dysnomia.us

sea shepherd update

The Shonan Maru No. 2 comes into view around an iceberg:

More pictures here:

• The Green Picture: Iceberg Cat And Mouse

There was a new confrontation between the Shonan Maru and the Steve Irwin on Tuesday. Here’s two sides of the story:

• Water Cannon Battle In Frigid Seas: Report from Captain Paul Watson
• Dutch vessel attacks again Japanese ship Shonan Maru No. 2 (pdf)

The Ady Gil finally caught up with the Steve Irwin just after midnight Wednesday morning (yes, it’s still Tuesday night here.) Looks like they switched the green laser thing to the Ady Gil, or else each ship is equipped with one. It’s apparently a handheld device of some sort. I suppose it explains what they mean by “The Ady Gil crew defended their ship utilizing photonic disrupters in an effort to get the Shonan Maru No. 2 to back off to a safe distance.”

• Ady Gil Arrives in Antarctica
• New Zealand watercraft attacks Japanese ship Shonan Maru No. 2

I do appreciate, by the way, how many of my best pictures are coming from the whalers.

And here’s another take on the Sea Shepherd visit to French researchers at Commonwealth Bay, from the researchers’ side. Sounds like they’re a bunch of enviros, as you’d have to be to work there, but also like they’re happy to see almost anyone visit. No one else was expected there until sometime next month.

• Unexpected guests for dinner

prisoners

On the topic of direct action…

• SUV arsonist Jeffrey “Free” Luers released from prison

Radical environmentalist Jeffrey “Free” Luers has been released from prison after spending more than nine years behind bars for setting three SUVs on fire at a Eugene dealership.

I went to Green Is The New Red to find out more about that, and came across this instead:

• My Student is a Sociologist, Not a Terrorist

On November 17, 2009, Scott DeMuth was jailed for contempt of court, since he refused to answer questions posed to him by a federal grand jury in Davenport, Iowa. They were interested in questioning him about his knowledge of an unsolved Animal Liberation Front action in 2004 at the University of Iowa. Scott is a University of Minnesota graduate student and Dakota language student. Scott took a principled stand against the grand jury and paid for it with a contempt charge and, two days later, a charge of conspiracy to commit “animal enterprise terrorism.”

All of which reminded me of this, which is a couple of weeks old by now but still of interest:

• China Jails Environmentalist Wanted in U.S.

omg sonic beams and lasers

Giant waterfights too:

• Sea Shepherd crew logs season’s first clash with Japanese whalers

First encounter of the season, and it turns into a water cannon battle:

A couple of days later, the Japanese deploy their Long Range Acoustical Device, and Sea Shepherd busts out a laser on them. Oh, and tries to foul their propeller too:

• Sea Shepherd complain about Japan’s ‘military’ fightback
• Sea Shepherd Aim Laser Ray At Japanese Whalers

Judging from that picture, the Steve Irwin’s got some new anti-boarding measures- the yellow spiky things along the side. You can see it better in some other pictures here. Looks like maybe a new hangar for their helicopter, too.

And where’s the Ady Gil during all of this?

• Whale crew return again

Back in port again, it seems. This time their new radar got wiped out by a big wave. That was a couple of days ago, and I can’t find any indication that they’ve sailed yet.

sea and space

Sea Shepherd vs. Japan, round 3- now under way:

• Whale protesters sail for southern ocean
• Japan sends ships to monitor whaling protests

And looking up a bit, Burt Rutan & co. unveiled their second generation space ship yesterday. This one is supposed to carry actual paying passengers in the next couple of years:

• Virgin joins 70-mile-high club with launch of spaceship

sea shepherd pre-season roundup

The Japanese whaling fleet has set out for the Antarctic for another year of hunting disguised as research. Not surprisingly, Sea Shepherd is not far behind. Operation Waltzing Matilda sails from Australia next week, and they’ve got an awesome new ship this time:

The Ady Gil (formerly known as the Earthrace) is faster than anything either fleet has ever had, and it’s got Kevlar armor and a coat of stealth paint as well. Paul Watson says they’ll use it to get between Japanese harpoons and the whales.

If anyone’s going to get killed this year, this is how it’ll happen. The Ady Gil was built for a world speed record at circumnavigating the globe, not for frigid waters and icebergs. That kevlar armor may help, but the ship seems a mite delicate, and Antarctica is a long way from any real repairs.

But hey, Sea Shepherd crew say they’re willing to risk their lives, and they’ve certainly pushed their luck in the past. Sooner or later we’ll find out just how much they mean it.

Is it worth the risk, though? One measure is whether they can actually stop the whaling. They’ve cut into it in the past, depriving the Japanese fleet of its profits. This year, the heavily subsidized whaling program is under the scrutiny of budget-balancers. A combination of bad press and financial failure could be enough to scuttle the program.

Japan has fought back in a variety of ways. Last year they got Interpol in on the act, and more recently they’ve tried to get the Netherlands to yank the registration of Sea Shepherd’s other ship, the Steve Irwin. The Japanese wouldn’t cooperate with the Dutch investigation, however, so the Dutch refused this week to take action.

And Animal Planet is tagging along again for a third season of Whale Wars. I have to admit I’ve only watched a little of the first season so far, because hey, who can be bothered with TV? But it’s getting them more exposure than any direct action campaign I can think of on the enviro side of things, so I’m glad it’s still going strong.

The action is due to start sometime in December, so I’ll be sure to keep you up to date.

roma under attack, kosovo mayhem and political trials

Europe may be your liberal utopia, but if you want to see its true colors, ask the Roma.

• Hungary’s Gypsies targeted in deadly attacks
• As Economic Turmoil Mounts, So Do Attacks on Hungary’s Gypsies

Jozsef Bencze, Hungary’s national police chief, said in an interview on Friday with the daily newspaper Nepszabadsag that the perpetrators, believed to be a group of four or more men in their 40s, were killing “with hands that are too confident.” Military counterintelligence is taking part in the investigation, Hungarian radio reported, and Mr. Bencze said the pool of suspects included veterans of the Balkan wars and Hungarian members of the French Foreign Legion.

Experts on Roma issues describe an ever more aggressive atmosphere toward Roma in Hungary and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, led by extreme right-wing parties, whose leaders are playing on old stereotypes of Roma as petty criminals and drains on social welfare systems at a time of rising economic and political turmoil. As unemployment rises, officials and Roma experts fear the attacks will only intensify.

Kosovo has never fully settled down after declaring independence, and unrest seems to be increasing again. No comprehensive roundup for today, but just a snapshot:

• EU police repel angry Serbs as violence flares in Northern Kosovo
• Serbia expects no more countries will recognise Kosovo
• Kosovo ‘Close’ to Joining IMF, Finance Chief Says
• History books for Kosovo Serbs to be rewritten
• Thieves snatch seized drugs from Kosovo police HQ

And assorted treehuggers facing The Man:

• Mafia Law Used Against Environmentalists for Tree Sits, Civil Disobedience, Blog Post
• Sea Shepherd trial will go ahead, judge rules

(Typical lousy Earth First! photo. Can’t tell what’s going on, can’t read the banners. They’re treesitting, if that helps.)

omg terrorists!

The FBI says this guy is the first “domestic terrorist” to hit the Most Wanted Terrorists list, but Katie Monster is reading over my shoulder and reminds me not to believe this. I know I’ve seen alleged “eco-terrorists” on the list before, so there must be some technicality involved here. Or they’re full of it. Whatever. Anyway, he’s wanted for bombing companies that did business with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

• Where in the World Is Daniel San Diego?
  FBI Adding Fugitive and Alleged Eco-Terrorist to Most Wanted List

Not a bad idea to see what Green Is The New Red has to say about it:

• Animal Rights Activist Named Alongside Bin Laden on FBI’s Terrorist List

It was an overtly political move to neutralize the growing chorus of opposition to the recent DHS memo warning of right-wing extremism. When the memo came out, right wing groups sprang into action (much more so than environmental or animal groups have) and have already filed a lawsuit. Meanwhile, some environmentalists mistakenly saw it as reason to believe the Green Scare is over.

KM also points out that it’s World Week For Animals In Laboratories, so this may be the FBI warning folks not to get any bright ideas.

Of course if you go around blowing things up, you should expect the cops to be looking for you and people to call you a terrorist. It’s just curious the FBI has never shown this zeal to catch doctor-killers or clinic-bombers.

If you should happen to see this fugitive, please give him food and money and a place to hide, even if you’re not an animal rights supporter. If you’re reading me, you probably have more in common with him than with the police, and it’s a good idea to support anyone who opens up space for more militant action.

And in news of other animal rights activists getting the shaft:

• 2 charged in threats against UCLA research scientists

Sounds like they’re being charged with felonies because they’re known for legal, above-ground actions protected by the First Amendment. This is pretty common- the cops can’t find the people committing the actual crimes, so they bust whoever they can find, hoping to wring some sort of information out of them and hoping to scare the other activists into silence.

It does demonstrate some flawed strategy on the part of the animal rights crowd, however. Mixing above-ground and underground action on the same campaign creates a huge hazard for the law-abiding activists, who probably didn’t sign up for years of trials and prison. Are the bombings effective enough to counter the loss of good activists and the chilling effect on the whole movement? Maybe, although unlikely. It’s situational. But I suspect no one ever did a cost-benefit.

Not so much flawed strategy as a lack of strategy. Not on everyone’s part necessarily, but probably on the part of the bombers.

earth day or whatever

I guess Earth Day is still a good idea- raising awareness, building commitment and all that. But it’s also an excuse for corporate greenwashing and for token actions that don’t mean much without the other 364 days of the year. Maybe it’s time to start promoting Earth Night again:

• Spooked oilpatch posts $500K reward
• Pipeline bombers probably local: expert

Joosse is convinced the attacks are being carried out by someone who lives in the area, but said it’s difficult to say whether it’s a single individual or a “small tightly knit group.”

“Even if it is an individual,” said Joosse, “there are other people who know about this person and are complicit in helping, if only through their silence.”

Residents blocked oil and gas vehicles on a road running through the community of Kelly Lake last summer, an event Joosse said was a precursor to the explosions.

Joosse said the blockade was an illustration of “widespread community support for civil disobedience, and a widespread sentiment of frustration” by locals angry over what they see as the destruction of their land.

This one makes a little less sense. I can understand the poetic justice of attacking a polluter with pollution, but I can’t see a lot of activist types actually doing it. Not to mention that dumping 1200 pounds of waste seems like a big enough task to make security difficult. Curiously, I seem to remember a similar story from the Connecticut area in the last couple of months. I’m going to look around for that again.

• Eco-Terror Threat: Connecticut DEP Finds Chemical ‘Of Concern’ At Wood-Burning Plant Site

The search for contaminants began Tuesday, when DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy got a letter claiming to be from the group of environmental activists called Earth First. The letter, which also had been mailed to Plainfield Renewable Energy and the Norwich Bulletin newspaper, claimed that Earth First dumped substances at the site of PRE’s planned plant near Norwich, Mill Brook and Tarbox roads.

Saying PRE is “guilty of plotting to commit crimes against the environment,” the letter-writer stated that they dumped 1,200 pounds of substances in six locations on the 27-acre property — “the same pollution that PRE intends to dump on their neighbors.” The letter lists the following chemicals: “Lead Mercury Asbestos Toluene Benzene Perchloroethylene and Creosote.”

Here are a couple of less-intense things we could do. This is a pretty decent argument for cities like Portland to reconsider their attraction to streetcars and light rail, and build a bus system that works better than what we have now and is more flexible than the rail we want (by way of Jack Bog):

• Get On the Bus

And here’s a notion of how to make bikes more attractive to Americans:

• What we talk about when we talk about city bikes

This may all seem a bit much compared to the bicycles we’re used to, but consider the North American equivalent to the city bike: the private automobile. Just think of how silly it would be if you had to carry your groceries on your back when you used a car to get somewhere. Or if you wanted to go out at night, but your lights had run out of batteries. Would you buy a car that didn’t come eqiupped with lights to begin with, requiring you to buy separate lights that you had to attach yourself? What if a car rusted into uselessness if parked outside in the winter? Cars, like city bikes, are designed for practical transportation.

And some dismal science from the sea:

• Overfishing Means Marine Animals Are Starving: Report
• Ocean Dead Zones Likely To Expand: Increasing Carbon Dioxide And Decreasing Oxygen Make It Harder For Deep-sea Animals To Breath

(picture and link by way of Treehugger)