News of the week
Reviewing recent environmental activism and (gasp!) what you can do
Greenhouse gas protest at the French Open
This past Friday, a week ago, during the French Open semifinals, a young woman wearing a T shirt on which was written “We have 1028 days left” walked onto the tennis court. Using metal and glue, she attached herself to the net.
The protester interrupted a game between Casper Rudd and U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, before four security guards dislodged her and carried her off the court. Play was delayed for 13 minutes.
The Baltimore Sun, as well as all the other press that ran the story, identified the young woman as an environmental activist, but in they did not say why they made this claim. I’m assuming they made that assumption based on the message on the T shirt.
The one news source to follow up on this story was Tennis World. The day after the incident, they published a statement by the protester, identified as 22-year-old Alizée (just the single name), who said, “Today, I entered the field because I can no longer take the risk of doing nothing in the face of the climate emergency."
New Hampshire politician charged with tree spiking. His alleged actions labeled as eco-terrorism
A former representative in the state house of New Hampshire has been charged with tree spiking. Chris Balch, a Democrat who was known for introducing to the state legislature a number of environmental bills, was charged with spiking trees with metal rods, rendering them dangerous, or at least unsuitable, for timber harvest.
His charges are two counts of criminal mischief and two counts of timber trespass. That last term, timber trespass, is a new one for me, so I looked it up. New Hampshire says of timber trespass:
No person shall negligently cut, fell, destroy, injure, or carry away any tree, timber, log, wood, pole, underwood, or bark which is on the land of another person, or aid in such actions without the permission of that person or the person’s agent.
Although tree spiking does not injure trees, my guess is that the state considers trees injured if they are spiked. The reporter, Damien Fisher, (as well as his editor) for InDepthNH.org called the alleged actions eco-terrorism, a term coined to smear activists who trespass or vandalize during their protests.
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