Environmental News

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Greenpeace Activists May Be Charged with Terrorism After Russian Coastguard Storms Ship in Arctic
Activists trying to stop the work of an oil rig in Arctic waters are being held on board at gunpoint.


Jumping from helicopters and slithering down ropes, more than a dozen armed Russian coastguard workers boarded a Greenpeace ship and took custody of the activists on board, to stop them from disrupting the work of a controversial oil rig.

After a scuffle between the activists and the Russian security forces, the 29 activists, including six British nationals, are apparently being held on board at gunpoint, while the ship is forcibly towed to the Arctic port of Murmansk.

The Russian coastguard, which is controlled by the FSB security services, boarded the Arctic Sunrise late on Thursday night near Prirazlomnaya, a drilling platform in the Pechora Sea, close to the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

The activists were protesting against the rig, operated by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which is due to come online soon, and had attempted to climb aboard it and stop work.

The ship's crew remain in the custody of armed Russian security forces and could be charged with terrorism.

The FSB said it had been tracking the vessel since it left the Norwegian port of Kirkenes last Saturday, and turned off its radio signals. Once the ship had changed course and began heading for the Prirazlomnaya platform, the FSB decided to act. Warning shots were fired and two climbers on the rig were arrested earlier in the week.

When the ship's captain refused to turn back or respond to commands on Thursday, the FSB said it took the decision to act. About 15 armed men boarded the boat via helicopter, according to activists on board.

Ben Ayliffe, the head of Greenpeace International's Arctic oil campaign, said he was speaking to one of the activists via satellite phone during the storming, and could hear shouts and banging.

"They used violence against some of us. They were hitting people, kicking people down, pushing people," Faiza Oulahsen, one of the activists aboard the ship, said in a call to Reuters on Thursday evening.

Nothing has been heard from the activists since. The Russian coastguard said that the ship's captain was refusing to operate the ship, so an official boat was towing the Arctic Sunrise west towards Murmansk.

Greenpeace insists the ship was in international waters when it was boarded, and said there had been no formal notification of possible charges, nor offers of access to legal or consular assistance. The ship was 34 nautical miles from the closest Russian shore, according to the activists, which would put it in an area known as the Exclusive Economic Zone of Russia but not in the country's territorial waters.

The FSB said it was co-ordinating actions with the foreign ministry, Gazprom and oil company Rosneft "to protect the safety of the crew on the platform and defend the interests of the Russian Federation in the Arctic region".

The regional press office of the FSB in Murmansk told Russian agencies that it had received information from representatives of the Prirazlomnaya platform earlier in the week that they feared a terrorist act was about to be carried out, and said that activists were approaching the rig with an "unidentified object that looks like an explosive device". Greenpeace claimed this was disingenuous, as its "safety pod" is brightly coloured and branded with the organisation's logo.

Greenpeace has long warned that the start of oil drilling at Prirazlomnaya could have disastrous environmental repercussions. "The rig is a rusting hulk in the middle of the Arctic that is about to start pumping oil from the Arctic for the first time," said Ayliffe. "Gazprom has no way to clean up an oil spill if it happened, and it would cause huge damage to one of the most fragile natural environments on the planet."

The Arctic Sunrise ran a similar mission to Prirazlomnaya last year, and several activists again climbed on to the rig, but although they were observed by Russian authorities, there was none of the forceful reaction that occurred this time, Ayliffe said.

Vladimir Chuprov, the head of Greenpeace Russia's Arctic programmes, says the organisation is trying to arrange meetings with Russian officials to discuss the situation. A Greenpeace team is already in Murmansk awaiting the arrival of the boat, expected at some point on Monday.

http://www.alternet.org/activism/gre...tic?paging=off

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Naomi Klein: Why Big Green Groups Can Be More Damaging Than Right-Wing Climate Deniers
In a new interview Klein says that it’s important to question why some big green groups have been so unwilling to follow science to its logical conclusions.


It's a long article. Here's a link:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/...limate-deniers

[Cin]

http://www.globalpossibilities.org/k...pipeline-deal/


A new study released Sunday concludes that Koch Industries and its subsidiaries stand to make as much as $100 billion in profits if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is given the go-ahead by President Obama.

The report, titled “Billionaires’ Carbon Bomb,” and produced by the think tank International Forum on Globalization, finds that David and Charles Koch and their privately owned company, Koch Industries, own more than 2 million acres of land in Northern Alberta, the source of the tar-sands oil that will be pumped to the United States via the Keystone XL pipeline.

IFG also finds that more than 1,000 reports and statements in support of the Keystone XL pipeline project have been made by policy groups and think tanks that receive funding from the Koch brothers and their philanthropic foundations.

“The Kochs have repeatedly claimed that they have no interest in the Keystone XL Pipeline, this report shows that is false.” Said Nathalie Lowenthal-Savy, a researcher with IFG. “We noticed Koch Funded Tea Party members and think tanks pushing for the pipeline. We dug deeper and found $100 billion in potential profit, $50 million sent to organizations supporting the pipeline, and perhaps 2 million acres of land. That sounds like an interest to me.” Nathalie continued, “We all know they will use that money to fund and expand their influence network, subvert democracy, crush unions like in Wisconsin, and get more extremists elected to congress.”

[Cin]

Monsanto's Very Bad Week: 3 Big Blows for GMO Food
Why are Monsanto and the junk food industry willing to spend many tens of millions of dollars every year trying to keep you in the dark about your food?

http://www.alternet.org/food/monsant...blows-gmo-food

[Cin]

Groups Sue FDA Over 'Unlawful and Irresponsible' Approval of Frankenfish
'This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish.'

A coalition of environmental, consumer, and fishing organizations on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving the first-ever genetically engineered (GE) animal for commercial sale and consumption—an Atlantic salmon, known colloquially as the "Frankenfish."

The lawsuit (pdf), filed by the Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Earthjustice, and other groups, states that the FDA does not have the authority to regulate GE animals and that approving the salmon paves the way for other GE fish, as well as farm animals like chickens, cows, and pigs, which the coalition says are currently in development.

The administration has previously claimed it did have the power, under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which was crafted to ensure safety of veterinary drugs administered to treat disease in livestock.

"FDA's decision is as unlawful as it is irresponsible," said George Kimbrell, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. "This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish, harms FDA refused to even consider, let alone prevent."

The salmon, which is being engineered by the biotechnology firm AquaBounty, was approved in November despite widespread outcry from advocates who said the fish pose too many risks to public health and the environment to authorize. The company plans to manufacture the eggs on Prince Edward Island in Canada, then ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to full size.

From there, they will be sent to the U.S. for sale and consumption.

The journey in total comprises about 5,000 miles.

The Center for Food Safety and other groups threatened at the time to file an "emergency lawsuit" against the FDA for the move.

As Common Dreams reported:
For years, critics have warned that GMO salmon threaten wildlife populations, particularly through the potential for cross-breeding. Indeed, just a day before the FDA's announcement, a coalition of environmental groups sued the Canadian government for approving AquaBounty's request to manufacture the salmon eggs on Prince Edward Island (PEI) and ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to adult size.

The plaintiffs in that case said the government ignored its own scientific findings to approve the bid, after the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans reported in May that GMO salmon were more susceptible to disease-causing bacteria and had other inconsistent performance issues.

"FDA has not answered crucial questions about the environmental risks posed by these fish or what can happen when these fish escape," Brettny Hardy, an attorney for Earthjustice and another of the coalition's counsels, said Thursday. "We need these answers now and the FDA must be held to a higher standard."

"We are talking about the mass production of a highly migratory GE fish that could threaten some of the last remaining wild salmon on the planet," Hardy said. "This isn't the time to skimp on analysis and simply hope for the best."

http://commondreams.org/news/2016/03...al-frankenfish

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Groups Sue FDA Over 'Unlawful and Irresponsible' Approval of Frankenfish
'This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish.'

A coalition of environmental, consumer, and fishing organizations on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving the first-ever genetically engineered (GE) animal for commercial sale and consumption—an Atlantic salmon, known colloquially as the "Frankenfish."

The lawsuit (pdf), filed by the Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Earthjustice, and other groups, states that the FDA does not have the authority to regulate GE animals and that approving the salmon paves the way for other GE fish, as well as farm animals like chickens, cows, and pigs, which the coalition says are currently in development.

The administration has previously claimed it did have the power, under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which was crafted to ensure safety of veterinary drugs administered to treat disease in livestock.

"FDA's decision is as unlawful as it is irresponsible," said George Kimbrell, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. "This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish, harms FDA refused to even consider, let alone prevent."

The salmon, which is being engineered by the biotechnology firm AquaBounty, was approved in November despite widespread outcry from advocates who said the fish pose too many risks to public health and the environment to authorize. The company plans to manufacture the eggs on Prince Edward Island in Canada, then ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to full size.

From there, they will be sent to the U.S. for sale and consumption.

The journey in total comprises about 5,000 miles.

The Center for Food Safety and other groups threatened at the time to file an "emergency lawsuit" against the FDA for the move.

As Common Dreams reported:
For years, critics have warned that GMO salmon threaten wildlife populations, particularly through the potential for cross-breeding. Indeed, just a day before the FDA's announcement, a coalition of environmental groups sued the Canadian government for approving AquaBounty's request to manufacture the salmon eggs on Prince Edward Island (PEI) and ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to adult size.

The plaintiffs in that case said the government ignored its own scientific findings to approve the bid, after the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans reported in May that GMO salmon were more susceptible to disease-causing bacteria and had other inconsistent performance issues.

"FDA has not answered crucial questions about the environmental risks posed by these fish or what can happen when these fish escape," Brettny Hardy, an attorney for Earthjustice and another of the coalition's counsels, said Thursday. "We need these answers now and the FDA must be held to a higher standard."

"We are talking about the mass production of a highly migratory GE fish that could threaten some of the last remaining wild salmon on the planet," Hardy said. "This isn't the time to skimp on analysis and simply hope for the best."

http://commondreams.org/news/2016/03...al-frankenfish

This freaks me out.

I pay more for wild salmon than buying farm-raised after I read why the color in farm-raised salmon looks different than wild salmon. I am sure that it is just as good for you (hopefully) but sometimes when I find out the truth of things; I can't get it past my gag reflex.

I won't be buying the frankenfish either.


So why is wild salmon a deeper red than farmed salmon?

Unlike beef, which acquires its distinct red hue from contact with oxygen in the air, salmon meat gains its color through the fish’s diet. Out in the ocean, salmon eat lots of small free-floating crustaceans, such as tiny shrimp.

These crustaceans are filled with molecules called carotenoids, which show up as pigments all over the tree of life. In fact, if you’ve ever known a kid who turned orange from eating too many carrots, you’ve seen carotenoids in action. It’s these carotenoids that account for the reddish color of the salmon, as well as the pink color of flamingoes and the red of a boiled lobster.

Farmed salmon, however, aren’t fed crustaceans. Instead, they eat dry pellets that look like dog food. According to the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, salmon chow includes ingredients such as “soybean meal, corn gluten meal, canola meal, wheat gluten and poultry by-products.” Carotenoids, which are also essential for regular growth, can also be added to help give the fish its distinctive color.

http://scienceline.org/2013/09/ever-...farmed-salmon/

[Cin]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

This freaks me out.

I won't be buying the frankenfish either.

Unfortunately you might not know. In approving the GE salmon, FDA determined it would not require labeling of the GE fish to let consumers know what they are buying, so a grocery store could be selling it or a restaurant could be serving it and would not have to disclose that information. Congress attached something to the 2016 omnibus spending bill that will allow states to require labeling so in time your state might require stores to tell you, but right now it's a secret.

What really worries me is how different these genetically altered salmon are from real salmon. They interact differently, they stay apart and they eat a lot more because of the added other fish DNA to stimulate growth. Also they are not good at fighting disease and are more susceptible to bacteria. If, or should I say when, they enter the wild they will cause much damage. This breach could occur where they will be grown in Panama or perhaps the eggs in PEI or in the US, but it is pretty much a guarantee that it will happen. They will enter the ocean at some point. It is just a bad idea all around. And it's not even necessary. There is no real idea what will be the result of this invasive species on wild salmon and the ocean.