Tag Archives: occupation

Three hundred people breach earthen dam, free Xingu River from Belo Monte mega-dam project

Cross-posted from Amazon Watch via Earth First Newswire

June 15, 2012, Belo Monte, Brazil. While the Brazilian Government prepares to host the Rio+20 United Nations Earth Summit, 3,000 kilometers north in the country’s Amazon region indigenous peoples, farmers, fisherfolk, activists and local residents affected by the construction of the massive Belo Monte Dam project began a symbolic peaceful occupation of the dam site to “free the Xingu River.”

 

In the early morning hours, three hundred women and children arrived in the hamlet of Belo Monte on the Transamazon Highway, and marched onto a temporary earthen dam recently built to impede the flow of the Xingu River. Using pick axes and shovels, local people who are being displaced by the project removed a strip of earthen dam to restore the Xingu’s natural flow.

Residents gathered in formation spelling out the words “Pare Belo Monte” meaning “Stop Belo Monte” to send a powerful message to the world prior to the gathering in Rio and demanding the cancellation of the $18 billion Belo Monte dam project (aerial photos of the human banner available upon request).
Continue reading

Comments Off on Three hundred people breach earthen dam, free Xingu River from Belo Monte mega-dam project

Filed under Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Latin America-Caribbean, Rio+20

Greenpeace Occupies Oil Rigs off Coast of Greenland

Greenpeace activists evaded a massive security operation and scaled Cairn Energy’s controversial oil rig (Stena Don) off Greenland. They have stopped Cairn’s drilling.

After dodging Danish Navy commandos in Greenpeace’s inflatable speedboats, activists from 4 countries climbed up the inside of the rig and are now occupying the rig in tents suspended from ropes.

CTV Canada’s AM Reports:   The people who made it aboard the Stena Don are expert climbers and have managed to set up hanging tents from the rig’s platform. Greenpeace said they have been equipped with enough supplies to stay there for several days.

American Sim McKenna, one of the four people aboard the Stena Don, said the climbers are hoping for continued success.

“We’ve got to keep the energy companies out of the Arctic and kick our addiction to oil, that’s why we’re going to stop this rig from drilling for as long as we can,” McKenna said in a statement released by Greenpeace Tuesday.

Deen said Greenpeace has sent climbers to the oil rig to draw attention to the risks that Cairn’s oil operations pose for the environment.

Yesterday’s Global Justice Ecology Project’s Earth Minute for KPFK’s (L.A. Pacifica) Sojourner Truth show warned:

“…The initiation of oil drilling in the icy Artic seas off Greenland is a modern warning of the potentially disastrous consequences of society’s obsession with oil.

Scottish based Cairn energy is drilling for oil in an area known as “iceberg alley.”  This pristine region is home to 80% of the world’s narwhals, as well as majestic blue whales, polar bears, seals, and numerous migratory birds.

An iceberg-drill rig collision here would be devastating.  The region’s extreme weather could allow a ruptured well to continue gushing oil for 2 years.  Oil would be trapped under thick sheets of ice, making cleanup almost impossible….”

To listen to the full Earth Minute click here!

Comments Off on Greenpeace Occupies Oil Rigs off Coast of Greenland

Filed under Actions / Protest