By BRUCE LESNICK On Nov. 18, the Obama administration banned oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans for the next five years, while allowing drilling projects to go forward in the Cook Inlet (southwest of Anchorage, Alaska) and in the Gulf of Mexico. The media have noted the strong possibility that when … Continue reading Nationalize the energy industry!
By KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL and JOHN SCHRAUFNAGEL — MINNEAPOLIS — Close to 1500 people protested on Friday, Oct. 28, outside Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek’s office. The protesters were angered by the use of Hennepin County deputies and equipment brutalizing Indigenous people and their allies at Standing Rock. Sheriff’s departments from across the Midwest have been … Continue reading Minneapolis rally protests use of sheriff’s deputies in Standing Rock attack
By BARRY WEISLEDER With the bar set so low by previous regimes in the oil patch, it seems that all the new Alberta government had to do was suppress a burp to be considered a leading agent of positive climate action. In truth, despite all the fanfare, the new energy policy of Premier Rachel Notley's … Continue reading Alberta’s new oil marketing ‘triumph’
By CARL SACK Despite the imminent perils of global warming and global ecosystem collapse, capitalism has accelerated the assault on Earth’s environment. Faced with the need to grow or die, the global capitalist economy requires ever more non-renewable natural resources and fossil fuels, whatever the environmental cost. Serving their corporate overlords, government regulators pay lip … Continue reading Fracking must be banned!
By CHRISTINE FRANK With the burning of fossil fuels, seawater temperatures are rising, giving impetus to fiercer hurricanes with more destructive winds and powerful storm surges. Warmer seas are eroding polar sea ice, allowing for the release of land-based glaciers from Greenland and West Antarctica, causing sea levels to rise. Gigantic plumes of methane are … Continue reading Waterways & oceans face catastrophe
By CHRISTINE FRANK Since 2008, chief climatologist and activist James Hansen has been proposing fee and dividend as a means to curtail fossil fuel use and draw down carbon in order to prevent catastrophic climate change—a very real prospect that is looming ever closer. He has advocated the plan as an alternative to market-based carbon trading … Continue reading An ineffective solution to climate change
By CHRISTINE FRANK Three hundred grassroots activists met in Dallas the first weekend in March to share information, network, and strategize over how to end the hydro-fracturing of shale gas in their rural and suburban communities. The Marcellus, Utica, Eagleford, and Barnett shales were well represented, the latter two being in Texas. It was in the Barnett … Continue reading Activists discuss how to stop frack attack
By JAMES THOMAS On Sunday, Feb. 17, as many as 50,000 people rallied and marched in winds and near freezing temperatures in Washington, D.C., to protest Transcanada's proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. The demonstration, dubbed Forward On Climate Change, is believed to have been the largest climate change action in U.S. history. The Sierra Club, 350.org, … Continue reading Mass climate change protest in DC
By BARRY WEISLEDER The movement to oppose Keystone XL is huge in Canada. It ranges from activists and scientists to indigenous peoples of the threatened Canadian plains and boreal forests, where the tar sands are located. It includes rural farmers and ranchers, and important sections of the labour movement. Dave Coles, President of the Communications, … Continue reading Movement rises against XL pipelines
By CARL SACK Several protests took place in 2012 against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that extracts natural gas from shale bedrock by injecting highly toxic chemicals thousands of feet underground. The fracking boom has killed livestock and contaminated drinking water supplies in several states. The movement to ban fracking continues to gain steam … Continue reading Fracking destroys our health, climate
