Environmental Activism News of the Week

Greenpeace anti-nuclear activists tie themselves to train tracks to try to stop a nuclear waster shipment.

Other than what we covered, some top green activism stories from the past week or so (or, pieces of them that we didn’t cover):

The Second Battle Of Blair Mountain: Mountaintop Removal Is Destroying Our Heritage (June 8th)

Nothing like this has happened to me before.

Walking the road to Blair Mountain, we pass an elementary school. Several of the teachers have taken their classes outside. The children and the teachers cheer us as we walk by.

Minutes later a man slows by the protesters in his pickup truck. He gives us the middle finger and yells, “Get a job, tree huggers!”

A few more paces and we witness an elderly couple on their front porch. They clap and nod. I notice that the old woman is crying. She tells us to keep going.

Others drive by and hurl obscenities in our direction. One sign on a house reads, “Thank You Marchers.” Another sign on a telephone pole warns, “Go Back To Where You Came From.”

Voices of Appalachia Call for Abolition of Mountaintop Removal (June 8th)

A group of coalfield citizens traveled to Washington, D.C., during the March on Blair Mountain to renew their call for the end of mountaintop removal mining, a devastating coal mining practice that is destroying their communities, contaminating their drinking water supplies, and threatening the health and lives of many Appalachians. They deliver this message in solidarity with the March on Blair Mountain….

The citizens extended their thanks to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the one government agency that has begun to take steps to protect them from that oppression, pollution, poison, disease, and destruction of their homes and communities. The Environmental Protection Agency is weathering a storm of well-financed assaults from the coal industry, and its allies in other wealthy extractive industries.

The group addressed the science, which proves that blasting mountains for coal and destroying headwater streams is in conflict with the protection of human life and the environment. Peer-reviewed data makes clear that mountaintop removal mining continues at priceless and grave expense to people and the environments where they live….

Meet the Arctic 18 (June 8th)

Our delegation of 18 from the Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise were arrested on board the Cairn oil rig Leiv Eiriksson on Saturday. Four days later they are still in jail.

They boarded the rig to ask for Cairn’s secret Oil Spill Response Plan. After weeks of Cairn hiding the plan and making limp excuses for it we decided to go directly to the rig because if it’s anywhere that would be the one place where it could be found. The delegation was not allowed to see the plan and Cairn still refuses to make it public. All 18 were arrested and taken by helicopter to Nuuk in Greenland.

They’ve been charged with trespassing and breaching security zone, fined 30,000 dkk and will be deported for their action in defense of the Arctic.

Greenpeace versus Mattel: A social media battle over rain forest [UPDATED] (June 8th)

Greenpeace, which has 2.8 million members and offices in 41 countries, is counting on social media to carry its message. Its website enables visitors to send a letter to Mattel’s CEO and share campaign information on Twitter and Facebook with a few clicks of a mouse.

When activists Tuesday began posting critical messages on Barbie’s Facebook fan page, which has 2.2 million followers, Mattel shut down commenting on the page and deleted any mention of rain forests. No new comments since Monday were visible on the page as of late Wednesday.

On Twitter, as Greenpeace protesters were unfurling a giant banner from the roof of Mattel headquarters, the company tweeted from @BarbieStyle (53,400 followers): “After a 7-year break, I really need to update summer pictures of me and Ken! Collecting seashells on the beach to decorate a picture frame.” Since then: radio silence on a feed that normally features ten or more tweets a day….

Greenpeace block nuclear waste transport (June 9)

On Tuesday ten Greenpeace activists in the Netherlands chained themselves to railway lines to block a shipment of nuclear waste. The train, carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste from the country’s Borssele nuclear power plant, is currently en route to France….

Injunction will not stop Arctic oil campaign (June 9)

The Arctic 18 have now been in a Greenland jail for 5 days after being arrested for boarding the Cairn oil rig here in the Arctic looking for its elusive oil spill response plan.

Today the Dutch court granted the injunction against Greenpeace sought by Cairn Energy. This ruling means we’ll now be liable for substantial fines if we take any further action that stops Cairn drilling for oil here in the Arctic.

Greenpeace hinders BASF from planting risky gm-potato (June 9)

Our activists in Sweden are keeping up the fight against genetic contamination. Two weeks ago they blocked the warehouse of the chemical company BASF holding its genetically modified (GM) Amflora potato. This morning we stopped a tractor to prevent the Amflora potato from being planted. It was a short lived activity as this tractor, and its dubious potato planting, had a police escort who moved quickly to arrest the activists….

MATTEL VOWS TO STOP USING PAPER FROM ACCUSED ASIAN CLEAR-CUTTER

Toymaker Mattel Inc. says it will stop using packaging from a Singapore-based company accused of clear-cutting swaths of Indonesian rainforest. Mattel’s action follows a campaign by Greenpeace that targeted, among other products, the packaging used in Mattel’s popular Barbie doll. While Mattel said it does not typically dictate where its suppliers obtain their materials, the company said it has now “directed” packaging suppliers to stop using pulp from Sinar Mas/APP, one of the world’s largest palm oil and paper companies, until Mattel is able to investigate allegations of illegal deforestation. “Additionally, we have asked our packaging suppliers to clarify how they are addressing the broader issue in their own supply chains,” the company said in a statement….

Related Stories on Planetsave:

  1. Barbie & Disney Causing Deforestation — Greenpeace Protests {3 Videos}
  2. Oil Company Shoots Itself in Foot by Suing Greenpeace
  3. Greenpeace Arctic Activists in Court Today after 18 Activists Arrested
  4. Greenpeace Activists Hanging above Arctic Waters (Under Oil Rig) for 3rd Day in a Row Now {VIDEOS}
  5. Polar Bear Blocks Cairn Energy Headquarters, Greenpeace Activists Shadow Oil Rig in Arctic
  6. TV News Completely Biased against Climate Change Action (Citizens Still Support It)

Photo via Greenpeace

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