Palm oil case against 'Green Governor' in Indonesia heats up

Environmental activists have launched an urgent appeal calling for a "just decision" in a court case that has pitted Aceh's "Green Governor" and palm oil developers against efforts to save endangered orangutans in a Sumatran peat forest

Rhett A. Butler | mongabay.com | March 22, 2012

Sumatran orangutan in the Leuser rainforest. Photo by Rhett Butler.

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Why Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry is reluctant to investigate APP’s illegal logging of ramin trees

When Greenpeace told the Ministry of Forestry that it had found evidence that Asia Pulp and Paper was illegally logging ramin trees, the Ministry’s response less than enthusiastic. More than two weeks later, the Ministry told Greenpeace that it “intends” to visit APP’s pulp mill. Meanwhile APP has been busy removing the evidence from its timber yards

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 20th March 2012

PHOTO Credit: Greenpeace

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Support the Spirit Level film!

Katharine Round calls for backers to help make a documentary based on the popular book about equality

Red Pepper | 12 March 2012

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Vignettes of a year in Borneo: land in dispute

This book tells a story. We lived in the middle of Borneo, as a family, working on the first year and a half of a Conservation Project. The book is partly the story of our personal adjustment. We found that creating a life in the middle of Borneo was not always easy—even when one member was an experienced anthropologist!

By Carol Colfer | Blog CIFOR | March 9, 2012

Sentarum Lake, West Kalimantan. Photo by Yayan Indriatmoko/ CIFOR

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Three Ways to Beat Corporate Giants

How do Davids bring down Goliaths? Three tactics that worked

by Jim Shultz | Yes! Magazine | Mar 09, 2012

Photo by watchingfrogsboil

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Abolitionists Target Funds Behind Nuclear Arms Industry

The world’s nuclear weapons industry is being funded – and kept alive – by more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries, according to a new study

By Thalif Deen | Inter-Press Service | Mar 5 2012

A Small ICBM (missile) Hard Mobile Launcher. Nuclear-armed nations spend over 100 billion dollars each year on their weapons programmes. Credit: US Air Force

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Annie Leonard: Creator of "The Story of Stuff" Shows What's At Stake with Commons Assets

Annie Leonard is one of the most articulate, effective champions of the commons today. Her webfilm The Story of Stuff has been seen more than 15 million times by viewers. She also adapted it into a book

Jay Walljasper | On the Commons | Feb 20 2012

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WWF report links Sumatra deforestation to toilet paper

We know how difficult it is to link products to dangerous practices. Eco-friendly companies and individuals are going to be shocked once more at the habitat destruction wreaked on rainforests by their toilet paper, paper towels and tissue

By Paul Robinson | Earth Times | 08 Feb 2012

Don't Flush Tiger Forests; Credit: © World Wildlife Fund

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Making climate change appealing

The famous “Keeling Curve” graph, which shows the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere from 1958 to 2006, had set off alarm bells in the scientific community that continues to ring loudly even today. Yet somehow, this same graph does not communicate the immediacy of the climate change problem to lay audiences

By Varun Dutt | Financial Chronicle | Feb 05 2012

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Featured video: music in Madagascar to protest illegal logging

A new video highlights the plight of Madagascar's protected tropical forests, which are falling prey to illegal logging and foreign contractors. Featuring Razia Said, Malagasy singer and songwriter, the video shows concerts to raise awareness about illegal logging, especially near Maosala National Park

Jeremy Hance | mongabay.com | January 22, 2012

In February 2007, musician Razia Said returned to Madagascar to reconnect with the land she left as an eleven year-old child. For 6 weeks Razia and her band traveled around the island, and discovered the environmental damage taking place as the result of unfettered slash and burn agriculture, illegal logging and climate change

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The climate change message is not being heard. Here's how to change tack

Focus on the economic case, drop the activist-speak, talk about solutions rather than doom – and don't rely on politicians

Sunny Hundal | guardian.co.uk | 5 January 2012

Preaching to the converted? A climate march in London, December 2010. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters

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Ten of the worst REDD-type projects

A recently released booklet, “No REDD Papers, Volume 1” (pdf file 2.5 MB), includes a list of 10 of the worst REDD-type projects affecting indigenous peoples. The booklet was produced by Carbon Trade Watch, Global Justice Ecology Project, Indigenous Environmental Network, Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and Timberwatch Coalition

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 23rd November 2011

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Occupy first. Demands come later

Critics say the Occupy cause is nebulous. Protesters will need to address what comes next – but beware a debate on enemy turf

Slavoj Žižek | guardian.co.uk | 26 October 2011

'The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work – they are the beginning, not the end.' Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

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Manufacturing consent on carbon trading

In September 2011, the 64th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference took place in Bonn, Germany. About 1,500 people from 70 countries turned up. On the third day of the meeting, a remarkable thing happened. Not a single participant at the conference put up their hand to disagree with a declaration which promotes REDD as a carbon trading mechanism

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 26th October 2011

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How to turn the power of the Wall Street protests into real reforms

As the Wall Street protests have spread from New York City to the rest of the country, some media pundits have criticized the protesters for being unfocused — as if there were only one thing wrong with the financial sector of the U.S. economy. The protests have provided a welcome response to Wall Street’s massive takeover of governance, and continued opposition to the status quo could produce opportunities to enact real reforms

by Brent Blackwelder | The Daly News, Oct 24 2011 in Energy Bulletin | Oct 24 2011

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Occupy Wall Street's Global Echo

The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City a month ago gained worldwide momentum (CBS/AP) over the weekend, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in nine hundred cities protested corporate greed and wealth inequality. Protesters from London to Sydney echoed the anti-capitalist, populist rhetoric of the Occupy movement in what was deemed a "global day of protest" (TIME).

Analysis Brief by Christopher Alessi, Associate Staff Writer | CFR | October 18, 2011

Protesters demonstrate against banking and finance in front of headquarters of ECB in Frankfurt. (Ralph Orlowski/Courtesy Reuters)

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#Occupy - ANALYSIS - Oct 22

How Occupy Wall Street Really Got Started; From Protest to Disruption: Frances Fox Piven on Occupy Wall Street; What ‘Diversity of Tactics’ Really Means for Occupy Wall Street; Could the Occupy Movement’s General Assemblies Replace Today’s Parliaments and Legislatures?; What can OWS learn from a defunct French avant-garde group?

by Staff | Energy Bulletin | Oct 22 2011

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#Occupy - HOW-TO - Oct 22

How to cook a pacific #revolution (from Spain); Consensus (Direct Democracy @ Occupy Wall Street); #occupywallstreet general assembly facilitation; Quick guide on group dynamics in people’s assemblies; HowToCamp / HowToOccupy; and, Ketchup's description (via Chris Hedges)

by Staff | Energy Bulletin | Oct 22 2011

How to cook a pacific #revolution

Take the Square

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New report calls for “An end to forest offsets!”

A new manual by six Europe-based NGOs calls for an end to forest offsets. The report argues that there are two motivations for forest offsets: “reducing the pressure to do something about fossil fuel emissions and the short term profit motive”

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 21st October 2011

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