Green Options

A protester from the anti-aviation group Plane Stupid managed to toss a cup of green slime in the face of Lord Mandelson before scolding him for his support for the third runway at Heathrow airport.

Amazingly, the woman walked away without being arrested and has now come forward to identify herself as 29-year-old Leila Deen. She said that Mandelson is directly responsible for the approval of the plans to build the third runway.

Six Greenpeace climate change activists have been cleared of causing £30,000 of criminal damage at a coal-fired power station in a verdict that is expected to embarrass the government and lead to more direct action protests against energy companies. Article by John Vidal of the Guardian.

The jury of nine men and three women at Maidstone crown court cleared the six by a majority verdict. Five of the protesters had scaled a 200-metre chimney at Kingsnorth power station, Hoo, Kent, in October last year.

While I’ve noticed this phenomenon quite a few times before, yesterday’s sentencing of three Earth First! activists in Maine reminded me of the amazing backwards-notion that forcing activists into community service somehow amounts to a punishment.

Activists who engage in civil disobedience aren’t hoodlums running around the streets or menaces to society — these are people who risk arrest and jail time to make a difference in their communities. A judge need-not assign community service because it’s almost guaranteed that these people already do more than most.

Nine anti-aviation activists with the group Plane Stupid Scotland shut down an Aberdeen airport in protest of its plans for expansion.

The airport expansion is being funded and supported by Donald Trump, who is opening a nearby golf resort — which in itself is a point of contention with environmentalists for its location on previously-protected land.

While some of the Plane Stupid activists played golf inside fortified security fencing, others (including one dressed as Trump) scaled the terminal building and unfurled a banner that read “Nae Trump Games with Climate Change.”

The bodies of two well-known social activists were found Guerrero, Mexico showing clear signs of torture.

Raul Lucas and Manuel Ponce were captured on February 13th by three people claiming to be police in Ayutla de los Libres, according to relatives. The men were attending a meeting regarding plans to open several new schools in the area.

Why do athletes train in conditions that are harder than game conditions? Because it makes them better at what they do. Likewise, environmentalists could learn a thing or two from successful activists in countries where the going is harder. In this sense, China makes a great environmentalist training ground. Here, you’ll find both daunting challenges and inspirational environmental activists.

Protip #5: How to create win-win situations and gain popular support

Pan Wenshi was recently featured by the International Herald Tribune for his success working with locals in a small Chinese village to protect the white-headed langur. But it wasn’t until Pan lent a hand to help locals that he began to realize success. After Pan helped a villager to get clean drinking water, the villager freed a langur from a trap and brought the animal to Pan, who learned from the experience. Now, Pan advocates for new schools and health clinics in the area where the langurs live. In return, he gets local support. “When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back,” says Pan. “Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs the locals stop them from coming in.”

Pan’s success grew when he won an environmental award that allowed him to install biogas collectors. The villagers could now cook without the toil of chopping firewood and the langurs benefited by slowed deforestation. Serving the needs of others has allowed the langur population in Pan’s nature reserve to expand from 96 to over 500. “This [serving the human community] is the most important thing we can do,” says Pan. “If the villagers can’t feed themselves, the langurs don’t stand a chance.”

After a man fell from a Japanese whaling ship into the freezing antarctic waters, the whalers have called off all operations while in search for the man’s body.

Sea Shepherd, usually the arch nemesis of the whalers, offered to help find the body with their two small boats and helicopter, but the Japanese refused saying they would not require any help from an “eco-terrorist organization.”

Two environmental activists were detained by the Tennessee Valley Authority police for photographing the site of last weeks ash spill. While it does not appear that they will be charged with crimes, they were unable to document the ash spill’s effects on the area and its water supply.

The men, who are from the Knoxville based United Mountain Defense, say that TVA has yet to release the water toxicity results. They say they have the right to take their own measurements and photographs unless TVA shows their results. “This is an issue of national importance,” said David Cooper. “People need to know if the water is safe or not.”

Anti-whaling activists aboard the Sea Shepherd vessel ‘Steve Irwin’ have covered a whaling ship with a smelly cocktail of rotten butter, methyl cellulose and indelible dye.

The unconventional sliming operation was carried out in a bid to intimidate the Japanese whaler, Kaiko Maru, into moving out of Australian Antarctic territorial waters. According to Peter Hammarstedt, the Sea Shepherd’s second officer, “this is one stinky, slippery ship.”

On Saturday a group of protesters gathered in front of a Forever 21 in Pasadena, CA to promote a boycott against the company after they announced plans to build a warehouse on the land of the much-adored South Central Farm, which developer Ralph Horowitz acquired earlier this year despite public outcry.

The group hopes to discourage Forever 21 from building a new factory on the property, and in turn discourage Horowitz from attempting to develop on the land. The South Central Farmers and student groups California Statewide MEChA and D-Q Unity issued an invitation to the rally that detailed the logic behind a boycott of Forever 21:

Rob Gilchrist, a former activist, had spied on 9 different peaceful environment and animal welfare groups over the past 10 years before his girlfriend discovered suspicious emails, New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times reported in a 3,200-word expose today.

“Protests are part of a healthy democracy,” said Rochelle Rees, Gilchrist’s girlfriend. “The police are supposed to be protecting that but instead they are inhibiting it. It’s foolish of them since stomping on peaceful protest is the best way to make people more extreme and push them underground.”