Toban Black

Here is a small set of photos from a recent critical mass bike rally here in London -

Mike also took this video as he arrived at the end of the ride.

Jim also has sent more photos.

I would have taken at least a couple more photos if I didn’t have camera battery problems.

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This ride was linked with a climate justice day of action — which you can read about at the end of this Ecojustice Declaration.
(Here are ways those links were made locally.)

[Read more →]

Here are some photos from an August climate camp gathering and protest in Dunham, Quebec — just north of Vermont. A tar sands pipeline and pumping station project (”Trailbreaker”) was our main target at the camp.

For more information, see this invitation, and this camp publication.

The main campaign around the climate camp is a way of blocking tar sands expansion, while helping out local victims, at the same time. The pipeline project cuts across Maine, Quebec, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, and other surrounding areas — so there are plenty of points of intervention, and plenty of grounds for solidarity.

These photo sets are from the “convergence days” between August 18th and August 22nd.

Our climate camp was one of several during 2010; here is a list of 2010 climate camp web sites, in various Anglo and European countries.

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In the first photo there are signs that say ‘No dirty oil in our territory’ and  ‘climate action camp’ (in French).  The banners in other photos say ‘Change the system, not the climate’ (in French), ’stop the wave of destruction’ (in French), “CO2lonialism”, and ‘Change the system! Not the climate!’ “Trailbreaker = Tar sands”.

[Read more →]

A car advertisement on the back of a local bus

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Andy Rowell on the Oil Change blog -
“Electric Vehicles May Increase CO2”
(I think it’s too much of a stretch to say that electric vehicles are “all the rage”; but some people definitely are looking toward them as ’solutions.’)

Brad Aaron on the Streetsblog New York City site -
“Do Your Part: Buy an Audi, Drive Fast” (in October)
(Evidently the author is using the word “transit” to refer to mass transit — such as buses.)

Fred Pearce in The Guardian -
“BMW’s ActiveHybrid X6 Accelerates Nonsense About High-performance, Low-emission Cars” (in September)

Brad Aaron on the Streetsblog New York City site -
“Ad Nauseam: Toyota’s (Passive-Aggressive) Ransom Note to America” (in October)

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Here are some related posts on this blog -
http://tobanblack.net/blog/?tag=automobiles

Andy Rowell on the Oil Change blog  -
“Big Oil Front Group Fights for Tar Sands” (in October)

Leo Hickman in The Guardian -
“CO2 is Green: The TV Advert Making Viewers Choke” (in September)

Anya Kamenetz on a Fast Company site -
“Head in the Tar Sands? The New York Times Runs Anti-Peak Oil Op-Ed” (in August)

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Coal industry PR

Amanda Terkel on Think Progress -
“‘Let’s Learn About Coal’: Industry Front Group Distributes Coloring Book On The ‘Advantages’ Of Coal”

Amanda Terkel on Think Progress -
“University Of Kentucky Approves New $7 Million Industry-Funded Dorm Named After ‘Coal’” (in late October)

“Sparki” on The Understory blog  -
“The Real FACES of Environmental Extremism” (in October)

An informative video from the summer Climate Camp in England

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William Marsden (in this article) -

“Canadians increasingly live in a confusion of values. A 2008 survey by the Globe and Mail found that while 79 percent of respondents said the tar sands are good for Alberta and Canada, more than half of those respondents (55 percent) said that the sands were not good for the environment. The obvious contradiction can be justified only by minimizing or disconnecting oneself from the importance of [natural environments]. The problem is that global warming and the rapid dying out of species makes this level of self-deception increasingly dangerous.”

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Lisa Schmidt (in this article) -

“Canada –already the largest oil supplier to the U.S.–pumped out record exports south of the border this summer, as Alberta’s oilsands crude fill the gaps left by competitors.

U.S. imports of crude oil from Canada rose 5.4 per cent in July to the highest monthly level in at least 36 years, according to figures released by the U.S. Energy Department.”

“Canada is the largest exporter of crude oil to the U.S. and has increased the amount it ships as OPEC countries have cut back.

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Steven Freeland (in this article) -

“[Throughout human history there have been] many deliberate acts to destroy or exploit the natural environment to achieve military goals. In the 5th century BC the retreating Scythians poisoned the water wells in an effort to slow the advancing Persian army. Roman troops razed the city of Carthage in 146 BC and poisoned the surrounding soil with salt to prevent its future cultivation. The American Civil War saw the widespread implementation of ’scorched earth’ policies.

In August 1945 the United States detonated atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in massive loss of life and environmental destruction. During the Vietnam War, the US implemented Operation Ranch Hand, to devastating effect, to destroy vegetation used by its enemy for cover and sustenance, using chemicals such as Agent Orange.

More recently still, who can forget the haunting images of more than 700 burning Kuwaiti oil well-heads which had been deliberately ignited by retreating Iraqi forces during the Gulf War in 1991 a scene that was likened to Dante’s Inferno. Over the following 10 years the Saddam regime built barriers and levees to drain the al-Hawizeh and al-Hammar marshes in southern Iraq.” “This effectively destroyed the livelihood of the 500,000 Marsh Arabs who had inhabited this unique ecosystem.

Acts of significant and deliberate environmental destruction, exploitation and contamination during armed conflict have continued in more recent times, including the use of cluster bombs and weapons containing depleted uranium by US and British forces in Iraq.

[Read more →]

A post that I put together for the Waging Nonviolence web site -
“An invitation from the Mobilization for Climate Justice coalition”

This post introduces the U.S.-based Mobilization for Climate Justice, as well as similar critiques and activism associated with that Climate Justice coalition. As I indicate, the organizers in and around that coalition also address a range of energy & carbon issues (including tar sands pollution, and biofuel land grabs) — along with interrelated and more apparent global warming concerns. Their approach to these ecological issues is based on prior environmental justice critiques and activism, as well as wider opposition towards corporations, and other international market structures.

Climate Justice Action is another “climate justice” coalition. They seem to be a lot more connected with countries outside of North America — whereas The Mobilization for Climate Justice is very U.S.-based.

The phrase “climate justice” also is used by various other people — some of whom probably wouldn’t know anything about Climate Justice Action or the Mobilization for Climate Justice. The concept of climate justice was around for years before those two coalitions were formed, so the phrase has wider traction. Of course, the actual uses of that term are somewhat inconsistent; there is no absolute consensus about what ‘climate justice’ is.

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In this post, I’ll be sharing photos, videos, and a write-up about Switch Off Hazelwood anti-coal campaign rallies and interventions in Australia, earlier in September. I also will be offering a little commentary.

(This post isn’t about breaking news. But I happen to think that we should remember and continue to talk about previous actions — well after a couple of weeks have passed.)

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“COMMUNITY DECOMMISSION ORDER”

(Like the other images in this post, that photo is from the “hazelwood2009″ pages on Flickr — where you can see a lot of other photos.)

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A campaign video -
“Switch off Hazelwood - Coal Fired Power Station Action”

That video is an introduction to the overall campaign — in relation to a wider movement against fossil fuel consumption (which activists are just beginning to bring together — in Australia, and elsewhere). The video calls for proactive activist responses to mounting global warming threats — above all.

[Read more →]

Overviews

A Camp for Climate Action press release -
“Climate Activists Hit Big Business and Banks”

A BBC article -
“Climate activists stage protests”

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Bike swoop photos
- Set one
- Set two

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Day 2: The European Climate Exchange

A Camp for Climate Action video and press release -
“Everyone’s a loser at the Climate Casino!”

[Read more →]

Andy Rowell on the Oil Change blog -
“Shell’s Secret Collusion Documents” (June 15th)

That post is an overview of issues around the recent Shell trial.

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Andy Rowell also has published these blog entries about conflicts between oil companies and Nigerians -
- “Justice Begins at Home” (November, 2008)
- “13 Years On and Death Still Stalks the Niger Delta” (November, 2008)
- “Welcome to the ‘Oil War’” (September, 2008)

(Those are three blog posts that I have actually read. At the time, I had decided that I would recommend those posts.)