Federal suit targets Greenpeace for members’ actions

Three miles off the Florida coast in April 2002, two Greenpeace activists clambered from an inflatable rubber speedboat onto a cargo ship. They were detained before they could unfurl a banner, spent the weekend in custody and two months later were sentenced to time served for boarding the ship without permission.

It was a routine act of civil disobedience until, 15 months after the incident, federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Greenpeace itself for authorizing the boarding. The group says the indictment represents a turning point in the history of American dissent.

Greenpeace is a corporation and so cannot, of course, serve prison time. But it can be placed on probation, requiring it to report to the government about its activities and jeopardizing its tax-exempt status. If convicted of the misdemeanor charge, Greenpeace also could face a $10,000 fine.

The group is charged with violating an obscure 1872 law aimed at the proprietors of boarding houses who preyed on sailors returning to port. The law forbids the unauthorized boarding of “any vessel about to arrive at the place of her destination.”

In their legal papers, prosecutors acknowledged that a conviction could have tax consequences and “a chilling effect on First Amendment rights.”

Matthew Dates, a spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Miami, declined to respond to questions about whether the prosecution was unusual or politically motivated. In court papers, prosecutors defended the indictment.

The trial is scheduled for December. (New York Times)

Alaska feels heat of global warming

While much of the world knows global warming as a phrase, Alaska’s warming climate is far more palpable. Summers there have been warmer and longer; winters are more temperate, with average temperatures climbing eight degrees Fahrenheit in three decades. Alaskans have mowed their lawns in November, golfed in February, and basked in record in record temperatures all summer.

The world should take note, says Gunter Weller, executive director of the University of Alaska’s Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research: “We are the canary in the mine shaft.”

Large sections of northern forests are collapsing into swamps of melting permafrost; sections of shoreline on the Arctic Coast have thawed, making them vulnerable to storms; and the Arctic’s largest ice shelf, solid for 3,000 years, broke up last month due to warmer temperatures.

Thawing permafrost plagues highway crews and operators of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which depends on supports to avoid sinking into the tundra. The oil industry has lost half its exploration season to the warmth, which keeps the tundra soft — and unable to support heavy vehicles or drilling equipment — for longer stretches of time.

The economic toll alone, some say, should focus attention on Alaska. Disruptions to oil and fishing industries would damage the nation’s economy, Dr. Weller points out, and the cost of rebuilding roads, airports and entire towns is staggering. Still, he says, “It hasn’t been enough to convince the political system that something has to be done.” (Christian Science Monitor)

Australian Greens sue timber union for ‘torment’

Eleven environment protesters in Australia are suing a group of forest workers, the timber workers’ union and its state secretary, claiming they were held captive and tormented for five days during an anti-logging protest four years ago.

The six women and five men claim they were trapped by blockading and patrolling forest workers between Jan. 25 and 29, 1999, at a logging coupe in the Beech Forest area of the Otways, near Apollo Bay.

In their statement of claim, filed with the Supreme Court, the conservationists variously allege that they were punched, kicked, dragged, wrestled and pushed, threatened with chainsaws, verbally abused, and mentally harmed.

Seventeen defendants, including the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and the state secretary of its forestry division, Jane Calvert, are named in the action.

The conservationists say the union members refused to release them until they agreed in writing to stop all protests in the Otways individually and on behalf of the Otway Ranges Environment Network and the Wilderness Society.

They claim they were kept awake at night by floodlights and loud music, had rocks and other objects thrown at their campsite and were spied on while going to the toilet during the episode.

The conservationists allege Calvert refused to intervene to prevent them from being intimidated, despite frequently being asked to do so.

By day three, one of the protesters was said to have been exhausted, tearful and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The following day she was transported to hospital by ambulance. (The Age (Australia))

EPA official misled Congress on air rules

A Bush administration appointee may have misled Congress in 2002 on the negative impact of new power plant emissions rules on ongoing federal lawsuits against coal-burning utilities, according to a report released last week.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in August eased rules for utilities to make it easier for them to revamp facilities without triggering expensive pollution-reduction requirements.

Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said in a report that EPA Deputy Administrator Jeff Holmstead gave “false and misleading testimony” in July 2002 to a joint Senate committee by claiming the rules would not harm ongoing federal lawsuits.

Five utilities have paid millions of dollars to settle the charges, but seven other huge coal-burning utilities have not settled their cases, and environmental groups have warned that the utilities could use the new rules as ammunition to argue that they should not be held to a higher standard. (Reuters)