Category: RT Newswire

Weather chaos could trigger civil unrest

Oxford study calls on Western governments to overhaul security and disaster planning
Jan 28, 2008 04:30 AM

Mitch Potter
EUROPE BUREAU
Toronto Star

LONDON–The world’s wealthiest countries could face the beginnings of societal
breakdown by mid-century in the form of boiling domestic unrest over climate
change, a new British report warns.

A tide of protest against polluting companies and perceived government inaction
and, in extreme cases, the emergence of new forms of ecoterrorism are among
scenarios outlined by security think tank the Oxford Research Group.

The report, An Uncertain Future: Law Enforcement, National Security and Climate
Change, sounds a warning quite different from the conventional assumption that
carbon-induced global warming could trigger waves of environmental refugees from
abroad driven by the quest for food, water and shelter.

Continue reading

Western Shoshone Defense Project

So-Ho-Bi (South Fork) office:
775-744-2565 (fax and phone)

Main office:
P.O. Box 211308
Crescent Valley, NV 89821
Newe Sogobi
775-468-0230
775-468-0237 (fax)

—–Original Message—–
From: brenda norrell [mailto:brendanorrell@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:10 PM
To: Western Shoshone Defense Project
Subject: fwd First BLM livestock seizures since 2002 in Nevada

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080124-2344-wst-cattleseized.htm

Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

———————————————————————————————————————————-

—————————————————————————————————————————————
Fostering Better Forest Policy With Science

By Cameron Naficy

A widespread notion is that fire suppression has greatly altered fire regimes across
the West and is therefore largely responsible for the large, severe wildfires
witnessed in recent years. This logic even lies at the base of national policies
such as the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) and Healthy Forests Initiative
(HFI) which emphasize widespread logging and prescribed fire to ameliorate the
effects of fire suppression and reduce the likelihood of large fires. However,
significant scientific debate exists about the extent and historical causes of forest change as well as the best management responses to these changes.

Recent studies have begun to highlight many potential dangers of rushing
headfirst into widespread logging and burning practices, as is currently advocated
by national policies. Just as fire suppression was thought to be a beneficial policy
for forest health and public safety and yet we now find ourselves in part the victim
of a century of fire suppression policies, we need to be sure that current thinning
and burning policies do not, in the long run, actually worsen the very problem they
aim to solve. In order to avoid such an outcome, solid scientific principles must
exist as the foundation of management policy and practice. Over the last several
years, the WildWest Institute has been working with forest ecologists at the
University of Montana to help fill the scientific gap at the base of current national forest policies. The following is a brief review of our research and other relevant scientific findings that should help to form the basis for forest management policies and practices on public lands.

Continue reading

Shell’s two year tenure as sponsor of the Natural History Museum’s
‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ exhibition has come to an end. A
determined, creative two year national campaign, coordinated in part by
the direct action group Rising Tide and its Art Not Oil (1) offshoot,
helped to force the NHM to ditch Shell.

Using a combination of creative direct action (2) and a ‘Shell’s Wild Lie’
exhibition (3), Rising Tide has been pressurising the Museum and partner
BBC Wildlife magazine to acknowledge that one of the world’s largest oil
companies is not a good sponsor for an exhibition that has become a
powerful testament to the beauty, diversity and fragility of the natural world.(4)

This campaign, and the significant public pressure it mobilised, has now paid off. Continue reading