Coal

Editor’s note: DGR supports local control of the land over settler colonial imperialism. We believe in Free Informed Prior Constent, consultation is not constent. Featured image: Screenshot from the Battle For Berrima Inc. video Hume Coal and Its Plans For A New Coal Mine In Berrima 2015 This article originally appeared in Global Voices. By Kevin Rennie Locals celebrate after eleven years of grassroots action Environmentalists are celebrating a victory over a proposed coal development in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) after 11 years of debate and community protests. The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) for the NSW Southern Highlands blocked the plans for the proposed mine, saying the potential impacts of the project were ‘too great to be reasonably managed, and the social risks to the community are high.’ ...

What is electric power worth? The coal power industry is responsible for an incredible amount of suffering and death via air, soil, water pollution and land destruction. This is not to mention the gathering climate crisis apocalypse. This piece, by DGR South Asia organizer Salonika, discusses the cost of coal. Reliance Power Accident in India Claims Six Lives By Salonika Amidst the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in India and talks from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on reopening selective industries, an accident in a coal-fired power plant washed away six people (three children, two men, and one woman), in Singrauli district in India . Three of them have been found dead, while three are still missing and presumed to be dead. ...

Featured image: Wangan and Jagalingou cultural leader Adrian Burragubba visits Doongmabulla Springs in Australia. The Wangan and Jagalingou are fighting a proposed coal mine that would likely destroy the springs, which are sacred to the Indigenous Australian group. by Noni Austin / Ecowatch For tens of thousands of years, the Wangan and Jagalingou people have lived in the flat arid lands of central Queensland, Australia. But now they are fighting for their very existence. Earlier this month, they took their fight to the United Nations after years of Australia’s failure to protect their fundamental human rights. ...

Featured image: Richard Walker. A techno-green future of limitless abundance sounds great, writes Aaron Vansintjan, but it’s totally unsustainable. by Aaron Vansintjan / Red Pepper If you hadn’t heard, despair is old hat. Rather than retreat into the woods, now is the time to think big, to propose visionary policies and platforms. So enter grand proposals like basic income, universal healthcare, and the end of work. Slap big polluters with carbon tax, eradicate tax havens for the rich, and switch to a 100% renewable energy system. ...

by Nic Bowcut / Direct Action Spokane SPOKANE- An estimated 50 individuals braved cooling temperatures and the threat of arrest to show their support for stopping the transportation of coal and oil by rail in Spokane, WA. The rally, drawing individuals from as far away as Montana, highlighted the growing resentment toward large corporation’s desire to use rail systems to transport potential dangerous materials across the country, along with the hazardous and potentially lethal precedent set in the continued use of fossil fuels. ...

by Direct Action Spokane A group of Spokane, Washington citizens are currently protesting on the BNSF railroad tracks off Trent, east of Napa. The action is being carried out to alert the region to the rapidly expanding impacts of climate change. The undisputed leading cause of global climate change is the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil that are currently being transported daily through Spokane in large volumes and destined to be burned. ...

By Direct Action Spokane Shortly before noon on August 21, a group of Spokane citizens occupied BNSF railroad tracks to protest the transport and eventual burning of fossil fuels in defense of climate change. The peaceful, non-violent direct action consisted of 30 protesters and eventually three arrests. The three people arrested were Nancy Nelson, Margie Heller, and Deena Romoff, all of whom are associated with the group Raging Grannies - an activist group dedicated to nonviolence in the name of social and environmental justice. The charges against each are obstructing a train and misdemeanor trespass. ...

By Deep Green Resistance Seattle A coal train entering Bellingham, Washington has been blockaded by a fossil fuel resistance group, including members of Deep Green Resistance. This blockade, part of an ongoing regional campaign against fossil fuels, has been standing strong for six hours – with no end in sight. Beginning at four PM this afternoon, protestors erected a portable tripod structure in the middle of a rail bridge crossing Mud Bay south of Bellingham. One protester has climbed to the top and will stay until removed by police. ...

DGR Lower Columbia members report on publicy supporting underground resistance at a coal export terminal EIS hearing. DGR Seattle needs signatures on an open letter demanding that BNSF Railway stop transporting fossil fuels. A new DGR chapter has been started, in Santa Barbara. A member of DGR UK wrote a summary of land defence struggles in the British countryside.

Via Censored News EAGLE PASS, Tex. – Native American Groups gathered today for a historic rally and march to protest the open-pit coal strip mine in Eagle Pass, Tex. The protesters called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rescind the mine’s permit, halt expansion and protect the land from further destruction. The project, owned by Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, mines lignite coal, which is transported by train from Maverick County across the border to be burned in a Mexican coal-fired power plant. The mine began operating several months ago, despite local opposition, and is harming the ancestral homelands of many Native groups and damaging sacred lands and more than 100 archaeological sites. ...