising Tide.
Laura Corfield from Transition Keynsham detailed how UK Methane are about to submit a planning application to carry out test drilling in the Hicks Gate area of Keynsham to Bath and North East Somerset Council.
She said: “All Somerset residents should be concerned about these proposals and it is vital that they now lodge their objections to UK Methane’s planning application. If we don’t stop them now, we can expect drilling rigs all over Somerset, endangering our water supplies and local environment.”
Edward Lloyd-Davies from the national group ‘Frack Off’ related the multiple problems experienced in the US and Australia where coalbed methane has been going on for some years. These include methane escapes, contamination of drinking water, huge quantities of produced water contaminated with toxic salts needing disposal and subsidence. He produced estimates of the potential extent of drilling in Somerset based on information from UK Methane’s Australian parent company. This indicated up to 2100 drilling sites with extensive gas pipelines across the Somerset countryside.
A spokesperson from Rising Tide said: “It is no good this industry claiming that they will do it differently in the UK because we have tighter regulation. The licensing regime for the ‘extreme gas’ in the UK is based on off-shore oil extraction. Regulation falls between the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive and local planning authorities and is totally uncoordinated. Experience in Lancashire has shown one company operating outside its planning permission and in contravention of its planning conditions.”
Wells Town Councillor, Chris Briton chaired the meeting and heard local residents express strong concerns about pollution of drinking water and local rivers and environmental impacts on the Somerset countryside.
The audience was overwhelmingly opposed the UK Methane’s proposals.
I’m writing to ya’ll from a safe space nearby the Tar Sands Blockade in rural east Texas. Early this week, heeding the call of friends and comrades already on site, we assembled a crew of Earth First!ers from the Northeast US and made the 30+ hour drive to the site to provide crucial reinforcement. The tree village set upon site is one of the most fantastic things we’ve ever seen, and the emerging pictures on the internet do it no justice. Down below the pods, hideous monsters in the form of massive feller bunchersand dozers fill the air with the heinous sounds of corporate ecocide: mechanical whirs, sawing, and worst of the all the sound of beautiful trees hundreds of years old falling to their death, driving wildlife from their homes.
Yesterday a feller buncher began clearing through a section of the forest, rapidly advancing towards one of the tree sitters. Clearly printed in large letters on the side of the death machine read a warning to stay back at least 500 feet. A roving team on the ground that I was part of began cat-and-mousing the feller buncher, trying to keep our comrade in the tree safe. On the ground two TransCanada workers and one local sheriff operating as an armed mercenary of the corporation oversaw the operations, trying to move through the felled trees to push back our crew from the clear cut site. We continued to advance, determined not only to protect our comrade above in the canopy but to push them back and show them that we are not scared and that we will RESIST. At one point as we had just watched the feller buncher take down an 80 foot water oak not 40 feet away from the sitter and we heard our friend screaming from above pleading for the safety of their life, I ran towards the machine about 25 feet away making eye contact with the driver who continued to operate the machine and yelling to TransCanada and their bought and paid sheriff that we would not stay back, that they were going to kill our friend if they continued to advance and they were required by law to stop the machine. The sheriff approached saying that “they” (speaking as if they were actually part of TC) weren’t coming any further at that point and they turned the machine around to continue clear cutting. A crew of 7 of us held our ground and remained in defense of the sitter on the opposite side of a creek where we were forced to watch tree after tree fall. A dense part of the forest was instantly turned in to a morose tree morgue.
Overcome with emotions, having never seen a clearcut myself and certainly having never faced down a massive feller buncher, I moved back through the clearcut, across the creek where our friend sat above us in a tree. Feeling the energy coming from the mercilessly mauled fresh tree stumps, I lay over a large one crying uncontrollably as I watched the remaining few trees off in the distance be cut and wrestled out of place. I angrily contemplated the enormity of the corporate state, the cancer that is capitalism, and the injustice of the entire situation. Comrades were there to comfort me and together we all walked away from the horrible scene feeling renewed in our fight and certain in our decision to come to Texas to fight this madness and call attention to this scene.
As I write this now I’m receiving word from the site that they’re cutting in from the south side, only 20 feet away from the sitter we spent yesterday protecting. North from there at the wall that y’all have seen photos of earlier this week, several of our friends’ lives are at risk and trees are being cut dangerously close. TC is now clearing from the west side of the site, attempting to box our site in and presumably make way for cherry pickers and other extraction devices.
One of the locals who is currently resisting the Keystone XL pipeline in solidarity with several local landowners shared stories with a few of us. It is absolutely clear that TransCanada is paying off local law enforcement officers. In addition TC is relentlessly trying to serve people with lawsuits, putting gag orders on landowners who had previously been strong allies, and buying off others. Yesterday one of our key allies awoke to TC in their yard with a big feller buncher. TC had promised them multiple times both verbally and in formally written depositions that they would give “fair” notice before beginning to destroy their land. It seems like TC knew that this area is quickly receiving an influx of resisters and gave this landowner no warning, knowing that we’d have certainly acted at that site.
Despite the situation we are keeping spirits high. Last night I came out of the woods with three comrades to head to a safe space to write this communique to y’all. We were excited to find that many new friends and many familiar faces had arrived to reinforce the site. We’re here for the long haul and are asking y’all to come down to help defend our friends in the trees and stand up to TransCanada and their dirty pipeline. What we’re doing is not enough, but there is strength in numbers and with the aid of more friends we can turn up the heat on TC. There are many opportunities to plug in in various ways hereand the pipeline is going in all across this region. There are many allies and a supportive campaign. We sit here anxiously waiting to re-join our comrades and worried for their safety, and eager to return to the woods and keep up the fight. We hope to see you in the woods.
