Help us protect the Arctic | Greenpeace International

Help us protect the Arctic | Greenpeace International.

Help us protect the Arctic

Stand off between the drill ship Leiv Eiriksson and the Greenpeace ship Esperanza

Drilling in the Arctic is reckless, dangerous – and unnecessary at a time when an energy revolution has been proved possible. The British foreign office believes any oil spill in Arctic waters would be impossible to deal with.

Yet Cairn Energy is going to drill off the coast of Greenland – without making its oil spill response plan public. Experience has shown that we cannot trust oil companies on their word when they say they have it all covered. Cairn is saying that they managed to create a plan that most experts in the world say is impossible to pull off.

Cairn is gambling with the pristine wilderness of the Arctic. We demand that they show their hand.

Write to Cairn Energy’s CEO today to demand to see their Greenland oil spill response plan.

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Brazil: LAST STAND FOR THE XINGU

Amazon Watch has organized a “Cause” at Facebook:

“This has been a time of tragedy in the Amazon. This week the Brazilian government green-lighted construction on the monstrous Belo Monte Dam despite searing local, national and international opposition.

Yet despite the initiation of this criminal operation, I can assure you that the battle to defend the Xingu River and its people is far from over. “I have just returned from the Brazilian Amazon, where Chief Raoni gathered with hundreds of Kayapo warriors, indigenous leaders from 18 ethnicities, and leaders from the Xingu Alive Forever Movement (MXVPS).

“This is the last chance we have to paralyze Belo Monte’s construction,” Renata Pinheiro told the indigenous assembly. “The future of the Xingu is in your hands, indigenous peoples and social movements. You succeeded in stopping Belo Monte for 30 years – now more than ever we need to strengthen our resolve, joining forces to stop the beginning of construction.”

“It’s now more important than ever that we take this campaign to the next level. “Take a stand, stop this monstrous project by joining the Cause on Facebook “Stop the Monster Dam: Protect the Xingu River and its People”.

Your donation today will support the travel of indigenous leaders to Brasilia and Altamira to make their voices heard.” Xingu Alive Forever! Xingu Vivo Para Sempre! Please join the cause. Also, please note that the avaaz.org petition is still active. If you have not signed it you can do it now here. Posted by Lou Gold at 4:22 PM

Peru: Gold rush destroys 6 times more forest.

The greedy capitalists who caused the last economic crash then put their cash in gold. Causing the price to soar to crazy levels and triggering new gold rushes, with tragic consequences for the miners and the environment.

The rising price of gold has multiplied by six the pace of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios in recent years. Swenson said. “Given the rate of recent increases, we project mercury imports will more than double by the end of 2011, to about 500 tons a year,” she said.

The highly poisonous metal is used by poor gold-diggers to wash gold off rock and sand. It is not only harmful to the health of those who handle it, but it also pollutes the region’s rivers and air. Mercury also gets into the food chain and harms local indigenous communities and even those that live further away.

Once the gold searchers are done, they leave behind a desert landscape that is poisoned by mercury. Peruvian Environment Minister Antonio Brack said gold-diggers have already destroyed 32,000 hectares of rainforest in Madre de Dios. In March, a large joint operation by police and the military targeted tens of thousands of gold searchers, and 32 floating dredges were seized, Brack said. The minister said he was sorry about the death of two prospectors during the raid, although he stressed that the use of force had been justified in the face of an “environmental tragedy.” However, the problem is far from solved. Police assume that at least 250 floating dredges are in use in the region. According to Brack, it will take at least five years to get those searching for gold to leave. And yet poverty in Peru continues to push more and more people into searching for gold, as well as into other equally illegal activities like logging or settling in the rainforest.

There are other factors at work. Climate change in the Andes is already affecting small farming communities, forcing them to adapt or move elsewhere.

The near completion of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, which cuts a swathe straight through this once inaccessible part of the Peruvian Amazon, will lead to migration on an unprecedented scale.

The road, which will link Pacific ports in southern Peru to the Atlantic coast in Brazil, could well become the greatest factor in the environmental degradation of this once pristine pocket of biodiversity.

Final go ahead for Belo Monte. Amazon Tragedy.

Brazil Green Lights Controversial Amazon Dam

June 1, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IBAMA authorizes installation of Belo Monte Dam Complex despite escalating local, national and international opposition

Brasília, Brazil – The Brazilian government has issued the full installation license allowing the Belo Monte Dam Complex to break ground on the Amazon’s Xingu River despite egregious disregard for human rights and environmental legislation, the unwavering protests of civil society, condemnations by its Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) and the request for precautionary measures by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The license was granted by Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA despite overwhelming evidence that the dam-building consortium Norte Energia (NESA) has failed to comply with dozens of social and environmental conditions required for an installation license.

The risky $17 billion Belo Monte Dam Complex will divert nearly the entire flow of the Xingu River along a 62-mile stretch. Its reservoirs will flood more than 120,000 acres of rainforest and local settlements, displace more than 40,000 people and generate vast quantities of methane – a greenhouse gas at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The installation license will allow for NESA to open access roads, initiate forest clearing at dam construction sites encompassing some 2,118 acres, and begin construction on the complex immediately. It also instigates publically subsidized funding from Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) to finance 80 percent of the project’s spiraling costs. The bank has come under increasing scrutiny from the Public Prosecutor’s office and civil society due to alarming evidence that approval is based on political grounds, often downplaying problems of economic viability and compliance with social and environmental safeguards.

“This is a tragic day for the Amazon,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director at Amazon Watch. “By turning a blind eye toward the tragic consequences of this dam, President Dilma Rouseff is undermining the positive environmental and social advances Brazil has made in recent years and miring its image on the global stage just as it prepares to host the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit next year.”

Hybrid human animals..Chimeras tomorrow..

Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy

Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that’s part human, part animal.

Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.

In Minnesota last year researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies.

And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains.

Scientists feel that, the more humanlike the animal, the better research model it makes for testing drugs or possibly growing “spare parts,” such as livers, to transplant into humans.

Watching how human cells mature and interact in a living creature may also lead to the discoveries of new medical treatments.

But creating human-animal chimeras—named after a monster in Greek mythology that had a lion’s head, goat’s body, and serpent’s tail—has raised troubling questions, this is even worse than experimenting on normal animals: What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human and have human rights?

There are currently no U.S. federal laws that address these issues.

http://first-news.blogspot.com/2011_01_28_archive.html

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Ireland: Workers Solidarity #121 now online

After a quiet start to the year, political activity for the WSM picked up on a number of fronts in March and April. We were involved (as part of the 1% Network) in organising street theatre at the Central Bank in Dublin, aiming to highlight the fact that, no matter who is government, the same wealthy elite is still in power (see http://www.wsm.ie/c/kenny-gilmore-puppets-string-wealthy).

Also in Dublin, we supported pickets at the “Courts of Justice” in support of Gerard McDonnell, who is facing charges in relation to a “floating picket” carried out during the protracted strike at MTL in Dublin docks in 2009 (see http://www.wsm.ie/c/protest-courts-justice-mtl-striker). Our members attended the Feminist Walking Tour, organised by Choice Ireland, on International Womens Day (http://www.wsm.ie/c/dub-feminist-walking-tour-2011). We were also present at the Dail protest following the garda rape threat to female Shell to Sea activists in Mayo.

Down South, our Cork branch remains busy running a series of activities in our “Solidarity Books” venue. As well as film nights, board game evenings and the weekly vegan café, they are hosting “Spring Talks” fortnightly through April and May covering topics such as child welfare and class, the role of women in farmers rights, abortion in Ireland and Cork Labour in the 1916 – 1922 period. Check out the Solidarity Books facebook page for more details. Elsewhere, our members were involved in organising activities for International Womens Day, including a meal, films and talks held in Douglas St. The branch continues its involvement in Cork United Against the Cuts’ and Social Welfare Defenders’ attempts to resist austerity measures.

Outside the urban centres, protests continued in Mayo against Shells recommencement of work following the signing of the foreshore licences required by Pat Carey in the dying days of the last government. The WSM has had a presence there during two weekends of Shell to Sea (http://www.shelltosea.com/) actions carried out against Shell during April. There is a comprehensive resource of articles at http://www.wsm.ie/rossport examining all aspects of the struggle.

As per the article elsewhere in this issue, we are now busy preparing for the 2011 Anarchist Bookfair. Hopefully, the range of talks and the sharing of experiences of anarchists from outside Ireland will prove the catalyst for renewed efforts by us to both promote the anarchist message and get involved in the struggles that lie ahead. If you would like to share in this, please get in touch!

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20110530003007378

PDF of Workers Solidarity 121 Web Edition 3.73 Mb

Anonymous: peering behind the mask

Are members of the ‘hacktivist group’ Anonymous defenders of truth and seekers of knowledge, or simply a bunch of cyber terrorists? Jana Herwig investigates

Researcher Jana Herwig dons the mask of Anonymous

When Anonymous first made big headlines in early 2008 with its protests against the Church of Scientology, dubbed Project Chanology, it was not yet apparent that Anonymous would be here to stay.

Three years later, Anonymous has not only gained a sizeable collection of adversaries and critics – including government agencies, IT security companies and digital rights advocacies who criticise its methods – it has also won scores of secret and not so secret admirers, especially among the highly social media literate, digital creative class.

The reputation of its members as defenders of truth and seekers of knowledge, digital avengers who cannot be lied to because they will hijack the emails of those who try, seems to strike a chord with many.

What has remained unclear is just who or what Anonymous is.