capital blight

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, July 5, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• ANOTHER Corporation Suing Our Government Thanks To Trade Agreements - By Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future, June 28, 2016
• Obama Admin Approved Over 1,500 Offshore Fracking Permits in Gulf of Mexico and Mainstream Media Has Ignored It - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 28, 2016; [related]: This Map Shows Where Offshore Fracking Has Occurred in the Gulf of Mexico - By Mike Ludwig, Truthout, June 30, 2016 | Obama Administration Permitted 1,200 Offshore Fracks in Gulf of Mexico - By Kristen Monsell, Center for Biological Diversity, June 28, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Does Exxon Have a Constitutional Right to Deny Climate Change? - By Natalie Schreyer, Climate Desk, July 5, 2016; [related]: Exxon was on the cutting edge of climate science 40 years ago. Watch what happened next: - By Zoë Wong-Weissman, 350.org, June 29, 2016 | Why won’t Exxon publish its 2015 denial funding? - By Cindy Baxter, Climate Investigations Center, June 27, 2016
• SEC Charges "Frack Master" Chris Faulkner, Shale CEO and Industry Advocate, with $80 Million Fraud - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, July 3, 2016
• Pro-GMO Spin Masquerading as Science Courtesy of "Shameful White Men of Privilege" - By Colin Todhunter, Counterpunch, July 1, 2016; [related]: Genetically Engineered Crops: the Grand and Failed Promise - By Jim Goodman, Counterpunch, July 5, 2016
• 107 Nobel Laureate Attack on Greenpeace Traced Back to Biotech PR Operators - By Jonathan Latham, Counterpunch, July 1, 2016
• Wall St. Journal Shows Why It Is Under Attack For Climate Science Denial By Publishing Another Dodgy Column - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, July 1, 2016
• Public Lands Development Rigged in Favor of Oil and Gas - By Nada Culver, EcoWatch, June 30, 2016
• Fracked Gas LNG Exports Were Centerpiece In Promotion of Panama Canal Expansion, Documents Reveal - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 29, 2016
• Why does the Colombian coal industry need help from a London lobby group? - By Bob Burton, End Coal, June 29, 2016
• High-Level EPA Adviser Accused of Scientific Fraud in Methane Leak Research - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, June 28, 2016
• Kochs Dump Trump to Fund Climate-Denying Senators in Ohio and Nevada - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, June 28, 2016
• Benzene technical standards: Why Ontario’s bait and switch approach puts people’s health at risk - By Ian Miran, EcoJustice, June 27, 2016
• No denying it - By Charles Hatt, EcoJustice, June 27, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Struggling on Dangerous Ground - By staff, 350.org, July 3, 2016
• Guatemala: Diodora’s Resistance to Goldcorp Mine - By Movimiento Mesoamericana Contra el Modelo Extractivo Minero, Translated by Earth First! Journal, July 1, 2016
• Anti-fracking campaigner tells court: “I won’t pay Cuadrilla’s £55k legal bill” - By Ruth Hayhurst, Drill or Drop?, June 24, 2016

Greenwashers:

• A jurisdictional approach will not solve the most serious REDD+ problems - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, July 1, 2016
• Ventura Oil Spill Highlights Big Oil Regulatory Capture - By Dan Bacher, Counterpunch, July 1, 2016
• “Trash and run”: The Melka Group plans to sell its destructive oil palm plantations in Peru - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 30, 2016
• After 6 years of working on climate at Harvard, I implore it to show the courage to divest - By Benjamin Franta, The Guardian, June 29, 2016
• Should North Americans subsidize oil, gas, and coal for another 10 years? - By Alex Doukas, Oil Change International, June 29, 2016
• The Park Service doesn’t need corporate sponsorship. It needs proper funding - By Tom Ribe, High Country News, June 28, 2016; [related]: Rudderless national parks adrift without a compass - By Stephen Duke, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, June 30, 2016
• The World Bank “provisionally” approves the Democratic Republic of Congo’s REDD programme - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 28, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Climate Change’s Growing Impact On People Experiencing Homelessness - By Ryan Koronowski, Think Progress, June 29, 2016
• California: Fires Burn at "Exponential Rates" Amid Blistering Heat Wave and 5-Year Drought - Ken Pimlott interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, June 28, 2016
• Millions exposed to dangerous lead levels in US drinking water, report finds - By Oliver Milman, The Guardian, June 28, 2016; [related]: Dangerous Levels Of Lead Have Been Found In Water Systems Nationwide - By Bryce Covert, Think Progress, June 28, 2016
• Once-in-a-Thousand-Year Flooding Devastates West Virginia, Killing At Least 23 - Bob Henry Baber interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, June 28, 2016

Other News:

• Alaskan Coalition Calls on U.S. to Investigate B.C. Mines - By Judith Lavoie, DeSmog Blog, June 29, 2016
• Environmental Racism is Alive and Well in Grassy Narrows - By Stephen Bede Scharper, Free Grassy Narrows, June 29, 2016
• Java on brink of ecological collapse - By Hans Nicholas Jong and Bambang Muryanto, Jakarta Post, June 24, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

By Hisayo Takada, Shaun Burnie, Kendra Ulrich, and Jan Vande Putte - Greenpeace, July 2016

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, which began on 11 March 2011, released large amounts of radioactivity into the Pacific Ocean. In fact, as calculated by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), “this is the largest one-off injection of artificial radionuclides into the marine environment ever observed.”

This report is based on a review of the extensive scientific research that has been conducted since 2011 on radiocesium in seabed sediments in the Pacific Ocean along the Fukushima coast and in river systems and lakes. It also includes the results of Greenpeace radiation surveys conducted in the coastal waters, estuaries, and rivers of Fukushima prefecture in early 2016, as well as in Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture.

Read the report (PDF).

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 29, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• IEA report says fossil fuels killing three million people a year - By Tim Buckley, REnew Economy, June 27, 2016
• It’s Not Just Crimes Against Nature, It’s Crimes Against People - By Terry Odendahl, EcoWatch, June 22, 2016
• Why some of America’s richest people are living in the middle of nowhere - By Kim Soffen, Washington Post, June 22, 2016
• Scale of climate damages "could dwarf tobacco lawsuits" - By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, June 21, 2016
• Why Mining Corporations Love Trade Deals - By Ben Beachy, Huffington Post, June 21, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Brexiters, Climate Deniers and Trump: A Small World - By ClimateDenierRoundup, Daily Kos, June 27, 2016
• A Brief History of Fossil-Fuelled Climate Denial - By John Cook, The University of Queensland, June 23, 2016
• Australia’s big energy switch: from coal and gas to wind and solar - By Giles Parkinson, Deseret News, June 23, 2016
• How IOGCC Spawned the Lawsuit That Just Overturned BLM Fracking Regulations on Public Lands - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 23, 2016
• U.S. coal giant owed money to Canadian climate change deniers - By Charles Mandel, National Observer, June 16th 2016
• Exxon, Koch Ties May Help Explain Rep. Lamar Smith's Probing Request of "Exxon Knew" Environmental Groups - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 21, 2016
• Oil-Funded Groups Have Spent $2.7 Million To Defeat California Candidates Who Want Climate Action - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, June 21, 2016
• Proposal Sparks Monumental Debate At The Grand Canyon - By Doug Puppel, KNPR, June 21, 2016
• Buzz Kill: How the Pesticide Industry Blocks Bee Protections Nationwide - By Tiffany Finck-Haynes and Christopher D. Cook, EcoWatch, June 20, 2016
• Groups demand federal probe into Utah role in coal port - By Brian Maffley, Salt Lake Tribune, June 20, 2016; [related]: Groups write U.S. Attorney General asking for investigation of coal shipping terminal deal - By Ben Lockhart, Deseret News, June 20, 2016
• Koch Front Groups Are Defending ExxonMobil’s Anti-Science Campaigns - By Connor Gibson, Greenpeace, June 20, 2016
• Western States Petroleum Association wins the prestigious “Scummy” Award - By Dan Bacher, Red, Green, and Blue, June 18, 2016
• Hot Mess: How Radioactive Fracking Waste Wound Up Near Homes And Schools - By Glynis Board, Ohio Valley Resource, June 17, 2016
• Peabody Coal’s Unprecedented Support for Climate Denial - By Aliya Haq, NRDC, June 17, 2016
• Exxon Has No Free Speech Rights to Commit Fraud, say Climate Groups - By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams, June 17, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Berta Cáceres's name was on Honduran military hitlist, says former soldier - By Nina Lakhani, The Guardian, June 21, 2016; [related]: Appeal to the world's free people: UAWC condemns the killing of Berta Cáceres - By Union of Agricultural Work Committees, La Via Campesina, June 22, 2016
• 185 Environmental Activists Across 16 Countries Were Killed in 2015 - By Emily J. Gertz, EcoWatch, June 20, 2016; [related]: 2015 Deadliest Year for Environmentalists on Record, Finds Report - By staff, Yale Environment 360, June 20, 2016 

Greenwashers:

• Obama Administration Approved Gulf Fracking During Deepwater Horizon Disaster - By Mike Ludwig, Truthout, June 24, 2016
• Some questions for WWF about its partnership with logging company Rougier in Cameroon - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 22, 2016
• FCA charges five people with £2.75 million boiler room scam, including Michael Nascimento and Jeannine Lewis - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 21, 2016
• Fracking, the Failure of Mainstream Greens and the Corporate Control of U.S. Energy Policy - By Mark Hand, CounterPunch, June 22, 2016 

Disaster Capitalism:

• Railroad blamed for fiery oil train derailment along Columbia River Gorge - By KATU News and Matthew Brown and Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press, KOMO News, June 23, 2016

Other News:

• Sacramento Judge Rules Delta Plan Is "Invalid" - By Dan Bacher, Indybay, June 23, 2016; [related]: C-WIN, Senator Lois Wolk Praise Judge's Decision To Toss Delta Plan - By Dan Bacher, Daily Kos, June 24, 2016
• Movie Review: There’s a Vast Cowspiracy about Climate Change - By Doug Boucher, Union Concerned Scientists, June 10, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

By staff - Center for International Environmental Law, et. al., Summer 2016

On 3 March 2016, a wave of indignation and repudiation swept the world, condemning the brutal and cowardly assassination of Berta Cáceres, a Honduran environmental activist and community leader who inspired thousands of people through her work promoting the rights of the Lenca people.

Her death came amid a growing number of attacks against human rights defenders, particularly campaigners peacefully defending the environment, the right to land and the rights of indigenous peoples. This situation is not limited to Honduras, but can be seen throughout the continent, in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and Ecuador. This long list is being added to by an increasing number of countries that seem willing to put economic interests before those of people and territories. Reports from numerous organizations confirm a steady deterioration of the situation, highlighting the fact that Latin America has become the most dangerous region in the world for environmental activists.

Various types of attack have been committed against campaigners and their organizations. They range from surveillance campaigns, harassment, and being discredited in the media and social networks, to physical assaults, acts of torture, enforced disappearances and assassinations. In addition, there is widespread corruption and impunity in many countries where relations between state and non-state actors are often ambiguous. We should note, in particular, the attacks against female human rights defenders, who face threats of sexual violence and smear campaigns based on their gender. All of this is exacerbated by the context of increasing criminalization of social protest, and use of the law to suppress dissent in Latin American and Caribbean societies.

Despite the grim outlook, there are reasons to remain optimistic. Civil society has never looked so strong, organized and determined. International solidarity strengthened by the globalization of exchanges between people and organizations makes it possible to bring these struggles out of isolation, and demand accountability to ensure the effective implementation of human rights commitments.

Read the report (EN PDF) | (ES PDF).

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 21, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• TISA 'free trade' deal to force draconian social, environmental, financial deregulation - By Pete Dolack, The Ecologist, June 17, 2016
• Oil Train Tank Cars Are Getting Safer But What About The Tracks? - By Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting, June 15, 2016
• UK fracking policy founded on scientific fraud, misrepresentation and prevarication - By Nick Cowern, The Ecologist, June 15, 2016
• Goldman Sachs Just Ate Denmark for Breakfast - By Jonas Schmidt Hansen, Occupy.Com, June 13, 2016
• My Dishwasher Is What’s Wrong With Capitalism - By Peter Dreier, LA Progressive, June 13, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Denialist Blogger Anthony Watts Posts Error Strewn “Aerial Survey” of Climate Scientists’ Homes - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, June 19, 2016
• Exxon Sues MA Attorney General In Retaliatory Attempt To Intimidate ‘Exxon Knew’ Climate Accountability Movement - By Brendan DeMelle, DeSmog Blog, June 16, 2016; [related]: Exxon Sues Second Attorney General In Response To Fraud Investigation - By Sydney Pereira, Think Progress, June 17, 2016
• Were Historical Pictures of Great Barrier Reef Degradation Really Misused, as The Australian Newspaper Claimed? - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, June 16, 2016
• Conservative Funders of Climate Denial Are Quietly Spending Millions To Generate More Partisan Journalism - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, June 15, 2016
• Court Documents Show Peabody Energy Funded Dozens of Climate Denial Groups - By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, June 14, 2016; [related]: Dirty money bought one coal company a whole lot of denial - By Katie Herzog, Grist, June 14, 2016
• GOP ‘Conservationist’ Running For Senate Has Ties To Companies That Pollute The Environment - By Alejandro Davila Fragoso and Josh Israel, Think Progress, June 14, 2016
• Wall Street Journal Runs Ad Trashing WSJ’s Climate Science Denial - By Joe Romm, Think Progress, June 14, 2016; [related]: Wall Street Journal publishes call for climate action...for cash money - By Katie Herzog, Grist, June 14, 2016
• World’s Biggest Banks Are Driving Climate Change, Pumping Billions Into Extreme Fossil Fuels - By Rainforest Action Network, EcoWatch, June 14, 2016; [related]: Shorting the Climate: Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card 2016 - By Collin Rees, Oil Change International, June 15, 2016; [and]: Green Climate Fund partners condemned for fossil fuel funding - By Ed King, Climate Change News, June 14, 2016
• The Lie That “China Wins” if the TPP Kangaroo Tribunals are Stopped - By William K. Black, New Economic Perspectives, June 5, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Record number of environmental activists murdered in 2015 - By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, June 20, 2016
• Peaceful protest under attack in Sweden’s climate test - By Melanie Mattauch, 350.org, June 16, 2016
• One Indian killed in Brazil, five wounded as tribal community attacked - By staff, Survival International, June 15, 2016
• Will outrage over recent murders help Honduran environmental activists achieve their goal? - By Victoria Molina, Ensia, June 13, 2016

Greenwashers:

• From the chaos of REDD-plus towards the Bonn Challenge’s maze - By Yvette Aguilar, REDD Monitor, June 17, 2016
• Change The System; Not The Climate - By Asoka Bandarage, The Ecologist, June 16, 2016
• World Bank on REDD in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Rome wasn’t built in a day” - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 15, 2016; [related]: World Bank on REDD: “We have made great achievements in 2015 and we’re now focussing on implementation” - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 14, 2016  

Disaster Capitalism:

• Deleting the Real Story Behind the Great Canada Fire - By Paul Street, CounterPunch, June 16, 2016; [related]: Gas Stations Close as Fire Rages Near Alberta Oil Sands - By Jan Lee, The Triple Pundit, June 14, 2016 

Other News:

• The human cost of privatization-MARTA Outsourcing Mobility Leaving Workers and Riders Behind - By staff, ATU, June 16, 2016
• Superbugs to kill 10 million a year by 2050 - By James Plested, Red Flag, May 31, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

By Clark Williams-Derry - Sightline Institute, June 17, 2016

This report documents massive exports of federally owned coal from 2000-15. The US Bureau of Land Management sold private companies the right to mine this coal for a pittance—in some cases, for less than 20 cents per ton. And when Asian demand was red-hot, these companies made massive profits selling millions of tons of federal coal overseas. Nonetheless, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has essentially ignored export economics when setting the “fair market value” that it will accept for federal coal leases. Now that the Department of Interior has placed a three-year moratorium on new coal leases pending a thorough review of federal coal policies, BLM has an ideal opportunity for a thorough review of the economics of exports. And our report points to evidence that by ignoring exports, the BLM has been selling many federal coal leases at just a fraction of their true economic value.

Read the report (PDF).

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 14, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• In Louisiana Shrimping Communities, Globalization's Effects Imperil US Fishers - By Michael Stein, Truthout, June 12, 2016; [related]: Africatown Supporters Travel to Washington DC in Search of Environmental Justice - By Joe Womack, Bridge the Gulf, June 12, 2016 
• Bridging the Trust Gap in Energy Justice Battles - By Mark Hand, CounterPunch, June 10, 2016
• After Keystone XL: TransCanada Building North American Fracked Gas Pipeline Empire - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 9, 2016
• The Book the Fracking Industry Doesn’t Want You to Read - By Wenonah Hauter, EcoWatch, June 7, 2016
• ‘Free Trade’ Will Kill Progress on Climate Change, 450 Groups Warn Congress - By Nika Knight, Common Dreams, June 6, 2016
• For Oil Industry, Clean Air Fight Was Dress Rehearsal for Climate Denial - By Neela Banerjee, David Hasemyer, and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 6, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change - By Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson, The Guardian, June 13, 2016 [related]: Court Documents Show Coal Giant Peabody Energy Funded Dozens Of Climate Denial Groups - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, June 13, 2016
• Internal Documents Reveal How MSNBC Show Worked To Promote Fracking - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 13, 2016
• Meet the climate sceptics backing the Brexit campaign - By Ed King, Climate Change News, June 13, 2016
• Fox in Hen House: Online Auctions For Oil and Gas Leases On Public Lands May Be Industry-Owned and Run - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 10, 2016
• How a Senator Turned Exxon Lobbyist Limits Access to His Public University-Based Archives - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 10, 2016
• EU energy chiefs favouring fossil fuel lobbyists, says report - By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, June 9, 2016
• Green PR Firm Secretly Working for Oil and Petrochemical Industry - By Eric de Place and Nick Abraham, Sightline Institute, June 9, 2016
• Revealed: The Brussels Breakfast Lobby Group Exxon and BP Don’t Want You To Know They’re Part Of - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, June 9, 2016
• The Australian Newspaper Misrepresents Science In Great Barrier Reef Bleaching Editorial, Says Scientist It Quoted - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, June 7, 2016
• This lobbyist denied climate change for ExxonMobil. Now he’ll do it for Trump - By Melissa Cronin, Grist, June 7, 2016
• Peabody's Outlier Gang Couldn't Shoot Straight In Minnesota Carbon Case, Judge Rebuffs Happer, Lindzen, Spencer, Mendelsohn, Bezdek - By John Mashey, DeSmog Blog, June 7, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Earth Minute: Anne Petermann on “Guardian of the Forests” Movement in Mexico - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, June 8, 2016
• Indigenous Forest Defender Illegally Jailed in Mexico - By Rick Kearns, Indian Country Today, June 3, 2016

Greenwashers:

• The thirst for the sea: lack of water and new extractivist markets - Translated by Pietro Casati, Theory Without Borders, June 13, 2016
• CA Officials Want To Allow Oil Industry To Dump Toxic Waste Into Aquifers, Exempt Them From Federal Protection - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, June 12, 2016
• Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the REDD+ Ngoyla-Mintom project in Cameroon - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 10, 2016
• WWF scandal (part 7): WWF teams up with loggers rather than indigenous peoples in Cameroon - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 7, 2016
• Timber Regulating Timber - By Will Parrish, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 1, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• The role of climate change in the Syria crisis: how the media got it wrong - By Alex Randall, New Internationalist, June 10, 2016
• 777 days later, Congress hasn’t lifted a finger for Flint - By Katie Herzog, Grist, June 10, 2016; [related]: Flint: The conditions for riots - By Justin King, The Fifth Column, June 2, 2016
• ‘They Did Everything They Could Have Done’: The Tragedy Of The Oregon Oil Derailment - By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, June 8, 2016
• Union Pacific Apologizes for “Inconvenience” as Oil Drips Onto Tracks and Trains Resume after Explosion - By Mike M, Portland Rising Tide, June 8, 2016
• Fukushima: Worse Than a Disaster - By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, June 7, 2016

Other News:

• Privatizing Public Services: A Free-Market Fiasco - By Gregory N. Heires, The New Crossroads, June 12, 2016
• The Great Unraveling: Oil, Gas and the Future of Colorado - By Philip Doe, CounterPunch, June 8, 2016
• Texas consumers pay more in deregulated electricity markets, study says - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, June 8, 2016
• The fight against TTIP is not over ‘till it’s over - By Tony Burke, Left Foot Forward, June 6, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 7, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• The Legacy of the Obama Administration: An Interview With Noam Chomsky - By C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout, June 2, 2016
• Ecuador: power from below amidst great adversity - By CROAR, ROARMag, June 1, 2016
• Boom: North America's Explosive Oil-by-Rail Problem - By Marcus Stern and Sebastian Jones, InsideClimate News, June 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Former FERC Official Hired By Company With $1.8 Million Stake In Spectra Energy Pipeline Project He Had Reviewed - By Itai Vardi, DeSmog Blog, June 6, 2016
• Attorney Generals Investigating ExxonMobil Refuse Congress - By Michael Virtanen, Associated Press, June 5, 2016; [related]: 'Illegitimate' Request Denied: GOP Gets Middle Finger for #ExxonKnew Ploy - By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, June 1, 2016 
• Follow the Money: Republican Attorneys General Attack on the Clean Power Plan - By Americans United for Change, EcoWatch, June 3, 2016
• IOGCC Representatives Spout Climate Denial at ExxonMobil-Funded Meeting - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, June 2, 2016 
• Introducing America Rising Squared, U.S. Republicans' "Creepy" New Assault on Climate Action - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, May 31, 2016
• IPA renews call to abolish ARENA. But does it know why? - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, May 27, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Mining, money and murder on the South African coast - By Richard, London Mining Network, June 5, 2016
• Hillary, Honduras, and the Murder of My Friend Berta - By Porfirio Quintano, Counterpunch, May 30, 2016; [related]: Global Action “Justice for Berta Caceres”: June 15, 2016 - By COPINH, World Rainforest Movement, June 5, 2016; [and]: Correspondence with the World Bank Regarding Berta Cáceres and Large Dams - By staff, World Rainforest Movement, May 15, 2016 

Greenwashers:

• British banks backing coal - By Richard, London Mining Network, June 5, 2016
• An email trail of a carbon credit scam (part 2). Featuring 360 Invest Group, Carbon-ex, and Colemans-CTTS - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 3, 2016
• The virtual economy of REDD: Conflicts of interest, hot air, and dodgy baselines - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, June 2, 2016
• Obama Administration Approves Resumption of Offshore Fracking in California -  By Dan Bacher, Daily Kos, May 28, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Europe’s floods come as no surprise - By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network, June 5, 2016
• Luck Rides The Rails: Another Near Miss with an "Insane" Bakken Oil Bomb Train - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, June 5, 2016; [related]: Fire Chief: “Its Insane” to Ship Bakken Crude by Rail -  By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, June 5, 2016; [and]: Mosier Fire Chief Calls Shipping Bakken Crude Oil By Rail 'Insane' - By Amelia Templeton, Oregon Public Broadcasting, June 4, 2016
• Fort McMurray residents rally together as families, workers return to 'devastated' city -  By Teuila Fuatai, Rabble.Ca, June 3, 2016; [related]: Thousands of oilsands workers losing pay from Alberta wildfires - By Gordon Kent, Edmonton Journal, May 21, 2016

Other News:

• Peru: Chancayanos Vow Resistance to Port’s Construction - By Conflictos Mineros, Earth First! Newswire, June 5, 2016
• Victory in Guatemala for People Against Mining - By Conflictos Mineros, Earth First! Newswire, June 5, 2016
• Credibility of Brazil’s Interim President Collapses as He Receives 8-Year Ban on Running for Office - By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept, June 3, 2016
• Mexico: No Compromise Against Airport and Highway Construction - By Palabras Rebeldes, Earth First! Newswire, June 1, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

By Alex V. Barnard - Discard Studies, June 6, 2016

“Seeing all the waste exposes very clearly the priorities in our society, that making a profit is more important than feeding people, than preserving the environment, than making use of resources, than honoring peoples’ time, labor, love, and effort. What we see with waste is that once something cannot make money, it is discarded and of no value.”

The denunciation above came from a member of the group “freegan.info,” a group which since 2005 has led “trash tours” through New York City with the aim of exposing and the wealth of waste produced by our food system and—as they claim—capitalism itself. While the freegan group I studied never had more than a dozen members, their evocations of “waste” echo widely across other contemporary movements. At Occupy Wall Street, authorities and activists battled over whether it was the occupiers or the financial system that were a waste of human effort and needed to “clean up” (Bolton, Froese, and Jeffrey 2016; Liboiron 2012). The encampments’ (re)use of waste and refuse, adopted the model of longer-running networks like Food Not Bombs: to repurpose capitalism’s detritus to provide food, housing, and transport for those living, voluntarily or involuntarily, on the margins of market society (Giles 2013; Heynen 2010).

Waste may be particularly symbolically and materially visible in contemporary anti-capitalism, but claims that capitalism is “wasteful” have haunted the economic system from the beginning. What the meaning behind movements’ evocations of “waste,” though, have varied across different capitalist “waste regimes” (Gille 2008): the configuration of modes of producing, representing, and politicizing waste that dominate in a particular historical moment. Only by seeing the long-running but evolving evolving politicization of capitalism’s waste can we see the specificity of how waste is used in contemporary anti-capitalist movements—which, in my new book (Barnard 2016), I describe in terms of the use of “ex-commodities” to challenge a neo-liberal “fetish of waste.”