An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Samuel Beckett, Confessions and the Human Condition
Posted on December 5, 2019 | No Comments -
“Bleeding Kansas” and Stories of the Underground Railroad
Posted on December 3, 2019 | No Comments -
Jesse Marquez: Public Preparedness for Threats from Refineries, Ports, and Freeways
Posted on November 27, 2019 | No Comments -
Urban Oil Drilling and the Intersection Between Faith and Environmentalism
Posted on November 20, 2019 | No Comments -
Regenerative Responses: Growing The Soil Carbon Sponge
Posted on November 2, 2019 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
‘Medicine Walk’ Featured in SBLitJo
Santa Barbara Literary Journal releases ‘Bellatrix: Volume 3’ this June, which among adventurous fiction, poetry, essays, and lyrics, features an excerpt of Jack Eidt’s psychic-animism fiction, Medicine Walk. Buy the book!
fracking Archive
Dire Ecological Consequences of the Porter Ranch Gas Leak
Posted on January 25, 2016 | 7 CommentsThe ongoing ecological disaster has been “temporarily controlled” in Porter Ranch, California, an affluent Los Angeles suburb. Yet, families continue to get sick, and SoCalGas/Sempra wants to oversee the testing inside of homes. While the Regional Air Quality regulators requested they close the leaking well down, the AQMD failed to listen to community demands for a permanent shut down of Aliso Canyon Storage Facility.
Protecting the Sage-Grouse in a Sea of Natural Gas
Posted on September 15, 2015 | No CommentsWhile stopping short of full endangered species protections for the Greater Sage-Grouse, the Obama-era Fish and Wildlife Service implemented land use plans to restrict energy development and grazing in the expanse of northwestern U.S. desert called the Sagebrush Sea, depicted in a 2015 documentary. The Trump Interior Department attempted to amend that plan to open up more commercial activities. We feature here an essay on Wyoming's core plan attempts to salvage the state's last populations in a landscape dominated by energy development.
BOOM: Crude Oil Bomb Trains Exploding in North America
Posted on June 27, 2015 | 2 CommentsA documentary investigates the threat from volatile and toxic crude oil bomb trains now rolling through neighborhoods across North America. After five fiery accidents in the first five months of 2015, one can only ask: "Whose community will explode next?"
Sorry, Democrats, Hillary Clinton is Not a Progressive
Posted on May 2, 2015 | 7 CommentsWhat kind of President would Hillary Clinton be? According to her record, she has consistently favored big business, multinational billionaires and the national security state, at the expense of the "everyday Americans" she claims to "champion." Not in the least progressive.
Former Texas Mayor Fighting Fracking Visits California
Posted on March 3, 2015 | No CommentsCalvin Tillman, the former Texas mayor who took on the oil and gas industry, shared his wisdom with Southern California communities working to ban fracking and extreme unconventional drilling. Walker Foley interviews him and watch the clip from GASLAND.
Fracking Boom Surrounds Sacred Chaco Canyon
Posted on February 19, 2015 | No CommentsThe fracking boom threatens Puebloan and Hopi ancestral homelands around New Mexico's sacred Chaco Canyon and local Diné communities are fighting drilling, pipeline projects and just general industrialization of their region without bringing real economic development. See the videos from the Solstice Project.
Gov. Brown: March for Real Climate Leadership on Feb 7th
Posted on January 16, 2015 | 1 CommentJoin SoCal 350 Climate Action Coalition and Californians from across the state gathering Feb 7 in Oakland — Governor Brown’s hometown — to demand real climate leadership in the face of the impending climate crisis and ongoing drought, with an unconventional oil boom that includes fracking, oil trains, and expanded refinery capacity.
Faces of Fracking: Civil Rights Hero Takes on Big Oil
Posted on October 28, 2014 | 2 CommentsLupe Anguiano, former nun and civil rights activist, is working to stop fracking near the Pacific Ocean beaches and agricultural fields of her hometown, Oxnard, CA.Five Actions to Protect Communities from Explosive Crude By Rail
Posted on October 6, 2014 | 1 CommentA surge in rail transport has accounted for hundreds of thousands of gallons of spilled crude oil, more than the previous four decades combined. Ross Hammond from ForestEthics outlines five immediate actions for President Obama on train safety.
Governor Brown: Climate Leader or Climate Loser?
Posted on June 30, 2014 | 4 CommentsWhen it comes to fighting pollution, global warming and our climate crisis, Gov. Brown is big on talk, weak on action, supporting fracking and refinery expansion.
Clean Energy: LA Councilman Pledges Serious Greenhouse Gas Cuts
Posted on June 30, 2014 | 3 CommentsL.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz wants the city to set new, higher goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that would slash citywide emissions 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.
Qatar on the Bayou: Fracking Boom a Louisiana Toxic Nightmare
Posted on June 3, 2014 | 3 CommentsThe Wall Street Journal sings the praises of SASOL's move to industrialize the Lousiana Bayou with fracked natural gas. But the proposed project by the apartheid-supporting state oil company from South Africa, using Nazi technology, may spell the end for a 224-year-old community founded by freed slaves.
Call to Action California: How to Solve the Climate Crisis
Posted on April 21, 2014 | 5 CommentsOn March 1st, almost 1,000 people, supported by over 100 community organizations, marched through the streets of LA Harbor to launch the coast-to-coast Great March for Climate Action. To demonstrate the political will for a healthy planet, SoCal Climate Action Coalition 350 prioritized six urgent climate-change-focused requests of local, state and global level elected legislative decision makers.
Fracking California: Oil Boom Bonanza a Dirty Desert Mirage
Posted on January 30, 2014 | 2 CommentsThe latest target of the unconventional oil craze is California hydraulic fracturing (fracking) the Monterey Shale in the central and southern parts of the state. With wildly optimistic predictions of an economic bonanza, the oil is carbon-intensive, requires massive amounts of fresh water, creates industrial pollution and seismic risk, and is impossible to regulate effectively because of significant scientific unknowns.
Great March for Climate Action: Kick-Off in Los Angeles – March 1st
Posted on January 21, 2014 | 12 CommentsThe time for climate action is now! On Saturday, March 1, the SoCal Climate Action Coalition 350 and its regional partners will rally in the shadow of a Port of Los Angeles oil refinery, sending marchers off on a 17.5-mile trek through the streets until they reach downtown Los Angeles. Hundreds of marchers will then continue their journey for 3,000 miles towards Washington D.C., reaching out to everyday citizens along the way on how they can fight climate change in their daily lives.
Fracking in New Brunswick: Elsipogtog First Nation Takes a Stand
Posted on December 7, 2013 | No CommentsSince June of 2013 the Elsipogtog First Nation community, in New Brunswick, Canada, has gathered on Highway 11 to protest the seismic testing being conducted by a subsidiary of Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. Since that time, several violent clashes between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and First Nation people have erupted. AlJazeera's "Fault Lines" went to Mi'kmaq territory, to find out what happens when a First Nation says no to fracking.
Big Oil Looks to Transport Tar Sands and Oil Shale By Rail
Posted on September 30, 2013 | 3 CommentsThe boom in North Dakota shale oil and the growth in Alberta tar sands, as well as the political costs of building pipelines has encouraged a move to ship more oil by rail. The move comes after high-profile disasters and the threat of massive climate disruption has caused heightened scrutiny of unconventional oil shipped by train to the global market.
The Climate Movement: Direct Action Against Extreme Fossil Fuels
Posted on September 5, 2013 | 1 CommentDavid Osborn from Rising Tide asserts all new fossil fuel extraction must immediately stop if we want any chance of a habitable climate and a livable future. The climate movement needs more actions like Swamp Line 9 in Ontario, which shut down a pumping station to protest the Enbridge Line 9 Tar Sands Pipeline Reversal.
Fracking and Eco-Poppycock in BlondCounty
Posted on August 28, 2013 | No CommentsThe impact of natural gas hydrofracturing, discussed in a diner in BlondCounty, by Jerry Collamer.
Regulating Fracking Will Not Protect California from Fracking
Posted on August 9, 2013 | 2 CommentsLauren Steiner writes on California's insufficient move to regulate fracking with SB 4, sponsored by State Representative Fran Pavley: "Worse than having no regulations, weak regulations provide political cover to legislators who could otherwise be pressured to vote for a moratorium on the practice." Tell Fran Pavley to withdraw her bad regulatory bill and fight for a fracking ban instead!
Media Resources: Forward on Climate Los Angeles
Posted on May 31, 2013 | 1 CommentThe Forward on Climate LA Solidarity March and Rally took place on February 17th, 2013, where more than 1,200 people supported by 101 Southern California organizations and businesses told Mr. Obama: "Solve the Climate Crisis, Take a stand, Mr. President!" Following is a media resource list from the event, including press, photography and videos. Let's keep it moving forward to heal the climate and our planet!
Lauren Steiner: Fracking Threatens California and How to Stop it
Posted on April 5, 2013 | 2 CommentsDespite what you've heard about natural gas being clean, fracking also contributes to climate change. Although the burning of the gas is clean, the process of fracking releases so much methane into the air, that if all the shale in California is fracked, it will delay the implementation of AB 32, California's Global Warming Solutions Act, by 80 years.
Fees on Carbon in the Era of Trans-Pacific Partnership – By Peter Jefferson Nichols
Posted on April 4, 2013 | No CommentsThe revenue generated from a Carbon Tax, which should really be called a fee, would be returned to the citizenry, either through reductions in taxes or monthly dividends. That money would offset any increase in the cost of gas at the pump and would off-set already exorbitant financial stress caused by carbon release (i.e. medical bills and (un)natural disaster relief).California: Big Oil AstroTurf Subverts Clean Air and Fuel Standards
Posted on March 8, 2013 | 2 CommentsWhile the public demands protections for air, land, and water, the California oil industry uses front groups and spends millions on lobbying the legislature, gaining disproportionate influence in subverting pollution and fuel standards. Keeping the economy addicted to climate-fouling fossil fuels and reaping billions in profits, Big Oil claims to be a "victim" of excessive regulation. Stop Fooling California!Dear Mr. President, Let’s Move Forward on Climate
Posted on February 20, 2013 | 5 CommentsPresident Obama, we need an energy policy focused on efficiency and conservation, integrated with a clean, renewable energy plan – one that breaks our addiction to dirty and dangerous fuels such as Coal, Fracked Natural Gas, Nuclear and Tar Sands Oil.
