[MCN] Delta 5 defendant Anna Brockway @ Environmental Law Conference

Rich goldrich at hotmail.com
Sun Mar 6 19:11:26 EST 2016 

Today, I attended a panel discussion on Climate Disobedience and the Necessity Defense held at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, OR. The panelists discussed the recent trends in climate disobedience actions which offered a necessity defense, showcasing the Delta 5 trial in Bellingham this January, and introducing two organizations - the Climate Disobedience Center and Climate Defense Project - recently launched to support this effort. The panel of activists, including leaders of the Shell No! and Lobster Boat Blockade,
and legal experts considered the legal, narrative and political value of the necessity defense and other legal tools, such as pro se defense and barriers to their use. Panelists: Ken Ward, Climate Disobedience Center/Lobster Boat Blockade; Tim DeChristopher, Climate Disobedience Center Founder; Abby Brockway, Delta 5 Defendant; Ahmed Gaya, Rising Tide, North America; and Joseph (Ted) Hamilton, Climate Defense Project.
Abby Brockway, a Washington mother and wife, explained her activism and the necessity of blocking an BNSF oil train in a September 2014 protest, later coined the "Delta 5". Abby stated: "the Pacific Northwest is fast becoming a corridor for fossil fuel development." See <http://delta5trial.org/> On January 15, 2016, the defendants were found guilty and not guilty when their necessity defense was not allowed by Snohomish County Judge Anthony Howard (see: http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2016/01/15/23427306/delta-5-trial-update-jury-is-not-allowed-to-consider-necessity-defense-testimony). Previously, Judge Howard had reversed an earlier ruling that denied a motion to present the necessity defense on behalf of the five people who blocked BNSF train tracks in a September 2014 oil train protest. As a result, the defendants' lawyers were given a rare opportunity to present "necessity defense" evidence: testimony that the harm posed by business-as-usual crude oil train traffic on those tracks—including the greater context of climate change—is greater than the harm posed by their act of civil disobedience. Further expert testimony stated that these trains frequently spill oil and shale and oftentimes EXPLODE!
The problem for Missoula is that these massive oil trains run on Montana Rail Link (can you say Denny Washington) right through Missoula rail yard. So Abby has said that if we would like to organize to bring her to Missoula (Nan and I will probably be back in early April) she would be glad to come and share with us :) If you are interested email me (I'm still in Eugene working on low power fm radio).

peace,
Rick Gold
goldrich (at) hotmail.com

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Today's Topics:

   1. Washington Post: The politics of trashing the liberal arts
      (Lance Olsen)
   2. The future of mountain water, circa 2002 (Lance Olsen)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2016 17:10:39 -0700
From: Lance Olsen <lance at wildrockies.org>
To: missoula-community-news at bigskynet.org
Subject: [MCN] Washington Post: The politics of trashing the liberal
        arts
Message-ID: <p06240801d30124c1f48b@[192.168.0.16]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed"

Washington Post - March 5, 2016

Enough with trashing liberal arts. It's gotten old - and really, well, stupid.
Trashing the liberal arts seems to have become
practically a sport among some politicians these
days. Maybe they think that the "liberal" in
"liberal arts" is a political reference, which it
isn't.

        *       By Valerie Strauss

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/03/05/enough-with-trashing-the-liberal-arts-stop-being-stupid/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
--
---------------------------------  Other coupled
redistributions
-----------------------------------------

"The rate of movement that occurs in response to
changes in climate, whether fast or slow, will
shape the distribution of natural ecosystems in
the decades to come.  ....  We demonstrate that
the effectiveness of plant migration strongly
influences carbon storage, evapotranspiration,
and the absorption of solar radiation by the land
surface. As a result, plant migration affects the
magnitude, and in some cases the sign, of
feedbacks from the land surface to the climate
system."

PAUL A. T. HIGGINS AND JOHN HARTE. Biophysical
and Biogeochemical Responses to Climate
Change Depend on Dispersal and Migration.
BioScience May 2006 / Vol. 56 No. 5 * ? 2006
American Institute of Biological Sciences.
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Message: 2
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2016 07:04:13 -0700
From: Lance Olsen <lance at wildrockies.org>
To: missoula-community-news at bigskynet.org
Subject: [MCN] The future of mountain water, circa 2002
Message-ID: <p06240801d301e895dcd1@[192.168.0.16]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed"

Besieged mountain ecosystems start to turn off the tap
Reduced water flow threatens agriculture and food security around the globe

1st 4 paragraphs:

ROME, 14 October 2002 -- The supply of
freshwater, recognized on this World Food Day as
the source of food security, is threatened by the
increasing degradation of mountain ecosystems.

Mountains are often called nature's water towers.
They intercept air circulating around the globe
and force it upwards where it condenses into
clouds, which provide rain and snow. All the
major rivers in the world - from the Rio Grande
to the Nile - have their headwaters in mountains.

As a consequence, one of every two people drinks
water that originates in mountains. One billion
Chinese, Indians and Bangladeshis, 250 million
people in Africa, and the entire population of
California, United States, are among the 3
billion people who rely on the continuous flow of
mountain water. Each day, water from mountains
turns hydro-electric turbines, aids industrial
processes, irrigates farmers' fields and quenches
thirst.

Yet, despite all who depend on it, the future of
mountain water has never been more uncertain. The
magnitude of this threat is one of the reasons
the United Nations declared 2002 the
International Year of Mountains.

http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2002/9881-en.html

--
---------------------------------  Other coupled
redistributions
-----------------------------------------

"The rate of movement that occurs in response to
changes in climate, whether fast or slow, will
shape the distribution of natural ecosystems in
the decades to come.  ....  We demonstrate that
the effectiveness of plant migration strongly
influences carbon storage, evapotranspiration,
and the absorption of solar radiation by the land
surface. As a result, plant migration affects the
magnitude, and in some cases the sign, of
feedbacks from the land surface to the climate
system."

PAUL A. T. HIGGINS AND JOHN HARTE. Biophysical
and Biogeochemical Responses to Climate
Change Depend on Dispersal and Migration.
BioScience May 2006 / Vol. 56 No. 5 * ? 2006
American Institute of Biological Sciences.
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