“The East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) is exceptionally shallow — more than 75 per cent of its entire area of 2.1 million square kilometres is shallower than 40 metres — so most of the methane gas avoids oxidation in the water column and is released into the atmosphere.” (Wadhams, pg. 123“).
”To spot methane levels breaking the 2000ppb mark so sharply in this fragile region is unprecedented.”
”Another factor that works against acceptance by the scientific community is due to native biases towards Russian researchers, namely Natalia Shakova, one of the foremost prominent researchers of ESAS.”
The northern continental shelves of Russia, inclusive of the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea (ESAS) are some of the least researched yet most controversial subjects in climate science today. It’s the one region that has the biggest potential to trigger runaway global warming because of sizeable sub sea methane deposits, thereby taking civilization down to its knees. But, that prospect is also extremely controversial within the scientific community.
Scientific opinion runs the gamut: (1) high risk-methane bursts will bury civilization with runaway global warming – a dreadful, deadly risk (2) not to worry, it’s low risk because almost all of the massive deposits of undersea methane will stay put (3) not to worry, low risk because any methane seepage via undersea permafrost is oxidized and dissolves within the seawater and not a threat to runaway global warming.
By and large, climate scientists dismiss the ESAS and some go so far as to vilify published research. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dismisses its near-term/intermediate-term risks. The reasons are manifold (more on that later).
Unfortunately, recent events in the high Arctic lean towards option number one as the more likely outcome. In that regard, I recently met with Dr. Peter Wadhams, world-renowned Arctic expert, to discuss the issue (more on that follows).
see also> Seeing is Believing, Earthworks: Community Empowerment against fracking pollution and climate change. HERE> .https://wp.me/pIJl9-e9f
By Jonah M. Kessel and Hiroko Tabuchi Dec. 12, 2019
Immense amounts of methane are escaping from oil and gas sites nationwide, worsening global warming, even as the Trump administration weakens restrictions on offenders.
Jonah M. Kessel, a New York Times visual journalist, and Hiroko Tabuchi, a Times climate reporter, went to West Texas oilfields with a camera that can photograph methane.
To the naked eye, there is nothing out of the ordinary at the DCP Pegasus gas processing plant in West Texas, one of the thousands of installations in the vast Permian Basin that have transformed America into the largest oil and gas producer in the world.
There is a huge global spike in methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases driving climate change over the last decade, according Harvard University Studies. The U.S. is the biggest culprit, mostly from oil and gas fracking wells, there are over a million of them, with half already abandoned. Obama introduced laws so that the industry would -voluntarily- at least measure the leaks. But even that is being repealed by the Trump administration, a criminal and ecocidal policy in the light of years of concrete scientific proof that the methane emissions are tipping us towards imminent uncontrollable climate chaos..Controlling methane emissions would be a quick way to pause climate change, while CO2 remains in the atmosphere for many decades.
But a highly specialized camera sees what the human eye cannot: a major release of methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas that is helping to warm the planet at an alarming rate.
Two New York Times journalists detected this from a tiny plane, crammed with scientific equipment, circling above the oil and gas sites that dot the Permian, an oil field bigger than Kansas. In just a few hours, the plane’s instruments identified six sites with unusually high methane emissions.
DCP Pegasus Gas Processing PlantNov. 5, 2019Using a powerful infrared camera, The Times identified large-scale releases. Here, methane escapes from a device meant to be burning it off.
Methane is loosely regulated, difficult to detect and rising sharply. The Times’s aerial and on-the-ground research, along with an examination of lobbying activities by the companies that own the sites, shows how the energy industry is seeking and winning looser federal regulations on methane, a major contributor to global warming.
Operators of the sites identified by The Times are among the very companies that have lobbied the Trump administration, either directly or through trade organizations, to weaken regulations on methane, a review of regulatory filings, meeting minutes and attendance logs shows. These local companies, along with oil-industry lobby groups that represent the world’s largest energy companies, are fighting rules that would force them to more aggressively fix emissions like these.
Next year, the administration could move forward with a plan that would effectively eliminate requirements that oil companies install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from oil and gas facilities. By the E.P.A.’s own calculations, the rollback would increase methane emissions by 370,000 tons through 2025, enough to power more than a million homes for a year.
Impacted residents travel to Madrid to highlight that planned infrastructure to process & export Permian oil & gas would guarantee catastrophic climate change
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[Top] Optical gas imaging by Earthworks reveals normally invisible air pollution from an unlit flare. [Bottom] A regular still image taken at the same time and place shows what you see with the naked eye.
Madrid, Dec 4 — Today at an official COP25 side event Texas and New Mexico residents — impacted by the extraction of Permian Basin oil & gas, and by planned infrastructure to transport, process and export it — informed delegates and other attendees that catastrophic climate change is inevitable unless the Permian infrastructure expansion is stopped.
“The Permian Basin is an oil and gas carbon bomb that’s exploding, and it’s happening right now. If we can’t defuse it, the world cannot avoid catastrophic
climate change. Major oil companies are trying to lock in decades more oil and gas demand by building infrastructure from the Permian to the Texas Gulf Coast to transport, process and export the world’s largest current oil & gas play,” said Earthworks’ Energy Campaigner Ethan Buckner.
Although communities across the region are bearing the brunt of impacts from oil, gas and petrochemical development, those most at risk from the Permian expansion are those already the most impacted by social and environmental injustice. And on Texas’ Gulf Coast — where the oil & gas is processed and exported — they’re suffering twice: from the operations’ toxic pollution, and from intensified climate change.
“I live less than two miles from the Ship Channel in the East End of Houston, TX. My dad was a United Steelworker who died of cancer in 2016, and I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that same year. So I’m well aware that workers and fenceline communities are paying with their health the price of daily exposure to toxic pollution from oil and gas infrastructure,” said Ana
No One Should Have to Breathe These Chemicals – AnaParras of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (@tejasbarrios). HOUSTON — While families across the country celebrated Thanksgiving with their loved ones, more than 50,000 people in Port Neches, Tex., were forced to evacuate from their homes and spend the holiday in makeshift shelters
.. In 2015 a group of billionairesannounced amid much fanfare that they’d be investing a few globs of their fortunes in clean energy research, and the world was all: “Hoorayforbillionaires!” But two days
later a report from OXFAMcalled “EXTREME CARBON INEQUALITY” (capitalization not my own) revealed that rich people are the biggest contributors to climate change — by a wide, wide margin.Greta Speaks Truth to Power as Those She Criticizes Applaud…16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the U.N. Climate Action Summit with an emotional speech condemning leaders for inaction and stressing that while “[e]ntire ecosystems are collapsing… all you can talk about is money and about fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Embarrassment of Riches By George Monbiot ….. For the sake of life on Earth, we should set an upper limit on the money any person can amass.
It is not quite true that behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Musicians and novelists, for example, can become extremely rich by giving other people pleasure. But it does appear to be universally true that in front of every great fortune lies a great crime. Immense wealth translates automatically into immense environmental impacts, regardless of the intentions of those who possess it. The very wealthy, almost as a matter of definition, are committing ecocide. A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a worker at a British private airport. “I see things that really shouldn’t be happening in 2019,” he wrote. Every day he sees Global 7000 jets, Gulfstream 650s and even Boeing 737s take off from the airport carrying a single passenger, mostly flying to Russia and the US. The private Boeing 737s, built to take 174 seats, are filled at the airport with around 32,000 litres of fuel. That’s as much fossil energy as a small African town might use in a year.
Where are these single passengers going? Perhaps to visit one of their superhomes, constructed and run at vast environmental cost, or to take a trip on their superyacht, which might burn 500 litres of diesel per hour just ticking over, and is built and furnished with rare materials, extracted at the expense of stunning places. continues below
Eat the Rich? How Offshore Capital Now Rules the World .. Today’s super-rich are the most privileged and powerful group of people in history. If you’re a billionaire, you can even decide an election by funneling a little bit of your money into the race. You can choose to pay 0% tax. You can sway public opinion by buying up media outlets, and by using think […]
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that when Google convened a meeting of the rich and famous at the Verdura resort in Sicily this July to discuss climate breakdown, its delegates arrived in 114 private jets and a fleet of megayachts, and drove around the island in supercars. Even when they mean well, the ultrarich cannot help trashing the living.
A series of research papers shows that income is by far the most important determinant of environmental impact. It doesn’t matter how green you think you are. If you have surplus money, you spend it. The only form of consumption that’s clearly and positively correlated with good environmental intentions is diet: people who see themselves as green tend to eat less meat and more organic vegetables. But attitudes have little bearing on the amount of transport fuel, home energy and other materials you consume. Money conquers all. continues below
Growing inequality in the United States shows that the game is rigged. …..Last month, Bloombergreportedthat Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, has accumulated a fortune worth $150 billion. That is the biggest nominal amount in modern history, and extraordinary any way you slice it. Bezos is the world’slone hectobillionaire.He is worth what the average American family is, nearly two million times over. He has about 50 percent more money than Bill Gates, twice as much as Mark Zuckerberg, 50 times as much as Oprah, and perhaps 100 times as much as President Trump. (Who knows!) He has gotten $50 billion richer in less than a year. He needs to spend roughly $28 million a day just to keep from accumulating more wealth.
The disastrous effects of spending power are compounded by the psychological impacts of being wealthy. Plenty of studies show that the richer you are, the less you are able to connect with other people. Wealth suppresses empathy. One paper reveals that drivers in expensive cars are less likely to stop for people using pedestrian crossings than drivers in cheap cars. Another revealed that rich people were less able than poorer people to feel compassion towards children with cancer. Though they are disproportionately responsible for our environmental crises, the rich will be hurt least and last by planetary disaster, while the poor are hurt first and worst. The richer people are, the research suggests, the less such knowledge is likely to trouble them. Another issue is that wealth limits the perspectives of even the best-intentioned people. This week Bill Gates argued in an interview with the Financial Times that divesting (ditching stocks) from fossil fuels is a waste of time. It would be better, he claimed, to pour money into disruptive new technologies with lower emissions.
Of course we need new technologies. But he has missed the crucial point: in seeking to prevent climate breakdown, what counts is not what you do but what you stop doing. It doesn’t matter how many solar panels you install if you don’t simultaneously shut down coal and gas burners. Unless existing fossil fuel plants are retired before the end of their lives, and all exploration and development of new fossil fuels reserves is cancelled, there is little chance of preventing more than 1.5°C of global heating. continues below
see also:US Millionaires Pass $1.500,000,000,000 Tax Cut for RichEvery year wealth and power are concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.. HOW CAN WE STOP THIS MADNESS NOW? ‘Welfare for the Wealthy’: 227 Congressmen Pass $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut for Corporations and the Rich “It’s immoral that many hardworking families will pay a higher tax bill or lose access to critical services like healthcare […]
But this requires structural change, which involves political intervention as well as technological innovation: anathema to Silicon Valley billionaires. It demands an acknowledgement that money is not a magic wand that makes all the bad stuff go away. On Friday, I’ll be joining the global climate strike, in which adults will stand with the young people whose call to action has resonated around the world. As a freelancer, I’ve been wondering who I’m striking against. Myself? Yes: one aspect of myself, at least. Perhaps the most radical thing we can now do is to limit our material aspirations. The assumption on which governments and economists operate is that everyone strives to maximise their wealth. If we succeed in this task, we inevitably demolish our life support systems. Were the poor to live like the rich, and the rich to live like the oligarchs, we would destroy everything. The continued pursuit of wealth, in a world that has enough already (albeit very poorly distributed) is a formula for mass destitution. continues below
see also: The US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries …The US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. Its carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ( … )
A meaningful strike in defence of the living world is, in part, a strike against the desire to raise our incomes and accumulate wealth: a desire shaped, more than we are probably aware, by dominant social and economic narratives. I see myself as striking in support of a radical and disturbing concept: Enough. Individually and collectively, it is time to decide what enough looks like, and how to know when we’ve achieved it.
Left, Center and Right: We’re All in Denial About Climate Change .. byTed Rall .. If you really believe that the planet is becoming uninhabitable, if you think you are about to die, you don’t march peacefully through the streets holding signs and chanting slogans begging the corrupt scoundrels who haven’t done a damn thing for decades to wake up and do something. You identify the politicians and corporate leaders who are killing us, you track them down and you use whatever force is necessary to make them stop. Nothing less than regime change stands a chance of doing the job.
There’s a name for this approach, coined by the Belgian philosopher Ingrid Robeyns: limitarianism. Robeyns argues that there should be an upper limit to the amount of income and wealth a person can amass. Just as we recognise a poverty line, below which no one should fall, we should recognise a riches line, above which no one should rise. This call for a levelling down is perhaps the most blasphemous idea in contemporary discourse but her arguments are sound. Surplus money allows some people to exercise inordinate power over others, in the workplace, in politics, and above all in the capture, use and destruction of natural wealth. If everyone is to flourish, we cannot afford the rich. Nor can we afford our own aspirations, that the culture of wealth maximisation encourages. The grim truth is that the rich are able to live as they do only because others are poor: there is neither the physical nor ecological space for everyone to pursue private luxury. Instead we should strive for private sufficiency, public luxury. Life on earth depends on moderation.
shared with thanks from www.monbiot.com (inserts and illustrations added.)
An alliance of non-hierarchical groups formed over the last few months, the Green Anticapitalist Front is attempting to provide a link between the extensive anarchist experience of green direct action and the latest wave of climate change activism. Here, the group outlines its background and ideas for future activity.
note> This post was 1st made as a copiable flyer HERE
No Government Will Save the Planet for Us
by Crimethinc From September 20 to 27, tens of thousands will take to the streets to denounce the causes of climate change and call on governments to address what may be the most drastic crisis facing humanity in the 21st century.
These mass actions will showcase the growing anger of a new generation that has known nothing but crisis, war, and the threat of environmental collapse.
We have prepared the following text as a flier encouraging climate activists to consider how to interrupt the causes of climate change via direct action rather than petitioning the state to do solve the problem for us. Please print these out and distribute them at climate protests and everywhere else you can. Continue reading “The Wrong ICE is Melting, The Wrong Amazon is Burning”
More and more people are realizing that irreversible Climate change is happening now. This coincides with the far right takeover of the Brazilian State, hitching it to the insane policies of greed and destruction of the US Regime. But the militarist and misogynist Brazilian right is not yet all powerful. We can still exert pressure in many ways, perhaps in Europe by supporting threats to cancel the upcoming EU/Mercosur trade agreement if the Brazilian regime continues its policies and its campaign to destroy the Amazon Rainforest, which belongs to nobody and us all.
Amazon burning: Brazil reports record surge in forest fires
Brazilian Amazon beset by 9,500 new forest fires since Thursday, prompting fresh scrutiny of President Bolsonaro’s environmental stewardship.
Fires raging in Brazil‘s Amazon rainforest have hit a record high number this year, according to new data from the country’s space research agency, as concerns grow over President Jair Bolsonaro‘s management of the environment.
People are deliberately starting fires in the #AmazonRainforest to illegally deforest indigenous land for cattle ranching
Pataxó woman: “These assholes came in and burned down [our reservation]… I want all of the media here to see this” pic.twitter.com/uGFp7RItHK
Nearly 73,000 fires were recorded between January and August, compared with 39,759 in all of 2018, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on Monday. The surge marks an 83 percent increase over the same period last year and is the highest since INPE records began in 2013.
Satellite images spotted more than 9,500 new forest fires since Thursday alone, mostly in the Amazon basin, home to the world’s largest tropical forest and seen as vital to slowing the pace of global warming.
5003 ViewsAugust 09, 2019 24 Comments by Peter Koenig for The Saker blog
Imagine just for a moment, the World would stand up in unison, sick and tired of the aggressive killer arrogance of the United States and her vassals – and their joint war-force called NATO – and this World, our World, what’s left of it when you deduct Washington and its Brussels allies, would at once block every shipment of everything destined for the ports of the United States of America; every sea port, airport and road port. Hermetically. Nothing would enter. Nothing, no food, no medicine, no electronics, no cars – no nothing. And nothing could leave. No exports, no petrol, no grains, no meat, no pharmaceuticals and foremost, no weapons. Nothing.
And now, take your mind a step further – and imagine the same – exactly the same, a total and full blockage of Israel – nothing would enter, no food, no fuel, no medication, no machinery and especially no weapons – and nothing would leave; a full and total blockage.
This would of course be totally illegal; illegal and unacceptable, by any international law, by the standards of the UN Charter, by the Human Rights Laws and Directives – by any ethical values of human morals. Wouldn’t it? – Yet, this is exactly what these countries are doing, have been doing for decades, sanctioning to strangle and murder entire populations into death or submission. The US with Cuba; Israel with Palestine. And the coercion and strangulation go on, unabated.
The longest embargo – illegal, inhuman and outright criminal – Washington imposed on Cuba – 60 years. Because Cuba has chosen socialism as her form of state and government. Cuba survived and will never give in to the tyrant of the north.
Now the US is expanding her palette of killing by impunity to dominate and subjugate nation after nation which they do not consider bending sufficiently to the dictate of their masters. Venezuela has been targeted for two decades, ever since former President Hugo Chavez was democratically elected in 1998; and Iran, ever since the US-imposed Shah was deposed in 1979 – exactly 40 years ago – by Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Both Venezuela and Iran are rich in natural resources, especially hydrocarbons but also in gold, rare earths and other precious metals and stones.
8 August 2019 — Global Research: ..The Trump regime exceeds the worst of its predecessors. Based on the trend since the 1980s, whatever leadership succeeds it is likely to be even more contemptuous of world peace, equity and justice.Abandoning the JCPOA and INF Treaty, waging war on China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and other nations by other means, entirely discarding the rule of law, fostering destabilization worldwide, substituting brute force for diplomacy, along with its rage for global dominance ups the stakes for possible nuclear war against one or more nations…
Contrary to what one would like to imagine, international world bodies, like the United Nations and her sister and associated organizations remain just about silent. When a high-level official utters some benign criticism of the US or Israel – it flairs up for a moment in the ‘news’, then it disappears again, as if it never happened. And indeed, nothing happens. They – the US and Israel – go on with their crimes in impunity.
The latest is an open declaration of economic warfare by Washington, a total embargo on Venezuela; the embargo is now being turned into a naval blockade. Similar steps are to be taken for Iran. That literally means that no merchandise – no matter how vital for survival, like food and medication, is allowed into Venezuela. Three days ago, the US seized, totally illegally, a cargo ship attempting to deliver food and medication to Venezuela – in the Panama Canal, territory which the US does not own or control anymore.
The ship was carrying soy cakes, from which Venezuela was to produce food. Never mind, that the cargoes are fully paid for by Venezuela. And this seems to be just the beginning. Vessels leaving Venezuela with petrol deliveries to client countries are also targeted for blockage, thus confiscating, or rather stealing, Venezuela’s main source of income on which she intends to survive and feed and provide health care for her people. This, in addition to the more than 130 billion dollars total Venezuelan assets confiscated – stolen – by the US worldwide .
Venezuelan commune movements march in support of the Constituent Assembly (photo by AVN)
And nobody says beep. Almost. Yes, there are some collective protests by countries in solidarity – like key members of the Sao Paulo Forum, as well as more than 60 members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM – total 120 members) that have become especially active in recent years in defense of Venezuela within the United Nations. Protests and protest declarations also take place by ALBA members, a Latin American trade alliance (ALBA – Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, 11 members [Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Grenada and the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis]).
But most interesting are the hypocrites, those who write and scream that Venezuelans are starving to death, that the Maduro government neglects its people – yet these accusers-in-falsehood – let the US and her vassals strangle Venezuela and steal her foreign assets, including foreign reserves and gold, food and medical imports – they are saying zilch, nada, nothing. Just watching.
To top it all off, the Human Rights Commissioner, Madame Michelle Bachelet, Hypocrite-in-chief, who recently visited Venezuela, at the invitation of President Nicolas Maduro, on a Human Rights mission, and who delivered a devastating report about Venezuela’s HR, full of lies, half-truths and outright omissions, not mentioning with one word the US inspired coup attempts, the US-funded opposition and its bloody atrocities on the Chavista population, and the strangulating and starving by the US and US-dictated European sanctions – Madame Bachelet now came forward condemning the naval blockade.
Great. But she did not stand up against the deadly embargo by the US and the European Union. – What credibility remains for the Human Rights Commission? – The world can see it – it’s all bought, coerced into submission, like so many other UN agencies by the Murderers Inc.
If we are not careful, they are soon going to rule the globe. Thanks god, for Russia and China – which are also subjects of US-EU sanctioning and targeted for take-over. But they are a tiny little bit too big and too strong for this sort of games by the decaying US empire and her obedient rats on the sinking ship.
Similarly, the European Union – despots as they have been for hundreds of years as colonialists in Africa, Asia and Latin America – and continue in a modern colonial role through economic control of much of Africa – this very EU, has been sanctioning Venezuela for years on the orders of Washington, naturally, who else? – Now they condemn the naval blockade, but continue their routine sanctions regime.
According to a study carried out by the Washington DC based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), under guidance of Mark Weisbrot, CEPR co-director and Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University, New York, US and EU sanctions have cost some 40,000 Venezuelan lives. This mainly since August 2017, when Washington escalated its unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela and her state oil company, PDVSA, cutting them off international financial markets.
Yes, the world would have plenty of reasons to stand up and dish out similar naval and air blockades against the US and Israel. Just as a teaser to begin with, and if that doesn’t send a strong enough wake-up message, perhaps such embargoes should be considered on a longer-term indefinite scale. It’s illegal. But we are living in a world where international laws don’t count – where laws are made, as we go, by the self-declared hegemon, the US of A, and her symbiotic Middle East ally, Israel. – So, why not nudging the legal, moral and ethical order back into balance?
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
Call to resistance in Fraguas..en castellano abajo Sent by Gavroche on Mar, 06/18/2019
Fraguas.. NO Eviction NO Jail NO Demolition
Imminent danger of eviction, demolition and imprisonment of 6 people from the village of Fraguas. We can not allow it. We call for indefinite days of resistance in order to stop it. This can only be stopped if there is a massive influx of people willing to defend the project.
‘Half of Spain is de-populated to serve the capitalist consumer nightmare now destroying the planet. Now is time to defend Fraguas and re-occupy thousands of abandoned villages’.
There is no concrete date for the demolition but there are many preparations to be made and we need help. We intend to use techniques of peaceful resistance and disobedience. They want to destroy autonomy, community life, self-sufficiency, self-management, the rural world, its inhabitants and traditional culture.
-We believe and fight for the community, self-government, self-sufficiency and self-management. Since we arrived we were “invited” to abandon our dreams by environmental agents and civil guards with threats and fines, some of us carry thousands of euros in fines-.
They want to keep total control, civil society has to say ‘That’s enough’. With all humility we want to invoke the spirit of other struggles like those of Sasé, the ZAD, Hambach and many other stories of resistance that although they did not always conserve the space, served as seeds or inspiration for everyone.
They want to imprison 6 people for crimes that were committed by the Francoist government, usurping the houses and lands from their rightful owners and changing the territorial arrangement that had lasted for more than 5 centuries. Imprison them as real estate speculators, ironic when the corrupt and speculators are in the courts.
To all the people who have ever come, or if you have never come and want to see the land alive, it is time to come and defend it, if you wait it may be too late. Now or never. A big hug to all supporters.. Long live self-management.
Translate and disseminate this text .. and come to Fraguas!.
We write these lines from Fraguas, a squatted and rehabilitated village in the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara. the village, where 6 years ago there were were nothing but ruins, has been rebuilt through the work and enthusiasm of hundreds of people who have supported this self-managed project.
An assembly without hierarchies, with the principle of sustainability with the natural environment that surrounds it, learning day by day to sustain ourselves less and less attached to the capitalist system, caring for the earth and collecting its fruits, without harming it and learning to live in it, since from the moment we were born we were only taught to exploit it.
Practicing a collective existence and not falling into the competitive individualism that promotes the capitalist productive model. Rehabilitating with the materials that the earth gives us, the ruins that through the fraudulent expropriation at first left the Francoist state in 68, expelling forever its former inhabitants for a handful of pesetas and condemned them to a life of work salaried in most cases; and later the use as a military practice range that took place in the 90’s.
Right now a sentence dictates that “to restore balance” we must pay for the demolition of the reconstructions carried out and sentences 6 people to more than two years of prison . The Board of Castilla la Mancha (Podemos in coalition with the PSOE in the previous term and the PSOE with absolute majority since May 2019) conceals the atrocities carried out in the Franco regime. They intend to leave the town in ruins once more, expelling its inhabitants and leaving it in oblivion.
The State represses any attempt to attack or propose alternatives to its mercantilist dogma. Self-managed and horizontal projects such as this one, which escape their consumption logic, are in focus. In this logic of domination and control they attack Fraguas, just as they have attacked and will continue attacking any initiative that opposes them.
We can not allow them to achieve their objectives and simply crush us, we have to defend our liberated spaces. By supporting each other we have more strength and we will achieve it among all. With all humility we want to invoke the spirit of other struggles such as Sasé, the Zad, Hambach, Errekaleor and many other stories of resistance, which serve as seed or inspiration for all.
Currently there is no specific date of eviction but this could be imminent and we will not allow it. Concurring different types of strategies but with the firm conviction that here we are going to stay and continue to experience ways of living outside of authority and control.
We call for indefinite days of resistance in the village of Fraguas.
Living villages in struggle.
from Ekomedia Barcelona. translation TheFreeOnline
Llamamiento a la resistencia en Fraguas
Enviado por Gavroche en Mar, 18/06/2019 – 23:03
Fraguas Resiste
Peligro inminente de desalojo, demolicion y encarcelamiento de 6 personas del pueblo de Fraguas. No podemos permitirlo. Hacemos un llamamiento a las jornadas de resistencia indefinidas con el fin de paralo. Esto solo podrá pararse si hay una afluecia masiva de gente dispuesta a defender el proyecto.
No hay una fecha concreta para la demolición pero hay muchos preparativos que hacer y necesitamos ayuda. Pretendemos utilizar técnicas de resistencia pacifica y desobediencia. Quieren destruir la autonomía, la vida en comunidad, la autosuficiencia, la autogestión, el mundo rural, a sus habitantes y la cultura tradicional.
«60% of the Spanish municipalities have less than 1,000 inhabitants, they occupy 40% of the surface, but hardly have 3% of the population».
Quieren manejar todo a sus anchas, la sociedad civil tiene que decir basta. Con toda la humildad queremos invocar el espíritu de otras luchas como las de Sasé, las Zad, Hambach y otras muchas historias de resistencia que aunque no siempre conservaron el espacio sirven de semilla o inspiración para todxs.
Quieren encarcelar a 6 personas por delitos que fue el gobierno Franquista quien los cometió, usurpando las casas y tierras a su legítimos dueños y cambiando la ordenación territorial que tuvo durante más de 5 siglos. Encarcelarles como especuladores inmobiliarios, irónico cuando corruptos y especuladores están en las cortes.
A todas las personas que habeis venido alguna vez, o si no habeis venido nunca y quereis verlo vivo es el momento de venir a defenderlo, si esperas quizás sea demasiado tarde. Ahora o nunca. Un abrazo a toda la peña viva la autogestion.
Aún no hay fecha, pero los repobladores de Fraguas temen que no queden muchos días hasta que lleguen las máquinas que demolerán las casas reconstruidas de este pueblo de Guadalajara. Por ello, han hecho un llamamiento para defender este pueblo recuperado.
“Parece que va a ser prácticamente ya”, señala a El Salto Lalo Aracil, uno de los repobladores de Fraguas condenados por reconstruir este pueblo. “Están haciendo cortafuegos alrededor del pueblo, cuando no es fecha para ello, y también vino la Guardia Civil con peritos y estuvieron viendo las casas, incluso las que estaban fuera de la sentencia”, continúa. “Nos van a notificar dentro de nada, cuando ellos quieran. Y no sabemos qué plazo nos dará la notificación, algunos nos dicen que seguramente nos darán 24 horas, para que no estemos preparados”.
Ante una demolición que se prevé inminente, los pobladores de Fraguas han pedido apoyo a diversos colectivos, “para ver estrategias de defensa claras”, apunta Aracil. “Queremos que venga gente todo el rato, el llamamiento es continuo, para hacer unas jornadas indefinidas de resistencia, que se reúna masa de gente suficiente para poder detener a la policía”, continúa.
Por lo pronto, ya son entre 60 y 70 las personas que han acudido a acampar o a proteger las construcciones de Fraguas. También cuenta con el apoyo de otros pueblos recuperados de Pirineos y Navarra, desde donde se van a fletar camiones con materiales. Y de El Calabacino, otro pueblo neorrural de Huelva.
“Están intentando hacer grupos de permanencia de colectivos rurales para tener aquí un grupo de gente que se mantenga de forma fija, poder hacer cuadrantes y mantener a un mínimo de personas de continuo que aguantes hasta que se dé una alerta y dé tiempo a que gente de otros puntos del Estado pueda venir a ayudarnos también”, señala Aracil. La convocatoria ha ido más allá de España, contestando también gente del ZAD y del bosque de Hambach.
Condenados a pagar la demolición
Han pasado ya cerca de seis años desde que una docena de jóvenes decidieron ir a Fraguas, un pueblo que dejó de existir cuando, en los años 60, Franco ordenó su demolición para replantar pinos. Después se convirtió en zona de prácticas militares. Desde ese año 2013, los repobladores de Fraguas reconstruyeron tres de las casas del pueblo.
Todo fue bien hasta que la Consejería de Ordenación de Territorio, Urbanismo y Medio Ambiente les denunció por delitos contra el territorio y usurpación. En junio del año, seis de los repobladores de Fraguas pasado fueron condenados por el Juzgado de lo Penal número 1 de Guadalajara.
En enero, la Audiencia Provincial confirmó la condena de un año y nueve meses de cárcel para cada uno de ellos, además del pago de multas que suman los 16.380 euros y, también al pago de la demolición, cuyo coste, en la primera tasación, ascendía a 26.600 euros.
“La condena quedó en que, si no pagábamos la demolición, entrábamos a la cárcel dos años y tres meses, recurrimos al [Tribunal] Constitucional, porque consideramos que nuestros derechos de defensa habían sido vulnerados, y rechazaron el recurso porque dicen que no tenían relevancia constitucional suficiente”, explica Aracil.
Aunque sí se plantean pagar los 16.000 euros de multa, Aracil confirma que no tienen ninguna intención de pagar la demolición: “No tenemos dinero, y es que no creemos que haya que demoler el pueblo por segunda vez, solo hemos reparado unas casas que ya estaban aquí”.
En los próximos días señalan que se hará una segunda tasación de la demolición de Fraguas, y, con la nueva suma, tienen previsto acudir al juzgado para pedir una moratoria de la ejecución de la condena por cinco años. También siguen a la espera de la contestación de un recurso que presentaron para suspender las penas de prisión, y de una reunión con la Consejería de Ordenación de Territorio.
“Llevan dándonos largas desde abril”. En ese mes, desde la Consejería les dijeron que si conseguían crear un marco legal al proyecto de Fraguas, la institución castellano-manchega lo firmaría. “Ayer fuimos al registro para pedir una reunión de máxima urgencia, pero todavía no nos han contestado”, concluye Aracil.
Escribimos estas líneas desde Fraguas, un pueblo okupado y rehabilitado en la Sierra Norte de Guadalajara. Pueblo que hace 6 años no eran más que ruinas y que mediante el trabajo y la ilusión de cientos de personas que han apoyado este proyecto autogestionado, asambleario sin jerarquías, con el principio de sustentabilidad con el medio natural que lo rodea, aprendiendo día a día a sostenernos cada vez menos atadxs al sistema capitalista, cuidando la tierra y recogiendo sus frutos, sin dañarla y aprendiendo a vivir en ella, ya que desde que nacimos sólo fuimos enseñadxs a explotarla. Practicando una existencia coleciva y no cayendo en el individualismo competitivo que promueve el modelo productivo capitalista. Rehabilitando con los materiales que nos da la tierra, las ruinas que mediante la expropiación fraudulenta en un primer momento dejó el estado franquista en el 68, expulsando para siempre a sus antiguos habitantes por un puñado de pesetas y para ser condenadxs a una vida de trabajo asalariado en la mayoría de los casos; y más tarde las prácticas militares que se llevaron a cabo en los 90.
Ahora mismo una sentencia dicta que “para restablecer el equilibrio” debemos pagar la demolición de las reconstrucciones realizadas y condena a más de dos años de prisión a 6 personas. La Junta de Castilla la Mancha (Podemos en coalición con el PSOE en la anterior legislatura y el PSOE con mayoría absoluta desde mayo) encubre así las atrocidades realizadas en el franquismo. Pretenden dejar en ruinas el pueblo una vez más, expulsando a sus habitantes y dejándolo en el olvido.
El Estado reprime cualquier intento de atacar o plantear alternativas a su dogma mercantilista. Proyectos autogestionarios y horizontales como este, que escapan a su lógica de consumo, están en su punto de mira. En esta lógica de dominio y control atacan Fraguas, al igual que han atacado y seguirán atacando cualquier iniciativa que se les oponga.
No podemos permitir que logren sus objetivos y nos aplasten sin más, tenemos que defender nuestros espacios liberados. Apoyándonos entre todxs tenemos más fuerza y entre todxs lo conseguiremos. Con toda la humildad queremos invocar el espíritu de otras luchas como las de Sasé, las Zad, Hambach, Errekaleor y otras muchas historias de resistencia, que sirven de semilla o inspiración para todxs.
Actualmente no hay una fecha concreta de desalojo pero este podría ser inminente y no lo vamos a permitir. Confluyendo distintos tipos de estrategias pero con la firme convicción de que aquí nos vamos a quedar y continuar experimentando formas de vivir al margen de la autoridad y el control.
Convocamos unas jornadas indefinidas de resistencia en el pueblo de Fraguas.
The water protectors attached themselves with lock boxes to machinery in a non violent direct action that stopped construction of power lines being built for Line 3. While the lockdown was occurring, @ResistLine3, a twitter account that describes itself as, “Direct action to stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. #StopLine3″,shared copies of the permit applications of the construction project shut down by the water protectors direct action.
Resist Line 3@ResistLine3
Application for permit from Great River Energy to build a transition line to power @Enbridge Line 3 pump station. Work on this site has been shut down for over 4 hours! #StopLine3
See Resist Line 3’s other Tweets
The language in the permits states that the the power lines are for Enbridge’s proposed project that’s part of a replacement project.
“115 kilovolt transmission line that is needed to provide electric power to a new petroleum pump station being proposed by Enbridge Energy. The Enbridge pump station is part of a pipeline replacement project.“
That proposed pump-station is intended to be attached to the new tar sands Line 3 pipeline that as of Monday morning is no longer approved in Minnesota.
While water protectors took action to shut down Line 3 construction, the paper war continued in the state as the Minnesota Court of Appeals agreed with a coalition of tribes, indigenous rights groups and environmental groups with an opinion which stated,
“We agree that the FEIS [Final Environmental Impact Statement] is inadequate because it does not address the potential impact of an oil spill into the Lake Superior watershed. Accordingly, we reverse the commission’s adequacy determination and remand for further proceedings consistent with this decision.“
Enbridge stated their disappointment in a post on their website but also pointed out that the court had sided with them on eight of the nine disputes. Enbridge ended their response post by saying,
“We are in the process of a detailed analysis of the court’s decision and will consult with the MPUC and other state agencies about next steps.“
The courts decision wouldn’t have stopped the construction the three water protectors took direct action to stop.
A press release from the Ginew collective which describes itself as a, “a grassroots, frontlines effort led by indigenous women to protect Anishinaabe territory from the destruction of Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands project,” gave statements on why the three water protectors took action.
Frances Weatherall stated,
“Enbridge pretends to follow the process while it is busy bulldozing through our forests and wetlands,”
Frances’ sister, Mollie Weatherall, locked to same machine said,
“This is a years-long plan to send more dirty tar sands through Minnesota, don’t be fooled into thinking they won’t destroy as much as they can while they wait for their final state permits,”
Jonas, the third person who took direct action stated,
“This is a step towards decolonization, Enbridge is carving up the planet and our government doesn’t care. Today it’s my turn to put my body between the planet I want to protect and the attacks against our water, our climate, and Native sovereignty.”
The water protectors who shut down the construction site prepping ground were arrested and released from jail June 4, 2019. A bail fund was organized to support the water protectors with legal fees.
They’re free!! These are the three water protectors who stood up for the planet yesterday by locking themselves to machinery to stop its operation in building line 3. We are so thankful that they are out of jail and back with their friends and comrades. However they still will have legal and court costs in the coming weeks. Please donate to their legal support fund here paypal.me/nfldal3 .
The Ginew collective’s statement also pointed out that this ongoing construction continues despite Enbridge not having water crossing permits,
“Minnesota has not issued the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) or DNR permits required for Line 3 construction across wetlands or water crossings. Minnesota announced the 401 water quality certification process will not be complete until fall 2019.“
These actions and decisions are just the latest in a ongoing resistance in Minnesota against Enbridge’s tar sands oil project. This latest direct action, comes on the heels of years of multifaceted resistance in court rooms and in the forests of Minnesota to #StopLine3.
Fraguas Resiste
The Free 