by | 2013-05-30 · 10:15

Hundreds protest genetically engineered eucalyptus trees in North Carolina

Note: News is spreading around the world about the largest protests ever against the genetically engineered tree industry.  Global Justice Ecology Project would like to thank everyone who has participated in or supported this week of action.  Stay tuned to Climate Connections for more updates.  The fun is not over yet.

-The GJEP Team

By Mike Ludwig, May 29, 2013.  Source: Truthout

Protests are raging outside of a biotechnology conference in Asheville, North Carolina, where demonstrators are voicing opposition to proposals to grow genetically engineered eucalyptus trees across the southeastern United States.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched outside the Tree Biotechnology 2013 conference on Wednesday, and organizers said the protest was the largest against genetically engineered trees yet. On Tuesday, two Asheville residents were arrested after disrupting a presentation at the conference, according to a release from activist groups.

The protests come just days after an estimated 2 million people joined protests against biotech giant Monsanto in countries across the world.

Two major sponsors of the biotechnology conference in Asheville, FuturaGene andArborGen, have proposed to introduce genetically engineered eucalyptus trees for commercial cultivation in the United States and Brazil. The trees would be burned as a source of biomass energy.
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by | 2013-05-29 · 14:27

Photo Essay: Hundreds descend upon Tree Biotech conference, demand ban on GE trees

By Will Bennington, May 28, 2013. Photos by Orin Langelle and Will Bennington.  Source: Global Justice Ecology Project

Just a day after two Asheville, NC residents were arrested for interrupting a talk at the Tree Biotechnology 2013 Conference, hundreds of demonstrators descended upon the conference center, throwing the biggest industry event of the year into utter chaos.

The demonstration – the world’s largest ever against GE trees – lasted four hours, and included speakers, singing, chanting and street theatre.

As part of a international movement against extreme energy extraction, demonstrators included members of Earth First!, Tar Sands Blockade, Mountain Justice and anti-mountaintop removal activists.  Local farmers, grandparents, children and students also participated.

Photo: Langelle/photolangelle.org for GJEP

GJEP Executive Director Anne Petermann addresses a crowd of over 200 on the dangers of GE trees. Photo: Langelle/photolangelle.org for GJEP

The demonstration is a major milestone in the international Campaign to STOP GE Trees.  The USDA is currently considering an application from GE tree company ArborGen to deregulate cold-tolerant GE eucalyptus in seven states in the southeastern US.  Industry and activists alike recognize that massive public opposition is a major threat, influencing the USDA’s decision as well as the willingness of investors to sink cash into a highly controversial sector.
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by | · 00:07

Industry conference in crisis amid mass protests against genetically engineered trees

May 28, 2013.  Source: Global Justice Ecology Project

Protestors sent a clear message to the GE tree industry and its investors - expect resistance. Photo: Langelle/photolangelle.org for GJEP

Protestors sent a clear message to the GE tree industry and its investors – expect resistance. Photo: Langelle/photolangelle.org for GJEP

Asheville, NC (US)-Hundreds of demonstrators marched on an international forest biotechnology industry conference today, demanding a ban on the release of genetically engineered trees into the environment.

The protest, the largest yet against GE trees, occurred one day after two Asheville residents were arrested while disrupting a presentation titled “Engineering Trees for the Biorefinery.”

Following the arrests and the threat of protest today, the conference went on high alert. Police maintained a presence inside and outside the hotel conference center all day, participant badges were scrutinized, conference doors were locked during sessions, and hotel access restricted.

Two of the major conference sponsors, FuturaGene and ArborGen, are moving forward with plans to commercially release GE eucalyptus trees in Brazil and the US.
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by | 2013-05-26 · 09:00

March Against Monsanto: Organizations gear up for week-long protests and events against GE trees

May 25, 2013. Source: Global Justice Ecology Project

Participants in the march. Photo: Langelle/langellephoto.org

Participants in the march. Photo: Langelle/langellephoto.org

Asheville, NC (US)-Groups and participants from the Campaign to STOP GE Trees rallied and marched in yesterday’s March Against Monsanto in Asheville, which drew over 1000 people.  Millions of people in hundreds of cities internationally protested the GMO food and chemical giant, Monsanto, condemning their unethical and dangerous practices.
 
Anti-GE tree demonstrators have converged in Asheville to confront the bi-annual Tree Biotechnology conference of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) that starts today and runs through Saturday, 1 June.  ArborGen, one of the sponsors of the IUFRO conference, wants to commercially sell millions of GE eucalyptus trees in seven southern states from South Carolina to Texas.

Thomas Llewellyn, who helped organize the Asheville March Against Monsanto, spoke to the thousand plus crowd before the march, stating, “It’s important to make the connection between companies like Monsanto with their GMO food and ArborGen and their GE trees.  When you look into it a little farther you can see that many Monsanto employees have gone to ArborGen and Monsanto was even an early partner in the venture that became ArborGen.”  Llewellyn continued, “Our food supply has been threatened with genetic contamination for a long time but we have a chance to stop these GE trees before it’s too late.”
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by | 2013-05-24 · 14:00

May 24: Judi Bari ¡Presente!

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the bombing of Earth First!/ Wobbly organizer Judi Bari.

Judi was blown up by a pipe bomb placed under the seat of her car while she was on tour organizing for Redwood Summer–a summer-long campaign of direct action to save the last of the ancient redwoods in California.  She was critically injured and permanently disabled as a result.

-Judi on Beach_2-large

Judi Bari (center) walks on the beach in Northern California, supported by two friends. The bombing left her permanently disabled. Photo: Langelle

Judi was a close friend of Global Justice Ecology Project co-founders Orin Langelle and Anne Petermann.  She passed away in 1997 from breast cancer.  She was a visionary organizer who broke ground in bringing together mill workers and Earth First!ers to oppose the unsustainable logging of ancient redwood forests.

The FBI never found (or looked for) the person responsible for the bombing.  They arrested Judi and her passenger and co-organizer Darryl Cherney for transporting explosives after the bombing.  They were sued by Darryl and Judi’s children for violation of Judi and Darryl’s civil rights.  The FBI was found guilty and forced to pay $4 million in damages.

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by | 2013-05-23 · 09:00

Debate: Should California cap and trade use forestry offsets?

Note: Jeff Conant is a good friend and former Communications Director at Global Justice Ecology Project.  Global Justice Ecology Project has been tracking the California-Acre-Chiapas REDD deal since it was unveiled at the UN climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico in 2010.

In 2011, GJEP’s Co-Director/Strategist Orin Langelle and Communications Director Jeff Conant travelled to Chiapas, Mexico to the Village of Amador Hernandez, an Indigenous village in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas threatened with relocation due to the REDD project.  Langelle took hundreds of photos in the community and the region which were assembled into a poignant photo essay.  And GJEP’s work in Chiapas broke the story of and documented the emerging impacts of REDD.  In 2012, GJEP released a short documentary from the trip, A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests, highlighting the California REDD deal.

-The GJEP Team

By Chris Lang, May 21, 2013. Source: REDD-Monitor

2013-05-21-152400_252x244_scrotThe debate about whether California should allow REDD carbon offsets in its cap and trade scheme (AB 32) continues. Over the weekend, theSacramento Bee published two opinion pieces, one opposing REDD credits and one in favour.

Jeff Conant, International Forests Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, argues against REDD credits. In favour of REDD are Dan Nepstad, director and president of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), and Tony Brunello, the executive director of the Green Technology Leadership Group, partner at California Strategies and former California deputy secretary for climate change and energy.

So far, the discussion in the comments on the Sacramento Bee website following these two articles is dominated by climate sceptics. What follows is a summary of the arguments in the hope of generating a more sensible discussion (either here or on the Sacramento Bee website).

Conant argues that AB 32 is “one of the most forward-thinking pieces of climate legislation in the country”, but one that is already undermined by the inclusion of carbon offsets. It would only be undermined further by the inclusion of REDD credits from a “dubious and untried scheme to protect rain forests in Mexico and Brazil”. Continue reading →

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Filed under Carbon Trading, Chiapas, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests, Green Economy, Indigenous Peoples, Latin America-Caribbean, REDD

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by | 2013-05-13 · 11:00

“March Against Monsanto” planned for over thirty countries

Note: Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and coordinator of the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees, will be a featured speaker at the May 25 “March Against Monsanto” event in Asheville, North Carolina.

Activists from across the region are descending on Asheville to confront a major Tree Biotechnology conference held from May 26-June 1.  Especially targeted will be South Carolina-based ArborGen — originally formed as a partnership with Monsanto — which has a pending request to plant billions of Genetically Engineered eucalyptus trees in monoculture tree plantations across the US South.

Learn more at http://www.treebiotech2013.org

-The GJEP Team

Source: OpEd News

March Against Monsanto has announced that on May 25, tens of thousands of activists around the world will ” March Against Monsanto .” Currently, marches are being planned on six continents, in 36 countries, totaling events in over 250 cities, and in the US, events are slated to occur simultaneously at 11 a.m. Pacific in 47 states.

Tami Monroe Canal, lead organizer and creator of the now-viral Facebook page, says she was inspired to start the movement to protect her two daughters. “I feel Monsanto threatens their generation’s health, fertility and longevity. I couldn’t sit by idly, waiting for someone else to do something.” [The full March Against Monsanto mission statement can be read here.]

An organizer for the march in Athens, Greece, Roberta Gogos, spoke about the importance of the events in austerity-impacted South Europe. “Monsanto is working very hard to overturn EU regulation on obligatory labeling (questionable whether it’s really enforced in any case), and no doubt they will have their way in the end. Greece is in a precarious position right now, and Greece’s farmers falling prey to the petrochemical giant is a very real possibility.” Continue reading →

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by | 2013-05-11 · 14:18

¡Ed Everts Presente!

Ed receives the Peace & Justice Award in 2007. Photo: Langelle/GJEP

Ed Everts receives the Peace & Justice Award in 2007. Photo: Langelle/GJEP

Burlington, VT–Ed Everts, long time Vermont activist and member of  Will Miller Green Mountain Veterans for Peace, passed away on 10 May 2013.

GJEP co-founders Orin Langelle and Anne Petermann met Ed in the early 1990s, and he and his wife Raven were dedicated supporters of Global Justice Ecology Project, as well as the prior organizations founded by Petermann and Langelle.

In 2006, Ed received the Cesar Chavez Peace and Justice Award from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, VT.

In 2007 Ed received the first ever “Peace and Justice Award” from the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington, VT for his lifelong commitment to peace and justice issues.  The award was later named for Ed.

He was presented the award by Joseph Gainza, who said of Ed, “He walks his talk. And we have been grateful to have walked and talked with him during these difficult years when militarism and consumerism have reigned supreme. A teacher by nature, he has provided a generation of young people with guidance and helped them discover their moral compass.”

This video is an interview with Ed about his history of peace and justice activism. It was done by Burlington activist Richard Kemp in 2008 for his program “Near and Far” on Burlington Town Meeting Television.

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