Category: RT Newswire

9th Circuit Court of Appeals Delays Snowmaking on San Francisco Peaks, AZ

The Associate Press
Published: 10.06.2008

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.—A federal appeals court that approved a plan for snowmaking on an Arizona peak sacred to Indian tribes is giving opponents time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday granted a request to delay any construction at the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort near Flagstaff until the high court can decide if it will hear the tribes’ appeal.
Tribal lawyer Harry Shanker says the order preserves the status quo and protects the rights of the Indians opposed to resort’s plan to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks.
The appeals court cleared the way for the snowmaking in August after a yearslong court battle. The Supreme Court only takes about one percent of the cases it receives.

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Many Mammals in Rapid Decline World Wide
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“…will likely deteriorate further unless
appropriate conservation actions are put in
place.”

“… the populations of 52 percent of all mammal species are declining.”

” … more mammal species are rapidly declining than we had suspected.”
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Scientific American
News –  October 6, 2008

One Quarter of World’s Mammals Face Extinction
By David Biello

The baiji dolphin is functionally extinct,
orangutans are disappearing and even some species
of bats-the most numerous of mammals-are dying
out. A new survey of the world’s 5,487 mammal
species-from rodents to humans-reveals that one
in four are facing imminent extinction.

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Published on Saturday, October 4, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
The Impact of the ‘Battle In Seattle’

by Mark Engler

Nine years after the World Trade Organization came to Seattle, a new feature film sets out to dramatize the historic protests that theinstitution’s meetings provoked. The issue that Battle in Seattle filmmaker Stuart Townsend seeks to raise, as he recently stated, is “[what it takes] to create real and meaningful change.”

The question is notoriously difficult. In the film, characters like Martin Henderson’s Jay, a veteran environmental campaigner driven by a tragedy experienced on a past logging campaign, and Michelle Rodriguez’s Lou, a hard-bitten animal rights activist, debate the effectiveness of protest. Even as they take to Seattle’s streets, staring down armor-clad cops (Woody Harrelson, Channing Tatum) commanded by a tormented and indecisive mayor (Ray Liotta), they wonder whether their actions can have an impact.

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Join The Caravan of Support To Big Mountain Resistance Communities of
Black Mesa, AZ. November 22-29, 2008!

Greetings from Black Mesa Indigenous Support,

We are excited to inform you that we are currently putting together
efforts to bring a caravan of work crews that will be converging from
across the country to support residents of the Big Mountain regions
of Black Mesa who, on behalf of their peoples, their sacred ancestral
lands, and future generations, continue to carry out their staunch
resistance to the efforts of the US Government, which is acting in
the interests of the Peabody Coal Company to devastate whole
communities & ecosystems, and greatly de-stabilize our planet’s
climate for the profit of an elite few.

At this moment the decision makers in Washington D.C. are planning
ways to expand their occupation of tribal lands to extract mineral &
other resources. The coal companies have a long history of and
continue to fund both the Republican and Democratic parties because
they have huge interests at stake. Peabody Coal, the world’s largest
coal company,  is currently pushing through plans to massively expand
dirty coal strip-mining operations which has destroyed land and water
aquifers, completely dug up burials, sacred areas, and shrines
designated specifically for offerings, preventing religious practices.

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