Rule #1: Resort to name calling/labeling
Rule #2: Never consider the other side’s motivation
Rule #3: Refer to rule 1 and 2.

I wish these folks were protesting the end result of the actual chain of events that will lead to their future joblessness, which is:
Decreasing demand for coal (due to health concerns for earthlings and earth)=lost jobs for coal miners=find another similar job to suit your skills=can’t because factory jobs have long been shipped overseas to skirt environmental regulations and to exploit cheaper labor=PICKET THAT!–picket lost middle class jobs, the shrinking middle class, and the growing disparity between the rich and poor!

These good people have a right to be angry–but not at the “Treehuggers” who want to put an end to our dependence on fossil fuels. Their hostility needs to be directed at the coal (throw in oil, plastic, and biotech) industry fat cats who have long made billions while poisoning the world (poisoning the world poisons those who live in said world).

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Industrial hemp may be one of the most versatile and environmentally benign crops out there, but because of its relationship to marijuana, the cultivation of this crop has been banned in the United States since the late thirties. Last week, a group of farmers, along with David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, staged a protest in front of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington, DC, and were promptly arrested for planting hemp seeds on the agency’s front lawn.

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According to the Billionaires’ website they are:

A grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, HMO lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system. We are not a political, religious or even particularly well-organized group. We’re simple folk, thrilled profiteers pouring out of our corner offices to dance on the grave of “Change.” We’ll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to health care, if we ain’t broke, why fix it?

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This column highlights the top economic stories of the week.

While Detroit has benefited from Cash for Clunkers, foreign automakers have gained even more. Some critics of the program warned that because it let consumers buy domestic or foreign cars, Clunkers could end up spending more American tax dollars to help foreign companies than American ones. More on this story here.

With irresponsible banking practices taking the blame for bringing about the global economic crisis, there has been a surge of interest in Islamic finance.Now, a slew of academic courses are springing up to meet the demand of those wanting to break into an expanding market. According to ratings agency Moody’s, the global Islamic finance sector is worth $700 billion and has the potential to be worth $4 trillion. More on this story here.

n an effort to curb solid waste pollution, China banned the import of scrap polysilicon at the beginning of August, an effort supported by its current environmental laws according to its Environmental Protection Ministry. Scrap polysilicon is a low-grade form of silicon not pure enough to use in microchips. However, it can be used as a component of solar wafers, which contain a variety of types of silicon, including up to 30% scrap polysilicon. More on this story here.

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In my work in Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainable business, Whole Foods has always been a company to benchmark against.  They were one of the first major retailers to offset 100% of their energy use with wind energy credits; voluntarily stop using plastic bags company-wide; join the Non-GMO Project’s Product Verification Program; and develop a certification program, the Whole Trade Guarantee, in partnership with non-profits.  Plus, the company has received a plethora of sustainability and environmental awards and recognition.  So I was just wondering…with a track record like that, can a renegade CEO damage the company’s brand reputation as a socially responsible company?  Well, John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods, is sure giving it the old college try.

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The planned closure of a wind turbine manufacturing facility on England’s Isle of Wight moved several workers to seize control of the plant on Monday night.

[Update: July 21, 11:36pm GMT: Since workers first seized the plant on Monday night, 5 more workers slipped police lines to join the 25 workers already occupying the administrative offices at a Vestas Wind Systems plant on the Isle of Wight. Some food also made it inside, but police reportedly now have that route blocked.]

According to reports, 25 workers facing imminent termination at a shuttering wind turbine plant entered the administrative offices of the Vestas Wind Systems factory in Newport, Isle of Wight, at around 7:30 on Monday night. The workers vowed to remain there until the government discusses their proposal to save it from closure by nationalizing the plant.

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More than 100 Greenpeace activists from around the world have occupied four coal-fired power stations across Italy (live stream and twitter feed).  The action is aimed at forcing the Heads of State to take leadership on climate change as top politicians from the world’s most powerful nations arrive at the G8 Summit today.

Early this morning, an international team of Greenpeace activists occupied key positions at the site of four current and planned Italian power stations in Brindisi, Marghera (just outside of Venice), Vado Ligure, (near Genoa) and Porto Tolle.

The Brindisi facility is Italy’s biggest coal-fired power station and the country’s largest single C02 polluter. The Greenpeace sabotage operation will entail blocking the coal conveyor belts and preventing coal from going into the plant.

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Kay Sexton, with her regular run down of environmental protests, has been examining the “imperatives and complexities” of protests that are unique to the environmentalist movement.  Here’s another data point to add into the discussion.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t always think that the environmental movement benefits from protests.  Channeling the Greenpeace mentality of chaining people to trees often seems to generate bad press more then it advances a cause.  But, there are times when even my cynical take on the efficacy of protest has to be subverted by out-and-out necessity.

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Jonathan Mann, the brilliant creator of Rock Cookie Bottom, composes a song every single day. Today’s gem simply relates some of the horrific twisted language in the Bush administration’s morally reprehensible and illegal torture memos. It is an incredibly powerful song, but makes me a little queasy every time I hear it. One of the most empowering local actions any of us can undertake is to speak out loudly against injustice wherever we see it.

Perhaps we can look forward to “Torture Memos”, the musical?

The Waxman-Markey bill that recently was introduced into the House has already caused quit a stir, and that was before someone found a provision tucked in it’s 600 plus pages that would make it legal to sue the Government if you suffer from Global Warming.

The bill is big, robust, and in many cases even more aggressive in it’s battle against C02 then the Obama plan (maybe for a reason: to make the Obama plan seem palatable in comparison?).  This one little subsection, however, has the Washingtin Times all up in arms.  They are worried about the huge number of new lawsuits that this could cause tying up the legal system.  Wait a second… does that mean that they are admitting that these hypothetical lawsuits would be justified?  That the realize there would be a reason to be upset at the Feds for their inaction on Global Warming?   Nah…

Legal Options for Those “Harmed” by Global Warming.

According to the Times, the bill opens up a direct legal action option for individuals who feel they have been harmed in some way by Global Warming.  I located the passage they are talking about in the bill, and the Times seems to have it about right: here’s a line or two from the SEC. 336. ENFORCEMENT bit of the bill.

The persons authorized by subsection (a) to commence an action under this section shall include any person who has suffered, or reasonably expects to suffer, a harm attributable, in whole or in part, to a violation or failure to act referred to in subsection (a).

What is harm, you ask?  Well as near as I can tease out, it’s a wide open definition: “any effect of air pollution (including climate change), currently occurring or at risk of occurring.”  Well, I’m an asthmatic, and it’s been getting worse my whole life.  Does this mean I now have someone to blame!?

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The Canadian seal hunt comes around once a year, and along with the hunt comes the international day of action against it: March 15th.

This year is looking more promising than ever. The European Union is considering a complete ban on seal products, a bill to ban the hunt has been introduced in the Canadian senate for the first time since the ’70s, and the general demand for seal products is shrinking worldwide.

An end to the hunt seems inevitable, but it won’t happen without continued pressure. Here are 5 simple ways you can help stop the hunt next Saturday:

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In another case of Critical Mass road rage, the driver of a white SUV received nothing but a citation after ramming a cyclist during Washington, D.C.’s ride last night, according to witness accounts.

After the hit-and-run, bicyclists took off after the SUV, which tried to escape on the wrong side of the road. Police arrived shortly, and instead of arresting the driver, detained a cyclist who aggressively pursued the vehicle.

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Thanks to a freedom of information request by justice spokesman David Howarth, police have revealed a list of 2,000 items confiscated from protesters at the Climate Camp protest at England’s Kingsnorth coal plant last August.

A clown outfit, children’s crayons, soap, books, tents, bicycle helmets, and other seemingly random items were deemed “potentially harmful” by police at the scene.

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Leading scientists call foul in the use of kids aged 6 to 10 as subjects in genetically modified foods trials, claiming a severe breach of medical ethics, specifically the Nuremberg code.

“We are writing to express our shock and unequivocal denunciation of the experiments being conducted by your colleagues which involve the feeding of genetically modified Golden Rice to human subjects.”

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Activists in Portland, Ore. really know how to make a scene in a shopping mall.

Four women dressed as cheerleaders chanted and danced in front of a pet store known to sell sick puppies from puppy mills yesterday before mall security decided they’d had enough. Instead of detaining the cheer leaders, they decided to go after the one male activist who began yelling after the cheering stopped.

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More than fifteen thousand people have taken part in a mass protest in southern India, against the extension of a new reserve to protect tigers facing a very real threat of extinction.

The last count revealed that the number of Indian tigers has plummeted from around 40,000 at the beginning of last century to an all time low of just 1,411, largely due to dwindling habitats and the activities of poachers. Despite these depressing statistics, residents of India’s Chennai region are firmly against any further safeguards, fearing that they will lose their homes if an extension to the Mudumalai Wildlife sanctuary is given the green light.

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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.”

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[Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. Creative Commons photo by Don Pugh]

De Christopher was headed to the Bureau of Land Management auction not to disrupt it but to protest. When he discovered how easy it was to go inside and become a bidder, he grabbed a bidding paddle and went for it. He now faces prosecution, though charges probably won’t be named until after the holidays.

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