Northern Rockies Rising Tide, the Indigenous Environmental Network, the National Wildlife Federation, the Montana Chapter of the Sierra Club, UM Climate Action Now, and the No Shipments Network will be hosting A Walk Through the Tar Sands today to protest the Montana state governments’ plans to allow equipment to be shipped through Montana. Rising Tide is also hosting a critical mass bike ride on Thursday, leading to a rally at the Montana Department of Transportation offices to pressure the MDT and Director Jim Lynch to GET OUT OF BED WITH EXXON, conduct a full-scale Environmental Impact Statement, and deny the permits for the tar sands corridor!
A protest at Conklin Dairy Farms earlier this week drew over 150 police officers, including a SWAT team, armored cars and helicopters. The police suppressed the protest, insisting that nobody had a permit and that it was unsafe to stand along Rt. 42, where Conklin Dairy Farms is located.
Activists showed up to a meeting on the Alberta Tar Sands to resist the expansion of the tar sands project via the building of a Total upgrader, which would convert bitumen from the tar into crude oil in an environmentally disgusting operation.
About 60 protesters sang songs and handed out leaflets last week to protest experimental GMOs, especially drought resistant maize. A recent GMO, weed resistant maize crop failure has shaken South Africa, causing desperate circumstances for many farmers.
Last Saturday, 30 people protested the abusive handling of a tiger at a Malaysian wildlife park. Only 500 tigers still live in Malaysia, down from 3,000 in the 1950s.
A recent amendment of environmental laws in Papua New Guinea has drawn protest from conservationists and environmental groups, because it makes it easier for mining companies to get away with negligence. Particularly dangerous is the Ramu Nickle Mine, owned by China Metallurgical Group, which has a history of dumping waste directly into the sea.
In politics news, another UN report has been released insisting that the “developed world” change its dietary habits in order to save the environment. It states, “A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animals products.”
Meanwhile, a contingent of 70 scientists and experts are calling for the resignation of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar for his terrible oversight of the Mineral Management Service and incompetant treatment of BP’s Deep Horizon oil spill.
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