Russia: Unknown People in Masks and Police Attack Environmentalists

As seen on Global Voices: Russia: Unknown People in Masks and Police Attack Environmentalists

From 20 to 40 young people in white masks attacked the camp of the defenders of the Khimki forest park [RUS], Igor Podgorny [RUS] and Novaya Gazeta [RUS] reported. The police intervention didn't help – instead several environmentalists and journalists were detained.

Sounds nasty. By now a couple of main stream international media have picked up the story. Like AP: Police detain Moscow forest activists

Russian police on Friday detained two journalists and 15 protesters at a suburban Moscow forest where they have been living to try to protect the woods from destruction. [...] The forest in Khimki has been the focus of controversy for years over plans to chop down much of it for highway construction. Khimki lies on the increasingly jammed route from Moscow to Sheremetyevo International Airport and St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city. A local newspaper editor who reported extensively on the issue was severely beaten in 2008 and left wheelchair-bound and brain-damaged. [...] The activists called the police at the break of dawn on Friday when a group of some 100 young men who had covered their faces blocked the campsite, thus allowing the [tree chopping in an alledgedly illegal area] work to resume, Moscow Regional police said in a statement.

An associated protest was similarly cracked down upon reports The Moscow Times: 5 Detained in Bid to Give Khimki Timber to Putin

“The police swooped down on us and detained us, acting in a very rude and harsh fashion and turning a peaceful event into a brawl,” [head of the Left Front group, Sergei] Udaltsov said

Greenpeace Activist Harpooned by French Fisherman

"In a non-violent action, Greenpeace activists in zodiac boats attempted to lower the side of a purse seine net with sand bags to free the fish. At that moment, fishermen violently attacked the activists, harpooning one of them through the leg."
- Isabelle Philippe, Greenpeace France

"The French fishermen were attacked by helmeted Greenpeace activists, equipped for and engaged in a violent operation - the destruction of a work tool...After trying to get the species classified as endangered, based on an erroneous reading of the scientific facts regarding the stock of bluefin tuna, now (Greenpeace) assumes the right to attack fishermen out at sea."
- France's National Maritime Fisheries Committee

Seen at Treehugger's Greenpeace Activist Harpooned by French Fisherman. Reminds me of Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Workers of polluting and nature exploiting industries in violent attacks against environmentalists and Friday, October 24, 2008 Old growth forest lumberjacks attack environmentalist protestors.

New Greenpeace chief: "civil disobedience appears to be the only way"

Watch Kumi Naidoo, the new executive director for Greenpeace International, address climate change in his "inauguration YouTube video":

"After several years in the anti-poverty movement I came to see how the struggles against poverty and the struggle to reverse catastrophic climate change are two sides of the same coin. All our different struggles are linked together."

That reminded me of my Blog Action Day 2008 post: Pollution, poverty, war, lights, camera... action!

"If we are able to understand the moment we live in and respond with the courage to create a green economy, to push for an energy revolution and to fundamentally ensure that we can share this planet in a more equitable way we can reverse the dangerous path that humanity has started on. [...] at a time where civil disobedience appears to be the only way we can actually push our governments Greenpeace's methodology offers us the most promise."

Found via Lara Smallman's Put Humans First at TH!NK.

Workers of polluting and nature exploiting industries in violent attacks against environmentalists

Remember October 2008 when Old growth forest lumberjacks attack[ed] environmentalist protestors?

Now fishermen have assaulted Greenpeace activists who suspected foul play.

[As activst Emma boarded the vessel on sea] they punched her, pulled her hair, picked her up and threw her overboard [and later on the pier] She was viciously assaulted by a burly sailor twice her size, holding her down and punching her repeatedly in the face.

Read A black eye for Emma and another step forward for bluefin tuna at the Greenpeace Staff Blog.

An interestingly identical video appeared even before I managed to blog the above: Coal mine workers verbally abuse anti-coal protesters at what appears to be a quite cozy event. See Treehuggers Pro-Coal Thugs Crash Peaceful Anti-Coal Event in West Virginia - This is Getting Ugly (Video) or click play right away:


Both the big fat lumberjacks and the big, fat and half naked coal miner are just physically intimidating while intellectually challenged. But notice the female coal worker says:

"You may have another way of earning a living, but we don't."

That might as well be a quote by the equally bone headed oil industry. Rather than exploring new ways of "earning a living" they sponsor anti-environmentalist propaganda organizations (just a quick search immediately found a note about Exxon at SourceWatch.org and a website called "Follow the Oil Money".)

The fight against dirty energy

December 2008: Activists pledge 'all-out war' to block power plant

Environmentalists are vowing to block a proposed $6 billion coal-fired power plant in Surry County, saying it would increase air pollution, would contribute to global warming and is not needed.

Late September 2008: Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants

Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.

Early September 2008: Climate Change a Viable Defense in British Court

A group of Greenpeace activists dubbed the “Kingsnorth Six” were found not guilty of criminal damage by a British jury earlier this month, despite fessing up to defacing a coal-fired power plant in an attempt to shut it down. Their creative legal team argued that the damage was justified under a law that excuses property damage inflicted to prevent greater property damage, which the defense said would occur as a result of climate change.

Climate impacts of agriculture and mitigation potential

A very interesting report by Bellarby, Foereid, Hastings and Smith published by Greenpeace: Cool Farming: Climate impacts of agriculture and mitigation potential.

Agriculture is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Greenpeace’s new report Cool Farming details the destructive practices resulting from industrial agriculture and presents workable solutions to help reduce its contribution to climate change. These practical changes will benefit the environment as well as farmers and consumers throughout the world. This report details for the first time all direct and indirect contribution agriculture has on climate change. It was written by Professor Pete Smith, a lead author on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change, and his research team at the University of Aberdeen.

It may seem a bit off topic for this blog. But agriculture is ecosystem management. Obviously, bad management may change the ecosystem in unfavorable ways - like polluting it, degrading it or feed climate change. Which may in turn lead to conflict. Or perhaps sustainable management could help stop wars both future and present?