I've wondered a time or two what would happen up in Washington if natural gas producing shale were discovered in the Puget Sound zone. Washington does not have a lot of mining or drilling action going on, unlike Texas, where Texans are used to holes randomly getting poked in the ground.Well, early Friday morning I think I got my answer to what would happen if Chesapeake Energy put up drilling towers and started making a lot of noise, along with environmental damage within earshot of residential neighborhoods or near parks in Washington.
For almost a decade environmental groups have been fighting a radio station's plan to build a couple new transmission towers in Snohomish, where there were already 2 controversial towers. Snohomish is a town northeast of Seattle about 25 miles. The objections to the new towers ranged from them impeding on a trumpeter swan habitat to possible human health hazards.
The existing towers had generated complaints of interference with telephones and intercoms.
Well, the existing towers are no more. Around 3:30 a.m. a 911 call came in telling the operator that someone seemed to be attacking the towers with a bulldozer. By the time police arrived the towers were on the ground. A banner bearing the initials of the ELF were found at the scene.
ELF is the Earth Liberation Front. An ELF spokesman said the towers were taken down because of health and environmental concerns, with ELF press spokesman Jason Crawford saying, "We have to weigh our priorities, and the local ecosystem in Everett, along with the local residents, do not need additional sports news radio station towers that come at the expense of reduced property values and harmful radio waves."
The ELF's Web site has pictures of the toppled towers, along with an article. I'll copy the headline and article below...
Earth Liberation Front Topples Two Radio Station Towers in Snohomish County, WA
Everett, WA: Two radio station towers were torn down early Friday by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) in the Lord's Hills valley in Snohomish County, WA. The towers, owned by station KRKO, have been a source of controversy for years. A sign left at the scene claimed responsibility by the ELF.
"Due to the health and environmental risks associated with radio waves emitted from the towers, we applaud this act by the ELF," stated Jason Crawford, a spokesperson for the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office. "When all legal channels of opposition have been exhausted, concerned citizens have to take action into their own hands to protect life and the planet."
For the past eight years, opponents have waged a legal battle against the towers, arguing that AM radio waves cause adverse health affects including a higher rate of cancer, harm to wildlife, and that the signals have been interfering with home phone and intercom lines.
Last year, the first four towers were erected by KRKO after numerous hearings and appeals. KRKO plans to build two more towers to boost the station's broadcasting power.
I wonder if Texas has an ELF branch? I doubt it. I wonder what the ELF would have done about the Chesapeake Energy drilling operation on the west side of the Tandy Hills? Or what they'd do about the Carter Avenue pipeline. Or the ring of gas terror surrounding Gateway Park?
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ReplyDeleteI, too, have wondered why the culture in north Texas doesn't spawn monkey-wrenchers into action. Here's one hypothesis: A lack of quality greenspace. The younger kids around here who should be doing this important job don't get outside much because the prairie has been 99.5% developed. In other words, they don't love nature enough to try and save some of it. That's a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteOne would think that the anti-Obama crowd would care enough about their own health and environment to raise their out-of-place ire on gas drillers and corrupt politicos in these parts. Makes you wonder.
So what does ELF do for an encore? Fly planes into the Space Needle?
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ReplyDeleteThere are two books that all budding saboteurs should check out. The Monkey Wrench Gang is a classic work of fiction by Ed Abbey. It has inspired generations of kids since 1975. Booze, broads and lots of action will keep you on the edge of your seat. Would make a great movie but no director will touch it for obvious reasons, although Robert Redford has threatened to do so.
ReplyDeleteThe other must-read by environmental hero, Dave Foreman, is titled, Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching. It was banned for awhile, but can now be had at Amazon and ABE. See links below.
Rule #1 for all monkeywrenchers to remember is to harm property, not people. Rule #2 is to not tell anyone, even your wife or girlfriends. Rules #3 is to not get caught.
How do I know all this? I just read it in a book. As far as I know that's still legal, even in Dirty Ol' Town. Fort Worth still has a few places worth saving but the list grows shorter every Tuesday at FW City Council.
Finally, if the dirty air, dead wildlife and ruined landscapes aren't enough for you, go see the new Tarantino flick, Inglorious Basterds. Watching the Jewish-American soldiers take vengeance on the Nazi's will put a little fire in the belly. IMO gas drillers and Nazi's are cut from the same cloth. Remember , it's only a movie.
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=ecodefense&x=0&y=0
http://www.amazon.com/Ecodefense-Field-Monkeywrenching-Dave-Foreman/dp/0963775103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252179469&sr=1-1
I regret the gender bias in my previous post. Girls, women, ladies, mothers, grandmothers, et al, are equally, if not more adept at the fine art of monkeywrenching, (as far as I know). In fact, the fictional heroine, Ms. Bonnie Abzug, in Ed Abbey's MWG is a bulldozer-killer of the highest order. She reminds me a lot of Ms. Molly Ivins, another of my heroes. My apologies to the many female readers of this blog.
ReplyDeleteThis is all very interesting...to the fbi. ¬_¬
ReplyDeleteNo one here is advocating monkeywrenching or sabotage. We are having a virtual conversation about books we've read, fictional characters in a book or things we imagine or heard second hand. People have been doing that for centuries and for many reasons. For instance, Socrates was convicted of corrupting youth and failing to revere the city's gods, He was given a death sentence for following his own conscience. Oops, you may have a point there. But we live in a new era of democracy where ideas and beliefs of all kinds are tolerated. None of us is actually guilty of sabotage. We're just "talking."
ReplyDeleteThe reason they don’t do it in texas is because they know they will get their brains blown across the field by a 308 rifle. Thank god texas passed the “make my day” law
ReplyDeleteAt least the rotting corpses of the ELF people will make good fertilizer. Kind of fitting.
One person said they chased the people across the field with a shotgun. The person should of just opened fire instead of chasing them.
If anyone messes with my radio towers, the cops won’t need to do much to figure out the identity of the criminals, they will just have to identify the bodies.