Oil

I haven't had much time to keep up with blogging... I spent almost a week in Oklahoma, camping near Ponca City with the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance Camp - no electricity in my tent (although one tent did have a windmill and solar panels - I kid you not!).  Although the action that we were training for all week didn't come off as planned, the overall experience came together as one of the most valuable I've had so far in a totally unexpected way.

Marine toxicologist, Riki Ott explains how local communities can protect the health of their citizens by banning harmful chemicals.   A part of the "Making it Right for Real: Working together to Ban Dispersants and Make Democracy Work!" event on Feb 23rd.

http://www.rikiott.com
http://www.ultimatecivics.org

update: May 2 2013
Fracking Ban Stands in New York Town; Victory for Local Communities

Marine toxicologist, Riki Ott explains the FAQs about Corexit and other oil dispersants in regard to their use in oil spill clean up and the associated health risks to humans, animal and plants.  A part of the "Making it Right for Real: Working together to Ban Dispersants and Make Democracy Work!" event on Feb 23rd.

http://www.rikiott.com
http://www.ultimatecivics.org

breaking! breaking!

evan vokes, a whistle blower, who was also an engineer at transCanada, has the National Energy Board of canada up transCanada's arse!

vokes tried every approach he could through the company's chain of command, using transCanada protocol. he climbed all the way up the ladder wagging his precautionary tail, all the way to ceo russ girling's office, and after having his concerns for safety in regards to his company's pipelines being brushed off by the company he worked for, and being severly distressed at their ambivalence, he went on "stress" leave in november of 2011. vokes took his leave for health related issues in regards to his concern for what he had witnessed first hand on the job. by the end of march, he finally met with canada's National Energy Board, to discuss the list of infractions and concerns, he had in regards to transCanada's practices on their pipelines, and on may 1st, voke's filed the official papework as a complainant with the NEB. on may 8th, vokes was relieved of his position as an engineer for transCanada, when he was summarily fired. this and worse is often the fate of those who have the strength to step forward into the role of truthsayer. 

I arrived in East Texas September 29^th, 2012. Drove into a small Eastern Texas Town, where the houses pushed back from the yards sprinkled with drought dried grass. I came to cover a story about some folks who built a wall against the KXL pipeline.  A pipeline cutting a swath across the belly of the United States like some deep burnt scar. It's tube to be filled with Tar Sands Bitumen.

I learned about the Alberta Tar Sand where the bitumen was being shipped from years ago at a workshop at an enviromental conference called Powershift. Indigenous folks told stories of machines that dug up around their communities pressing the sand into some sort of high pressure goop that's pushed through the pipes like a super heated laser. Turning the top soil into a dead scar.

"Police officers" climb the tree blockade timber scaffolding on a ladder and refuse to identify themselves. They climbed up to just chat?!

Call Wood County Sheriff Department NOW 903-763-2201

This is the second video subMedia.tv has produced about the struggle to stop the a natural gas transport project called the Pacific Trails Pipeline or PTP. The Unis'tot'en, a clan of the Wet'suet'en Nation have built a protection camp to bock PTP, in so called British Columbia in Canada. This is the third time the Unis'tot'en have called for a convergence in their territories. This year's camp attracted over 150 people who came from as far east as Montreal and as far south as Florida. The camp organizers opted not to tap large environmental ngo's for material support, and instead reached out to grassroots, community based allies. Out of the proposed pipeline projects that would cross through Unis'tot'en land, Pacific Trails is the first one slated to begin construction and poses and immediate threat.

In the new book “Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power,” Steve Coll http://newamerica.net/user/3 investigates the notoriously secretive ExxonMobil Corporation. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the U.S. embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.

Coll is the president of the New America Foundation, http://newamerica.net/ a nonpartisan public policy institute headquartered in Washington, and a staff writer for The New Yorker. He worked for 20 years at The Washington Post, where he received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1990. He is the author of six other books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ghost Wars.”

Coll discussed the book in two recent interviews on Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/4/private_empire_author_steve_coll_on http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/7/exxonmobils_dirty_secrets_from_indonesia_to

Location: BookPeople,  603 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX Date: 5/29/12

A ZGraphix Production.
Produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala.
http://zgraphix.org

Worldwidehippies – Welcome to CITIZEN DISPATCH.

News and Commentary from Citizen Journalist around the globe.

This Edition; Larry Wessel – Documentary Film,Video Producer USA

MEDIA FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE – TAKE YOUR EYES, EARS AND CELL PHONE CAMERAS OUT INTO YOUR PART OF THE GLOBE – DOCUMENT, COMMENT AND REPORT – CONTACT joe@worldwidehippies.com We’ll take it from there.

12,000 people surround the White House demanding a STOP to TransCanada?s destructive Keystone XL Pipeline mega project. The wide array of indigenous leaders, labor organizers, environmentalists, young people, religious community and activists listened to speakers such as Naomi Klein before linking arms around Obama's home in a symbolic gesture of resistance and unity. After there was a breakaway march through Occupy DC.

Netroots Nation panel on Dirty Energy pt 2
Netroots Nation Panel on Dirty Energy includes: Bruce Baizel of Earth Works Michele Boyd of Physicians for Social Responsibility Tim DeChristopher of Peaceful Uprising Mary Anne Hilt of Sierra Club From: ThePunkPatriot Views: 31 2 ratings Time: 10:53 More in News & Politics

Netroots Nation panel on Dirty Energy pt 1
Netroots Nation Panel on Dirty Energy includes: Bruce Baizel of Earth Works Michele Boyd of Physicians for Social Responsibility Tim DeChristopher of Peaceful Uprising Mary Anne Hilt of Sierra Club From: ThePunkPatriot Views: 76 6 ratings Time: 10:58 More in News & Politics

Part 4 covers the use us corexit, the health of Gulf Seafood and those who live there. It attempts to demonstrate what those in disasters path have learned over the years. ~ download

full movie HERE

4:20 trailer HERE

Part 3 covers the the beginnings of the BP Oil Disaster, showing the effects on the residence of the gulf and their learning curve involved with dealing with this disaster. Kindra Arnesen emerges as a force to be reckoned with in the Venice, LA area.

Part 4 covers the use us corexit, the health of Gulf Seafood and those who live there. It attempts to demonstrate what those in disasters path have learned over the years.

Kindra's Window ~ 0fficial Trailer
Watch the full Film @ fluxview.com Gulf Coast Disasters, long removed from the news cycle, are eating away at the livelihoods and patriotism of those left behind to deal with the front lines of the environmental and economic terrorism that is the legacy of our government. This film follows the lives of Kindra Arnesen and family from Hurricane Katrina through the BP Oil Disaster from their perspective in Venice Louisianan; first land fall of Katrina and closest populated land mass to the Deep Water Horizon site. The disaster is ongoing. This trailer is 4:20 long and was released on 4/20/11 From: FluxRostrum Views: 1651 21 ratings Time: 04:20 More in Entertainment

Gulf Coast Disasters, long removed from the news cycle, are eating away at the livelihoods and patriotism of those left behind to deal with the front lines of the environmental and economic terrorism that is the legacy of our government. part 2 focuses on the rebuilding the community after Hurricane Katrina. Kindra's Window (rough cut) perspective on gulf coast disaster premiers April 19th @ N.O.Space

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1021847509#!/event.php?eid=115752055171901