Environmental Justice

The Ballad Of The Stolen Fiddle

June 5, 2015 John Kelly, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Arts, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Music

By John Kelly in The Washington Post - Don’t call the musical instrument that was stolen last week from Jimmy Betts’s car a “violin.” It’s a fiddle. “Fiddles are meant to be out and about in the world,” Jimmy said. “Fiddles are meant to get down and dirty, creating music. Violins, generally, are meant to be kept in an orchestra pit.” John Kelly writes "John Kelly's Washington," a daily look at Washington's less-famous side. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. And Jimmy’s fiddle most definitely got around. Jimmy’s a community activist and climate-change protester, and he carried his fiddle with him on a 3,300-mile walk from California to Washington. It accompanied him as he trudged through the Mojave Desert. It was strapped to his back as he dodged thunderstorms in Colorado.

Mountaintop Mining Spreads, Officials Oppose Protection Of Streams

May 28, 2015 Sean Cockerham, www.mcclatchydc.com Educate! Environmental Justice, Mining, Water

The White House is expected to announce a stricter rule for the disposal of mountaintop-removal mining waste into streams. Some Republicans in Congress are describing the move as the latest campaign in the Obama administration’s “war on coal.” The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, which has jurisdiction over mining, has been holding hearings and calling the rule a job killer. The chairman, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., backs a measure by West Virginia Republican Rep. Alex Mooney, which would block the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining from implementing the rule, calling for a study within two years, then a year of review, before any new stream protections. By that point there would be a new president in the White House and different leadership at the Office of Surface Mining that could be friendlier to the coal industry.

Mobilizing For Copenhagen And Climate Justice

May 26, 2015 Trade Unions For Energy Democracy, www.unionsforenergydemocracy.org Resist! Democracy, Energy, Environmental Justice, Labor Unions

Climate change is going on. Extreme weather conditions, storms, floodings, landslides, droughts and ice melting are reported ever more regularly from many parts of the world. Millions of people are losing their livelihood, their homes, their jobs – and many also their lives. The successive reports of the United Nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have increasingly called for urgent action in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, after having negotiated for 20 years, our political leaders have failed to take necessary action. The result is that emissions are increasing rather than decreasing (61 percent increase from 1990 to 2013). Temperature increase is on course for 4-6oC rather than maximum 1,5-2.0oC, something which will mean climate catastrophe.

Judge Says No To Fracking

May 23, 2015 Anastasia Pantsios, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Environmental Justice, Fracking, Law, North Carolina, Oil & Gas

A judge in North Carolina has blocked the start of fracking in that state over a challenge to the membership of the commission charged with issuing the permits. “Finally some good news in our long battle to keep fracking out of NC!” exulted North Carolina environmental nonprofit Haw River Assembly, one of the parties to the lawsuit, on its Facebook page. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) was granted the preliminary injunction it sought in Wake County Superior Court to delay the state’s Energy and Mining Commission from taking any action on permits, effectively reinstating (for the time being) the state’s longtime moratorium on fracking which was lifted by the legislature last summer.

FBI Violated Its Own Rules While Spying On Keystone XL Opponents

May 13, 2015 Adam Federman & Paul Lewis, www.earthisland.org Educate! Environmental Justice, FBI, Surveillance

The FBI breached its own internal rules when it spied on campaigners against the Keystone XL pipeline, failing to get approval before it cultivated informants and opened files on individuals protesting against the construction of the pipeline in Texas, documents reveal. Internal agency documents show for the first time how FBI agents have been closely monitoring anti-Keystone activists, in violation of guidelines designed to prevent the agency from becoming unduly involved in sensitive political issues. The hugely contentious Keystone XL pipeline, which is awaiting approval from the Obama administration, would transport tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf coast.

Climate Activism: Erasure Of Queer & Trans* People Of Color

May 9, 2015 Ceci Pineda, www.bluestockingsmag.com Strategize! Environmental Justice, People of Color, Queer, Racial Justice, Trans

There is a dangerous silence around the impacts of climate change on our communities within academia, the climate movement, and even our own work to confront violence in our communities. In academia, there is scant research, literature, and scholarly discussion delving into how climate change will impact QT* communities, and in particular QT* communities of color. Yet across the board, the scarce literature that exists highlights how QT* communities are disproportionately impacted. Nonetheless, there is little to no acknowledgment of how climate change disparately impacts us or of our role in the climate movement. We are pushed to the back of marches and the visible narratives that arise linking queers and climate change erase our experiences and realities as QT*POCs.

Houma Nation’s 30 Year Campaign For Federal Recognition

April 26, 2015 Allie Yee, www.southernstudies.org/a> Resist! Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights

On the fifth anniversary of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the United Houma Nation (UHN) of southern Louisiana is taking yet another stand in its 30-year campaign to win recognition, launching a petition this week calling on the Obama administration to support the tribe's fight for federal recognition. The UHN is an indigenous tribe with 17,000 members residing in a six-parish area along the Gulf Coast where the land is literally slipping away from under them. Due to coastal erosion, southern Louisiana is losing over 16 square miles of land per year, or the equivalent of one football field every hour. "The United Houma Nation is severely affected by coastal erosion, sea-level rise, and the lack of corporate and government accountability around the pollution of their traditional lands and waters," the petition states.

Diversifying The Environmental Movement Isn’t Enough

April 17, 2015 Olivia Aguilar, www.truth-out.org Strategize! Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, Racial Justice

We have known for quite a while the environmental movement is stubbornly White. Most recently, Barbara Grady, of GreenBiz Group, noted that improvements are in the works, citing that the leaders of the EPA and NRDC were women of color. Unfortunately, this doesn't address the elephant in the room. Environmentalists don't have a diversity problem, they have an identity problem. And it's rooted in a racist history and unchecked biases. The past is complex. Historians have noted that even in the early 19th century, long before the modern environmental movement began, racist rhetoric was used to push for clearing Native Americans from potential land preserves. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962, did little to help.

Environmental Groups Align To Challenge FERC Pipeline Projects

March 13, 2015 Michael M. Barrick, www.appalachianchronicle.com Resist! Environmental Justice, Oil & Gas, Pennsylvania, Pipeline, Water

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) and three other environmental groups based in other Appalachian states have joined forces to challenge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for not properly informing the public regarding the construction of proposed natural gas pipelines throughout the region. The alliance includes: Huntington-based OVEC; the Allegheny Defense Project in Pennsylvania; the FreshWater Accountability Project in Ohio; and, Virginia-based Wild Virginia. In a news release, the alliance stated, “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is not informing the public about the big picture when it comes to natural gas infrastructure projects related to increased gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.”

2015: Oil Industry Off To A Rough Start

March 2, 2015 Elizabeth Douglass, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Environment, Environmental Justice, Keystone XL

So far, 2015 has not been good to the oil industry. In just the last two weeks, the bad news included two fiery oil railcar accidents, a refinery explosion, a scandal involving an industry-funded climate skeptic, a high-profile setback for an oil-by-rail project, a big retrenchment in Canada’s oil sands, and the president's veto of the Keystone XL oil import pipeline. And that’s not all. Those events have come on top of industry-wide ripple effects from the recent plunge in crude prices. In the last two months, a string of oil companies announced disappointing earnings, workforce layoffs and sharp spending cuts. On Feb. 1, union leaders began strikes at many U.S. refineries after contract talks stalled. "It's a mess...it's like a perfect storm," said Fadel Gheit, senior oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

Apache Leader: Unite To Fight Proposed Copper Mine

February 2, 2015 Emily Bregel, www.redpowermedia.wordpress.com Resist! Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining

Apache leader Wendsler Nosie issued a call for solidarity in the fight against Congress’ recent decision to give sacred Native American land to a foreign mining company. Speaking to a crowd of about 75 gathered Friday in South Tucson, Nosie invited people of of all races, religions and political affiliations to stand up against what he calls the “dirty” way in which legislators approved the land swap in December. He invited everyone to a spiritual gathering and protest at Oak Flat, about 100 miles north of Tucson, next Saturday. “This is not just our fight. This is an American battle,” said Nosie, former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. The reservation’s border is just east of the proposed copper mine at Oak Flat, sacred to Western Apache and Yavapai people.

Indigenous People In Peru Shut Down Oil Production

February 2, 2015 TeleSur, www.axisoflogic.com Resist! Environmental Justice, indigenous, Oil & Gas, Peru

Indigenous people have forced a production stoppage at 14 oil wells, adding up to some 3100 barrels of oil per day. Close to 400 Achuar indigenous people intensified their actions Thursday, blockading production of 14 oil wells from the multinational, PlusPetrol. Since last Monday, Protestors had taken over territories that the company started exploiting, however the actions escalated to blockading the circulation of any ships through the river Tigre. Achuar activists are currently in possession of 8 company ships and have declared that they will not back down until State officials and company executives meet with them. Multimillion dollar oil extractions have been in place in the region for the last 43 years, but poverty among the population in the area are high and environmental contamination common.

KXL Vote Brings Out Fissures On Future Energy Policy

January 31, 2015 John H. Cushman Jr., www.insideclimatenews.org Strategize! Energy, Environmental Justice, Keystone XL, Senate

The moment the gavel hammered through Thursday's vote in Congress to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, some in the Senate were predicting that a bipartisan consensus on energy policy was just around the corner. The Republican and Democratic senators who stage-managed the pipeline bill—Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Maria Cantwell of Washington—both surmised after the 62-36 vote that before long they might be working in tandem. "Maybe it bodes well for a bigger, bipartisan energy bill," said Cantwell, the ranking minority member on the Energy Committee chaired by Murkowski. Cantwell opposes Keystone and is a climate hawk, but saw glimmers of hope in the way a pair of energy-conservation amendments were waved through on voice votes.

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