From safeenergynow.org: “Dear Santa Barbara County Supervisors, I urge Santa Barbara County to deny the three oil projects, totaling 750 new wells, proposed by ERG, AERA, and Petro Rock. These projects would drill through Santa Maria Groundwater Basin, the largest aquifer in the county, and use cyclic steam injection, which causes 4x as much air pollution as traditional drilling, and has a very high well casing failure and spill rate. These projects will turn water into toxic waste, which can contaminate local water and is difficult to dispose of safely, threaten endangered species, and would involve clear-cutting 500 mature oak trees. To read more about the projects, click here.” ...

Originally posted at Deep Green Resistance News Service “Contemporary public concern for protecting nature’s ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation.” Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Sierra Club v. Morton (1972) Denver, Colorado–In a first-in-the-nation lawsuit filed in federal court, the Colorado River is asking for judicial recognition of itself as a “person,” with rights of its own to exist and flourish. The lawsuit, filed against the Governor of Colorado, seeks a recognition that the State of Colorado can be held liable for violating those rights held by the River. ...

The fifth meeting of the DGR Santa Barbara book club was held on Sunday, September 10th at the Santa Barbara Eastside Library. We discussed chapters 7 through 11 of Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. The discussion began by investigating approaches to unite environmentalists in effective action. The corporate PR campaign for “green” energy has co-opted the environmental movement; instead of fighting to save the planet and its inhabitants, many environmentalists with good intentions have been seduced into lobbying for industrial technologies that perpetuate a global system of extraction and exploitation. One person presented the idea that we might be more efficient in forming coalitions if we focus on organizing around anti-fossil fuel efforts because most people can agree on that. In the long run, anti-fossil fuel actions will be anti-industry (i.e. wind energy, solar energy, etc.) as industry depends on fossil fuels for extraction, global shipping, manufacturing, and construction. ...

The fourth meeting of the DGR Santa Barbara book club was held on Saturday, August 19th at the Santa Barbara Eastside Library. We discussed chapters 5 & 6 of Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. The following questions were posed before the meeting to inspire discussion: Do you agree with the 4 points preceding the sections entitled “Tilters, Descenders, Lifers”? Why or why not? In your opinion, what are the important takeaways from the “Tilters, Descenders, Lifers” section? How did the “Taxonomy of Action” chart affect how you think about political action and strategy, if at all? What was your favorite part of the reading? Everyone at the meeting agreed with the four points at the beginning of Chapter 5: in order to avoid ecological catastrophe, the burning of fossil fuels has to stop, all activities that destroy living communities must forever cease, human consumption must be scaled back, and the human population must be reduced. The discussion reflected on how the last two points might be hard to digest for many people given the dominant paradigm, especially considering how efforts to thwart overpopulation are so closely associated with violent totalitarian regimes. ...

Water Is Life On May 19th, 2017, members of Deep Green Resistance Santa Barbara attended the Water Is Life: Standing With Standing Rock conference hosted at UC Santa Barbara. This conference was presented by the Carsey-Wolf Center, the American Indian & Indigenous Collective, the American Indian Student Association, the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, and Red Lightning, in addition to receiving support from many other co-sponsoring organizations. ...

The third meeting of the DGR Santa Barbara book club was held on Sunday, May 7th at the Eastside Library. We discussed chapter 4 of Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. The following questions were posed to inspire discussion: How did the “Alternative vs. Oppositional Culture” comparison affect your understanding of this distinction and your understanding of political action? Do you believe that an alternative culture built around the project of an individualistic experience (whether spiritual or psychological) can create a resistance movement? Where have you seen millenarianism in political movements? How does this affect the effectiveness of those movements, especially ones you have been a part of? Do you see a culture of resistance forming in this country, in this state, in Santa Barbara? How could we help to encourage a culture of resistance here? How does the dominant culture teach us to ignore the wisdom of our elders? Do you agree with the analysis presented in this chapter that resistance movements need both the young and the old to succeed? What was your favorite part of the reading? A couple people agreed that this is their favorite chapter in the entire book because it really clarifies the difference between the alternative culture of, for example, the hippies, and an oppositional culture. Alternative cultures cannot create a true, effective resistance movement because they do not challenge the structures of power that maintain the status quo. This distinction is really valuable, especially for young people exploring different groups and discovering what they want to do with their lives. ...

The second meeting of the DGR Santa Barbara book club was held on Sunday, April 9th at the Eastside Library. We discussed Chapters 2 and 3 of Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. The following questions were posed to inspire discussion: Do you think civilization, industrial or otherwise, is redeemable? Why or why not? How did the “Liberalism vs. Radicalism” comparison affect your understanding of this distinction and your understanding of political action? How has your understanding of any of the four main categories of action discussed in Chapter 3 (legal remedies, direct action, withdrawal, and spirituality) changed? Do you think an underground movement should mobilize to dismantle civilization? Do you think it is ever appropriate to use violence as a political tool? What was your favorite part of the reading? After the DGR members present at the meeting described our definition of civilization, nobody agreed that it could be redeemable. Civilization is inherently unsustainable, because cities–the defining features of a civilization–require the importation of resources. This means that civilization is not synonymous with culture or community; for the majority of humanity’s history we did not live in cities, but we still had communities and various cultures. The rise of civilization severed humans’ connection to the land and led to widespread cases of what are known as the “diseases of civilization:” cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. ...

by Kyle Lee / Deep Green Resistance Santa Barbara Santa Barbara is in a housing crisis, like many other cities in the United States. However, conditions are unique here because Santa Barbara is a popular vacation destination for people from all over the world, and it operates under a controlled growth scheme that puts a strain on the housing market, particularly on renters, who make up 60.2% of the residential population. Furthermore, the gross lack of regulation and accountability of rental property owners and minimal protections for tenants allows for the exploitation and manipulation of renters, particularly non-white families with children. In 2014, the number of homeless children in Santa Barbara’s K-12 school system was 2,215. The gentrification of the city and surrounding areas is evident in recurring mass evictions of predominantly Latino families being replaced with younger, white middle-class tenants who can more easily cope with the volatile housing market that has only a 0.5% vacancy rate. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development considers a 5% vacancy rate sufficient to provide choice and mobility. ...

by Charlie Mountain / Deep Green Resistance Santa Barbara The Environmental Status Quo Mainstream environmental organizations have largely praised the Obama administration as environmentally friendly. Ed Chen, the national communications director for the National Resources Defense Council, described Obama as “the greatest climate change-fighting president in history.” The Environmental Defense Fund hailed Obama as “a leader committed to clean energy, climate progress, and protecting our natural heritage” who “leaves a better, cleaner, more sustainable world for all of our kids.” ...