labor and environment

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 22, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Mountaintop removal country’s mental health crisis - By Clayton Aldern, Grist, February 17, 2016
• In Exchange For Cutting Benefits, This Bankrupt Coal Company Agreed To Pay Executives Millions - By Nicole Gentile, Think Progress, February 16, 2016
• The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa is appalled by the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Zuma on 11 February 2016 - By Irvin Jim, NUMSA, February 15, 2016
• Healthy Ground, Healthy Atmosphere: Recarbonizing the Earth's Soils - By Nancy Averett, Truthout, February 14, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Appalachia Resist: Regional Action Camp for Social & Environmental Justice - March 18-21
• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11 – 13, 2016
• Cove Point Spring Break - March 6-14
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• Derailing Big Oil’s Plans for San Luis Obispo and Benicia - By Ethan Buckner, ForestEthics, February 18, 2016
• Coal Opponents Claim Small Victory at Oakland City Council  - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, February 17, 2016; [related] New poll reveals that over 75 percent of Oakland voters oppose coal-export proposal - By Staff, Sierra Club Yodeler, February 17, 2016
• As Fossil Fuel Industry Staggers, a Massive Gas Pipeline Project Endures in Texas - By Dahr Jamail, Truthout, February 15, 2016
• Air pollution emergency announced, but these people fighting for solution face jail time - By Chris Court-Dobson, The Canary, February 13, 2016

Just Transition:

• Winter Newsletter - By Staff, Alliance for Appalachia, February 17, 2016
• Why 2016 will be the best year yet for climate justice - By Kari Malkki, Reuters, February 15, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Climate Justice and Palestine: the New Intersectionality - By Alice Rothchild, CounterPunch, February 19, 2016
• Land and Ocean Grabs Not the Solution to Climate Change - By Salena Tramel, The World Post, February 19, 2016
• Monsant o's pride, Monsanto's fall: playing God with the Indian farmer - By Colin Todhunter, The Ecologist, February 19, 2016
• Familias Unidas takes Boycott to Washington, DC - By admin, Boycott Sakuma Berries, February 18, 2016
• Familias Unidas Attends PCC Board of Trustees Meeting in Seattle - By admin, Boycott Sakuma Berries, February 17, 2016
• US Farmers Allege Deception by Agrochemical Giant: The Case Against Syngenta - By Clara Herzberg, Truthout, February 17, 2016
• FAO should support seed selection by peasants and small scale farmers - By Guy Kastler, La Via Campesina, February 16, 2016
• Arms, agribusiness, finance and fossil fuels: the four horsemen of the neoliberal Apocalypse - By Colin Todhunter, The Ecologist, February 15, 2016
• Corporate vision of the future of food promoted at the UN - By Guy Kastler, et.al., La Via Campesina, February 15, 2016
• European dairy farmers facing an untenable situation since 2014 - By Jose–Miguel Pacheco and Genevieve Savigny, La Via Campesina, February 15, 2016
• FAO Symposium on Biotechnology: The biotechnology industry runs the show - By Various, La Via Campesina, February 15, 2016
• Opinion: Women farmers in Europe - By Hanny van Geel, Agricultures, December 2015
• Peasant women power in Mozambique - By Boaventura Monjane, Agricultures, December 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Battle Lines Are Drawn as Congress Reforms the 40-Year-Old Toxic Substances Control Act - By Reynard Loki, Alternet, February 18, 2016
• CP Rail acted in bad faith when firing this conductor after Banff derailment: arbitrator - By Reid Southwick, Calgary Herald, February 18, 2016
• So, is Don Blankenship ‘hardly a criminal’? - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette, February 18, 2016
• USW, Mexican Miners’ Union Accuse Asarco, Parent Firm of Rights Violations - By Ben Davis, United Steelworkers, February 18, 2016
• Global Union Coalition Expresses Solidarity, Support for Local 235A - By Staff, United Steelworkers, February 17, 2016
• Plant Shutdown Threatens Pennsylvania Town's Water Supply - By Arthur Delaney, Huffington Post, February 17, 2016
• Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 241, Executive Board Member and Union Steward Fired by CTA for Enforcing Union Contract - By ATU Local 241, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, February 16, 2016
• NUMSA message on the Lily mine disaster - By Irvin Jim, NUMSA, February 16, 2016
• Dozens of Australian building sites contaminated by illegal Chinese asbestos imports, authorities say - By Angelique Donnellan, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, February 15, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Groups Say Secretary Moniz Won't Protect Porter Ranch - By Dan Bacher, Daily Kos, February 17, 2016
• Carbonballs: How Carbon Neutral Investments made Newcastle United “carbon positive” - By Chris Lang, REDD-Monitor, February 16, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• New federal artificial turf study will lead to more questions - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, February 16, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• "Thirsty for Democracy: The Poisoning of an American City": Complete Democracy Now! Special on Flint - By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, February 17, 2016; [related] As They Drank Contaminated Water, Flint Residents Were Charged The Highest Water Rates In The Country - By Bryce Covert, Think Progress, February 17, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 15, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• What the media hides about China’s economic slowdown: Greed has corporate elites turning blind eye to nation’s environmental destruction - By Bob Hennelly, Salon, February 10, 2016
• How Industry and Regulators Kept Public in the Dark After 2014 LNG Explosion in Washington - By Tarika Powell, Sightline Daily, February 8, 2016
• Organic Agriculture, Capitalism and the Parallel World of the Pro-GMO Evangelist - By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, February 8, 2016
• Newsletter: Global Solidarity Is Rising - By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance, February 7, 2016
• Why the oil industry could be a stain on economic recovery in US - By Jana Kasperkevic, The Guardian, February 7, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Appalachia Resist: Regional Action Camp for Social & Environmental Justice - March 18-21
• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11 – 13, 2016
• Cove Point Spring Break - March 6-14
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• Coal Money Divides Oakland's Churches - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, February 10, 2016
• Hundreds urge Planning Commission to deny Phillips 66′s dangerous oil train proposal - By Elly Benson, Sierra Club Yodeler, February 8, 2016
• Broad Coalition in San Luis Obispo Blasts Tar Sands Invasion - By Paul W. Rea, Sunflower Alliance, February 7, 2016
• Here are all the Northwest cities, governments and organizations that oppose oil trains - By Nick Abraham, Oil Check, January 28, 2016

Just Transition:

• Solar Net Metering Challenge In Maine - By Glenn Meyers, Clean Technica, February 12, 2016
• Good Policy Gone Bad: How Nevada Killed Jobs And Clean Energy Competition - By Jim Marston, Environmental Defense Fund, February 11, 2016
• 75,000 Solar Jobs In California, Says New Report - By Jake Richardson, Clean Technica, February 11, 2016
• California And Massachusetts Lead U.S. Solar Boom - By Alejandro Davila Fragoso, Think Progress, February 10, 2016
• States See Robust Solar Job Growth, But Are Those Jobs Secure? - By Julia Pyper, Green Tech Media, February 10, 2016
• Farmers, community and enviro groups rally at Vic Parliament: Call for gasfield ban & renewables ambition - By Leigh Ewbank, Yes2Renewables, February 9, 2016
• Residents fight for economic and environmental justice in one Illinois town - By Raven Rakia, Grist, February 9, 2016
• Social partners and the collaborative approach are key to the green transition of the Ruhr region - By Béla Galgóczi, European Trade Union Institute, February 9, 2016
• Switching on to energy democracy - By Claire Fauset, New Internationalist, February 9, 2016
• Brooklyn Youth Create Jobs (and Community Roots) Through Local Compost Program - By Rebecca Nathanson, Yes! Magazine, February 5, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• MST: We are entering a new period of class struggle - By MST National Coordination, La Via Campesina, February 12, 2016
• California Farmers Irrigate Crops With Chevron’s Oil Wastewater in Drought-Stricken Central Valley - By Cole Mellino, EcoWatch, February 10, 2016
• Jail term for villagers opposing Bolloré/Socfin’s palm oil plantations in Sierra Leone as trial of French journalists starts in Paris - By  Joseph Rahall, et. al., World Rainforest Movement, February 10, 2016
• Coffee Farmers Sue Monsanto for Hiding Cancer-Causing Impact of Glyphosate - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, February 9, 2016
• A real system change has to come from below, says Paula Gioia, the European Youth ICC member of La Via Campesina - By Den Haag, La Via Campesina, February 9, 2016
• Breaking the system designed to keep tea workers poor - By Sabita Banerji, New Internationalist, February 8, 2016
• Farm defenders halt construction at the Gill Tract a second time - By Occupy the Farm, IndyBay, February 8, 2016
• Hot off the press!… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, February 8, 2016
• Local Farmworkers Disrupt Costco Shareholders Meeting - By Káráni, Káráni, February 8, 2016
• Weekend of Farmworker Solidarity in California and Washington - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, February 8, 2016
• Environmental racism in the “leftmost city” - By esewra, Santa Cruz Ecological Justice, January 27, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 9, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Naomi Klein: Climate Change "Not Just About Things Getting Hotter" - By Michael Winship, Truthout, February 4, 2016
• Trying to exploit rural anger - Jessica Campbell interviewed by Wael Elasady, Socialist Worker, February 3, 2016
• Five Stories To Watch in the Arch Coal Bankruptcy: Big executive bonuses; shafting workers and the environment; and more - By Clark Williams-Derry, Sightline Daily, February 2, 2016
• 300 Union Plumbers Spent The Weekend Installing Water Filters For Flint Residents For Free - By Judd Legum, Think Progress, February 1, 2016
• GM, union workers take 56,700 water bottles to Flint - By Megan Little, WANE TV, January 29, 2016
• To Charles Koch, Universities Are Propaganda Machines - By Connor Gibson, Huffington Post, January 27, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• The struggle for responsible investment continues: UBC committee votes against divestment - By Jen Halsall, Rabble.Ca, February 4, 2016
• Stand with the #Heathrow 13 - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, February 3, 2016
• In Washington, the 'necessity defense' on trial alongside activists - By Cally Carswell, High Country News, February 2, 2016

Just Transition:

• Democratic Energy and Climate Change - By Yavor Tarinski, Resilience, February 4, 2016
• New Bill Would Clean Up Abandoned Coal Mines And Jump Start The Appalachian Economy - By Katie Valentine, Think Progress, February 4, 2016
• Solar Decision Will Burn Low-Income Californians - By Tom Dalzell, Beyond Chron, February 4, 2016
• Hal Rogers files bill to release $1 billion in AML funds for economic development in coal communities - By Ivy Brashear, Renew Appalachia, February 3, 2016
• Unions Part of London Campaign to Bring ‘Energy for People, Not for Profit’ - By Archie Davies, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, February 3, 2016
• UK Government Bails Out North Sea; Gives “Nothing to Solar” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, February 1, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Bold Nebraska Delivers Petition Urging Legislature to Stand With Family Farmers, Vote NO on Corporate Pig Bill LB 176 - By Mark Hefflinger, Bold Nebraska, February 4, 2016
• Dairy Crisis: Enough evaluations, it’s high time for the Commission to act - By Staff, La Via Campesina, February 3, 2016
• La Via Campesina, Building an International Movement for Food and Seed Sovereignty - By Simone Adler, La Via Campesina, February 3, 2016
• National Farmers Union to be part of climate change solutions in Manitoba - By Staff, La Via Campesina, February 2, 2016
• Monsanto’s Roundup Kills and Damages More than Weeds - By Shepherd Bliss, CounterPunch, February 1, 2016
• Worst Trade Union of the Year Award: a Small Farm Future Special - By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future, January 30, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Canada must act now to save its steel-making industry - By Paul Weinberg, Rabble.Ca, February 5, 2016
• How the Bundy Gang Won - By George Wuerthner, CounterPunch, February 5, 2016
• Three missing after South African gold mine collapses, trapping 87 - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, February 5, 2016
• CP Rail propane cars collide near Edmonton in 3rd 'remote control' accident - By Dave Seglins, CBC, February 4, 2016
• Hazelwood owner charged over 45-day coal mine fire - By Sophie Vorrath, REnew Economy, February 4, 2016
• Heather White and the Human Costs of Electronics - By Cecilia Jamasmie, CounterPunch, February 4, 2016
• Glazer: Rework BART union contracts before $3 billion bond vote - By Sam Richards, Contra Costa Times, February 3, 2016
• Saeed Baloch, Advocator for Fishermen’s Rights, Arrested in Pakistan - By Real World Radio, La Via Campesina, February 3, 2016
• What’s Happened With The Oregon Occupation Since You Stopped Paying Attention - By Laurel Raymond, Think Progress, February 3, 2016
• Report: Even After 2013 Texas Fertilizer Explosion, Hundreds of Communities Still at Risk - By Elizabeth Grossman, In These Times, February 2, 2016
• Global Sweatshops, Solidarity and the Bangladesh Breakthrough - By Eric Dirnbach, Public Seminar, January 28, 2016
• People Of Color & Poor More Likely To Live Near Chemical Hazard - By Amanda Starbuck, Center for Effective Government,
  January 21, 2016

Greenwashers:

• How safeguards fail poor farmers in the Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena REDD project in Madagascar - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, February 5, 2016
• REDD is dead. What’s next? - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, February 4, 2016
• Behind the fake ban, SNP is fracking bosses’ good friend - By Raymie Kiernan, Socialist Worker (UK), February 2, 2016
• The Inside Story of How a University Professor Quietly Collaborated With Monsanto - By Carey Gillam, AlterNet, January 30, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 2, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• US Building Boom Fuels Spike in Construction Worker Injury and Death - By Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout, January 30, 2016
• New report shows mistreatment of garment workers by familiar brands - By Katie Herzog, Grist, January 29, 2016
• A successful climate summit, but no progress for climate justice? - By Staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, January 28, 2016
• System Change Grounded in Food Sovereignty at the 2015 Climate Talks in Paris - By Terran Giacomini, La Via Campesina, January 27, 2016
• The Wreck of Amtrak 188 - By Matthew Shaer, New York Times Magazine, January 26, 2016
• Fossil Fuel Spill Tracker 2015: A Map of Environmental Disasters - By Staff, onEarth, Truthout, January 25, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• Opponents of Crude-by-Rail Project Score a Key Victory - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, January 28, 2016
• Crude-By- Rail Projects Face Key Votes - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, January 27, 2016
• SLO County Staff Tells County to DENY Phillips 66 Oil Train Terminal - By Ethan Buckner, Forest Ethics, January 27, 2016
• County Admits Tarsands Plan: Proposes Rejecting San Luis Obispo Oil Trains Project - By Greg Karras and Andrés Soto, Communities for a Better Environment, January 26, 2016
• Troutdale Energy Center project abandoned - By Katy Sword, Portland Tribune, January 26, 2016
• WIRT Comments on Tesoro Savage Vancouver Energy Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement - By Helen Yost, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, January 22, 2016
• How to Stop an Oil Train: The Climate Defense That Won Over a Courtroom - By Valerie Schloredt, Yes Magazine, January 21, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Monsanto to Cut 3,600 Jobs as Public Protests Continue to Stymie Profits - By News Desk, Mint Press News, January 29, 2016
• Sakuma Bros. CEO Refuses NFWM Supporters’ Postcards - By Gabriela Raquel Ríos, National Farm Worker Ministry, January 29, 2016
• Farm defenders lock down to halt farmland destruction in the East Bay - By Ground, Occupy the Farm, January 28, 2016
• Migrant farmworkers call on Trudeau for permanent residency - By Alyse Kotyk, Rabble.Ca, January 28, 2016
• WATCH: Profits Over People? Oppose ‘Right–to-Spray’ Bill in Hawaii - By Staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, January 27, 2016
• An invisible war is being waged on the working class: Devanur Mahadeva - By Kumar Buradikatti, The Hindu, January 25, 2016
• Malheur occupation could set conservation efforts back years - By Ben Goldfarb, High Country News, January 25, 2016
• No to evictions in Notre-Dame-des-Landes! - By Michele Roux, Laurent Pinatel, Elina Bouchet, La Via Campesina, January 25, 2016
• Solidarity with the courageous activists opposing airport expansion in France and the UK - By Jamie Henn, 350.org, January 25, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Chinese miners rescued after 36 days trapped underground - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 28, 2016
• Ramu mine workers want executive out and better safety standards - By The National aka The Loggers Times, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, January 28, 2016
• Coalition of Oystermen, Injured Workers and Waterkeepers Wins Hearing on Formosa Plastics’ Discharge into Lavaca Bay, Texas - By Diane Wilson, Bridge the Gulf, January 27, 2016
• Dispute Over Cattle Grazing Disrupts Patrols Of Federal Land - By Kirk Siegler, NPR, January 27, 2016
• ‘Google Bus’ future still uncertain - By Joshua Sabatini, San Francisco Examiner, January 27, 2016
• Ramu mine workers stage sit-in protest since Friday - By Post Courier, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, January 27, 2016
• Simultaneous Melbourne and Sydney Rallies in Support of Sacked Crew - By Ashleigh Telford, Maritime Union of Australia, January 27, 2016
• Slaughter of Up to 900 Wild Bison at Yellowstone Park Sparks Federal Lawsuit to Protect First Amendment Rights - By Animal Legal Defense Fund, EcoWatch, January 27, 2016
• Detroit Public School’s Restraining Order To Stop Protests Over School Conditions Has Been Rejected - By Casey Quinlan, Think Progress, January 26, 2016
• Shareholder resolution filed against Exxon - By Finnegan Schick, Yale News, January 26, 2016
• Detroit Public School’s Restraining Order To Stop Protests Over School Conditions Has Been Rejected - By Aura Bogado, Grist, January 26, 2016
• PBS’s ‘The Mine Wars’ Shows West Virginia’s Militant, Radical Labor History - By David Moberg, In These Times, January 25, 2016
• Water Isn't the Only Source of Lead Contamination in Flint - By Pat Elder, WarIsACrime.org, January 25, 2016
• GE workers facing Fort Edward job loss push PCB health studies - By Brian Nearing, Times-Union, January 22, 2016
• Kennecott worker sustains ‘traumatic injuries’ in industrial accident - By Bob Mims, Salt Lake Tribune, January 22, 2016
• Today's Slaves Often Work For Enterprises That Destroy The Environment - By Fresh Air, NPR, January 21, 2016
• The Canadian Union of Public Employees and Blue Planet Project join call to end water privatization in Nagpur, India - By Staff, The Blue Planet Project, January 15, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• Grand Canyon park’s 15-year failure on sexual harassment - By Lyndsey Gilpin, High Country News, January 28, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Pro-Tunnels Group Bars Journalist from Media Teleconference - By Dan Bacher, Daily Kos, January 29, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 26, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Beyond Koch: Meet the Other Right-Wing Oligarchs Featured in Jane Mayer's "Dark Money" - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, January 21, 2016
• ExxonMobil Spent At Least £5.6m on European Lobbying and Corporate Donations in 2014 - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, January 20, 2016
• The Kochs & the Nazis: Book Reveals Billionaires’ Father Built Key Oil Refinery for the Third Reich | Dark Money: Jane Mayer on How the Koch Bros. & Billionaire Allies Funded the Rise of the Far Right - Jane Mayer interviewed by Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now, January 20, 2016
• In the Keystone Suit, It’s Big Oil vs. Democracy - By Janet Redman, Foreign Policy In Focus, January 15, 2016
• The Last Drop: The Politics of Water - By Adam Tomes, CounterFire, January 14, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• Delta 5 trial: Making the case for climate disobedience - By Patrick Mazza, Cascadia Planet, January 24, 2016
• Record-Breaking Number of Comments Pours in Against Proposed Tesoro-Savage Oil Terminal - Press Release, Stand Up to Oil, January 22, 2016
• Multnomah County Passes Unanimous Historic Resolution Opposing Oil Trains and Tesoro Savage Project - Press Release, Columbia Riverkeeper, January 21, 2016
• The Real Zombie Apocalypse - By Bill McKibben, Tom Dispatch, January 19, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Press Release: Sakuma Brothers Farm Wins 2015 ‘Scrooge of the Year’ Vote - Press Release, Boycott Sakuma Berries, January 23, 2016
• The Cowliphate and Poisoned Kids: Twin Assaults on The Commons - By Michael Donnelly, CounterPunch, January 22, 2016
• Greek Farmers Blockade Highways Over Pension Cuts - By Jennifer Baker, Revolution News, January 22, 2016
• Gates Foundation is spearheading the neoliberal plunder of African agriculture - By Colin Todhunter, The Ecologist, January 21, 2016
• Illegal Profits from Polluting Florida Go Untouched - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, January 21, 2016
• In Japan, a David vs Goliath Battle to Preserve Bluefin Tuna - By Winifred Bird, Yale Environment 360, January 21, 2016
• Westlands’ new front group hides farmworker reality - By Amanda Ford and Janaki Jagannath, Fresno Bee, January 21, 2016
• Across the West, Citizens Stand Up and Rally Against the Bundy Land Seizure Agenda - By Lucy Livesay, Center for Western Priorities, January 20, 2016
• Death Threats and Detention in Paraguay - By Fionuala Cregan, Intercontinental Cry, January 20, 2016
• Drought Pushes South Africa To Water, Energy, and Food Reckoning - By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue, January 19, 2016
• Sportsmen, wildlife advocates rally for public lands, ending seizure of wildlife refuge - By Staff, Our Public Lands, January 19, 2016
• Disgraceful 'Honour' for failing to protect people from poisons - By Georgina Downs, The Ecologist, January 18, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Report Underlines Recent Worker Hazards at Old Weapons Plants - By Jim Morris and Jamie Smith Hopkins, Truthout, January 22, 2016
• Detroit Rocked by Teachers' "Sickout" Protesting Dire Conditions Under Emergency Management - Victor Gibson and Russ Bellant interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now, January 21, 2016
• Oregon ranchers who sparked standoff threatened to wrap official’s son in barbed wire and drown him - By Arun Gupta, RawStory, January 21, 2016
• 2 hurt when AK Steel plant furnace explodes in Pennsylvania - By Staff, WTRF TV, January 21, 2016
• The Mine Wars: West Virginia’s Coal Miners March on Public Television - By Mark Hand, CounterPunch, January 20, 2016
• U.S. records 2nd and 3rd coal deaths of 2016 - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette, January 20, 2016
• Ebola crisis highlights urgent need for reform - By Natasha Horsfield, New Internationalist, January 19, 2016
• Blood on the Mountain - By Nick Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, January 18, 2016
• 'Excessive fatigue' at CP an 'immediate threat' to rail safety: Transport Canada - By Dave Seglins, CBC News, January 18, 2016
• Phillips 66 Ferndale Refinery hit with $324,000 fine - By Dave Gallagher, Bellingham Herald, January 15, 2016
• Time Has Come: 'Kill a Worker, Go to Jail,' Say Steelworkers - By David P. Ball, United Steelworkers, January 14, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• Whistleblower Anthony Rivera Files Lawsuit Against Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - By Admin, La Jicarita, January 23, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Fukushima Mon Amour: the Hucksters of the Green Atom - By Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, January 22, 2016
• Cap and Clear-Cut - By Will Parrish, East Bay Express, January 20, 2016
• How the Green Climate Fund approved a wetlands project in Peru without a process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, January 19, 2016
• Despite Ottawa's posturing, the global climate remains threatened by greed and militarism - By Roger Annis, Rabble.Ca, January 18, 2016
• The Other Keystone: The Alberta Clipper, the Pipeline No One Is Talking About - By Branko Marcetic, In These Times, January 14, 2016

By Lou Martin - RAMPS, January 14, 2016

RAMPS web editor's note: Our friend and ally Lou Martin wrote this (in response to Nick Mullins’s blog post “The Problem with Environmentalism in Appalachia“) and asked us to post it. Although this isn’t an official communique from RAMPS, we’re posting it in the spirit of fostering dialogue so that our movement can be stronger and more effective…

I wish more people knew the environmental movement in central Appalachia the way I have gotten to know it in the last four years.

I have been a longtime fan of Nick Mullins’s blog The Thoughtful Coal Miner, and I hope Nick knows that I appreciate and respect him and his family for their work—work of all kinds—to end mountaintop removal.  And I appreciate this recent blog post because it is grappling with a difficult subject and because, to be effective, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and our strategies.

As I understand the post, the main problem with environmentalism in Appalachia is that environmental organizations have not won over coal mining families.  Nick writes, “Coal mining families are not very receptive to environmentalists—and that’s putting it lightly. Why should they be? In what way have environmentalists approached coal mining families over the past two decades? In what way have environmentalists presented themselves to the public?”

Throughout the blog post he talks about “environmentalists” and “coal mining families” as being two different groups, opposed to each other.  In another place he writes, “At the end of the day, I had to realize that perhaps many environmental organizations are just as ‘out of touch’ as Appalachian people think them to be.”  Here, environmental organizations and Appalachian people as if they are almost mutually exclusive.

When I think back to why I got involved fighting mountaintop removal, I think of the people who inspired me, and almost every one of them came from a coal mining family or were former coal miners—and all those people belonged to environmental organizations.

But Nick is talking about a general perception of “the environmental movement” that someone in the region might get if they only watch the occasional news report or witness a demonstration.  Those people, I suppose, might not really be able to differentiate between a small organization based in the region and a national organization like the Sierra Club.  Between an organization that advocates civil disobedience and those that do not.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 18, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Mother Nature's Invisible Hand Strikes Back Against the Carbon Economy - By JP Sottile, Truthout, January 16, 2016
• Economic downturns fuel Sagebrush Rebellion events - By Paige Blankenbuehler, High Country News, January 15, 2016
• It’s Not Too Late For Unions to Win the Friedrichs Case - By Shamus Cooke, CounterPunch, January 13, 2016
• The Oil Pricequake: Political Turmoil in a Time of Low Energy Prices - By Michael T. Klare, Truthout, January 12, 2016
• Hard Evidence: this is the Age of Dissent; and there’s much more to come - By David J. Bailey, The Conversation, January 11, 2016
• Essential reading on the Paris climate agreement - By John Foran, Climate and Capitalism, January 10, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• Crowds Urge Washington Energy Council to Deny Tesoro Savage Oil Terminal - By Staff, Columbia Riverkeeper, January 13, 2016
• Tacoma Steering into Uncertain Waters: Loopholes for hybrid LNG facility would set an alarming precedent - By Tarika Powell, Sightline Institute, January 13, 2016
• Insane Keystone XL lawsuit illustrates ticking time bomb trade deals - By Sam Cossar-Gilbert, New Internationalist, January 11, 2016; [related] Why TransCanada's $15 Billion Lawsuit Against U.S. Is a Bad Omen for Trans-Pacific Partnership - By Chris Paulus, Occupy.com, January 11, 2016
• The Ugly Underbelly of Corporations’ Pursuit of a Coal Terminal - By Sandy Robson, Coal Stop, January 9, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• A Battle for the Soul of Social Responsibility… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, January 14, 2016
• The Beginning of the War Against Oblivion - By Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés and Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, CounterPunch, January 14, 2016
• Drought hits Zimbabwe: Scorching heat, little rains and no grazing - ZIMSOFF Press Release, La Via Campesina, January 14, 2016
• TTIP: the downfall of European agriculture? - By Dario Sarmadi, The Ecologist, January 14, 2016
• The War to Claim the New West - By Jeffrey St. Clair and James Ridgeway, CounterPunch, January 14, 2016
• Who does Malheur belong to? - By Brian Ward, Socialist Worker, January 13, 2016
• The Daily Cost Of The Bundy Occupation - By Laurel Raymond and Jenny Rowland, Truthout, January 12, 2016
• Patriots versus the state? - By Eric Ruder, Socialist Worker, January 12, 2016
• France: 20,000 People Protest Notre-Dame-Des-Landes Airport Construction - By anonymous, Squat!net, January 11, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Oilsands plant explosion near Fort McMurray leaves 1 dead, another critical - By Staff, CBC News, January 16, 2016
• A Scourge Returns: Black Lung in Appalachia - By Carrie Arnold, TruthOut, January 16, 2016
• Tree employees protest working conditions in Salisbury - By Vanessa Junkin, DelMarVaNow, January 15, 2016
• Trial date set for Black Elk Energy over 2012 Gulf blast - AP Wire, FuelFix, January 15, 2016
• Crew Members Forcibly Removed from MV Portland in Disgraceful Act by Alcoa - By Ashleigh Telford, Maritime Union of Australia, January 13, 2016
• Earth Minute: Anne Petermann on ArborGen’s $53.M legal fine - By Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project, January 13, 2016
• Exxon deficiencies found in California refinery blast - AP Wire, FuelFix, January 13, 2016
• GE consults on job cuts - By David Weston, Wind Power Monthly, January 13, 2016
• NLRB adds to allegations against Asarco - By David Wichner, Arizona Daily Star, January 12, 2016
• Chemical Employers To Face Tougher Worker Safety Penalties - By Jyllian Kemsley, Chemical & Engineering News, January 11, 2016
• Marathon Petroleum: 3 Injured In Fire At Galveston Bay Refinery - By Staff, Houston Public Media, January 11, 2016
• Inside Bangladeshi Factories: The Real Story - By Robert J. S. Ross, The American Prospect, January 8, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 12, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Wilderness and Economics - By Thomas Power and George Wuerthner, CounterPunch, January 8, 2016
• 1,500 Groups Urge Congress to Oppose the TPP - By Staff, Citizens Trade Campaign, January 7, 2016
• Demanding the Impossible: Saying "No Compromise" in the Climate Movement, And Meaning It - By Scott Parkin, CounterPunch, January 6, 2016
• COP21: Oil Sands Worker Urges Smooth Transition Off Fossil Fuels - By Staff, National Observer, December 8, 2015

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• Vancouver Businesses Join Overwhelming Opposition to Tesoro-Savage Oil-By-Rail Terminal - By Staff, Columbia River Keeper, January 7, 2016
• Activists in Pacific Northwest Face Off Against Largest Oil-By-Rail Terminal in North America - By Martha Baskin, Truthout, January 6, 2016
• Vast Majority Opposed Tesoro Savage - By Roy L Hales, The Eco Report, January 6, 2016
• Over 1,000 Attend Oil Terminal Hearing in Clark County, WA - By Staff, Columbia River Keeper, January 5, 2016 
• Saturday Morning Talkies with Guest Host Carla West (Features No Coal in Oakland and the West Pittsburg, California campaigns) [audio] - By Carla West, KPFA 94.1 FM, January 2, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• African Women Organize to Reclaim Agriculture Against Corporate Takeover - By Mphatheleini Makaulele, Toward Freedom, January 7, 2016
• Monsanto Cuts 16% of Work Force as Sales in Roundup Herbicide Fall 34% - By Staff, Sustainable Pulse, January 7, 2016
• Philippines islanders unite to resist 'land grab' palm oil companies - By Rod Harbinson, The Ecologist, January 7, 2016
• As If Slavery Weren’t Enough, 6 Other Reasons to Avoid Shrimp - By Tom Philpott, Mother Jones, January 6, 2016
• Landworker’s Alliance and The Land magazine launch Rural Manifesto - By Staff, La Via Campesina, January 6, 2016
• Organic Farmers Score New Victory in 'David and Goliath' GMO Fight - By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams, January 5, 2016
• Alberta's new farm legislation brings the province closer to international standards - By Nora Loreto, Rabble.Ca, January 4, 2016

The Oregon Standoff

• Toward an Anti-Fascist Analysis of the Malheur Rebellion - By Alexander Reid Ross, It's Going Down, January 9, 2016
• This rancher says the Bundys are idiots: but he too is worried about losing access to public land - By Darby Minow Smith, Grist, January 8, 2016
• Five Facts About Westerners’ Opinions on Land Management and the Economics of Public Lands - By Aaron Weiss, Center for Western Priorities, January 7, 2016
• The Point of the Spear: Nostalgia in Oregon’s Militia Movement - By Binoy Kampmark, CounterPunch, January 7, 2016
• The Rationality of the Malheur Gunmen: Fighting for the White Future of This Country - By Arthur Scarritt, CounterPunch, January 7, 2016
• Economic Interests Behind Malheur Occupation - By John Reimann, Oakland Socialist, January 6, 2016
• The Malheur Wildlife Refuge Occupation: a Skirmish Among Colonizers - By Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, CounterPunch, January 6, 2016
• The Many Hypocrisies of the Oregon Standoff - By Pete Dolack, CounterPunch, January 6, 2016
• Oregon Refuge Standoff Latest Extremist Jihad: Federal Inaction for 19 Months on Bundy Spawns More Militia Confrontations - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, January 5, 2016
• What the Vanilla ISIS Crisis in Oregon Says About the History of Wage Labor - By Charles Mudede, The Stranger, January 5, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Gas line explosion in Orange County leaves worker severely burned - By E Cherney, Natural Gas Watch, January 7, 2016
• Gazette editorial: ‘Right to work’ dangerous for WV - Editorial, Charleston Gazette-Mail, January 7, 2016
• Compressor Station Explosion Raises Concerns - By Amy Robinson, Natural Gas Watch, January 6, 2016
• Coal industry seeks stay of new rule aimed at reducing miners’ exposure to dust - By Bill Estep, Lexington Herald-Leader, January 6, 2016
• Former Congressman Steven Horsford and CWP Release Petition Calling for an End to Threats of Violence Against Park Rangers and Public Lands Employees - By Aaron Weiss, Center for Western Priorities, January 6, 2016
• Mining deaths in the U.S. fell to historic low in 2015 - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 6, 2016; [related] Mining industry deaths at all-time low in 2015 - By Associated Press, FuelFix, January 6, 2016
• SFMTA denies Muni operators’ request for wage negotiations - By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, San Francisco Examiner, January 6, 2016
• Heated Rhetoric by Politicians Encourages Violent Extremism on National Public Lands - By Greg Zimmerman, Center for Western Priorities, January 5, 2016

By Andrew Stewart - CounterPunch, January 1, 2016

As the Aliso Canyon natural gas leak continues to spew into the air, Rhode Island’s small hamlet of Burrillvillle is now facing the chance to be the future site of such a catastrophe. With the help of a key Democratic Party endorsement and accession from labor union bosses who should know better, Rhode Island may soon host a fracked natural gas plant rather than the saner move of a sustainable electric plant.

Recently, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who is lovingly nicknamed ‘Wheldon Shitehouse’ by constituents in the know, has posed and postured around the Senate regarding climate change, browbeating and hectoring the Republican denialists with all the pomp and circumstance of the pontificating charlatan he is. One of Sen. Whitehouse’s claims to fame is going after the paint corporations in a lawsuit regarding lead poisoning in children, yet his recent behavior makes one wonder if he in fact consumed a fair share of paint chips in his youth.

What makes this such a joke is his adamant support of the construction of a Spectra Energy natural gas plant in Burriville. My colleague Steve Ahlquist at RIFuture.org, a better journalist and investigative reporter than I will ever be, has done a truly amazing amount of muckraking on this issue that shows the calamity in construction, reporting I would highly encourage CounterPunch readers to peruse at their leisure, including ones about whistleblowing regarding corporate pollution and protests by residents willing to go to jail. What I offer here is a mere summary.