from http://www.postcrescent.com/ Time running out on our ability to preserve a livable world. Is it just me, or has it been a little warm around here lately? Or warmer earlier? The early and unusually mild spring here in Wisconsin may be nature’s way of reminding us that the clock is ticking on climate change and we need to take action before it’s too late. While stationed in Kangerlussuac, Greenland, 50 years ago, I noted my airbase was 4 miles west of the Russell Glacier grinding down from the ice cap. Looking at today’s satellite images, this glacier has retreated to the east toward the ice cap, easily noted from the satellite. The retreat averages 1,000 feet per year, producing a torrent of melt water that flows down the fjord and to the sea. Glacial retreat is one indicator that global warming is taking its toll. Today, in more populated areas of the earth, disappearing glaciers are responsible for drought, loss of irrigation water and less drinking water. As much as 54 cubic miles of ice disappear each year in Antarctica, 24 cubic miles per year in Greenland. As this ice melts, ocean levels rise and coastal regions flood. Centuries of rising CO2 levels and other greenhouse gases have raised the Earth thermostat. Irish scientist John Tyndall discovered CO2’s threat as a heat trapping greenhouse gas in the mid-19th century. In the 1950s, Dr. Charles Keeling began meticulous measurement of atmospheric CO2 levels at Mt. Muana Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Keeling and his son, Ralph, documented the steady buildup of CO2, which stood at 315 parts per million (ppm) worldwide when they started and is now 392 ppm.

By Ben Cutbank, Coordinator of Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin The last few months have seen Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin engaging in much planning, organizing, and participating in important events. In late March, members of DGR Wisconsin participating in the broader movement’s international members’ conference, which we helped to host in the southeastern part of Wisconsin. Roughly 30 comrades from around the world came to participate in discussions, exercises, and time for strengthening our bonds. Discussed were such important topics as leadership, community, public speaking, current organizing within the movement and visioning for the future. ...

from: http://www.kttc.com/ ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A spill at a sand mining facility in Wisconsin has dumped an unknown amount of sand and other sediment into the St. Croix (kroy) River and wetlands near the Minnesota border. Wisconsin DNR officials tell Minnesota Public Radio News it’s too soon to know how much damage was done. Conservation officials learned of the leak on April 22, when a hiker reported seeing cream-colored water in a creek flowing to the St. Croix River. DNR investigators traced the murky water back to a sand mining facility operated by Maple Grove-based Tiller Corp., where they located a leak in a holding pond. ...

from http://www.mkeriverkeeper.org / May 10, 2012 It appears influence peddling is alive and well in Wisconsin. See the article below about one of the Governor Walker’s top appointed officials at the WDNR stepping in to let a polluter off the hook for over $37,000 in fines. Governor Walker has praised his appointees’ approach, stating that, “increasing compliance and decreasing the number of… violations is a good thing for Wisconsin’s valuable natural resources…[and] our economy…” Milwaukee Riverkeeper disagrees, believing if we are to deter future violations (a good thing even according to Governor Walker), then penalties must be sufficiently large to punish the polluter. For more information see the article below.

Join Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin at the Peace Action Center on Saturday, June 2nd for a film screening of The Battle for Whiteclay and a presentation about an upcoming action in solidarity with Lakota peoples against the ongoing genocide facing Native Americans. The event will start at 5:00 PM at 1001 E. Keefe Ave. in Milwaukee, WI. The State of Nebraska’s refusal to halt alcohol sales to the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from its border town of Whiteclay gets an in-depth look in this new documentary about a century-old problem. Four off-sale liquor stores in this 14-person hamlet sell over 12,000 cans of beer a day to an Indigenous clientele with virtually no legal place to drink it. Struggling with crippling poverty and epidemic alcohol abuse that afflicts 4 out of 5 families, the Oglala Sioux Tribe has for decades banned the sale and possession of alcohol on their reservation. ...

By: Ben Cutbank The words that make up this piece were given to me by the Milwaukee River. The Milwaukee River runs through the place where I live. Really, it is the place where I live, or at least part of it. This place would not be what it is without the river. On a warm, sunny day the river will call to me in a bodily way to come into the water, or at least to feel it with my hands or feet. I’m sure this relationship between river and human, river and bird, river and insect, is older and more sacred than I can imagine. ...

On June 9th, the Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Reservation will march for justice against the genocide of opportunist alcohol dealers in the border town of Whiteclay, Nebraska. A caravan will be leaving from Wisconsin on June 7th to join them, and other members of Deep Green Resistance, in the struggle. To help make this action successful, we are calling for allies willing to come to the action in solidarity, or support the effort materially. If this speaks to you, and you want to help, please get in touch, or visit here to donate monetarily. Brief History of Whiteclay Whiteclay is an unincorporated village with a population of 14 people in northwest Nebraska. The town sits on the border of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota (also known as the Oglala Sioux Tribe). Whiteclay lies on disputed land, merely 200 feet from the official reservation border and less than 3 miles from the center of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the largest town on the reservation. Sale and possession of alcoholic beverages on the Pine Ridge is prohibited under tribal law. Except for a brief experiment with on-reservation liquor sales in the early 1970s, this prohibition has been in effect since the reservation lands were created. Whiteclay has four off-sale beer stores licensed by the State of Nebraska which sell the equivalent of 4.5 million 12-ounce cans of beer annually (12,500 cans per day), mostly to the Oglalas living on Pine Ridge. These retailers routinely violate Nebraska liquor law by selling beer to minors and intoxicated persons, knowingly selling to bootleggers who resell the beer on the reservation, permitting on-premise consumption of beer in violation of restrictions placed on off-sale-only licenses, and exchanging beer for sexual favors. The vast majority of those who purchase beer in Whiteclay have in fact no legal place to consume it, since possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages on the Pine Ridge Reservation remain illegal under tribal law. Many people have died in the streets due to exposure, as the state of Nebraska fails to uphold state law or police Whiteclay. As long as the liquor stores in Whiteclay remains in business, the genocide of the Oglala Lakota people will continue. In 1999 two Lakota men were brutally murdered in Whiteclay. This sparked a series of marches and rallies led by various activist groups, including members of the American Indian Movement ( AIM) from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Nebraskans for Peace, demanding that Nebraska revoke the liquor licenses of Whiteclay’s stores and increase law enforcement in the area. Tribal activists of the Strong Heart Warrior Society have conducted annual blockades since 1999, trying to intercept alcohol and drugs being brought into the reservation. In June 2006 tribal activists protested beer sales by blockading the road from Pine Ridge to Whiteclay and confiscating beer bought in Whiteclay. These activists hoped to prevent bootlegging and illegal sales on the reservation. This action in June will be a continuation of these efforts, and will potentially be an attempt to block both sides of town. Help us send the message: “No more liquor in Whiteclay!” The Action We will leave Wisconsin on June 7th, camp out in Jefferson, SD with an organizer from DGR Great Plains. On June 8th, we will rendezvous with other allies at the Wounded Knee Museum in Pine Ridge, SD, at 3:00pm, and camp out that night. The next morning, we will gather at Billy Mills Hall in the town of Pine Ridge, SD at 11:00am and begin the march to Whiteclay, NE at 12:00pm noon. DGR Wisconsin is inviting all allies in the state, and beyond, to join us in the caravan or help us to raise funds for food and gas. Your solidarity and support are appreciated. To learn more or ask questions, please contact Ben Cutbank by e-mail or phone: (262) 208-5347

Grassroutes Caravan is a mobile bicycle village of resilience that is heading to Chicago to protest NATO this May. GRC organizer and member of DGR Wisconsin, Thistle Pettersen, says there is still room in the village for more riders and a DGR crew would be welcomed with open arms! A recent article on Examiner.com explains more about Grassroutes Caravan and this year’s ride: Each year, the Grassroots Caravan sponsors a cycling trip to different points in the Midwest. This year’s event is entitled Cycles of Revolution: ¡Brake the Banks!. Forty people participated in the group’s annual trip in 2008 to the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. This year’s trip is limited to 50 participants. ...

Join Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin for a revolutionary music show event on Monday, May 7th, 2012, beginning at 7:00pm, at the Candlelight Collective in West Bend, WI, located at 258 N. Main St. (Lower). The event will include musical acts by: Dustin and the Furniture, Y-Lime, and Bonesaw. Dustin and the Furniture, based in Tennessee, plays folk music inspired by walks in the woods and relationship with nonhuman plant and animal neighbors. Dustin lyrically embraces resistance to industrial civilization and agriculture, while calling for a serious transformation to a sane and sustainable way of living. Dustin and Furniture is currently traveling around the U.S. on a tour, sowing the seeds of revolution one music show at a time. ...

from http://www.ecowatch.org/ By Pilar Gerasimo The recent boom in hydrofracking for natural gas and oil has resulted in a little-reported side boom—a sand-rush in western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota, where we just happen to have the nation’s richest, most accessible supply of the high-quality silica sand required for fracking operations. Unfortunately, most of that silica sand lies beneath our beautiful wooded hills and fertile farmland, and within agricultural and residential communities, all of which are now being ripped apart by sand mines interests eager to get at the riches below. This open pit mining is, in many respects, similar to the mountaintop removal going on in Appalachian coal country—except that here, it’s hilltop and farm field removal. The net effect on our landscape, natural resources and communities is quickly becoming devastating. In the past few months, the sand rush has come to my own rural neighborhood in Dunn County, Wisconsin, which is about an hour east of St. Paul, Minnesota. Like many residents in Dunn County, I’m concerned about the speed and intensity with which frac-sand mining interests are moving into our area. The proposals and applications for mines and related infrastructure are coming in so fast (our region has seen dozens just in the past few months), most small towns have been totally overwhelmed. Organizations trying to map and report all the activity literally cannot keep up with the incoming data.