Archive for the ‘Action & Activism’ Category

Activists: GM Deserves Bankruptcy for Climate Crimes

The North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office has issued a statement against the proposed bailout for the ‘big 3’ automakers. In particular, the release voices their opposition to bailing out General Motors due to their resistance to improving fuel-efficiency.

“General Motors deserves bankruptcy,” said Jason Crawford, a press officer for the ELF. “Fully aware of America’s dependence on foreign oil and the horrific environmental impact of the Hummer—an 8,500-pound monstrosity that yields an average of 10-mpg—GM continued producing gas-guzzling, polluting vehicles.”

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PETA Releases ‘Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals’ Videogame

PETA has released a downloadable videogame parody of the Cooking Mama series usually found on Nintendo game consoles. The game includes such family friendly activities as plucking feathers and removing the internal organs from a dead turkey.

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Today: National Day of Action Against Coal-Funding Banks

Rainforest Action Network has declared yesterday and today, November 15th, as national days of protest against Citibank and Bank of America for their consistent support of the coal industry and its impact on global warming.

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Greenpeace Blocks Palm Oil Ships to Highlight Deforestation

Three tankers containing crude palm oil were halted by Greenpeace when they attempted to leave an Indonesian port for China and Europe. Activists wanted to highlight the rapidly expanding palm oil industry currently destroying rainforests, harming wildlife, and emitting greenhouse gases.

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Australia, Greenpeace Opt Out of This Winter’s ‘Whale Wars’

Captain Paul Watson, leader of the controversial direct-action anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, said in the first episode of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars that his organization disrupts whaling because governments refuse to enforce the International Whaling Commission’s guidelines on their own.

It looks like Sea Shepherd will be left to disrupt the Japanese without government assistance this whaling season yet again, which starts in about a month.

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In Obama We Trust? Four Ways to Keep Him in Check

To believe, or not to believe? That is the question of many on the far left and the fringes of the environmental movement. We cannot simply hope that Obama follows through with his promises, we must act to guarantee that he does.

Nothing represents this dichotomy more than the mixed feelings I have about the election of Barack Obama.

I walk a fine line between radical and liberal—between wanting to smash a failed system and fix a broken one. I consider myself an anarchist, yet I proudly voted. And I voted for Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, yet I fought back tears of joy as I witnessed Obama give his acceptance speech in person in Grant Park.

Obama has great potential to be the most liberal, open-minded president of the last century. Dare I say, he could be a catalyst for change.

What does this mean for those of us who view species extinction and global climate catastrophe as more than just back-burner issues? This represents an opportunity that the environmental movement has never seen, and we would be foolish to pass it up. So here are four steps to help ensure that Obama keeps his many bold promises to us.

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Australian Activists Temporarily Shut Down Power Plant to Stop Greenhouse Gas Emissions

In an attempt to chain themselves to a conveyor-belt and ratchet up pressure on the coal industry, activists disrupted production and forced evacuation at the state-owned Tarong power station in northern Queensland, Australia.

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Protests Turn Violent in Germany as Train Loaded with Nuclear Waste Rolls Through Countryside [Updated w/ Video]

Thousands of anti-nuclear campaigners have assembled along a train route in Germany to protest the annual convoy carrying tons of nuclear waste from France to a storage facility in northeastern Germany.

train carrying spent uranium - nuclear waste
In what is becoming an annual ritual of civil resistance and direct action in Germany, more than 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters turned out along the route to Gorleben on Sunday—twice the number at a similar protest at the site two years ago—in the largest and most violent anti-nuclear protest in Germany since 2001.

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UK Professor Hopes Modified Bee Genes Can Prevent Colony Collapse Disorder

A UK Professor Hopes His Genetically Modified Worker Bees Can Help Stop The Colony Collapse Disorder That Is Grossly Effecting the UK Economy

Last week 140,000 protesters from the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) marched on Whitehall demanding $8-million in emergency funding from the Department for Environment to tackle alarming rates of bee decline. The decline has cost the UK economy about $54-million in the past year alone.

But British scientist Francis Ratnieks — and the UK’s only professor of apiculture –  is pioneering research that he hopes will assuage the hardship beekeepers have been experiencing with colony collapse disorder. Read the rest of this entry »

Lights-Out Across France as Anti-Neon Brigade Grows

A growing group of environmental activists are taking advantage of emergency power shut-off switches found on the exteriors of businesses throughout France; toting broomsticks, they wander the streets at night to find businesses with neon lights still blazing in the window despite being closed, and simply reach or climb up to switch the power off.

They call themselves Le Clan du Néon and believe they are doing the planet a favor. Thousands of shops across Europe leave their lights on overnight, just as they do in America, unnecessarily eating up tens of gigawatt hours of power every year.

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