The contraction of the global economy caused U.S. infrastructure spending to decline by an estimated 4.3 percent in 2009, according to analysts from HIS Global Insight, in spite of the $48 billion given to the Department of Transportation as part of stimulus packages. Non-highway spending is expected to decrease by 10.2 percent. The only infrastructure [...]

A couple of articles reminding us how our struggles can make a real difference for the big picture:
1. Check out this article analyzing some of the connections between the push for expanded liquefied natural gas infrastructure in the United States and the recent massacre of indigenous protesters in Peru. The writer points out how increased [...]

Boston Rising Tide activists dropped a 25-foot banner from the city’s Environmental Protection Agency on June 29, reading, “Mountain Top Removal Kills Communities: EPA No New Permits. MountainJustice.org.”
There are more than 150 permits pending for new mountaintop removal coal mines in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

International Rivers has just published two good articles analyzing the recent massive push for new dams coming out of Chile and the Amazon. They make good reading for anyone wanting to follow these issues.

Thirty-one people were arrested at a civil disobedience action against mountaintop removal coal mining on June 23, including actress Daryl Hannah and climate scientist James Hansen. The protesters had blocked traffic outside a West Virginia coal plant after plans to enter were thwarted by a large gathering of pro-coal counter-demonstrators. One counter-demonstrator attacked one of [...]

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (a division of the Organization of American States) has ordered Panama to immediately halt all action on three dams planned for the Changuinola River. The dams have been threatening indigenous Ngobe and Naso communities, as well as the World Heritage Site of La Amistad Biosphere Reserve.
The Chan-75 Dam was [...]

Protesters from London Climate Action blockaded the entrance to the Peruvian Embassy in London on June 19, demanding the right to deliver a letter of protest calling for oil and gas companies in the Amazon to suspend their operations until the government agrees to peaceful negotiations with local representatives; for an independent and impartial inquiry [...]

Activists from Rainforest Action Network and Forest Ethics gathered on June 19 to protest the Canadian-American Business Council’s forum on energy and environment in Washington DC. About thirty protesters held signs outside, while two dressed up as industry representatives and snuck into the meeting. During the keynote address, the protesters unfurled banners blasting the Canadian [...]

Giving the lie to its earlier claims that it was impossible to repeal the contested decrees that sparked 70 days of protests and blockades throughout the country’s Amazon region, the Peruvian government rescinded two of those laws on June 18th.
The protests started after President Alan Garcia passed 10 laws by presidential decree that would open [...]

Fourteen people were arrested on June 18 in a protest meant to launch a week of action against mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. Four people climbed a 150-foot dragline at a mine site near Twilight, WV, and unfurled a banner reading, “Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining”. Another 9 entered the mine site to unfurl [...]