O.R.C. » World

News From The Old World

Ant — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:53:10 +0000

The EU has determined to ban seal products from Canada.
A nuclear power plant was blockaded for a third time.
A man super-glued himself to the prime minister in protest of proposed airport expansion.

Swedish ALF burns wildlife slaughterhouse before it opens

Ant — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:14:02 +0000

We certainly don’t want to come off as biased towards arson as a tactic, but these things are certainly some of the most news-worthy. On the night of the 4th of July, while American’s celebrated aimlessly with fireworks, the Swedish ALF (called “Djurens Befrielsefront”) lit fire to a slaughterhouse in Lövudden, Sweden. The slaughterhouse, set to open September 1st, was meant to slaughter elk, moose, and other wildlife, but the fire was not covered by the insurance and the owned has stated that it is unlikely to be rebuilt.

Sunday to Sunday #2 – April 20-27, 2008

Ant — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:21:27 +0000

Well, Canada has refused to call polar bears “endangered”, while more evidence emerges about how screwed they are by climate change, and it looks like artic ice is melting even faster than expected. The magic global-warming quick-fix atmospheric sulphur-injection plan has will probably make everything worse by furthering ozone depletion, surprise surprise. Honey bees continue to disappear, and the pathogen behind sudden oak death syndrome is evolving and spreading up the western coast of North America. The US will be building dozens of coal power plants right next to national parks, and every liberal’s darling, the EU, will be building over 50 new coal plants. In slightly better news, the national park service has announced that they’ll be funding a bunch of new projects, mostly focused on maintaining the parks. We cynics at O.R.C. can’t help but suspect that this will somehow be used as an excuse for more logging roads and crap like that. And what’s that? It looks like Bush’s spotted owl plan means more logging! In fact, close to 900 scientists with the EPA reported political influence on their work from industry and government. Another “green” product has been debunked: Palm Oil is the major cause of deforestation in Indonesia. 17-year-old accused arsonist Michael Sykes (background of his story here) got his charges reduced and is now facing 10 years in prison. (His address for letters of support can be found here). Mohawks have set up barricades in Ontario to protest development, and Sioux tribal members in South Dakota have set up blockades to protest against the construction of a hog farm. Salmon-lovers are proposing to reintroduce salmon to the Upper Klamath Basin in Oregon. The Arizona legislature is considering withdrawing funds from state schools that teach anything that is deemed un-american and is contrary to capitalism, democracy, etc. (as well as banning minority-group student groups) by way of bill SB 1108. It looks like the government might finally have admitted that right-wing extremists are more dangerous than “eco-terrorists, although we’ll have to see if their level of infiltration agrees. To end on a positive note, a crocodile killed an illegal mangrove logger in Myanmar (often called Burma).

New Zealand Vandals Strike Against Development

Ant — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:33:04 +0000

Reposted from Bombs & Shields
Palmerston North, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand – Vandals stalled construction in the Manawatu River watershed by torching a $750,000 drilling machine. Multimillion-dollar construction projects have have sparked heated battles between current residents, environmental advocates and developers. While above ground eco-groups attempt to slog out compromises in the courts, clandestine saboteurs have been costing the construction industry millions in additional expenses each year. According to Malcolm Abernethy, a technical adviser with the Contractors’ Federation, small acts of arson and vandalism are a serious threat to industrial progress. “Every night something probably happens, but it’s not always reported.”

The burned machinery was owned by Blackley Construction and was the only one of its kind in the country. Blackley Construction operations manager Kevin Bush said the drill was an integral piece of equipment and the incident would probably trigger a change in the company’s protocols. Additional expenses would likely include increased security transporting valuable heavy equipment back and forth from job sites twice a day. “We get hit about once a month I’d say. Not this big, but generally something will be targeted,” Mr Bush said.

Similar acts of vandalism and sabotage in the U.S. are seen as deadly, serious acts of terrorism. Federal law enforcement has made the disruption and apprehension of underground eco-groups like the Earth Liberation Front a greater priority than right-wing groups with a history of indiscriminate bombings, lynchings and assassinations. Environmentally motivated vandalism, while it has yet to have even injured a single person, was ranked by the FBI as “the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat” in 2005. The Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and anti-abortion fanatics were bafflingly not ranked as serious threats. Eco-saboteurs have as of yet not injured a single person, while Christian anti-abortion terrorists have murdered nearly a dozen people and maimed more than 100 in the U.S. alone. Environmentalists who are apprehended routinely face lifelong prison sentences for their actions.

Sunday to Sunday #1 – April 14-20, 2008

Ant — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:57:00 +0000

As the oceans continue to rise (1.5 meters by 2100) and desalinate, US President Bush pretended for a moment to care about global warming, although of course only if it didn’t affect the US economy. While illegal fishing is decimating the arctic, Canada arrested two sea shepherd activists for interfering with seal-clubbing. The USA’s Department of the Interior continues to procrastinate on listing polar bears as an endangered species, while the EPA has basically given up pretending that it will rule on whether or not CO2 is a pollutant or not, despite being ordered to by the supreme court a year ago. Everyone is freaking out as they finally realize that drinking from plastic Nalgene bottles isn’t actually a very good idea: they contain Bisphenol A (BPA), which is about to be designated as toxic by Canada. Of course, Nalgene says that there is nothing wrong with BPA, but will stop using it anyway. Nalgene is owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a maker of laboratory restraints used by animal testers. Despite the fact that there’s enough food to feed the world (kept wasted by capitalism and agricultural subsidies), more countries are buying GMO crops because of the current food crisis. Speaking of frankenfoods, PETA, proving once again that it has nothing to do with anything good, has offered $1 million to whomever can grow test-tube flesh for us to eat.

Biofuels a Grave Environmental Threat

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:30:10 +0000

While the progressives of the world are jumping on the corn-oil fueled bandwagon, many of the horrendous pitfalls of biofuel manufacture are coming to light. A recent study published by the University of Minnesota reports that “..converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a ‘biofuel carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels.”

What’s more, the UN reports that it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol, enough to feed a child for a year. In today’s unfortunately globalized economy, many natural-resource rich countries (identified as “3rd world”) are set up to import the majority of their food, and as the food-producing countries shift their agriculture to produce oil instead of food, riots are erupting across the globe. 60 million people face eviction to make room for biofuel farming across the globe.

Once more, we are discovering that there are hidden costs in alternative fuel sources, that the industrial infrastructure that has been set up cannot be maintained in a sustainable manner.

Japan Kills 60% of the Whales It Hoped To

admin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:00:59 +0000

The BBC and Reuters are reporting that Japan succeeded in only catching 551 minke whales out of the 850 it had hoped to, and 0 of the 50 fin whales it had desired.

These lessened numbers are the direct result of the actions of direct action protestors The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who boarded vehicles, threw foul-smelling liquid, and generally harassed the Japanese whalers for months. Self-touting Greenpeace, on the other hand, were on hand to document the hunt and claim dissapointment that whales were caught at all; yet the liberal group refused to share information on whaler’s locations with the direct-action oriented Sea Shepherd.

Japan is, of course, calling the protestors terrorists.

Japan has signed onto the 1986 moratorium on whaling for food, but continues to kill [and eat] large numbers of whales for “scientific research” purposes.

LNG Tugboat Hijacked by Armed Environmentalists

admin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:18:02 +0000

“We are the gentlemen who work in the ocean … since the [Somali] civil war began the ocean has been our Mother.”

These are the words of the anonymous spokesperson of the Ocean Salvation Corps, a group of seafaring Somalians who refuse the label of pirate.

On Feb. 1st, the Gentlemen hijacked the Svitzer Korsakov, a tugboat on its way to break ice at Sakhalin II, a controversial natural gas project off the coast of Russia that threatens, among a great number of species and habitats, the critically endangered Western Pacific Gray Whale. They held the ship until March 18th, whereupon they released the ship and crew unharmed after receiving $700,000 as ransom.

The international media was quick to label the attack as just another strike by profiteering pirates. Since 1991, when a civil war broke out and deposed the totalitarian military rule of General Siad Barre, the 1,880 miles of Somalia’s coast have been considered a haven for piracy. Often, these pirates will claim to have the authority of one or another warlord and will hold foreign ships hostage until ransom is paid.

These men bloodlessly captured the Svitzer Korsakov in the Gulf of Aden and took the six members of its crew—including four Russian nationals, one Irish national and one British national—hostage, but they initially refused to ask ransom, claiming their intention to bring the seized vessels before justice. They had also taken control of an Omani fishing vessel. They explained themselves in an interview with Radio Garowe:

“I have contacted you after hearing reports through international media that pirates hijacked a ship after it left the port of Bossaso,” the anonymous spokesperson said. “The ships we now control have the equipment which destroyed the Indian Ocean.”

The man said that the Svitzer Korsakov was “part of the environmental destruction” and that the Omani fishing vessel had “more than 70,000 tons of fish species onboard.” He went on to say that they promised to safeguard any journalist who would like to confirm their reports first hand.

No reporter did so, of course.

The spokesperson also told the radio station that although “it has been the tradition to take ransom payment, [...] we will bring these ships in front of the law.”

The hostages where unharmed during their ordeal.

It is interesting to note that since Somalia’s government has collapsed, small “fiefdom” governments have been selling licenses to allow foreign ships to overfish to a remarkable degree, resulting in further poverty for many Somalians and a increasing environmental disaster in the waters. The Svitzer was not innocent either:

The Svitzer Korsakov is a tug vessel owned by Svitzer, a Danish company. Svitzer’s parent company is Moller-Maersk, a massive energy and shipping corporation based out of Copenhagen. The boat was built in St. Petersburg and was on its maiden voyage to Sakhalin when it was captured. The Russian built, Danish owned, internationally staffed vessel was flying the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a flag of convenience that allows Svitzer to avoid taxation, labor laws and safety regulations.

On Feb. 5th, Omar Shafdero was arrested for his alleged connection to the hijackers. Omar, an employee of the Puntland Ministry of Finance—Puntland being a semi-autonomous region of Somalia—escaped jail a short time later under mysterious circumstances.

NATO was contacted and the US Navy responded. They tracked the hijackers to Eyl, a small coastal town in Puntland. On Feb. 11th, they fired upon a number of local boats under the presumption that they might be aiding the Ocean Preservation Corps. The US Navy also fired three missiles into the town, destroying the airstrip, but no casualties were reported.

On Feb. 13th, a Puntland police force raided the town and exchanged fire with gunmen thought to be re-supplying the hijackers. One police officer was injured and one unarmed civilian was killed.

By the next day, many families evacuated the town, unable to fish for fear of the US Navy, unable to stay on the mainland for fear of further violence.

The Navy continued to blockade the hijackers until March 18th, when a ransom of $700,000 was paid for the Svitzer’s release.

Whether through intention or happenstance (and there seems little reason to doubt their intelligence), the Ocean Salvation Corps struck a very controversial target. Sakhalin Island, the Svitzer Korsakov’s destination, is home to an expansive, expensive and destructive gas and oil project: Sakhalin II.

The existing resource extraction infrastructure on Sakhalin—an island off the coast of Siberia and immediately north of Japan—has already been in the habit of dumping millions of tons of waste into the island’s Aniva Bay. But the new project, estimated to provide 8% of the world’s LNG needs, will be significantly more destructive when fully operational. Over 500 miles of LNG pipeline will be run from one end of the island to the other, crossing through dense coniferous forests and over 1000 waterways. Over 100 miles will be run underwater, impeding on the only known feeding ground of the Western Pacific Gray Whale—of which there are estimated to be less than 100 individuals left. It will also impact at least 10 other endangered species, as well as destroying much of the local fishing and reindeer herding economy.

Also of interest is the area’s high level of tectonic activity, with a Richter 6 quake in 2000 and in 1995 a 7.6 Richter quake killed over 2000 on the island.

Sakhalin II is a project run by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, Ltd., a consortium led by Gazprom, a Russian government owned business. The other leading investors are Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui.

Already, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a prospective financer, has withdrawn support after citing the absurd level of ecological devastation that the project will cause. Banks operating under the Equator Principles—a set of guidelines for global development financing—have refused funding as well.

So far, at least three Japanese businesses are set to receive LNG from Sakhalin: Tokyo Gas, Tokyo Electric Power Company and Kyushu Electric Power Company. Korea and the USA are also set to receive LNG from Sakhalin. Russians, however, will be unable to afford the energy, as the prices have been set at the international level, rather than the Russian level.

Fortunately, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources has put a least a temporary halt on the project, citing incomplete documentation of the environmental impacts.