The Good Kind of Chaos

Yesterday in one of the comments to Eric’s post, Fe Bongolan brought to our attention a story on The Daily Kos about protests at a Chevron shareholder meeting leading to the new CEO’s loss of control of the meeting (his first as CEO) and arrests. According to to an Amazon Watch press release quoted in the Daily Kos story, 27 protesters held legal proxies to vote in the meeting, but only seven were allowed in. They were there specifically to vote on a resolution regarding an Ecuadorian oil spill court case and protest Chevron’s practices.

In an interview today on Democracy Now!, Antonia Juhasz, one of the five protesters arrested at the meeting and the director of Global Exchange’s Chevron Program, stated that shareholders traveled to Chevron’s Houston, TX headquarters (in the former Enron building, no less) from far-flung communities suffering environmental and human rights abuses at the hands of Chevron. The protesting shareholders’ homelands include Nigeria, Angola,  Ecuador, Burma, the Phillippines, Australia, Kazakhstan and more domestically, Alaska and California.

Juhasz described her arrest to Amy Goodman:

As I was saying, “These are the people who are here to tell you about your corporation and its operations,” I was aggressively grabbed by the police, by private security. I was dragged very forcibly—I still have a handprint on my arm from the law enforcement—dragged, prone on my back, out the back, thrown by four police officers it took to get me, lift me into and move me into the van, and arrested. And I was charged with criminal trespass and disrupting a meeting, and I was incarcerated for […] a twenty-four-hour period.”

Her assessment of the reaction by Chevron’s management is, however, positive:

But I think most importantly, what we demonstrated was that Chevron is afraid of the organizing against it, that when the communities from the location where it operates not only tell the truth about what it does, but link and form a community and a network, that we send an enormous amount of fear and shock through this company, because, believe me, this has never happened in a Chevron meeting before. They have never felt the need to have such aggressive, physical, abusive tactics to arrest activists in the front from Richmond, California, from Houston, Texas, from around the world, and to drag me physically from inside the meeting.

The fear Chevron is feeling may be more widespread. In conversation with Eric he remarked that this might not only be the tip of the iceberg in terms of a spreading chaos in the oil industry in the wake of the BP oil spill, but the actual beginnings of the oil industry endgame. If so, the next months and years will likely not be tidy or easy to navigate. But I think the more groups like Global Exchange keep taking actions like Wednesday’s and the more we individuals band with them, holding corporate criminals’ feet to the fire in very visible ways, the more likely it is we can take back our planet and bring it closer to balance. This may just be the good kind of chaos.

28 thoughts on “The Good Kind of Chaos”

  1. Linda – I looked at the website you mentioned about ocean energy. It hit my heart as soon s I looked at the picture too. I will read it all later. Thanks!

  3. That’s very cool, Linda!

    I live in New York, where most of us are in apartment buildings, but my friend has a house in Brooklyn and she is putting a “green roof” on it, which means she is covering her roof with sod and plants to absorb rainwater and thus decrease the storm runoff, which is a good thing.

    Also she gets a lovely lush roof garden out of it.

  4. Linda…… yes, that is a good thing……. I do hope, though (and reading the article it does not sound like the Kakadu acquisition is by any means a done deal…….) that the Australian federal government is a lot more trustworthy than is the USA fed.

    If I were Lee (to the extent one can ever say such a thing!) I would be wanting to lock that land up in an ironclad trust so that no one could ever touch it, and then add it to the Kakadu reserve……

    Here, it would almost certainly end up with the “resource” being “extracted” one way or another, and despite all manner of protested initial good intentions to the contrary. Sadly, this kind of thing happens on a routine basis.

    But yes, to be the kind of person who values what is there more than what despoiling it will purchase, that is a good thing.

  5. Postmodern role model from the Northern Territory

    From today’s Sydney Morning Herald: (we could all use some good news!)

    “The world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park will be expanded to include thousands of hectares of ecologically sensitive land that contains uranium worth billions of dollars.

    In a generous act, the Aboriginal traditional owner, Jeffrey Lee, has offered the land to the federal government so that it can become part of Kakadu, where he works as a ranger.

    Mr Lee, the shy sole member of the Djok clan and senior custodian of the land known as Koongarra, could have become one of Australia’s richest men if he had allowed the French energy giant Areva to extract 14,000 tonnes of uranium from its mineral lease in the area.

    “I’m not interested in money. I’ve got a job. I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That’s all that matters to me,” Mr Lee told the Herald in a rare interview… “…..

    Full article here:
    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/owner-wants-uraniumrich-land-to-be-added-to-kakadu-20100528-wldt.html

  6. Dear GG:

    ….. ‘A lot of it is happening in “green building construction” and in some industries, especially sustainable energy like solar and wind.’……

    I agree wholeheartedly and am exploring avenues to personally support projects that solve problems without creating more disturbance in other areas. (as Len so beautifully reminded us)

    I live in Sydney and through my Buddhist connections, found out about a wave and tidal electricity generation project here that hit my heart the moment I opened the splash page on the website.

    Have a look: http://www.biopowersystems.com/

  7. That’s a great message, Kyla. Thank you.

    Yes, we have to believe that we can do it before we can do it. Little kids know this about themselves but we forget it as we go along.

    take care.

  8. GG, we cross posted. I also felt a bit out of balance having weighed in so much on the problem side of the picture, and I feel you are correct that many are inspired and much innovation toward a sustainable way forward is underway.

    Truly a major challenge underlying all of this is staying in balance, holding all the Dark and all the Light in One Center…..

    I happen to have this odd bouyant confidence that human beings really do know how to do that, and will, given the chance.

    This is the chance.

  9. Michelle thank you so much for that perspective and I know you are correct, that those in the situation of the displaced traditionals all over the globe do often see corporate expansion as beneficial and sometimes the situation, as it seems to have been in your area, is such that there really is no other option open for large groups of people……. On their part I would never never call it greed at all, they are caught up in forces that do not value their lives and so they have little choice. This is part of the crime — the trapped lives.

    I have to wonder how the Law of Attraction applies in those places, to those people. Well, that would be another can o’ worms, to look there……. but I reckon we will get around to it.

    I also think of places like the traditional farming territories of India where now people are being ruined in their ability to sustain life due to water being taken from their aquifers for the purpose of filling bottles sold to Westerners to drink, and struggling elsewhere against Monsanto engineered eggplants — and yes there is no going back.

    The greed I call is on the heads of the corporate deciders and I still say it is worse than greed, more toxic. In comparison to how this feels, greed is good.

    Michelle, bless you, may your moving go with Grace.

    Still, even in such dire straits, IMO there is a spiritual core value that a person can hold — I agree, Linda, the Buddhists seem to have a better handle on that than many other expressions do. Ultimately, what lives on? Finding That and being That seems to be the way forward, both in quiet times and also in times when the challenges are beyond comprehension at any other scale.

    And I also want to say, blessings to Eric, standing at the Florida Gulf shore somewhere, having a look……. I deeply appreciate that you have gone there and I believe I can feel you there, and I send you my gratitude.

    Kyla

  10. After I posted yesterday about chemical pollution I felt kinda bad, because I am trying to focus now on being part of the positive, and on ways to move forward.

    And I see all these good posts, Michele and the others and sometimes with the feeling that there is no way forward.

    And this is NOT SO, in the big picture Yes it is a big mess out there, what we have done to the planet but there are ways forward.

    Sometimes Eric sort of hints at this and I really believe this: we are on the cusp of a new era in human history and what is new about it is our relationship to Gaia and the natural world.

    We are starting to figure out new ways to live with her and sustain her. And all this sadness and disgust we feel is part of the process of awakening and recognizing that we can’t keep doing this crap to the planet. And especially we can’t keep doing this to the oceans, the oceans may be the most sensitive part of the eco system and it seems to breaking down most rapidly.

    So look, if you feel bad about this do yourself a favor and go online and search for “sustainable business practice.” This is a whole new area of entrepreneurship where people are trying to figure out how to change what they do to earn a living. A lot of it is happening in “green building construction” and in some industries, especially sustainable energy like solar and wind.

    And also many universities across the US are offering degrees in sustainability. Some of it is business oriented and some of it is bigger, like land management and urban management and how we change those areas to bring in ideas about sustainability, you know, how to live in peace with nature.

    This will make you feel better! This is not a small movement. It is small relative to the total amount of business activity or academic activity, yes, but considering that there was NONE of these sustainability studies around 40 years ago, it is really a huge change.

    And it happened one little step at a time.

    I really think this is a big piece of the puzzle in terms of moving forward as a civilization. We also need political change of course, but there are other ways to move forward and for some people that may mean going back to school to get a certificate in sustainability.

    And for other people that may mean starting a business that incorporates some kind of “green element.” Personally I am working on that area myself and exploring some ideas. I am basically looking at doing the same kind of job I have now but focusing on green acitivity in my area.

    So look, the sadness is inevitable but there are ways forward and there is much worth saving out there.

    And you know if you do green studies or green work, think how it will inspire other people who see you do it!!!

    peace.

  11. I linked a couple of articles about a community on the Arctic Ocean, where BP is exploring. (That would be meting Tuk… Imagine the money it will take to move that community… But to where????) I won’t go into this at length right now… No time, moving. Need sleep. But I just wanted to say these things are not so simple. A string of events was set off long ago. And so a nomadic people was settled into a permanent place in the last 60-80 years. They have been welcomed/dragged/dropped into the market economy. They have no roads. It’s a small place and a plane ride out costs more than the average you make in two weeks or more. They need jobs to participate. They spend time on the land but no longer live on the land, the way they did. Industry, exploration… mean jobs. To participate. To survive. In some place a litre of milk costs 10 bucks. Is there greed? Sure, there’s some greed. But I’m not sure it can easily be differentiated from the need. And then we have the diamond mines. About which I could go on for hours.

    Awaking is good. But I’m not sure we can step back in time when in comes to industry and development. It speeds forward. I haven’t worked this out completely… but I suspect that people in third world or marginal situations see these international monoliths as a way to help them move forward into the modern world… including getting a road built so they can be a part of that world.

    I would love thought on this as I struggle every day thinking about it…

  12. …”Eric spoke of the Law of Attraction. Took me decades to get a clue on that. Took additional years to study on it. Still working on it. One thing that seems to have made its way through is that The Law of Attraction has edges, more than two. Thus it is something that requires careful handling.”…..

    Dear Len,

    Today I awoke at 4am to watch a live internet broadcast of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa being streamed from his monastery in India. His European tour had been cancelled at the last minute by the Indian government who have been holding him under virtual ‘house arrest’ at China’s behest ever since the Karmapa escaped from Tibet about 8 years ago. He chose today to speak as it is the holiest day of the year for Buddhists – the anniversary of Buddha’s enlightenment.

    When you speak of the ‘careful handling’ required in our cause-and-effect world, you are pointing to one of the qualities of enlightenment, namely that of omniscience. We are all buddhas-to-be and through raising our awareness and taming our minds – slowly, gradually we become less deluded and more able to see the way things really are.

    May we all realise who we really are and through that wisdom, heal and hold our world.

    Yours in the dharma,

    Linda

  13. liminali, I noticed just now that I completely overlooked your post with the link to all the projects down under there, under the Gulf, thanks! Perhaps Amanda’s question is answered therein.

    GraffitiGrammarian, yes yes yes.

    Not to mention all the antibiotics that suddenly appeared everywhere a few years ago and which are now in the waterways…… everyone got scared of germs bigtime, who engineered that one I wonder? I remember not being able to buy a comb one day I looked for one, that did not have impregnated within it some antibiotic germkiller crap.

    IMO when you really look into this stuff, the pattern gets kinda clear….. there have been such changes to what is available to people and what they “desire” to purchase…… we have been made afraid of food and each others’ bodies but we trust this foul smelling liquid we squirt everywhere and call it clean…… trusting that what is in it must be safe and wholesome because, hey, “they” would not sell it otherwise, would they?

    I say “we” because I am part of the human race but I have done my utmost to live without most of that garbage for a long time….. but even so it is in my air in my waterways, in the soil….. and, really, why? Can we really trace this all back to simple greed?

    Frankly, to my view, greed is wholesome and simple, compared to some of the stuff that really goes on….. maybe it is greed turned into a cancerous version of itself, because the immune system of the race has stopped producing the correct balance to curtail it.

    Maybe we are now beginning to see a corrective to that, with all the truth serum flowing around in the ethers…..

  14. re: Eric’s musings on “This Chemical Life” ….a couple of years back I decided to give all my female friends a different kind of xmas gift — personal grooming products that were on the “good products” list from Environmental Working Group.

    These were shampoos, body lotions, etc. that contained no parabens, no oxyethanols, no synthetic hormones, and so.

    I think gave out 4 or 5 of these gifts, with a little card that explained their significance.

    Every friend who received one of these said, gee thanks, looked away and never mentioned it again.

    Now my friends are intelligent folks, and they follow politics and they generally want to do the right thing. But they didn’t want to be told what kind of shampoo to use.

    So I learned my lesson. You can’t force healthy behavior on people, nor can you force them to adopt sustainable ways. You have to either a) inspire them or b) scare them to get them to change.

    Or both.

    I am glad that Eric is writing about chemical pollutants because it’s one of the great fundamental environmental issues of our time. I am certain that much of the disease we experience is due to chemical exposure. Look at Aspartame, which we know to be a neurotoxin, and which has been associated with Alzheimers — its the sweetening ingredient in Diet Coke and millions of people are pouring it down their throats every day.

    There is speculation that synthetic hormones are making us fat — the parabens in your hand lotion have the same effect on your body as estrogen and they increase your body’s fat-storing activities.

    The list goes on and on. Farm communtiies across the midwest have tremendously high cancer rates because of all the pesticides and agricultural chemicals in their groundwater.

    It’s a disgrace. And there is much evidence that wild animals are getting cancer now in very high numbers, almost certainly because of chemical exposure in the air and water.

  17. I have read that the ocean’s plankton and phytoplankton produce up to 90 percent of the world’s oxygen.

  19. It depends on what you want to know. You could probably find some information about Amanda’s question by Googling. Keep in mind that there is a difference between a drilling rig (which is what’s used to do the initial drilling and testing of a well) and a producing well. It sounds as though what Amanda is referring to might be the latter.

    As to your broader question, about the mapping/logging of all Gulf of Mexico operations, keep in mind that we’re talking about a substantial quantity of information, much of which is technical in nature (meaning the average layperson would not know how to interpret it without some assistance.) I don’t know of any website that has organized this information so that it could be presented easily and intelligently to the general public. It might be good to have a site like that, but it would be a hell of a lot of work to create and maintain it, and I don’t get the feeling there’s been much of a demand from the public to know about the subject. (Until now, at least.)

    Some of the MMS data and materials are accessible online. Google “MMS Gulf of Mexico” and the first thing up is the link to the MMS Gulf of Mexico regional office. Once you get to the MMS site, the place to start would be “P. I. Data System”. The system is set up to be used by people in the industry, so you pretty much have to know what you’re doing to use it effectively. The information is there, however.

  20. I remember when I was a little girl, we were actually taught, by my parents, that the oceans were so very vast there was no way a little bit of human trash would possibly hurt them. Both of my parents deeply loved both land and ocean and they did come to see the errors of that view in later years…..

    Regarding overfishing, yeah, and here’s another one for that collection (I just checked and the link is still good:

    Who knew????

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/opinion/16greenberg.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

    December 16, 2009
    Op-Ed Contributor
    A Fish Oil Story

    By PAUL GREENBERG
    “WHAT’S the deal with fish oil?”

    If you are someone who catches and eats a lot of fish, as I am, you get adept at answering questions about which fish are safe, which are sustainable and which should be avoided altogether. But when this fish oil question arrived in my inbox recently, I was stumped. I knew that concerns about overfishing had prompted many consumers to choose supplements as a guilt-free way of getting their omega-3 fatty acids, which studies show lower triglycerides and the risk of heart attack. But I had never looked into the fish behind the oil and whether it was fit, morally or environmentally speaking, to be consumed.

    The deal with fish oil, I found out, is that a considerable portion of it comes from a creature upon which the entire Atlantic coastal ecosystem relies, a big-headed, smelly, foot-long member of the herring family called menhaden, which a recent book identifies in its title as “The Most Important Fish in the Sea.”

    The book’s author, H. Bruce Franklin, compares menhaden to the passenger pigeon and related to me recently how his research uncovered that populations were once so large that “the vanguard of the fish’s annual migration would reach Cape Cod while the rearguard was still in Maine.” Menhaden filter-feed nearly exclusively on algae, the most abundant forage in the world, and are prolifically good at converting that algae into omega-3 fatty acids and other important proteins and oils. They also form the basis of the Atlantic Coast’s marine food chain.

    Nearly every fish a fish eater likes to eat eats menhaden. …….. ”

    and more….

    Where I used to live on the NC Coast the menhaden fishery was still a big employer….. long after other fisheries had tanked due to mishandling of all manner of environmental factors.

  21. I came across this article by the NYT’s Mark Bittman today on the other horrible threat to our oceans: overfishing krill. Krill are the tiny shrimp that keep the ocean’s ecosystem going. Could the ocean be in more peril? In 2012, will we look back and realize the beginning of our death was at this moment of oil & ecodestruction? http://markbittman.com/license-to-krill

  22. So, to answer Amanda’s question about whether there exists a larger drilling rig in the gulf than the BP deepwater one, a person would have to physically go to that MMS office in Jefferson Parish and be willing to look at records stored in three different media?

    I was wondering actually if there were some handy online tool, you know, making it easy to locate.

    A map of drilling rigs keyed to what is known about the location of underwater munitions dumps would also be handy to have right now….. I guess that story never managed to surface, which is really too bad. I keep hoping to encounter some mention of that……out there somewhere….

  23. Kyla wrote: I wonder if there is some place that maps or logs all the Gulf oil operations?

    Yes, there is. Those records are maintained by the Minerals Management Service (MMS), a federal agency under the Department of the Interior. The MMS Gulf of Mexico OCS Regional Office in New Orleans (it’s actually in Jefferson Parish, a suburb of N.O.) is the one responsible for overseeing oil & gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

    These are public records, accessible to anyone. Some are maintained in paper copy, and some on microfilm and in computer databases. You simply walk into the MMS office and ask to see them. No FOIA request is necessary.

  24. Amanda,
    Many thanks to both you and Fe for your reporting on this matter. i support your premises and your conclusions.

    Today, Eric spoke of the Law of Attraction. Took me decades to get a clue on that. Took additional years to study on it. Still working on it. One thing that seems to have made its way through is that The Law of Attraction has edges, more than two. Thus it is something that requires careful handling. That’s where your “not tidy or easy to navigate” observation really clicked for me.

  26. I wonder if there is some place that maps or logs all the Gulf oil operations?

    Although, frankly…………. could it be worse?

    I don’t think, Amanda, that there is much hope for this transition to be either tidy or easy to navigate….. and whether it is a good kind of chaos is pretty much up to us. The more individuals who decide “I am responsible for my own experience” the more empowered the collective will become.

    Regarding oil companies and the folks who want to boycott BP — I think it is best to realize that all of the oil companies are pretty much cut from the same corporate irresponsible-to-life cloth. I remember after the Exxon Valdeze spill, lots of folks refusing to buy Exxon gas and trooping across town to find a BP station instead.

    oh the irony…….

  27. thanks for the link, liminali!

    somewhere, sometime over the last couple days i heard a snippet about a much larger oil rig in the gulf which pumps much more oil than the deepwater horizon rig. does this ring a bell with anyone?

    thanks,
    amanda painter

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