Choose Your Friends Wisely – August 31, 2010

Radical eco-activist imprisoned for “friending” Mike Roselle

For years, Rod Coronado was the unofficial bad boy of the radical environmental movement. As a teenager he cut his teeth with the now well known Sea Shepherd Society and, in 1986, participated in a risky act of eco-sabotage: taking aim at Iceland’s refusal to conform to an international ban on whaling, Coronado and a partner destroyed the Hvalfjordur whaling station and sank two of the country’s whaling vessels, causing some $2 million in damage. Coronado went on to wage an underground war against the fur industry, targeting research facilities and fur farms across North America. (His story, and the story of the modern American environmental movement, is told in Dean… more

by: Adam Federman

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In Russia, A Victory For Civil Society – August 27, 2010

Khimki Highway Construction On Hold

A long running battle over the construction of a highway through Moscow’s Khimki forest has taken a surprising turn. Earlier this week I wrote about the broad based campaign to save one of Moscow’s few remaining green belts and old growth oak forests.

Environmentalists and activists have been working since 2007 to halt the construction of a highway through the 2,500-acre forest, which many viewed as inevitable. Just a couple of weeks ago one of the organizers, Yevgenia Chirikova, told the Washington Post that, “The next step is probably that they will start building. We are ready. It is going to be very loud.”

For now, however, the construction… more

by: Adam Federman

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Russia’s Forest Defenders – August 24, 2010

Campaign to save Moscow's Khimki forest heats up

This story first appeared at Waging Nonviolence.

As Russia’s forests go up in flames, a group of activists and environmentalists is struggling to protect one of Moscow’s few remaining green belts and stands of old growth oaks. This time the threat isn’t wildfires but rather a 10-lane super highway that would link Moscow and St. Petersburg. The campaign to prevent the road from passing through the 2,500-acre Khimki forest, a long protected reserve just outside of Moscow, began in 2007. Since then journalists and editors investigating the story have been attacked (one nearly beaten to death), environmental activists have been arrested, and European investors—including the European Bank for Reconstruction and… more

by: Adam Federman

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The Upper Delaware’s Last Stand – June 2, 2010

Threat of Gas Drilling Earns River Most Endangered Status

Just outside of the town of Hancock, New York, on a narrow dirt road that follows the east branch of the Delaware River, you can find a harmless looking wooden stake that demarcates the future site of a natural gas well. It sits on top of a fairly steep hillside just above one of the rivers many tributaries. It is surrounded by forest, wetlands, unnamed streams, and spring fed ponds. Residents consider the spring water some of the best in the world.

Now imagine a well pad the size of a football field, perhaps even larger (some take up five acres), in place of that wooden stake; access… more

by: Adam Federman

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USDA Pressured to Regulate Commercial Bumble bee Industry – January 19, 2010

In the early 1990s, the USDA conducted risk assessments of the interstate transport of bumble bees for commercial greenhouse pollination, particularly tomatoes. Because of the risk of introducing non-native pests and diseases into new areas, they concluded that commercially reared bumble bees should not be shipped beyond their native range (They also prohibited the importation of bumble bees from outside the country, with the exception of Canada). At the time, it seemed a simple solution to growing concerns that the fledgling industry had taken off before adequate regulatory measures were put in place.

There was already some concern that the… more

by: Adam Federman

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