By Alex Felsinger •
January 31, 2009
After years of protests and obstacles, Wal-Mart has given up on plans to build a giant SuperCenter store on the environmentally-sensitive White Slough in Vallejo, CA.
Environmental activists were joined by Vallejoans for Responsible Growth and California Healthy Communities Network in their opposition to the plans from the start. Due to their vocal opposition, Vellejo’s city council forced a $700,000 independent environmental investigation into the plans in 2007.
By Alex Felsinger •
January 30, 2009
In another court victory for Greenpeace, a judge in Almeria, Spain ruled that activists were merely expressing their opinion when, in 2006, they painted the words “Hotel Ilegal” and “Demolicion” in letters nearly twenty feet high on a hotel being built without permits on sensitive land.
“They only served to highlight Greenpeace’s disapproval of the works that were taking place,” wrote the court, adding that no violence or disruption was caused by the vandalism.
By Ross Kendall •
May 28, 2008
Environmentalists have claimed a victory in Australia where a major investment bank is said to be canceling its funding of a controversial pulp mill planned by the country’s biggest harvester of old-growth forest timber.
Both the financial sector and the environmental movement were abuzz around Australia last week with the same piece of information. It looked very much like the Australia New Zealand bank (ANZ), one of the country’s top four, had pulled out of its pledge to fund a controversial $2.2 billion pulp mill planned for the southern state of Tasmania.
But of course while the finance sector saw doom and gloom and proceeded to wipe 10 per cent of the share market value of the pulp mill’s developer Gunns Ltd, the environmentalist were giddy with delight. If the rumor is true, and they certainly think it is, it could well be the final shot in a battle that has raged for years between Gunns and environmentalists.
