Friday, November 16, 2012

Pa. Farmer's Anti-Fracking Conservation Easement Serves as Model for Other Landowners

By Press Action

spacer When Pennsylvania organic farmer Dr. J. Stephen Cleghorn publicly announced plans to create a first-in-the-nation conservation easement on his land, with the aim of preventing hydraulic fracturing, he was hoping his act would encourage others to do the same. It’s been only a few days since Cleghorn made the announcement, and already other landowners have contacted him to learn more about his novel approach to keeping natural gas drillers at bay.

“I’ve actually had inquiries from three other landowners already asking about it and I’m referring them to the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund,” Cleghorn said at a Nov. 14 press conference held in a field on his 50-acre Paradise Gardens and Farm in Jefferson County, Pa. And then at the press conference itself, Cleghorn was approached by a landowner from Cambria County, Pa.—two counties to the southeast of Jefferson County—who wanted to learn about this unique approach to slowing down or stopping drilling activity.

“We hope that other people, particularly here throughout Pennsylvania, but anywhere where this type of attack against nature, such as where hydraulic fracturing is happening, will take a look at this and consider doing the same,” Cleghorn said.

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| Posted on 11/16.

Friday, November 09, 2012

Pa. Farmer Bans Fracking on Land through 1st-of-its-Kind Conservation Easement

By Press Action

spacer A Pennsylvania farmer has become the first landowner in the United States to use a conservation easement to recognize and protect the rights of water, forests and wild ecosystems.

Stephen Cleghorn, who owns a 50-acre organic farm in Jefferson County, Pa., said the easement will ban activities such as hydraulic fracturing and will “elevate the rights of nature above the power claimed by extractive energy corporations to despoil the environment.”

The easement was established in honor of Cleghorn’s late wife, Dr. Lucinda Hart-González, who died of lung cancer on Nov. 14, 2011. Earlier this year, a ceremony was held at Cleghorn’s farm, Paradise Gardens and Farm, at which Hart-González’s ashes were scattered on the property and the farm was declared forever inviolate and off-limits to the use of fracking for the production of shale gas.

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| Posted on 11/09.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Code Green: Sounding the Alarm to Save an Eco-Friendly Cartoon

By Press Action

spacer What could be more important than protecting the environment? A majority of the ills associated with modern society are rooted in a logic of domination, which manifests itself most perniciously in humans claiming entitlement to the perceived benefits that come from brutalizing and terrorizing the natural world.

If we don’t do what’s necessary to stop and then reverse modern society’s war on the planet, we have no future. That is why ending the destruction of the environment is our most pressing job today.

There are many positions to be filled in the campaign to save the planet. One of the key roles is information dissemination—getting the word out about the large-scale devastation and how a grow-or-die economic system is a major contributor to the crisis.

When people learn about the magnitude of the harm, they are forced to process the information. Some will make the calculation that the human benefits of industrial growth outweigh environmental protection, even if the current economic system is inherently unsustainable. Others, however, will digest the information and then feel sick in the stomach about the environmental costs. They will begin searching for ways to prevent the dominant culture from continuing to inflict such devastation on the environment.

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| Posted on 08/17.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Advice for Social Activists: Respect Your Own Animal Rights

By Press Action

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“The sooner we learn to recognize and respond to signs of stress and depression in ourselves and each other, the stronger our movements will become.” –Pattrice Jones, Aftershock

Activists of various stripes undoubtedly experience periods of burnout. Working long hours—typically without pay and little appreciation—on campaigns or issues where victories are few and far between can be demoralizing.

Some social change activists get so frustrated with the perceived lack of results from their hard work and the rampant apathy among the general public that they give up entirely and retreat from activism.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. “If you are burned out doing one thing, the alternative isn’t quitting activism. It’s just finding a different thing that you can do,” explained author, scholar and activist Pattrice Jones, speaking Aug. 4 at the Animal Rights 2012 conference in Alexandria, Va.

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| Posted on 08/10.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Anti-Fracking Movement Goes to Washington

By Press Action

spacer Thousands of people traveled to the West lawn of the U.S. Capitol on July 28 for the first national demonstration against the use of hydraulic fracturing for extracting natural gas from shale formations.

Let me repeat that. Thousands of people showed up in Washington, D.C., to let lawmakers and natural gas companies know they are serious about stopping the environmentally destructive practice known as fracking and other related gas industry activities. Six years ago, 99% of the people in the crowd probably had never heard of fracking. Heck, six years ago, even those of us familiar with this industrial method for creating fractures in shale rock in order to release the natural gas that resides within it weren’t sure how to spell the word. Is it “frac” job or “frack” job?

As we were distracted by trivial spelling debates, natural gas producers and their landmen were busy snatching up huge amounts of acreage in the sweet spots of the nation’s shale gas plays. The rush to lease the acreage and then start producing the gas—what the industry fondly calls the “shale gas revolution”—was in full swing.

But local residents and grass roots environmentalists—not the Big Green groups with headquarters in Washington, some of whom remain allies of the gas industry—began asking questions. They were starting to see the impacts of gas industry activity in their communities, including contamination of ground water, air quality degradation, the migration of gases and fracking chemicals to the surface, surface contamination from spills and flowback, and the destruction of forest land, animal habitats and ecosystems.

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| Posted on 07/29.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Coal Baron Woos Tiger Woods to Swing for Dirty Money

By Press Action

spacer Jim Justice II made headlines in 2009 when he bought The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, vowing to restore the resort’s greatness. The native West Virginian comes from a wealthy family, whose business interests include mining and farming.

Soon after buying The Greenbrier, Justice convinced the PGA Tour to hold one of its annual golf events at the resort, located in White Sulphur Springs. The event, known as The Greenbrier Classic, is now entering its third year of competition. The upcoming edition of the golf tournament promises to be the greatest of the three, given its more favorable slot on the PGA Tour’s schedule—the Fourth of July holiday this year vs. a late July date the first two years—and the fact that Tiger Woods will be playing it for the first time.

Hidden behind the beauty of The Greenbrier and its setting in the Allegheny Mountains is the fact that the business operations of Jim Justice have a poor environmental record. In 2009, around the time he was considering buying The Greenbrier, Justice sold a portion of his company’s West Virginia coal interests [see correction below] to the Russian company Mechel OAO for $436 million in cash and 83.3 million Mechel preferred shares. (Interesting note: A large amount of the coal that Mechel is now producing from its West Virginia coal operations is getting shipped to steel plants in Russia.)

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| Posted on 06/10.

Friday, May 04, 2012

Declaring a Farm Forever Inviolate of Drilling for Shale Gas

By Press Action

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"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive?. I like a little rebellion now and then." -Thomas Jefferson

Drawing upon this nation’s Declaration of Independence as inspiration, Dr. J. Stephen Cleghorn, co-founder of the 50-acre Paradise Gardens and Farm organic farm that sits above the Marcellus Shale formation, is holding a press conference to declare—in defiance of any established laws which say otherwise—that his farm shall never be violated from above or below by unconventional shale gas drilling. He will seal his declaration upon the scattering of ashes that are all that is left of the farm’s co-founder, his late wife Dr. Lucinda Hart-González, who died of cancer in November 2011.

“May her ashes,” he will say as he drops them to the ground below, “declare this farm forever inviolate of any attack upon it as a living system. Her blessed ashes hereby declare a new right of love at the surface and forever below this farm that no gas drill may ever penetrate.”

WHO: Dr. Cleghorn will be joined by grassroots activists who oppose shale gas drilling from the Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air (PACWA), Marcellus Protest, Protecting Our Waters and several others. Also invited: Senator Joseph Scarnati, Speaker Sam Smith, J. Brett Harvey (CEO of CONSOL Energy), Douglas H. Miller (CEO of EXCO Resources) and Larry and Maxine Burkett of Punxsutawney, who hold the deed to the gas rights under the farm.

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| Posted on 05/04.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Communities Grow More Polarized in Uncertain World of Shale Gas Development

By Press Action

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“The areas of the United States having the highest levels of long‐term poverty, outside of those having a history of racial inequalities, tend to be found in the very places that were once the site of thriving extractive industries.” -William R. Freudenburg

The fracking debate isn’t only about the environmental damage. The economic and social impacts of shale gas drilling also are proving divisive in state houses and communities located above natural gas fields across the country.

In Pennsylvania, residents who live in counties with the heaviest shale gas industry activity are experiencing an increase in social conflict, Timothy Kelsey Ph.D., professor of agricultural economics at Pennsylvania State University, said at an April 30 conference on the health impacts of shale gas extraction. The conference, held in Washington, D.C., was sponsored by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

Communities “are becoming more polarized” between those residents for and against drilling in the Marcellus Shale, Kelsey said. Part of the conflict is between “the haves and the have-nots”—landowners who received relative pennies from gas companies to lease their land and those who struck more lucrative deals, he said.

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| Posted on 04/30.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

The UN May Have Silenced the Afghan Public

By Afghan Peace Volunteers

spacer “Today, Afghanistan and the U.S. initialed and locked the text of the strategic partnership agreement,” said Karzai’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi. “This means the text is closed…”

Why “lock” or “close” the future of Afghanistan to 30 million ordinary Afghan citizens?

While the world may accept that the U.S. and Afghan governments have some “state” or “noble” considerations for not revealing the contents of the U.S. Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement, how about the democratic consideration of involving Afghans in their own future?

Even the Afghan Parliament was in the dark and uninvolved until they were recently given a peek when Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, read “portions” of the Agreement to assembled parliamentarians on 23rd April, saying that the U.S. will defend Afghanistan from any outside interference via “diplomatic means, political means, economic means and even military means.”

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| Posted on 04/29.

With a Rebel Yell, Deep Green Resistance Takes Message to Southeast

By Press Action

spacer During a two-week period this summer, radical environmentalists will be spreading their message of resistance to industrial capitalism to an area of the country that they hope will prove a fertile recruiting ground. Instead of preaching to the converted in historically friendly communities across the western United States, Deep Green Resistance is heading to the Southeast, where the ruling elite has never hesitated to subsidize a nuclear power plant project or clamp down on a trade union organizing effort.

A traveling group of DGR activists will be touring seven Southeast cities in what the group’s organizers are calling the “Culture of Resistance Roadshow.” At each stop of the tour, there will be music, art and informative presentations that DGR hopes will give activists the tools they need to make a difference in the struggle for a livable future.

The tour kicks off in Miami on June 16 and then makes its last stop in Washington, D.C., on June 30. In between, the traveling roadshow will visit Gainesville, Fla., on June 18, Asheville, N.C., on June 22, Chapel Hill, N.C., on June 23, Knoxville, Tenn., on June 25, and Richmond, Va., on June 27.

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| Posted on 04/29.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

1,000 Reasons to Strike on May 1: A Day Without the 99%

By Mickey Z.

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"What are you rebelling against?”

“Whaddya got?"

-From the 1953 movie, “The Wild One"

It’s no accident that “the system”—this dominant and destructive culture of ours—makes us feel so damn alone, makes us feel like we can’t make a difference, like we can’t “fight City Hall.”

The nature of top-down rule, of course, is to leave those on the bottom throwing up their hands in resignation, heaving a collective sigh, and concluding: Whaddya gonna do?

I’ll let you in a secret or three: We are not alone, we can make a difference, and what we’re “gonna do” is occupy a goddamned strike on May 1.

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| Posted on 04/28.

PennFuture Dissects Pennsylvania's Shale Gas Giveaway

By Press Action

spacer Pennsylvania’s noxious new natural gas law, Act 13, has received a fair amount of press attention, much of it negative. In drafting the legislation, state lawmakers gave the shale gas industry everything it wanted, including the right to drill almost anywhere and full protection from local ordinances.

The law, which took effect April 14, contains many sordid provisions. To help people understand the new law, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, or PennFuture, has released a handy guide to all of the favors and loopholes for the gas companies that Act 13 provides. PennFuture, an environmental advocacy group that supports natural gas drilling as long as it is regulated properly, said the guide was “deliberately written to be as accessible as possible to all, primarily presented in a question-and-answer format.”

“Since this law was signed, there has been a great deal of confusion about the various provisions,” George Jugovic Jr., president and CEO of PennFuture, said in an April 23 statement. “This plain language report separates rumor from fact, and will help elected officials, public health officers and physicians, and citizens in and out of the drilling fields understand their rights in terms of drilling.”

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| Posted on 04/28.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Get the Fracking Facts, You Water-Drinking Being!

By Lucia della Paolera

spacer Straight from reservoirs in upstate NY, New York City’s tap water, long considered some of the cleanest and purest in the country—not to mention UNFILTERED—is at risk of becoming permanently contaminated.

The PSA “ANYBODY of WATER,” by I AM PICTURES in association with I HEART H2O raises awareness about the threats facing New York’s water, so that New Yorkers can take action to protect it immediately.

Over the past decade the global demand for energy has increased exponentially.

Diminishing supplies of conventional fuels such as coal and oil, as well as growing scientific consensus and public awareness about the environmental hazards of the extraction of such fuels has led to the search for alternate ways to power our country. Recently, the natural gas (methane) found in large quantities in deep underground formations of shale in vast areas of the United States has become the go-to power source to profitably replace US dependence on coal and foreign oil.

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| Posted on 04/27.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Experts: Shale Gas Drilling's Liabilities Far Outweigh Potential Economic Benefits

By Press Action

spacer The natural gas industry needed a better sales pitch. It was moving into new and potentially hostile territory. Not everyone in the Marcellus Shale region was going to welcome gas companies with open arms. And then industry officials received a special gift from their colleagues on Wall Street, the ones instrumental in creating the financial meltdown of 2008. With the economy in a tailspin, the industry found the perfect antidote to what its members viewed as venomous complaints about the natural gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing.

Jobs and economic development would become the industry’s rallying cry as it stormed into the region, disrupting communities and destroying ecosystems. Landowners and mineral rights owners were promised huge sums of money if they signed leases to allow natural gas companies to create industrial zones in their backyards. Local business owners were told they could expect a jump in sales as the invading armies of contract workers and drilling companies would spend huge sums of money at local establishments.

But not everyone living in the states located above the Marcellus Shale geological formation was buying what the industry was selling. Many were skeptical. Others were downright angry. Groups of concerned residents emerged to fight the industry’s planned takeover of their communities. They wrote letters to local officials and organized protests. And they sought out experts to analyze the industry’s rosy economic predictions.

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| Posted on 04/26.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Roots of Occupy: Wall Street Has Always Been War Street

By Mickey Z.

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"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” -Benito Mussolini

There’s plenty that feels new and fresh about Occupy Wall Street (OWS): the younger participants, the scope of the coalition, the endurance, the creativity, and the outrage. What’s not new is the target of that outrage: Wall Street, Corporate America, and the politicians they fund have been at this deadly game for more than a century.

Mic Check: The pursuit of profit long ago transcended national borders and well… anything resembling justice, community, solidarity, or morality.

To learn more about these roots of Occupy, read on...

Know Your History
In the years before World War II, for example, doing business with Hitler’s Germany or Mussolini’s Italy (or, as a proxy, Franco’s Spain) proved no more unsavory to the captains of industry than, say, selling military hardware to Indonesia does today.

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| Posted on 04/25.

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