tarsands

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

Click to view Slide Shows

US sees ‘biggest-ever’ climate protest over Keystone XL pipeline
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Washington, DC, on Sunday to protest the controversial Keystone XL project, which would see an oil pipeline run across the US Midwest.

­The march’s organizers, environmental movement 350.org, estimated that 40,000 people from 30 states took part in the ‘Forward on Climate’ rally, described as the biggest climate march in US history; police have not yet provided an official estimate.

Protesters chanted "Keystone pipeline? Shut it down," as they marched around the White House, calling on President Obama to reject the Keystone proposal and follow through on climate pledges made during his inaugural

You are invited to a deep democracy training and strategic retreat. As part of the training, Marine Biologist Riki Ott will share templates for municipal ordinances and resolutions to ban toxic chemicals, including Corexit, as part of a national action.  The same chemicals used in dispersants are also being used in the Fracking Process and are being mixed with the TarSands Oil to make it flow through pipelines.  At the core of this presentation are the tools that towns, counties, municipalities etc can use to legally protect their communities from these highly toxic chemicals.

Archives from 1-25 Treaty Council
Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3

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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. 

This week: 1. LMFAO 2. 2012 hottest year ever 3. Romney's and Obama's pipe dreams 4. Keystone Xl Blockade in Texas 5. Benjamin Netanyahu's coke problem 6. Nobel War Prize 7. Spanish loot supermarkets 8. Parliament surrounded in Madrid 9. Molotov cocktails party in Athens 10. Savage Fam 11. Will Potter's "Green is the New Red"

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.

this is the summer of "solidarity & mobilization," where convergences on emergency action in an attempt to restore environmental sanity to a crazy, overheated, world are taking place. this past weekend was chock full of extraction awareness trainings and action campaigns, from the tar sands blockade training in east texas, to the "stop the frack attack" teach-in and rally in dc, and the ramps "mountain justice mobilization" in west virginia. all in all, thousands of concerned citizens and environmental activists gathered for these events. 

the "stop the frack attack" campaign drew thousands of concerned citizens who descended upon the capital from across the nation and the world, to protest the use of hydraulic fracturing as a method to extract natural gas and oil from shale beds and abandoned coal mines. this method includes drilling through the earth's crust, smashing up rocks in a dormant well site and capturing the vapors. it has been known to make water so toxic it can literally be set on fire while streaming out of the taps. it is also believed that it destabilizes bed rock to the degree that it creates small earth quakes in areas where fracking is practiced. 

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.