Hubbard County, MN – Dozens of water protectors descended on two work sites for Line 3 construction in Northern Minnesota this morning, stopping construction at both sites for the day. Around 14 people locked down to various construction vehicles and even the pipeline itself.

Unicorn Riot documented the situation live from the ground. Watch nearly nine hours of streams from today, including this morning’s five-plus hours stream and the late afternoon police response below:

Final approvals in November 2020 gave Enbridge, a Canadian energy corporation, the go-ahead to complete construction of what the company is calling the Line 3 Replacement Pipeline. The planned pipeline route stretches across 337 miles of traditional Anishinaabe Territory in Northern Minnesota, beginning at tar sands mines in Alberta, Canada and ending at refineries in Superior, Wisconsin.

Water protectors opposed to the contentious Line 3 pipeline project have regularly staged non-violent direct actions that stop construction, with several hundred arrested in in action campaigns over the last year. In June, 179 people were arrested when thousands of water protectors shut down an Enbridge pumping station for two days as part of a multi-pronged Treaty People Gathering in Northern Minnesota.

Participating in the July 1 lockdown, Ginger Cassady, the Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network, called on President Joe Biden and the financiers of the pipeline project to stop Line 3 construction.

“Im in Northern Minnesota at the Headwaters of the Mississippi protesting Enbridge’s toxic pipeline. This pipeline is not only a direct assault on Indigenous people but it’s also an assault on their local land treaty rights.”– Ginger Cassady, E.D. Rainforest Action Network

Earlier in the week on June 28, dozens of Hubbard County Sheriffs barricaded the entry into the Namewag Camp, a privately-owned property used by water protectors. This prompted a wave of supporters showing up to the land in solidarity. Nearly a dozen people were arrested near the roadway by authorities during a two-day span before the sheriffs left the property. Some believe the Hubbard County Sheriff’s aggressive, unusual enforcement of a minor clerical issue involving a county road easement by the camp property was timed to coincide with Enbridge drilling nearby under the Mississippi River.

Enbridge plans to have construction completed by the end of the year. Meanwhile, direct actions by water protectors seeking to halt construction are expected to continue through the summer.

Monday, June 28, 2021

'Horrible and Unconscionable Betrayal': Biden DOJ Backs Trump Line 3 Approval ~~Jessica Corbett

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/06/24/horrible-and-unconscionable-betrayal-biden-doj-backs-trump-line-3-approval

~~ posted for dmorista ~~

"You are siding with a handful of corrupt corporate elites over honoring treaty rights, climate, water, and the future of life on Earth."

Indigenous and environmental activists fighting against the Line 3 tar sands pipeline were outraged Thursday after the Biden administration filed a legal brief backing the federal government's 2020 approval of the project under former President Donald Trump.

Critics of the project—which Canadian energy giant Enbridge has undertaken to replace an aging oil pipeline—blasted the U.S. Department of Justice's late Wednesday filing (pdf) as a betrayal of President Joe Biden's pledges to address the climate emergency and respect tribal rights.

"A White House that is serious about protecting communities needs to start by listening to communities when they say they don't want an oil pipeline threatening their water and land," said Janet Redman, Greenpeace USA climate campaign director. "Backing Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline is a massive failure for a president that campaigned on tackling the climate crisis. And it's a betrayal of what he promised the American people."

Benjamin Goloff, a campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, accused Biden of "siding with a handful of corrupt corporate elites over honoring treaty rights, climate, water, and the future of life on Earth."

"This is a racist pipeline project forced down the throats of our people, an ecological time bomb and a giveaway to a Canadian multinational oil interest," said Winona LaDuke, executive director of the Indigenous environmental group Honor the Earth, in a statement Thursday.

"If the president is genuine in his pledge to take climate justice and tribal rights seriously, his administration must stop defending the Trump administration's decision and undertake a genuine analysis of Line 3's environmental and human impacts," she asserted.

The route of Enbridge's new, larger pipeline crosses Anishinaabe treaty lands. Native American and climate groups have challenged it with actions on the ground—which have sometimes halted construction—and lawsuits at the state and federal level.

The Biden DOJ's brief is for a case filed in the federal district court in Washington, D.C. by Earthjustice on behalf of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, Honor the Earth, and the Sierra Club.

Those groups challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' November 2020 decision to grant a key water permit and permission for specific work related to Line 3. They argue that the corps violated several federal laws—the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act (CWA), the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA), and Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

The DOJ brief claims that the federal government met its legal obligations for the review and approval process through various actions, which included analyzing alternatives and preparing environmental assessments that considered "the impacts from the corps' authorizations, including to wetlands, the climate, low-income and minority populations, tribal rights to hunt, fish, and gather, and all of the issues to which plaintiffs draw special attention."

The brief notes that the corps considered a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement prepared by Minnesota state authorities, and incorporated "important protections for wetlands, wild rice, and cultural resources as enforceable conditions of the permit and permission."

Since even before taking office in January, Biden has faced pressure to reverse the polluter-friendly policies of his predecessor—including by directing the corps to reconsider its approval of Line 3, fully accounting for its impacts on the global climate and tribal resources.

In a statement about the development Thursday, leaders at the Minnesota arm of 350.org, which is among the groups organizing against Line 3, emphasized expert warnings about the need to rapidly phase out fossil fuels to prevent climate catastrophe on a global scale.

MN350 communications director Brett Benson said that "at a time when the world is getting hotter and the scientific community is sounding the alarm on the climate crisis, it is time for President Biden to step up and lead by ending this Trump-era expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure. Protecting our planet will take bold action, and bold action requires bold leadership. All eyes are on President Biden to do the right thing."

Warning about the dangers of inaction on the climate crisis, Andy Pearson, a Midwest tar sands organizer at 350, called the corps' approval "indefensible" and said that "Biden needs to take every opportunity to undo Trump's damage, and that means taking away Line 3's inadequate water permits."

"Line 3 would have the climate impact of 50 coal plants and violate treaties with the Anishinaabe," the campaigner noted. "Biden can stop Line 3 immediately by revoking Trump's water permits, and we call on him to act now to honor the treaties and protect our climate."

The Hill reported Thursday that "a White House spokesperson declined to comment, but it has said in the past that it will try to keep its judicial branch independent."

Despite the disappointment in court, Line 3's critics vow that this fight is far from over.

"We intend to keep opposing this pipeline," LaDuke told the New York Times. "We will file more legal challenges. Expect more resistance."

This post has been updated with comment from Greenpeace USA and MN350.

Monday, June 7, 2021

Red Alert: Only one Earth ~~ The Tricontinental

https://mronline.org/2021/06/03/red-alert-only-one-earth/

~~ posted for collectivist ~~

Red Alert: Only one Earth

A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Making Peace with Nature (2021), highlights the ‘gravity of the Earth’s triple environmental emergencies: climate, biodiversity loss, and pollution’. These three ‘self-inflicted planetary crises’, the UNEP says, put ‘the well-being of current and future generations at unacceptable risk’. This Red Alert, released for World Environment Day (5 June), is produced with the International Week of Anti-Imperialist Struggle.

What is the scale of the destruction?

Ecosystems have degraded at an alarming rate. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report from 2019 provides stunning examples of the scale of the destruction:

One million of the estimated eight million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction.
Human actions have driven at least 680 vertebrate species to extinction since 1500, with global vertebrate species populations dropping by 68% in around the last 50 years.
The abundance of wild insects has fallen by 50%.
Over 9% of all domesticated mammal breeds used for food and agriculture had become extinct by 2016, with another thousand breeds currently facing extinction.

Ecosystem degradation is accelerated by capitalism, which intensifies pollution and waste, deforestation, land-use change and exploitation, and carbon-driven energy systems. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report, Climate Change and Land (January 2020), notes that only 15% of known wetlands remain, most having been degraded beyond the possibility of recovery. In 2020, the UNEP documented that, from 2014 to 2017, coral reefs suffered from the longest severe bleaching event on record. Coral reefs are projected to decline dramatically as temperatures rise; if global warming rises to 1.5°C, only 10-30% of reefs will remain, and if global warming rises to 2°C, then less than 1% of reefs will remain.

As things stand, there is a good chance that the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free by 2035, which will disrupt both the Arctic ecosystem and the circulation of ocean currents, possibly transforming global and regional climate and weather. These changes in the Arctic ice cover have already triggered a race among major powers for military domination in the region and for control over valuable energy and mineral resources, opening the door even further for devastating ecological destruction; in January 2021, in a paper titled Regaining Arctic Dominance, the U.S. military characterised the Arctic as ‘simultaneously an arena of competition, a line of attack in conflict, a vital area holding many of our nation’s natural resources, and a platform for global power projection’.

The warming of the ocean comes alongside the annual dumping of up to 400 million tonnes of heavy metals, solvents, and toxic sludge (among other industrial wastes)–not accounting for radioactive wastes. This is the most dangerous waste, but it is only a tiny proportion of the total waste thrown into the ocean, including millions of tonnes of plastic waste. One study from 2016 finds that, by 2050, it is likely that there will be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish. In the ocean, plastic accumulates in swirling gyres, one of which is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an estimated mass of 79,000 tonnes of ocean plastic floating inside a concentrated area of 1.6 million km 2(roughly the size of Iran). Ultraviolet light from the sun degrades the debris into ‘microplastics’, which cannot be cleaned up, and which disrupts food chains and ruins habitats. The dumping of industrial waste into the waters, including in rivers and other freshwater bodies, generates at least 1.4 million deaths annually from preventable diseases that are associated with pathogen-polluted drinking water.

The waste in the waters is only a fraction of the waste produced by human beings, which is estimated to be 2.01 billion tonnes per year. Only 13.5% of this waste is recycled, while only 5.5% is composted; the remaining 81% is discarded in landfills, incinerated (which releases greenhouse and other toxic gases), or finds its way into the ocean. At the current rate of waste production, it is estimated that this figure will rise by 70% to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050.

No study shows a decrease in pollution, including the generation of waste, or a slowing down of the rise in temperature. For instance, the UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report (December 2020) shows that the world at the present rate of emissions is on track for warming by at least 3.2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. This is far above the limits set by the Paris Agreement of 1.5°-2.0°C. Planetary warming and environmental degradation feed into each other: between 2010 and 2019, land degradation and transformation–including deforestation and the loss of soil carbon in cultivated land–contributed a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, with climate change further worsening desertification and the disruption of soil nutrition cycles.

What are common and differentiated responsibilities?

In the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development declaration, the seventh principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’–agreed upon by the international community–establishes that all nations need to take on some ‘common’ responsibilities to reduce emissions, but that the developed countries bear the greater ‘differentiated’ responsibility due to the historical fact of their far greater contribution to cumulative global emissions causing climate change. A look at the data from Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre’s Global Carbon Project shows that the United States of America–by itself–has been the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions since 1750. The main historical carbon emitters were all industrial and colonial powers, mainly European states and the United States of America. From the 18th century, these countries have not only emitted the bulk of the carbon into the atmosphere, but they also continue to exceed their fair share of the Global Carbon Budget in proportion to their populations. The countries with the least responsibility for creating the climate catastrophe–such as small island states–are the ones hardest hit by its disastrous consequences.

Cheap energy based on coal and hydrocarbons, along with the looting and plundering of natural resources by colonial powers, enabled the countries of Europe and North America to enhance the well-being of their populations at the expense of the colonised world. Today, the extreme inequality between the standard of living for the average European (747 million people) and the average Indian (1.38 billion people) is as stark as it was a century ago. The reliance by China, India, and other developing countries on carbon–particularly coal–is indeed high; but even this recent use of carbon by China and India is well below that of the United States. The 2019 figures for per capita carbon emissions of Australia (16.3 tonnes) and the U.S. (16 tonnes) are more than twice that of China (7.1 tonnes) and India (1.9 tonnes).

Every country in the world has to make advances to transition from reliance upon carbon-based energy and to prevent the large-scale degradation of the environment, but the developed countries must be held accountable for two key urgent actions:

Reducing harmful emissions. Developed countries must urgently bring about drastic emission cuts of at least 70-80% of 1990 levels by 2030 and commit to a pathway to further deepen these cuts by 2050.
Capacitating mitigation and adaption. Developed countries must assist developing countries by transferring technology for renewable energy sources as well as by providing financing to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change recognised the importance of the geographical divide of industrial capitalism between the Global North and South and its impact on respective inequitable shares of the global carbon budget.

That is why all of the countries at the numerous Climate Conferences agreed to create a Green Climate Fund at the Cancun Conference in 2016. The current target is $100 billion annually by 2020. The United States under the new Biden administration has pledged to double its international finance contributions by 2024 and triple its contributions for adaptation, but, given the very low baseline, this is highly inadequate. The International Energy Agency suggests each year in its World Energy Outlook that the actual figure for international climate finance should be in the trillions. None of the Western powers have intimated anything like a commitment of that scale to the Fund.

What can be done?

Shift to zero carbon emissions. The world’s nations as a whole, led by the G20 (which accounts for 78% of all global carbon emissions), must enact realistic plans to shift to zero net carbon emissions. Practically speaking, this means zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Reduce the U.S. military footprint. Currently, the U.S. military is the single largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases. The reduction of the U.S. military footprint would considerably reduce political and environmental problems.
Provide climate compensation for developing countries. Ensure that developed countries provide climate compensation for loss and damages caused by their climate emissions. Demand that the countries that polluted the waters, soil, and air with toxic and hazardous wastes–including nuclear waste–bear the costs of clean-up; demand the cessation of the production and use of toxic waste.
Provide finance and technology to developing countries for mitigation and adaption. Additionally, developed countries must provide $100 billion per year to address the needs of developing countries, including for adaptation and resilience to the real and disastrous impact of climate change. These impacts are already borne by developing countries (particularly the low-lying countries and small island states). Technology must also be transferred to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation.

Friday, March 12, 2021

OVER 350 GROUPS URGE PRESIDENT BIDEN TO STOP THE LINE 3 PIPELINE

~~ posted for collectivist ~~

“We urge you and all federal leadership to stand firm against the Line 3 pipeline and act now to halt its construction. The pipeline’s construction is an urgent threat to the waters of Minnesota and Lake Superior, as well as to our global climate.”

Washington, DC — Today, over 350 national, state, local, and international organizational leaders representing climate, environmental, Indigenous, faith, youth, medical, and other groups sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to stop the construction of the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline in Minnesota by suspending or revoking its federal permits.

The 374 signers representing well over 10 million supporters urged President Biden to take two courses of action to stop Line 3:

“We urge you to direct the Army Corps of Engineers to immediately reevaluate and suspend or revoke the Line 3 project’s Clean Water Act Section 404 permit. The Army Corps failed to consider significant information on Line 3’s impacts in reaching its original determination, including the risk of oil spills, climate change impacts, and impacts on Indigenous peoples.” […]
“Additionally, we urge you to revoke or amend Line 3’s presidential permit, as you did for Keystone XL, to make it clear that the permit does not authorize this massive expansion. Your rejection of the Keystone XL’s pipeline’s presidential permit was a clear signal that the Biden administration represents a break from the fossil fuel giveaways of the Trump administration.”

The diverse groups of organizational leaders represented include Brave Heart Society, Giniw Collective, Honor the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Mazaska Talks, NDN Collective, Environment America, Izaak Walton League, Clean Water Action, Climate Reality Project, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, Interfaith Power & Light, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oil Change International, Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, U.S. Climate Action Network, The Wilderness Society, 350.org, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, GreenFaith, GreenLatinos, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, Hip Hop Caucus, Indivisible, Mothers Out Front, National Medical Association, Public Citizen, and many more.

Signatory Faith Spotted Eagle, Coordinator of the Brave Heart Society, said in signing the letter, “The fight against Line 3 is a defining moment in the history of the U.S. to honor the sacred lands of our tribes and take responsibility for making right a great wrong of land trespass and destruction of sacred sites and disregard of nation-to-nation bridgebuilding. Make it right.”

Last week, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council sent a letter to Governor Tim Walz urging him to halt construction of Line 3 while lawsuits are ongoing, and to consider the “severity of the living tribal cultural resources that are being damaged by the pipeline construction, as well as the [Public Utilities Commission]’s apparent inability to recognize the irreparable harm that will result to the environment.” Also last week, advocates delivered hundreds of thousands of petitions to President Biden asking him to reject the Line 3 pipeline.

“Line 3’s most serious immediate impacts will be on Indigenous peoples and their lands and waters along the line. But the increasing climate threats to Minnesota — and the planet — will be exponentially exacerbated by this pipeline. In short, Line 3 is a climate time bomb,” said letter signer Winona LaDuke, Executive Director of Honor the Earth, who lives on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. “Tar sands is the dirtiest and most expensive oil on the planet to extract, and this Line 3 would add the equivalent emissions of 50 coal-fired power plants. It’s up to President Biden to continue with the country’s renewable energy agenda and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. After his action to halt Keystone XL, stopping Line 3 is essential.”

Read the letter text and full list of signers: http://priceofoil.org/line-3-biden-letter

The Class Struggle

Friday, December 13, 2024

Greta Thunberg on Gaza: “This has shown the true colours of the world” ~~ and This year’s best books for reds and greens | Climate & Capitalism

Thursday, November 14, 2024

The deadly environmental toll of superyachts and private jets and Richard Wolff and Victor Wallis on EcoSocialism

Monday, June 26, 2023

Why Ecosocialism: For a Red-Green Future ~~ Michael Löwy

Monday, May 23, 2022

TREES SHOULD HAVE STANDING – Sierra Club v. Morton: some Justice Wm. Douglass dissent

https://therealtamishow.com/2020/02/14/trees-should-have-standing-sierra-club-v-morton-some-justice-wm-douglass-dissent/

From Justice Douglass’ masterful dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton often referred to, especially by Justice Douglass, as Mineral King v. Morton, and this is Mineral King. ➷

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Fossil Fuel Subsidies - The Invisible Ones are Worse Than the Obvious Ones! ~~ A. Gelbert

Sunday, July 4, 2021

WATER PROTECTORS OCCUPY WORK SITES AND LOCK DOWN TO LINE 3 PIPELINE ~~ Unicorn Riot.