Category: Wilderness Defence

Wilder­ness defence

Shoshone Defenders of Mount Tenabo Constructing Encampment (occupied North America)

Decem­ber 1, 2008
At some point today, sev­er­al men will begin con­struct­ing a per­ma­nent arbor on the South­ern flank of Mt. Ten­abo, where they will camp and mon­i­tor the Cana­di­an min­ing com­pa­ny Bar­rick Gold.

Shoshone protest placardShoshone mountain destructionDecem­ber 1, 2008
At some point today, sev­er­al men will begin con­struct­ing a per­ma­nent arbor on the South­ern flank of Mt. Ten­abo, where they will camp and mon­i­tor the Cana­di­an min­ing com­pa­ny Bar­rick Gold.

The encamp­ment was called on dur­ing last week’s protest, where Shoshone Grand­moth­ers and their sup­port­ers attempt­ed to con­front Bar­rick Gold and bring an end to the destruc­tion of the pin­ion for­est — which began almost imme­di­ate­ly after the com­pa­ny got approval to go ahead with its ‘Cortez Hills Expan­sion Project.’

A mas­sive cyanide heap leach gold mine, the project will ulti­mate­ly destroy approx­i­mate­ly 6,800 acres of land — frac­tur­ing along with it, the spir­i­tu­al life and cul­tur­al prac­tices of the Shoshone Peo­ple.

“This is our treaty land. It was a treaty made with the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. It was not made with a for­eign nation. And it is a for­eign min­ing com­pa­ny that has come into our coun­try and is destroy­ing our moun­tain, our land, our food, our med­i­cine and they have no respect,” stat­ed one Grand­moth­er at the protest.

“…It can’t go on. It’s per­pe­trat­ing geno­cide against the Native Amer­i­can peo­ple. And we are not the only Native peo­ple suf­fer­ing this dis­tress,” said anoth­er. “It is hap­pen­ing world over; but we hap­pen to be West­ern Shoshon­es and this is our land and we’re protest­ing the poi­soned water, the destruc­tion of the land, the road we’re stand­ing on here, the big machines: every­thing that the min­ing indus­try stands for. They say they’re doing it respon­si­bly, but they’re not because when they leave the West­ern Shoshone peo­ple will still be here and the land will be bar­ren.”

To help make sure this doesn’t hap­pen, the West­ern Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP) asks that you help by mak­ing any of the fol­low­ing the dona­tions:

  1. 24 Nuts and Bolts (bolts need to be 1 foot in length with match­ing nuts)
  2. Gaso­line for saws and haul­ing costs.
  3. Food items such as eggs, bacon, meat, pota­toes, beans, etc. (includ­ing some sweets!)
  4. Helpers — to assist with con­struc­tion of arbor and for sup­port in the encamp­ment
  5. Mon­e­tary dona­tions for all of the above
  6. Moral sup­port and prayers

You can con­tact Joyce McDade for addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion, e‑mail: EJMcDade20@wmconnect.com

Happy Valley Occupation Celebration — Two Years! (Aotearoa/New Zealand)

SAVE HAPPY VALLEY!
OCCUPATION CELEBRATION — TWO YEARS!
THE WEEKEND OF FEBRUARY 2nd-3rd, 2008

SAVE HAPPY VALLEY!
OCCUPATION CELEBRATION — TWO YEARS!
THE WEEKEND OF FEBRUARY 2nd-3rd, 2008

You are invit­ed to the Save Hap­py Val­ley Coali­tion’s cel­e­bra­tion of our SECOND suc­cess­ful year of occu­py­ing Hap­py Val­ley. We have been con­tin­u­ous­ly occu­py­ing Hap­py Val­ley since Jan­u­ary 28th 2006 in order to pre­vent Sol­id Ener­gy from turn­ing it into an envi­ron­men­tal­ly dev­as­tat­ing open­cast coal-mine. Despite spies, 6000 snails from Augus­tus trans­ferred in ice­cream con­tain­ers, the destruc­tion of a near­by moun­tain, Sol­id Ener­gy’s plans for mas­sive expan­sion, and the Octo­ber 15th raids on activists, peo­ple have man­aged to keep Hap­py Val­ley safe so far! Yay for train track block­ades, film nights, alter­na­tives to min­er­als forums, demos, radio inter­views, every­one’s actions, and the OCCUPATION!

The Save Hap­py Val­ley Coali­tion, and any­one who wish­es to join us for the week­end cel­e­bra­tion, will be meet­ing at Les War­ren Park, in West­port, at 8am on Sat­ur­day 2nd Febu­rary 2008. (The major­i­ty of us will trav­el to West­port from Christchurch on the Fri­day night, car pool­ing can be arranged thru the coor­di­na­tor).

You will need all of your own tramping/camping gear and food, enough for the dura­tion of your intend­ed stay and you need to be pre­pared for unpre­dictable weath­er; rain; sun; hot and cold. This means that you must have have suit­able footwear, water­proof and warm cloth­ing, a sleep­ing bag and a tent (unless you have arranged to share with some­one else). An extend­ed gear list will be made avail­able to you when you con­firm plans with the occu­pa­tion coor­di­na­tor. If you do not have the required gear we may be able to pro­vide it for you, but please ensure that by the Fri­day you have the cor­rect gear.

We will be leav­ing the val­ley / return­ing to West­port on Sun­day the 3rd but it would be awe­some if you are able to stay longer in the val­ley!! Please let the coor­di­na­tor know.

We hope you can join us. Please RSVP so we can coor­di­nate eas­i­ly 🙂 Please let us know if you have any spe­cial needs that are of con­cern, we will be as accom­mo­dat­ing as pos­si­ble and we can pro­vide you with as much infor­ma­tion as you require.

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact the occu­pa­tion coor­di­na­tor.

Thanks for your sup­port!

Frances Mar­tin
Occu­pa­tion Cel­e­bra­tion Coor­di­na­tor
frances.crayon@gmail.com
021 2037040

www.savehappyvalley.org.nz/occupation

If you can­not make it for this week­end but are able to vis­it the val­ley at anoth­er time please con­tact us! 🙂

Potatoes to Heavy Industry — Xmas blockade in Iceland with video

24 Decem­ber 2007
On Sat­ur­day nine ‘jólasveinar’ wan­dered into the Hell­isheiði Pow­er­plant by Mount Hengill, express­ing their oppo­si­tion to the rise of heavy indus­try and oth­er nature dev­as­tat­ing activ­i­ties in Ice­land, as well as sol­i­dar­i­ty with human nature con­ser­va­tion­ists. (The jolasveinar are 13 Ice­landic san­tas, born of a child-eat­ing troll moth­er, who descend from the moun­tains in the days before christ­mas to sneak through the hous­es, steal­ing, teas­ing and caus­ing mis­chief.)

Jule Lads action24 Decem­ber 2007
On Sat­ur­day nine ‘jólasveinar’ wan­dered into the Hell­isheiði Pow­er­plant by Mount Hengill, express­ing their oppo­si­tion to the rise of heavy indus­try and oth­er nature dev­as­tat­ing activ­i­ties in Ice­land, as well as sol­i­dar­i­ty with human nature con­ser­va­tion­ists. (The jolasveinar are 13 Ice­landic san­tas, born of a child-eat­ing troll moth­er, who descend from the moun­tains in the days before christ­mas to sneak through the hous­es, steal­ing, teas­ing and caus­ing mis­chief.)

“We decid­ed to take a stroll by there before com­ing to town, and give out rot­ten pota­toes to the naughty indus­tri­al­ists, and maybe a gift or two to the work­ers that do their jobs bad­ly” said Pot­taske­fill (Pot scraper) on behalf of the group. Naughty Ice­landic chil­dren such as these tra­di­tion­al­ly get a rot­ten pota­to in their christ­mas shoe.

–
The Jule Lads, Nordic trolls who’s tra­di­tion pre­ceed Father Christ­mas, descend­ed upon a geot­her­mal pow­er sta­tion which is being enlarged to pow­er the enlarge­ment of an alu­mini­um smelt­ing fac­to­ry by RUSAL/Nordural. Hengill was once a beau­ti­ful moun­tain range, at the edge of a high­ly vol­canic area in Ice­land, a ski resort pep­pered with nat­ur­al hot pools and steam­ing rocks. Now it is noth­ing but a scream­ing fac­to­ry.

The Jule lads join up for a spe­cial direct action with the Sav­ing Ice­land col­lec­tive as they left to town… the video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfY5Ou31SWE

Please con­sid­er com­ing out to Ice­land for our 2008 action camp, we need all the help from activists we can get. This island is Europe’s last wilder­ness and with huge dams, geot­her­mal pow­er plants, pow­er lines, tar­mac roads, pol­lut­ing fac­to­ries, not to men­tion all the ter­ri­ble affects on the sur­round­ing sea, and a whole host of oth­er forms of destruc­tion.

More pho­tos at:
http://www.savingiceland.org/node/1077

Shell to Sea protesters scale government building to reach Minister’s Office

Wednes­day Decem­ber 19, 2007

A small group of Shell to Sea activists scaled the heights of the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources today, to place a ban­ner read­ing PROTECT IRISH NATURAL RESOURCES on the bal­cony out­side Eamon Ryan’s office.

Natural Resources Department roof-top occupationWednes­day Decem­ber 19, 2007

A small group of Shell to Sea activists scaled the heights of the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources today, to place a ban­ner read­ing PROTECT IRISH NATURAL RESOURCES on the bal­cony out­side Eamon Ryan’s office.

Split­ting into two small teams, the pro­test­ers used advice from Green­Peace to dis­tract the secu­ri­ty and gain access to the Min­is­ter’s top floor office and leave a mes­sage for him.

This action was car­ried out to bring to pub­lic atten­tion the gov­ern­men­t’s sup­port for every aspect of the Ross­port pipeline/refinery scheme, and the give­away of Irish Nat­ur­al resources to multi­na­tion­al com­pa­nies like Shell, with no last­ing ben­e­fit for peo­ple in Ire­land. The Green par­ty have now had a full term of the Dáil to hon­our their elec­tion promis­es, but sad­ly, their end of term report is is marked FAIL.

None of the gas or oil in the wells off the west­ern coast of Ire­land will belong to the state, since the gov­ern­ment still plans to give it all away for free to pri­vate com­pa­nies. The recent changes to licens­ing agree­ments won’t apply to the eight bil­lion euro Cor­rib project, and don’t amount to a seri­ous stake for the peo­ple of Ire­land in their own nat­ur­al resources, 100 per cent of which is still being giv­en away to com­pa­nies like Shell and Sta­toil.

None of the mon­ey from these fos­sil fuels will be invest­ed in renew­able sources of ener­gy like wind and wave pow­er, and no thought has been giv­en to the impact that the exploita­tion of these resources will have on cli­mate change.

Áine, one of the Shell to Sea pro­tes­tors, said “The gov­ern­men­t’s supine sup­port for the oil com­pa­nies shows that they pri­ori­tise the wel­fare of Shell share­hold­ers over the well­be­ing of their own cit­i­zens. Shell are being allowed to keep all the gas and sell it to the high­est bid­der, almost cer­tain­ly in Britain. The refin­ing of 4 mil­lion euro worth of raw gas per day will clear­ly degrade the envi­ron­ment, both local­ly for the peo­ple of Mayo, and also in terms of car­bon diox­ide emis­sions when the gas is used. From an Irish point of view, we would be bet­ter off leav­ing the gas where it is, under the sea.”

Shell to Sea pro­tes­tors have also point­ed out that the gov­ern­men­t’s dou­ble talk on cli­mate change can be clear­ly seen when they are sup­port­ing the con­struc­tion of a raw gas refin­ery, and say they are hop­ing for fur­ther exploita­tion of fos­sil fuels in the Atlantic mar­gin.

ÁÍne con­tin­ued: “Until sup­ply-side solu­tions are put in place, the con­tin­u­ing exploita­tion of fos­sil fuels will be adding to car­bon diox­ide emis­sions which is caus­ing cli­mate change. Any pos­si­ble ben­e­fit from this is lost because the gas and oil are sim­ply hand­ed over to the big cor­po­ra­tions. The peo­ple of Ire­land will see no advan­tage, either envi­ron­men­tal or finan­cial, from their own gas and oil resources.”

“Mean­while the cor­po­ra­tions which will see huge prof­its from Irish resources, seek to use the cheap­est and most dan­ger­ous way of exploit­ing them. Our gov­ern­ment is hap­py to see lives of peo­ple in Ire­land put at risk by the use of an onshore pipeline and refin­ery in Mayo, sim­ply to max­imise returns for Shell share­hold­ers. ”

Relat­ed Link: http://www.shelltosea.com

Community Day at Bellanaboy

Sun­day Decem­ber 16, 2007

A spe­cial prayer and car­ol ser­vice was held today at Bel­lan­aboy, Coun­ty Mayo, mark­ing the end of anoth­er year of com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle against Shel­l’s pro­posed raw gas pipeline and inland refin­ery.

Bellanboy carols 2007 1
Bellanboy carols 2007 2Sun­day Decem­ber 16, 2007

A spe­cial prayer and car­ol ser­vice was held today at Bel­lan­aboy, Coun­ty Mayo, mark­ing the end of anoth­er year of com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle against Shel­l’s pro­posed raw gas pipeline and inland refin­ery.

A good humoured gath­er­ing of more than 150 local peo­ple braved the bit­ter­ly cold east wind to take part in the occa­sion, which was presided over by local priests Fr. Michael Nallen PP and Fr. Sean Noone.

A ban­ner declar­ing “Gan Cead an Phobail” (No Com­mu­ni­ty Con­sent) was draped over the main gates while peo­ple sang Christ­mas Car­ols to wel­come in the fes­tive sea­son.

Also present was Lelia Doolin, a high pro­file cam­paign­er and mem­ber of the Bur­ren Action Group, who trav­elled from Gal­way espe­cial­ly for the day. Ms Doolin spoke of the sim­i­lar­i­ties between the Clare and Mayo cam­paigns, and how the deter­mi­na­tion of ordi­nary peo­ple can bring about real change.

Relat­ed Link: http://www.shelltosea.com/

LOGGING LOCK ON in Bridgetown

2007-12-13
Con­cerned south west cit­i­zens hold up Jar­rah log truck in Bridgetown to high­light the con­tin­u­al destruc­tion of native forests.

Bridgetown action2007-12-13
Con­cerned south west cit­i­zens hold up Jar­rah log truck in Bridgetown to high­light the con­tin­u­al destruc­tion of native forests.

Today 12 con­cerned res­i­dents of the South­west have stopped a log truck on Bridgetown’s main street to high­light the con­tin­u­al destruc­tion of Aus­trali­a’s native forests.

Aus­tralia has just been named the biggest car­bon emit­ter in the world on a per-head basis. Indus­tri­al scale log­ging and burn­ing of native forests is a major con­trib­u­tor to car­bon emis­sions in Aus­tralia.

“By keep­ing the car­bon in the for­est and pro­tect­ing native forests is one of the eas­i­est and sim­plest solu­tions to reduce Aus­trali­a’s green­house gas emis­sions,” said Brett Thomp­son. “Native forests are the lungs of the plan­et they store vast quan­ti­ties of car­bon. By pro­tect­ing native forests Aus­tralia can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce its green­house gas emis­sions and halt the dev­as­tat­ing affects of cli­mate change,” com­ment­ed spokesman Brett Thomp­son.

Bridgetown local res­i­dent Saf­fire Grant quotes” “We need to take action on a local lev­el. Native for­est log­ging in our own back­yard needs to be stopped now if our com­mu­ni­ty is to active­ly help pro­vide solu­tions to cli­mate change.”

“We call on Fed­er­al and State Labor par­ties to pro­tect native forests as an active strat­e­gy to reduce our green­house gas emis­sions and become a world leader in the strug­gle against cli­mate change.”

6 Arrest­ed in Brige­town halt­ing a Jar­rah Log Truck for 6 hours in main street

Con­cerned res­i­dents of the S.W have halt­ed a log truck for six hours on the S.W high­way in Bridgetown. This fol­lows an action at Sim­coa three weeks ago high­light­ing the con­tin­u­al destruc­tion of native forests through­out the S.W and Australia.Six protests were arrest­ed for dis­or­der­ly behav­ior with police con­fis­cat­ing mobile phones cam­eras and video equip­ment. Pro­test­ers have vowed to con­tin­ue to high­light the destruc­tion of native forests in W.A through­out the com­ing months with fur­ther actions planned. The six arrest­ed will face court in Bridgetown next Wednes­day the 19th of Decem­ber with a peace­ful gath­er­ing of sup­port out the front of the court planned for 9:30am.

Thurs­day the 13th of Decem­ber 2007, six pro­test­ers were charged with dis­or­der­ly con­duct after hold­ing up a log truck in Bridgetown.

Dur­ing the protest police seized cam­eras, video recorder, mp3 play­er, all record­ing equip­ment and mobile phones.

See the video footage here:
http://www.globalwarmingfg.com/

Enawene Nawe blockade dam construction site

12th Decem­ber 2007
Con­tin­u­ing their strug­gle against a large hydro­elec­tric dam project in the Brazil­ian Ama­zon, the Enawene Nawe set up a block­ade at one of the dam con­struc­tion sites late last week. Accord­ing to Sur­vival, about 100 mem­bers of the 420-strong tribe occu­pied the build­ing site, demand­ing an inde­pen­dent study into the impact they will have.

12th Decem­ber 2007
Con­tin­u­ing their strug­gle against a large hydro­elec­tric dam project in the Brazil­ian Ama­zon, the Enawene Nawe set up a block­ade at one of the dam con­struc­tion sites late last week. Accord­ing to Sur­vival, about 100 mem­bers of the 420-strong tribe occu­pied the build­ing site, demand­ing an inde­pen­dent study into the impact they will have.

The Enawene Nawe main­tain the dams will have a dev­as­tat­ing effect on the breed­ing cycle of the fish they depend on to sur­vive. They say the fish might not even be able to make it to their breed­ing grounds. The grounds them­selves are of great cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to the Enawene Nawe. If the 11 dams go ahead as planned, the area may be destroyed.

The grounds are already heav­i­ly bur­dened by cat­tle ranch­ers, and the Soya Industry–who is behind the dam project.

Of course, this would not be hap­pen­ing if the Brazil­ian Gov­ern­ment demar­cat­ed the area, in fact the entire Rio Pre­to, when they rec­og­nized Enawene Nawe ter­ri­to­ry in 1996. The gov­ern­ment refused to do so.

Since then, the Enawene Nawe have been work­ing to have the Rio Pre­to includ­ed, but so far their voic­es have fall­en on deaf ears.

When the dam project came into focus late 2006/early 2007, they increased their efforts, for one, by orga­niz­ing block­ades. The ongo­ing one is the third this year.

The pre­vi­ous block­ade, set up on May 31, 2007, was met with some suc­cess.

Brazil Ama­zon Indi­ans Take on Soy Barons Block­ing Dam Site
From Brazz­il Mag, 11 Decem­ber 2007

The remote Enawene Nawe Indi­ans have block­ad­ed the con­struc­tion site of a hydro­elec­tric dam in the Brazil­ian Ama­zon, which they say will destroy their vital fish­ing grounds. Around 100 mem­bers of the 420-strong tribe occu­pied the build­ing site and a near­by high­way on Thurs­day, Decem­ber 6. They want to stop the con­struc­tion of a vast com­plex of hydro­elec­tric dams being built on the Juru­e­na riv­er, upstream from their land.

Com­pa­nies led by the world’s largest soya pro­duc­ers, the Mag­gi fam­i­ly, are push­ing for the con­struc­tion of the dams. But the Enawene Nawe, who eat no red meat, say that if the dams are built, the fish they rely on will no longer be able to reach their spawn­ing grounds.

The Enawene Nawe say they have not been con­sult­ed about the dams. They are demand­ing and inde­pen­dent study into the impact they will have.

A pre­vi­ous block­ade of a major high­way in June led the gov­ern­ment to nego­ti­ate with the Indi­ans, but plans for con­struc­tion of the dams con­tin­ued.

After the first oppo­si­tion action, the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment agreed to sev­er­al key demands of the Enawene Nawe. The government’s Indi­an agency, FUNAI, promised that it would sur­vey lands claimed by the Enawene Nawe and oth­er tribes, with the aim of offi­cial­ly rec­og­niz­ing the areas as indige­nous.

For three days in May, the Indi­ans erect­ed bar­ri­cades in Mato Grosso state to protest against plans to build a series of hydro­elec­tric dams along the Juru­e­na riv­er. They were also demand­ing the offi­cial recog­ni­tion of their vital fish­ing waters in the Rio Pre­to area, which are being rapid­ly destroyed by cat­tle ranch­ers.

Neigh­bor­ing tribes joined the protest in sup­port of the Enawene Nawe’s demands, swelling the num­ber of pro­tes­tors to 200. The gov­ern­ment respond­ed quick­ly by dis­patch­ing offi­cials to nego­ti­ate with the Indi­ans on the bar­ri­cade. It even agreed to pay for rep­re­sen­ta­tives of var­i­ous tribes in Mato Grosso to trav­el to Brazil­ian cap­i­tal Brasília to meet with FUNAI’s pres­i­dent.

Tasmanian forest defenders halt logging in the Styx Valley

2007-12-11
Yes­ter­day morn­ing, for­est activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened halt­ed log­ging in coupe SX10F in the Styx Val­ley, to high­light the ongo­ing dev­as­ta­tion of Tasmania’s World Her­itage val­ued forests. This coupe has gained an inter­na­tion­al pro­file over the past few years as an icon­ic exam­ple of Tasmania’s unique old growth forests.

Styx banners action2007-12-11
Yes­ter­day morn­ing, for­est activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened halt­ed log­ging in coupe SX10F in the Styx Val­ley, to high­light the ongo­ing dev­as­ta­tion of Tasmania’s World Her­itage val­ued forests. This coupe has gained an inter­na­tion­al pro­file over the past few years as an icon­ic exam­ple of Tasmania’s unique old growth forests.

“This pris­tine tract of ancient for­est, locat­ed with­in 1.5km of the World Her­itage bound­ary, is of out­stand­ing con­ser­va­tion val­ue and has been vis­it­ed by thou­sands of peo­ple. Right now, bull­doz­ers and chain­saws are rip­ping apart this irre­place­able ecosys­tem” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokesper­son Ula Majew­s­ki.

“We are call­ing on the fed­er­al Labor Gov­ern­ment to hon­our their inter­na­tion­al envi­ron­men­tal com­mit­ments and put an imme­di­ate halt to this sense­less dev­as­ta­tion of some of Australia’s most out­stand­ing nat­ur­al her­itage” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokesper­son Jess Wright.

“Here we have yet anoth­er exam­ple of a unique for­est being dec­i­mat­ed in order to fur­ther the inter­ests of greedy wood­chip barons and cor­rupt politi­cians. As world lead­ers gath­er in Bali to dis­cuss the cli­mate emer­gency, the island’s most sig­nif­i­cant car­bon sinks are being destroyed, ren­der­ing Tas­ma­nia an inter­na­tion­al dis­grace” said Ms Majew­s­ki.

Fossil Fools Day, April 1st 2008

Ris­ing Tide Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing for a day of action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try on April 1st 2008…

Fossil Fools Day advance flierRis­ing Tide Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing for a day of action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try on April 1st 2008…
FOSSIL FOOLS DAY!

Roll up, roll up! The cli­mate cir­cus is in town. Cli­mate change threat­ens our very sur­vival, but the fools at the head of the fos­sil fuel empire con­tin­ue to plun­der the earth, with gov­ern­ments the will­ing court jesters at their side.

They would have us believe that we can escape cli­mate change with tech­no-fix­es, mar­ket mech­a­nisms and off­set schemes – all tech­no­crat­ic acro­bat­ics that dis­tract us from the truth: the only real solu­tion to cli­mate change is to keep fos­sil fuels in the ground.

For over a cen­tu­ry the fos­sil fuel indus­try has been fool­ing with our lives. From extrac­tion to com­bus­tion they have poi­soned our air, pol­lut­ed our water and ruined our cli­mate. On April 1st, 2008, we’re going to turn the tables and show them who the real fools are.

Find a local fos­sil fool – the coal-min­ing clown, the off­set con­tor­tion­ist, the avi­a­tor trip­ping on the high wire, the super­mar­ket food mile freak show, the oily strong man, or any oth­er fool that deserves your atten­tion – and join with thou­sands around the world in tak­ing one step clos­er to dis­man­tling the fos­sil fuel indus­try.

On Fos­sil Fools Day, bring the spir­it of car­ni­val and mis­chief to the fight for cli­mate jus­tice.

www.fossilfoolsday.org
www.risingtide.org.uk

(More info and resources com­ing soon… for now, put the date in your diary, spread the call-out above far and wide, and start schem­ing!)

70 stop old growth logging in 3 East Gippsland Coupes

2007-12-06
Today 70 con­ser­va­tion­ists stopped log­ging in three coupes in East Gipp­s­land, Vic­to­ria. The protest is in response to unfilled elec­tion promis­es to pro­tect old growth forests made by the Bracks/Brumby gov­ern­ment over a year ago. Four have attached them­selves to machin­ery halt­ing clear-felling oper­a­tions.

2007-12-06
Today 70 con­ser­va­tion­ists stopped log­ging in three coupes in East Gipp­s­land, Vic­to­ria. The protest is in response to unfilled elec­tion promis­es to pro­tect old growth forests made by the Bracks/Brumby gov­ern­ment over a year ago. Four have attached them­selves to machin­ery halt­ing clear-felling oper­a­tions.

Activists stopped oper­a­tions in Black Cut­tings, Aspen Bat­tery Track and Goon­garah Catch­ment. Cur­rent­ly two peo­ple are locked on to machi­nary in both Aspen Bat­tery Track and Black Cut­tings. Oth­er activists are black waller­by­ing (run­ning around) the coupes avoid­ing Depart­ment of Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and Envi­ron­ment (DSE) offi­cers. 20 peo­ple were asked to leave Goon­garah Catch­ment and com­plied with that direc­tion, avoid­ing arrest.

“We are here today to hold politi­cians to account to ful­fil elec­tion promis­es. It is out­ra­geous that the Bracks/Brumby gov­ern­ment have not yet put these areas into reserves. Brum­by needs to act now and solves this issue.” said Mark Tylor spokesper­sons for the group.

Only two per­cent of Victoria’s old growth forests remains. These crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant areas are home to many endan­gered species, includ­ing sooty owl, pow­er­ful owl and long foot­ed potoroo.

“Forestry caus­es a sig­nif­i­cant pro­por­tion of Australia’s green­house gas emis­sions. If Labor is seri­ous about tak­ing real action to pre­vent dan­ger­ous cli­mate change they must com­mit to end­ing log­ging of high con­ser­va­tion forests now.”

“The gov­ern­ment needs to stop pan­der­ing to the multi­na­tion­al wood­chip indus­try, and have the courage to do what the sci­ence tells us is nec­es­sary to pro­tect the future sur­vival of all Aus­tralians and the plan­et” con­clud­ed James Ludd.