Category: Rest of Europe

Rest of Europe

French Farmer Calls Off Hunger Strike

PARIS (AP) — Mil­i­tant French farmer Jose Bove and about 15 sup­port­ers called off their hunger strike in its eighth day after the gov­ern­ment ordered the sus­pen­sion of the use of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn Fri­day.

PARIS (AP) — Mil­i­tant French farmer Jose Bove and about 15 sup­port­ers called off their hunger strike in its eighth day after the gov­ern­ment ordered the sus­pen­sion of the use of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn Fri­day.

France will sus­pend cul­ti­va­tion of MON810, the seed for the only type of genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn now allowed in the coun­try, until a Euro­pean Union review is con­duct­ed, Prime Min­is­ter Fran­cois Fil­lon’s office said.

The move was based on a rec­om­men­da­tion this week by a gov­ern­ment-appoint­ed pan­el call­ing for ‘the need for addi­tion­al analy­ses on the health and envi­ron­men­tal effects of the genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied prod­uct MON810 in the long term,’ Fil­lon’s office said in a state­ment.

Bove and his sup­port­ers began the hunger strike Jan. 3, say­ing they hoped to pres­sure the gov­ern­ment to make good on a promise in Novem­ber to sus­pend cul­ti­va­tion of MON810. He said they only drank water or unsweet­ened tea dur­ing the protest.

The seed, which resists some types of insects, was autho­rized before a gov­ern­ment-ordered mora­to­ri­um on genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied prod­ucts took effect in 1999. Last year, it was plant­ed in about 54,000 acres in France — main­ly in south­ern farm­land.

Bove rose to fame in August 1999 when he and sup­port­ers used farm equip­ment to dis­man­tle a McDon­ald’s branch under con­struc­tion in Mil­lau, in the foothills of France’s Mas­sif Cen­tral moun­tains.

He has faced repeat­ed tri­als and served jail time for destroy­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops.

The Asso­ci­at­ed Press, 11 Jan­u­ary 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hq-PHd96BpmEGZYsFUZ4_KEto5zAD8U3VO802

CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET 75, JANUARY 2008

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08
3) NEWQUAY AIRPORT EXPANSION, PUBLIC DEBATE — CORNWALL, 12.1.08
4) RADICAL ACTION VS. CLIMATE CHAOS, NATIONAL MEET — NOTTINGHAM, 12.1.08
5) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LEEDS, 26–27.1.08
6) BIOFUELWATCH WEEK OF ACTION — NATIONAL, 26.1.08 — 1.2.08
7) MANCHESTER CLIMATE FORUM — 1.3.08
8) DAY OF ACTION VS. GLOBAL AGRIBUSINESS — INTERNATIONAL, 26.1.08
9) LOW-IMPACT SMALLHOLDING — BUCKS, 11–13.1.08
———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) NEWQUAY AIRPORT ROOFTOP OCCUPATION — 15.12.07
2) SANTAS AGAINST EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION — NORWICH & LONDON, 15.12.07
3) BRISTOL RISING TIDE TAKES ACTION VS. SHELL GREENWASH — DECEMBER 2007
4) SHELL TO SEA SCALE GOVERNMENT OFFICE — IRELAND, 19.12.07
5) NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE MARCH AND ACTIONS — 8.12.07
6) DUTCH COAL ACTION — 8.12.07
7) FLIGHT CENTRES SHUT FOR BUSINESS — MANCHESTER, 7.12.07
8) CHEADLE-HIGH-STREET AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE — DECEMBER 2007
9) SUBVERTISEMENTS IN LONDON AND MANCHESTER — DECEMBER 2007
10) WOMEN’S BLOCKADE OF DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT — 7.12.07
11) THE TIDE IS RISING! — 7.12.07
12) CLIMATE ACTIVISTS STOP WORK AT COAL MINE — SOUTH WALES, 5.12.07
13) INTERNATIONAL RT HOAX TARGETS BIG CARBON — 3.12.07
14) HOMELESS POLAR BEARS IN COURT — BRISTOL, 14.11.07
15) KEEP OIL UNDERGROUND — DECEMBER 2007
16) SIZEWELL NUCLEAR CLIMATE ACTION — 1.12.07
17) MANIAC MOTORIST MARS MASS — GLASGOW, NOVEMBER 2007
18) VIVA’S ‘HOT!’ CAMPAIGN — DECEMBER 2007
19) WHAT BETTER TIME? — DECEMBER 2007
20) BATH BOMB, ISSUE 5 — DECEMBER 2007
21) PACIFIC CURRENTS — DECEMBER 2007
22) A HOUSE OF CARDS — DECEMBER 2007
23) SOUTH WEST AIR ACTION — DECEMBER 2007
24) RISING TIDE LEAMINGTON SPA — DECEMBER 2007
25) RISING TIDE ON YOU TUBE

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — NATIONAL, 1.4.08
Just three months to go — are you out prac­tis­ing your rou­tines? rehears­ing your songs? build­ing your props yet? I should get out more over Christ­mas…
How­ev­er, it will soon be time to hatch your mis­chie­vous scheme, so get your friends round and start plot­ting!
http://www.fossilfoolsday.org/

2) LONDON RISING TIDE BENEFIT — LONDON, 11.1.08
In sup­port of Lon­don Ris­ing Tide, AMP is organ­is­ing a night of live music at The Oth­ers, Manor Road, Stoke New­ing­ton. Entrance £5.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38074566

3) NEWQUAY AIRPORT EXPANSION, PUBLIC DEBATE — CORNWALL, 12.1.08
Organ­ised by Ris­ing Tide with speak­ers from Groundswell and Plane Stu­pid.
7pm St. Maw­gan Com­mu­ni­ty Hall, Nr. Newquay, Corn­wall. For more info. email; kernow@risingtide.org.uk

4) RADICAL ACTION VS. CLIMATE CHAOS, NATIONAL MEET — NOTTINGHAM, 12.1.08
11am — 6pm at The Sumac Cen­tre, 245 Glad­stone Street, For­est Fields, Not­ting­ham.
This meet­ing came out of the last Cli­mate Camp gath­er­ing in Novem­ber. It is focussed on grow­ing our move­ment — how can we encour­age more groups to form and more actions/campaigns to hap­pen? What things do we want to do to help build a vibrant net­work of region­al action groups doing actions local­ly and nation­al­ly?
For instruc­tion on how to get there: http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac/map.html
Also, 11 peo­ple are going to tri­al in Not­ting­ham on Mon­day 14th for ‘shut­ting down’ the local coal pow­er sta­tion, If any­one wants to stay to sup­port them that would be great!

5) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LEEDS, 26–27.1.08
The Cli­mate Camp on its own did­n’t stop cli­mate change — but it’s part of a grow­ing social move­ment that can! Come and take the next steps for­ward at the upcom­ing UK-wide meet­ing on Jan 26–27 in Leeds. Every­one is wel­come, whether you came to the camp, or were sim­ply inspired by it.
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/nextmeeting.php

6) BIOFUELWATCH WEEK OF ACTION — NATIONAL, 26.1.08 — 1.2.08
Bio­fu­el­watch are call­ing for a nation­al week of local action on agro­fu­els between 26th Jan­u­ary and 1st Feb­ru­ary 2008. We will short­ly update our web­site to pro­vide more back­ground infor­ma­tion about the UK agro­fu­el indus­try and poli­cies, as well as a draft leaflet and oth­er resources. If you would like to get involved or find out more, please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk.
http://biofuelwatch.org.uk/

7) MANCHESTER CLIMATE FORUM — 1.3.08
Man­ches­ter Cli­mate Forum “Cli­mate Change: it’s time to pre­pare”
9.15am at the Methodist Hall, Old­ham St, Cen­tral Man­ches­ter
http://www.manchesterclimateforum.org.uk/index.html

8) DAY OF ACTION VS. GLOBAL AGRIBUSINESS — INTERNATIONAL, 26.1.08
On Jan­u­ary 26 self-orga­nized groups from all around the world will take cre­ative action in their com­mu­ni­ty. This will man­i­fest in many ways, from non­vi­o­lent direct action, civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, street the­atre, con­ver­gences, teach-ins and oth­er activ­i­ties and events. Grass­roots move­ments around the world are mak­ing their voic­es heard and say­ing “Anoth­er World is Pos­si­ble”. In coor­di­na­tion with the World Social Forum.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/category/front-page/

9) LOW-IMPACT SMALLHOLDING — BUCKS, 11–13.1.08
Next course by the Low-Impact Liv­ing Ini­tia­tive;
http://www.lowimpact.org/courseoutlinelowimpactsmallholding.htm

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) NEWQUAY AIRPORT ROOFTOP OCCUPATION — 15.12.07
For the recent­ly formed Ker­now and Ply­mouth Ris­ing Tide groups, this action marked an esca­la­tion in their fight against cli­mate change and for envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. How­ev­er the planned rooftop protest at Newquay air­port was giv­en an unlike­ly boost when builders at the air­port left a lad­der propped up!
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/248
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7146159.stm

2) SANTAS AGAINST EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION — NORWICH AND LONDON, 15.12.07
Sub­ver­sive Singing San­tas Spread Sea­son­al San­i­ty in Lon­don and Nor­wich On one of the busiest shop­ping days of the year. Ris­ing Tide activists in both Lon­don and Nor­wich dressed up as San­tas Against Exces­sive Con­sump­tion and hit the high streets to sing a dif­fer­ent tune to the usu­al buy, buy,
buy mad­ness of the hol­i­day sea­son.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/247

3) BRISTOL RISING TIDE TAKES ACTION VS. SHELL GREENWASH — DECEMBER 2007
A series of actions is being tak­en against the organ­is­ers of the Wildlife Pho­tog­ra­ph­er of the Year Award and Bris­tol Muse­um, in protest at the spon­sor­ship of the event by Shell. A grumpy polar bear vis­it­ed the offices of BBC Wildlife mag­a­zine, then activists dis­rupt­ed Bris­tol Muse­um’s posh recep­tion to kick off the exhi­bi­tion with a Yes Men-style inter­ven­tion. And on the open­ing morn­ing, dozens of humans, polar bears, a snow leop­ard and a tiger gath­ered (com­plete with the Shell’s Wild Lie counter-exhi­bi­tion) in front of the muse­um. They hand­ed out leaflets and cre­at­ed quite a spec­ta­cle. Protests are expect­ed to con­tin­ue through Jan. 13th.
http://risingtide.org.uk/bristol

4) SHELL TO SEA SCALE GOVERNMENT OFFICE — IRELAND, 19.12.07
A spe­cial prayer and car­ol ser­vice was held on 16th Decem­ber at Bel­lan­aboy, Coun­ty Mayo, mark­ing the end of anoth­er year of com­mu­ni­ty strug­gle against Shel­l’s pro­posed raw gas pipeline and inland refin­ery.
On the 19th, a small group of Shell to Sea activists scaled the heights of the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources to place a ban­ner read­ing PROTECT IRISH NATURAL RESOURCES on the bal­cony out­side Eamon Ryan’s office.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17942
http://www.corribsos.com/

5) NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE MARCH AND ACTIONS — 8.12.07
Over 10,000 cli­mate cam­paign­ers took to the streets to take part in march­es in Lon­don and Glas­gow over the week­end, despite pour­ing rain. Pro­test­ers braved the weath­er in one the biggest demon­stra­tions call­ing for cli­mate jus­tice the UK has ever seen.
http://www.campaigncc.org/
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387497.html
Envi­ron­men­tal activists from direct action group Plane Stu­pid shut down trav­el agents and air­line offices along the route of the Cli­mate March in Lon­don.
http://www.planestupid.com/
Mean­while, in Man­ches­ter air­line bill­boards adver­tis­ing cheap flights to Euro­pean cities were sub­vert­ed.

6) DUTCH COAL ACTION — 8.12.07
A col­lec­tive of twen­ty Dutch Earth­First! activists blocked the coal con­vey­or- belt to a plant owned by the Ger­man ener­gy giant E.on on the Maasvlak­te near Rot­ter­dam.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17893

7) FLIGHT CENTRES SHUT FOR BUSINESS — MANCHESTER, 7.12.07
All Flight Cen­tre branch­es in Man­ches­ter city cen­tre were super-glued shut in time for Sat­ur­day trad­ing and to coin­cide with the cli­mate march in Lon­don. They were past­ed with notices say­ing: “Closed — we want your kids to have a plan­et” The UK’s only Hum­mer deal­er­ship, Bauer Mil­lett, was also D‑locked shut.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17887

8) CHEADLE-HIGH-STREET AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE — DECEMBER 2007
Activists from Chea­dle-High-Street Against Cli­mate Change held a “A plan­et is not just for Xmas” cam­paign for a sus­tain­able Xmas.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17917

9) SUBVERTISEMENTS IN LONDON AND MANCHESTER — DECEMBER 2007
Two adverts pro­mot­ing DVD’s by Top Gear’s Jere­my Clark­son now have large stick­ers stuck on declar­ing “This caus­es cli­mate change”. Also, Fly­Be appears to have spot­ted the errors of their ways and can­celled their short-haul sum­mer routes. Bra­vo Fly­Be!
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17937

10) WOMEN’S BLOCKADE OF DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT — 7.12.07
Women cli­mate activists block­ad­ed the Depart­ment for Trans­port pre­vent­ing staff from get­ting to work and car­ry­ing out their poli­cies which are cat­a­pult­ing us towards dan­ger­ous run-away cli­mate change. This action comes in response to the Trans­port Sec­re­tary Ruth Kel­ly con­firm­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s inten­tions to build a third run­way and a sixth ter­mi­nal at Heathrow and coin­cides with the open­ing of their first “con­sul­ta­tion”.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17883

11) THE TIDE IS RISING! — 7.12.07
A ban­ner with this warning/statement was dropped to wel­come all those enter­ing the city of Man­ches­ter on the Princess park­way.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17886

12) CLIMATE ACTIVISTS STOP WORK AT COAL MINE — SOUTH WALES, 5.12.07
More than thir­ty cli­mate activists, includ­ing mem­bers of the Ris­ing Tide net­work, joined with local res­i­dents from Merthyr Tyd­fil in stop­ping exca­va­tion work for a full day on Britain’s biggest ever open-cast coal mine at Ffos-y-fran in South Wales. Activists evad­ed police and secu­ri­ty before tak­ing over the 1,000 acre site on a hill­top near Cardiff. Dressed as clowns and polar bears, they chained them­selves to bull­doz­ers and oth­er heavy machin­ery to pre­vent work on the mine.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/242

13) INTERNATIONAL RT HOAX TARGETS BIG CARBON — 3.12.07
Cli­mate activists with the inter­na­tion­al Ris­ing Tide net­work embar­rassed the U.S. Cli­mate Action Part­ner­ship (USCAP), a lob­by group com­posed of 33 promi­nent busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions, by dis­trib­ut­ing a spoof press release declar­ing that the consortium’s mem­bers had com­mit­ted to a 90
per­cent reduc­tion in their green­house gas emis­sions by 2050. In addi­tion, the spoof release called for an imme­di­ate mora­to­ri­um on the con­struc­tion of all new coal-fired pow­er plants.
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/240
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/03/oil.bp

14) HOMELESS POLAR BEARS IN COURT — BRISTOL, 14.11.07
Four home­less polar bears appeared before Bris­tol Mag­is­trates Court on 14th Novem­ber. They were arrest­ed after blockad­ing the Roy­al Bank of Scot­land cor­po­rate offices on Avon St. dur­ing the Ris­ing Tide nation­al day of action. After plead­ing guilty to charges of “wil­ful­ly obstruct­ing the pub­lic high­way with a non motor vehi­cle” (i.e. a suit case) they were giv­en a con­di­tion­al dis­charge and went on to pick­et the RBS branch on Bald­win Street!
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/243

15) KEEP OIL UNDERGROUND — DECEMBER 2007
The only way to fight cli­mate change. A new report by Oil­Watch.
http://www.oilwatch.org/doc/documentos/Keep_oil_underground.pdf
http://www.oilwatch.org/

16) SIZEWELL NUCLEAR CLIMATE ACTION — 1.12.07
What else would you do at this time in the morn­ing at a nuclear pow­er sta­tion, oth­er than lay on the road, lock your­selves togeth­er, unfurl your ban­ner read­ing “nuclear pow­er is not the answer to cli­mate chaos” and wait 15 min­utes for the secu­ri­ty to notice you.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17868

17) MANIAC MOTORIST MARS MASS — GLASGOW, NOVEMBER 2007
Unbur­dened with fes­tive spir­it, a mid­dle-aged woman leant out of her car and pulled a cyclist off his bike.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17889

18) VIVA’S ‘HOT!’ CAMPAIGN — DECEMBER 2007
“Livestock’s con­tri­bu­tion to envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems is on a mas­sive scale. The impact is so sig­nif­i­cant that it needs to be addressed with urgency.” Unit­ed Nations Food and Agri­cul­ture Organ­i­sa­tion 2006
find out more at
http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/hot/index.php

19) WHAT BETTER TIME? — DECEMBER 2007
A free news sheet from the Scot­tish Cli­mate Activist Net­work.
http://whatbettertime.livejournal.com/

20) BATH BOMB, ISSUE 5 — DECEMBER 2007
Christ­mas edi­tion of the month­ly Bathon­ian rab­bler­ousi­ness.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17905

21) PACIFIC CURRENTS — DECEMBER 2007
For updates on the work of Pacif­ic Envi­ron­ment, a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion that pro­tects the Pacif­ic Rim’s wild places and wildlife, see;
http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=2658

22) A HOUSE OF CARDS — DECEMBER 2007
From fan­ta­sy finance to glob­al crash.
Your guide to under­stand­ing the cri­sis that is sweep­ing through the glob­al finan­cial sys­tem and what it means for ordi­nary peo­ple.
Endorsed by Kevin Smith of Car­bon Trade Watch and film­mak­er Ken Loach.
http://www.aworldtowin.net/about/HouseOfCards.html

23) SOUTH WEST AIR ACTION — DECEMBER 2007
A new web­site.
http://www.swairaction.org.uk/

24) RISING TIDE LEAMINGTON SPA is born — DECEMBER 2007
The group had its first meet­ing on 3rd Jan­u­ary and is now swing­ing into action. If you live in the area and want to find out more or get involved con­tact becqke@riseup.net

25) RISING TIDE ON YOU TUBE
Ris­ing Tide action footage has been spring­ing up all over youtube — check out http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=RisingTideNetwork for some RT films, some of the lat­est actions and links to oth­er’s videos of RT actions.

———-

Please send any­thing you’d like includ­ed in this news sheet to:
newssheet@risingtide.org.uk

To view pre­vi­ous edi­tions of the Ris­ing Tide News Sheet, vis­it the News Sheet Archive at http://risingtide.org.uk/newssheet

This News Sheet was brought to you by Ris­ing Tide, a grass­roots net­work of groups and indi­vid­u­als com­mit­ted to tak­ing action and build­ing a move­ment against cli­mate change.

For more infor­ma­tion…
email: info@risingtide.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)845 458 8923 / +44 (0)7708 794665
Address: 62 Fieldgate St, Lon­don, E1 1ES
Web site: http://risingtide.org.uk

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO A FRIEND AND INVITE THEM TO JOIN THE LIST

To sub­scribe or unsub­scribe vis­it:
http://risingtide.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/rt-news

END

Actions against the motorway through Tara, Ireland — reports and upcoming

This morn­ing, mon­day 6th jan ’08 at 7 am, 11 of us split up into two groups. We went to the Ard­sal­lagh Com­pound (site entrance 2.10) and Roestown (site entrance 2.1 ) . All the machin­ery was parked at these two sites for the past two weeks over Christ­mas.

Ardsallagh compound diggerThis morn­ing, mon­day 6th jan ’08 at 7 am, 11 of us split up into two groups. We went to the Ard­sal­lagh Com­pound (site entrance 2.10) and Roestown (site entrance 2.1 ) . All the machin­ery was parked at these two sites for the past two weeks over Christ­mas.

Ard­sal­lagh ; four of us went on site into the com­pund and blocked a lowloader in the gate, pre­vent­ing any more machin­ery being brought off to oth­er sites. They then head­ed across coun­try towards the Riv­er Boyne at site no. 2.9 . While two held the gate, two fol­lowed them across the field ‚stop­ping them before they reached the next stretch.Construction work­ers at the gate , try­ing to intim­i­date the pro­test­ers assault­ed one man , drag­ging him to the ground and pulling out of the way allow­ing the lowloader past. In the mean time, off route down the road two of us were wait­ing to be picked up (help with trans­port need­ed), when we saw a dig­ger com­ing towards us along the hedge line. The dri­ver pro­ceed­ed to dri­ve up to us near­ly kock­ing us over. when we stood our ground in front of the machine, he got out and ver­bal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly asault­ed us. The gau­rds then arrived treat­en­ing arrest on any­one who stayed under the Mis­cel­la­neous Act2004 sec­tion 19c but were help­ful and co oper­a­tive when told about the assaults , tak­ing the dig­ger dri­vers name.

Roestown: As today was the first day of con­struc­tion since before Christ­mas, we need­ed to block­ade the machin­ery from enter­ing the val­ley again. From the N3 we could see the machin­ery mov­ing towards Trevet from the Roestown com­pound. We arrived there just as the first dig­ger was approach­ing. There were 5 of us. We all went into the site and approached the dig­ger. The dri­ver com­plied with health and safe­ty reg­u­la­tions and stopped his machine imme­di­ate­ly. We made a block­ade in front of the machine with traf­fic cones, poles and safe­ty notices. Mark Cleary and his com­rades entered the site, along with secu­ri­ty. They filmed us and removed the block­ade. One pro­tes­tor was stand­ing on the block­ade, Mark Cleary pushed him off. A jeep com­ing from the Roestown direc­tion passed us by, the dig­ger dri­ver had switched back on his machine. Anoth­er pro­tes­tor on bail con­di­tions stayed at the site entrance with ban­ners on the pub­lic road, play­ing his tin whis­tle. Mark Cleary and this pro­tes­tor had a cam­er­al duel! The Gar­dai arrived and asked us to leave the site, quot­ing the Hous­ing and Misc Act 2004, sec­tion C. We were told we would be arrest­ed if we were seen again today on a M3 site. The Gar­dai fol­lowed us to the Ard­sal­lagh com­pound. We held a ban­ner protest there on the side of the road. The same Gar­dai were very inter­est­ed in the Tara issue, and asked us ques­tions about archae­ol­o­gy and Lis­mullen. Nobody was arrest­ed.

Relat­ed Link: http://www.tarapixie.net

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

Call­ing all War­riors!!!

Action called for tom­mor­row morn­ing 6am and all this week.

Sup­port and sup­plies need­ed. Num­bers are low on the ground and resources spread thin. Help need­ed in the camps , trans­port, media ,

cyber-world and dig­ger divin’.

Spe­cial Call-Out to any­one who has vis­it­ed the camps before. Your expe­ri­ence on the issue is need­ed now more than ever.

A new year and a new begin­ing, its time to show these ”short sight­ed, nar­row mind­ed, moth­er fuckin hyp­ocrits!” that this

cul­tur­al apartheid will end here!
Tara Call­ing !!!

As you may know on St. Stevens Day 2007, the NRA hand­ed over the archae­o­log­i­cal site at lismullen,with its wood henge

(which was des­ig­nat­ed a nationa lmon­u­ment in may 2007)

and an amaz­ing sub­ter­rain com­plex

(destroyed in ear­ly decem­ber 2007 with out any inde­pen­dent archae­ol­o­gy car­ried out)

con­tain­ing mega­lith­ic art from much ear­li­er mon­u­ments, to SIAC/FERROVIAL the con­struc­tion con­sor­tium

to face its faith as yet anoth­er mon­u­men­tal diaster in the gabhra val­ley,

at the hands of gov­ern­ment appoint­ed van­dals!

This is because the twelve weeks giv­en to the NRA archae­ol­o­gists to exca­vate and destroy the two thirds of the henge

lieing in the path of the pro­posed motor­way is up and under the Nation­al Mon­u­ments Act 2004

it now belongs to SIAC/FERROVIAL.

Con­struc­tion Work­ers return to work tom­mor­row morn­ing Mon­day 7th of Jan at 7am after two weeks of bliss­ful

silence in the Val­ley.

Call­ing all War­riors!!!

Action called for tom­mor­row morn­ing 6am and all this week.

Sup­port and sup­plies need­ed. Num­bers are low on the ground and resources spread thin. Help need­ed in the camps , trans­port, media ,

cyber-world and dig­ger divin’.

Spe­cial Call-Out to any­one who has vis­it­ed the camps before. Your expe­ri­ence on the issue is need­ed now more than ever.

A new year and a new begin­ing, its time to show these ”short sight­ed, nar­row mind­ed, moth­er fuckin hyp­ocrits!” that this

cul­tur­al apartheid will end here!

!!!!END TRANSMISSION!!!!

Ogoni Day remembered as Shell fail to honour promise to halt gas flaring

Today is Jan­u­ary 4th 2008.

On this day in 1993, 300,000 peo­ple in Nige­ria marked the Unit­ed Nations Year of Indige­nous Peo­ples by protest­ing against Shel­l’s activ­i­ties and the envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion of Ogo­ni­land in the Niger Delta.

2008 was sup­posed to be the dead­line for the end­ing of gas flar­ing by Shell in Nige­ria, but the com­pa­ny now says that this dead­line will not be met.

Let­ting the com­pa­ny have a taste of its own med­i­cine

Shell Dublin HQ Ogoni Day flaringToday is Jan­u­ary 4th 2008.

On this day in 1993, 300,000 peo­ple in Nige­ria marked the Unit­ed Nations Year of Indige­nous Peo­ples by protest­ing against Shel­l’s activ­i­ties and the envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion of Ogo­ni­land in the Niger Delta.

2008 was sup­posed to be the dead­line for the end­ing of gas flar­ing by Shell in Nige­ria, but the com­pa­ny now says that this dead­line will not be met.

Let­ting the com­pa­ny have a taste of its own med­i­cine

At just before 8.30 this morn­ing, as staff were arriv­ing for work at Roy­al Dutch Shel­l’s Irish head­quar­ters in Dublin, they were treat­ed to a taste of what life is like for those who have to live and work near Shell instal­la­tions in oth­er parts of the world.

Short ver­sion of video (45 sec­onds) here: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=u4uZDvA5WY4

Long ver­sion (2 minute) here: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=597hkm9MuTo

More infor­ma­tion on Shell in Nige­ria here: http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2007/May3_DU_Flaring.htm

Gas Flar­ing is sim­ply the releas­ing of excess gas and liq­uids asso­ci­at­ed with oil and gas pro­duc­tion pipelines and refiner­ies into the atmos­phere. The main pur­pose of gas flar­ing is to pro­tect pipelines and infra­struc­ture from over-pres­sur­ing

The released gas­es are burned off, releas­ing any by-prod­ucts into the air. These include nitro­gen diox­ide, sul­phur diox­ide, and volatile organ­ic com­pounds like xylene and hydro­gen sul­fide. Car­cino­gens such as ben­za­pyrene are also released. Peo­ple exposed to these sub­stances can suf­fer from a vari­ety of res­pi­ra­to­ry prob­lems, which have been report­ed amongst many chil­dren in the Niger Delta but have but have nev­er been sys­tem­i­cal­ly inves­ti­gat­ed. These chem­i­cals can also aggra­vate asth­ma, cause breath­ing dif­fi­cul­ties and pain, as well as chron­ic bron­chi­tis.

Ben­zene, which is known to be emit­ted from gas flares in undoc­u­ment­ed quan­ti­ties, is acknowl­edged as being a causative agent for leukemia.

Gas flar­ing of course, also con­tributes to glob­al warm­ing and cli­mate change.

Togeth­er with oil spills, gas flar­ing is seen as a major cause of envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion. In Nige­ria, the prac­tice is sup­posed to be ille­gal, but there is no sign of the Niger­ian gov­ern­ment being able to enforce this law. Here in Ire­land we know all about how Shell can manip­u­late the world of pol­i­tics and the legal process to suit the needs of the com­pa­ny’s share­hold­ers.

In Nige­ria in 1995 how­ev­er, it appears that Shel­l’s PR peo­ple slow­ly realised that their part in the hang­ing of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight oth­er activists was a pub­lic rela­tions dis­as­ter, and in the after­math the com­pa­ny made var­i­ous con­ces­sions to its crit­ics, in a vain attempt to undue some of the dam­age it felt had been done to its brand. One of the promis­es made was the announce­ment of an end to gas flar­ing.

Shell of course, is not well known for liv­ing up to its promis­es, and so flar­ing is still going on today. In the year 2000, Shell for­mal­ly announced that it would stop gas flar­ing by 2008. Inter­est­ing­ly, since 2000, gas flar­ing in the Niger Delta has actu­al­ly increased (accord­ing to the 2005 Shell Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Report).

In Novem­ber 2005, the Fed­er­al High Court of Nige­ria stat­ed that Shell and oth­er oil com­pa­nies
should end gas flar­ing in the Niger Delta. In a case brought against Shell, the court ruled that the dam­ag­ing and waste­ful prac­tice of flar­ing could not law­ful­ly con­tin­ue and must stop. Shell appealed against the deci­sion.

At the demon­stra­tion on Jan­u­ary 4th 1993, an Ogo­ni elder said:
“We have wok­en up to find our lands dev­as­tat­ed by agents of death called oil com­pa­nies. Our atmos­phere has been total­ly pol­lut­ed, our lands degrad­ed, our waters con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed, our trees poi­soned, so much so that our flo­ra and fau­na have vir­tu­al­ly dis­ap­peared”.

Jan­u­ary 4th became known as Ogo­ni Day.

For more infor­ma­tion see:

www.remembersarowiwa.com

Success for City Indians: 4WD targetted in Denmark

4th Jan­u­ary 2008

Orig­i­nal­ly from Swe­den a move­ment of “city indi­ans” tar­get­ting large 4WD cars has spread wide­ly in Den­mark, while in Swe­den a truce has been declared.

The num­ber of attacks on high pol­lu­tion 4WD city cars have been increas­ing steadi­ly in Den­mark since the city indi­ans first began in Swe­den some months ago. New year’s eve saw anoth­er wave of actions in Copen­hagen.

4th Jan­u­ary 2008

Orig­i­nal­ly from Swe­den a move­ment of “city indi­ans” tar­get­ting large 4WD cars has spread wide­ly in Den­mark, while in Swe­den a truce has been declared.

The num­ber of attacks on high pol­lu­tion 4WD city cars have been increas­ing steadi­ly in Den­mark since the city indi­ans first began in Swe­den some months ago. New year’s eve saw anoth­er wave of actions in Copen­hagen.

Mean­while in Swe­den where the actions start­ed a truce has been declared by the CI. “It seems our actions have had effect, the mes­sage that city jeeps have no place in our cities has got­ten through. But if we don’t con­tin­ue to see decreas­ing sales of the cars the hatch­et is eas­i­ly unburied”, the CI in Swe­den said in a state­ment on their web­site.

The CI in both Swe­den and Den­mark have received count­less death threats on their web­sites.

Celebrating the end of the carbon economy

This after­noon, at 5pm. mem­bers of Groen­front will join togeth­er in the cen­tre of cap­i­tal­ism in the Nether­lands: the Beur­splein in Ams­ter­dam. Here they will bring out a toast to the record-high price of oil of $100 per bar­rel. Since 2003 the price of oil has sky-rock­et­ed, with the rate some­times climb­ing sev­er­al dol­lars a day. Groen­Front-activist Rogi­er: “What the earth needs is eco­nom­ic ‘shrink­age’. The cli­mate cri­sis and the peak­ing oil pro­duc­tion show us that we need to adjust to the lim­its of our ecosys­tem”.

This after­noon, at 5pm. mem­bers of Groen­front will join togeth­er in the cen­tre of cap­i­tal­ism in the Nether­lands: the Beur­splein in Ams­ter­dam. Here they will bring out a toast to the record-high price of oil of $100 per bar­rel. Since 2003 the price of oil has sky-rock­et­ed, with the rate some­times climb­ing sev­er­al dol­lars a day. Groen­Front-activist Rogi­er: “What the earth needs is eco­nom­ic ‘shrink­age’. The cli­mate cri­sis and the peak­ing oil pro­duc­tion show us that we need to adjust to the lim­its of our ecosys­tem”.

Peakoil is the geo­log­i­cal­ly deter­mined peak­ing and — after that — shrink­ing of oil pro­duc­tion. The remain­der of oil becomes hard­er and hard­er to retrieve, demand­ing a still greater tech­no­log­i­cal and finan­cial effort.
It looks as if the world­wide pro­duc­tion of oil has reached that peak. Every fol­low­ing year, the pro­duc­tion will decrease. The decreased sup­ply in com­bi­na­tion with an ever increas­ing demand will push up the price of oil. Exec­u­tives of, among oth­ers, Total, Cono­co, Philps, Sau­di Aram­co and the Libyan Nation­al Oil Cor­po­ra­tion have already stat­ed that they are not able to meet the cur­rent demand for oil. The last few years have seen low­er yields from oil fields in the US, Mex­i­co and the North Sea. The Inter­na­tion­al Ener­gy Agency expressed its con­cerns over the ever grow­ing gap between sup­ply and demand in the glob­al oil mar­ket.

Whether the record-high price of $100 is ben­e­fi­cial to the envi­ron­ment depends on the way the oil-addict­ed soci­eties react. If the short­age in oil will be com­pen­sat­ed for with pol­lu­tive replace­ments, like agro­fu­els, uncon­ven­tion­al oil and syn­thet­ic diesel from coal and nat­ur­al gas, the world still has not learned its les­son. This record-high price should be used as a wake-up call: fos­sil fuels are lim­it­ed and already we are faced with the con­se­quences.

Fam­i­lies in the Unit­ed States are seri­ous­ly con­cerned with the oncom­ing win­ter because of the great­ly increased cost of petrol. Trans­port and fish­ing sec­tor in Europe are antic­i­pat­ing protests against the risen price of diesel fuel. In Third World coun­tries — where fuels are usu­al­ly sub­sidised — gov­ern­ments are faced with a choice: an emp­ty trea­sury or upris­ing. In Africa and Asia a grow­ing amount of fish­er­men are forced to stay ashore because of the high costs of fuel. Farm­ers are not able to bring their prod­ucts to the mar­ket place. Peakoil starts to rear its ugly head every­where.

“The cli­mate cri­sis and the deple­tion of fos­sile fuels show us that a rad­i­cal change in our eco­nom­ic sys­tem is an absolute neces­si­ty,” says Groen­Front activist Rogi­er. “Fail­ing to do so means wait­ing for an eco­nom­ic reces­sion which will hit the peo­ple who are already hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ties to cope. A redis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth is nec­es­sary, but most of all a choice has to be made for a lit­tle less wealth. We can do that now, vol­un­tar­i­ly and peace­ful­ly, or wait until both econ­o­my and ecol­o­gy force us to do so.” In con­clu­sion, Rogi­er states: “Eco­nom­ic shrink­age is the only real solu­tion to the approach­ing eco­nom­ic and eco­log­ic cri­sis.”

Hunger strike in France to protest gene-altered crops

PARIS: The mil­i­tant French sheep farmer Jose Bove and as many as 15 of his sup­port­ers were expect­ed to begin a hunger strike Thurs­day aimed at rais­ing pres­sure on the French gov­ern­ment to impose a long-term ban on grow­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops.

PARIS: The mil­i­tant French sheep farmer Jose Bove and as many as 15 of his sup­port­ers were expect­ed to begin a hunger strike Thurs­day aimed at rais­ing pres­sure on the French gov­ern­ment to impose a long-term ban on grow­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crops.

In a news­pa­per inter­view pub­lished Wednes­day, the anti-glob­al­iza­tion activist vowed not to eat again until a ban was in place.

Bove cap­tured world­wide atten­tion for help­ing to orga­nize the ran­sack­ing of a McDon­ald’s restau­rant nine years ago to protest the influ­ence of multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions. Since then he has served time in a French prison for dam­ag­ing gene-altered crops.

While his cam­paigns have struck a sym­pa­thet­ic chord in many parts of France and Europe where gene-altered foods are wide­ly mis­trust­ed — and where Bove is some­thing of a folk hero — the lat­est protest against altered crops comes as divi­sions over the poten­tial ben­e­fits of the tech­nol­o­gy appear to be deep­en­ing across the region.

Some Euro­pean Union offi­cials remain wary of using prod­ucts that could endan­ger insects and fish and dis­turb ecosys­tems, but oth­ers have redou­bled calls to ease restric­tions on altered seeds as a way of keep­ing farm­ing glob­al­ly com­pet­i­tive at a time of sky­rock­et­ing food prices.

The Euro­pean agri­cul­ture com­mis­sion­er, Mar­i­ann Fis­ch­er Boel, warned farm min­is­ters in Novem­ber that Europe’s resis­tance to import­ing genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied prod­ucts like live­stock feed was con­tribut­ing to the ris­ing cost of rais­ing pigs and chick­ens and could pose a threat to the meat indus­try.

In Octo­ber, the French pres­i­dent, Nico­las Sarkozy, dis­ap­point­ed sup­port­ers of a long-term ban by announc­ing a tem­po­rary freeze on genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied seeds pend­ing the out­come of a review of the tech­nol­o­gy that is expect­ed ear­ly this year.

Bove has said he is under­tak­ing his hunger strike to push the French gov­ern­ment into mak­ing a much longer-term com­mit­ment to end seed cul­ti­va­tion.

Genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied corn is already import­ed into sev­er­al EU coun­tries, includ­ing France and Ger­many, where it is used to feed ani­mals like cows and chick­ens. But only one genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied crop is cur­rent­ly grown in Europe, a form of corn pro­duced by Mon­san­to and nine oth­er com­pa­nies called Mon 810 that is the main tar­get of Bové’s protest.

Aus­tria, Hun­gary and Poland are among coun­tries that already have banned the Mon­san­to corn.

A long-term ban ‘is the only thing that will put an end to this hunger strike,’ Bove told the French dai­ly Sud Ouest in an inter­view pub­lished Wednes­day. ‘Promis­es won’t be sat­is­fac­to­ry.’

Bove told Sud Ouest that he would con­duct the hunger strike in a well-known pub­lic loca­tion in Paris where he would not cause any secu­ri­ty prob­lems. He declined to reveal the where­abouts of the loca­tion before Thurs­day.

Bove began reduc­ing his intake of alco­hol, meat, eggs and cheese at the end of Decem­ber to start accus­tom­ing his body to the fast, dur­ing which he said he expect­ed to lose half-a-kilo­gram, or about one pound, of weight each day, he told anoth­er French news­pa­per, Midi Libre.

‘This hunger-strike is a well-con­sid­ered com­mit­ment, not a sui­ci­dal act,’ Bove told Midi Libre.

By James Kan­ter Inter­na­tion­al Her­ald Tri­bune, Jan­u­ary 2 2008 http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/02/europe/gmo.php

December’s Greek round-up of bank, cash machine & Group 4‑Wackenhut vehicle attacks

Arson at a bank’s ATM (Athens, 24/12/2007)

Source (greek only-page bot­tom): http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,id=91228912

At 4:43 in the morn­ing, the ATM of a Kyprou Bank sub­sidiary in cen­tral Athens, was set on fire. There was no respon­si­bil­i­ty claim.

Arson at a bank’s ATM (Athens, 24/12/2007)

Source (greek only-page bot­tom): http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,id=91228912

At 4:43 in the morn­ing, the ATM of a Kyprou Bank sub­sidiary in cen­tral Athens, was set on fire. There was no respon­si­bil­i­ty claim.
–
Molo­tov cock­tail attack against secu­ri­ty vehi­cles (Athens, 24/12/2007)

Source (greek only): Eleft­herotyp­ia — http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,id=91228912

Accord­ing to “Eleft­herotyp­ia news­pa­per report the “Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Attack Groups” (Epanas­ta­tikes Omades Epithe­sis) claim respon­so­bil­i­ty for the arsons of “Group 4 Securi­cor” vehi­cles in Kolonos, Athens. “On Dec. 24 we attacked the pri­vate guard com­pa­ny “Group 4‑Wackenhut” head­quar­ters destroy­ing around 15 vehi­cles used in mon­ey trans­fers. This com­pa­ny, apart from own­ing pri­vate pris­ons in Amer­i­ca and Eng­land, in our coun­try con­sti­tutes the most impor­tant piece of the grow­ing police-like corp of secu­ri­ty pro­fes­sion­als that floods the streets, breed­ing the big broth­er shov­ing cam­eras, cir­cu­lat­ing the banks’ wealth and guard­ing diverse cap­i­tal­ist tar­gets con­tribut­ing in the increas­ing social con­trol and repres­sion.”
They also men­tion:
“The mes­sage here is clear. When deal­ing with the rage of insur­gents they can­not be safe, even in their head­quar­ters. Our attack was an action of sol­i­dar­i­ty to our empris­oned com­rades: Gian­nis Dim­i­trakis, Gior­gos Vout­sis-Vogiatzis, Mar­ios Tsoura­pas, Chris­sos­to­mos Kon­tore­vithakis, Vagge­lis Botzatzis as well as to the pris­on­ers of the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Organ­i­sa­tion Novem­ber 17 that are being kept under a state of total iso­la­tion. It is an action of sol­i­dar­i­ty to the insur­gent pris­on­ers of April, many of whom face tor­ture and con­stant trans­fers. It all con­tin­ues…”
–
Police cam­era sup­ply box on fire (Thes­sa­loni­ki, 21/12/2007)

Accord­ing to reports at http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=807773 a group of indi­vid­u­als set on fire a police cam­era pow­er sup­ply box, on Ethikis Amy­nis Street, Thes­sa­loni­ki.
–
Arson at an Empo­ri­ki Bank (Volos, 21/12/2007)

Source: (greek only-page bot­tom: http://www.taxydromos.gr/article_detail.asp?node_serial=001001&node_id=2&article_id=7803)

Uniden­ti­fied per­sons caused a gas can­is­ter explo­sion at a bank sub­sidiary in Volos, around 4:30 in the morn­ing, at Empo­ri­ki Bank on Iolk­ou and Kon­stan­ta street, caus­ing dam­ages to the bank’s ATM. Police sus­pects indi­vid­u­als from the city’s anti­au­thor­i­tar­i­an milieu.
–

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