Environmental activists ‘being killed at rate of two a week’

story from The Raw Story

Environmental activists ‘being killed at rate of two a week’
Sounds like a conspiracy to kill off people associated with environmental activities.

The effort seems to be worldwide and seems to be widespread in countries with those issues in the headlines.

Now just who would be involved in this murder spree ?

The struggle for the world’s remaining natural resources is becoming more murderous, according to a new report that reveals that environmental activists were killed at the rate of more than two a week in 2011.

The death toll of campaigners, community leaders and journalists involved in the protection of forests, rivers and land has risen dramatically in the past three years, said Global Witness.

Brazil – the host of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development – has the worst record for danger in a decade that has seen the deaths of more than 737 defenders, said the briefing, which was released on the eve of the high-level segment of the Earth Summit.

Out of 70,000 people who die each and every day on the planet it is totally implausible that 2 of them might be environmental activists? There really aren't very many environmental activists to begin with, right?

/sarcasm

reply to post by xuenchen


People kill people over 50 bux in some places. If you want to stand in front of a billion dollar agenda, you have just signed your death warrant.

Originally posted by AwakeinNM
Out of 70,000 people who die each and every day on the planet it is totally implausible that 2 of them might be environmental activists? There really aren't very many environmental activists to begin with, right?

/sarcasm

That's the first thing I thought too, but did you read the part about how the toll was increasing rapidly? Unless the death toll for the planet as a whole is increasing at the same rate then that argument doesn't really work. There is also the fact that these are murders being talked about not natural deaths...

reply to post by xuenchen


Excellent post that needs more attention stars and flags.
The only thing that can stop some of these serial destroyers of the environment are the "Diane Fossy" and "Erin Brackovitch" types of people out there brave enough to defend them. I think if someone protecting the environment is murdered the penalties should be stiffer, like killing a policeman and the corporation they were blocking be charged and prohibited from engaging in whatever activity; fracking, deforesting, or polluting, they are up to - if there is a shred of evidence connecting them to the murder.

Originally posted by Shadow Herder
reply to post by xuenchen

 

People kill people over 50 bux in some places. If you want to stand in front of a billion dollar agenda, you have just signed your death warrant.

You mean...

If you want to protect what is left of the planet FOR the spineless and INSIPID who think it is only OPTIONAL to preserve it for future generations - you have just signed your death warrant

because we

VALUE CORPORATIONS AND THEIR BOTTOM LINE
MORE THAN HUMAN LIFE, ANIMAL LIFE OR THE PLANETS RESOURCES.

reply to post by xuenchen


Just like this guy...

Brazil indigenous Guarani leader Nisio Gomes killed

Nisio Gomes, 59, was part of a Guarani Kaiowa group that returned to their ancestral land at the start of this month after being evicted by ranchers.

He was killed by a group of around 40 masked gunmen who burst into the camp

Basically this man, and his people, was kicked off THEIR land by ranchers. Upon deciding to return to THEIR land they were attacked by 40 masked gunmen and Nisio Gomes was murdered in front of his people.

The harsh reality of this sad story, and many many similar storys happening all over the world, is that we have to share some of the responsibility for these murders.

Our hunger for fast food, our consumerism, our throw away culture, is partly responsible for this.

I now expect 3 types of response from ATS...

The majority, of apathetic drones, who will just shrug it off with a what can i do? not my problem, stuff happens attitude!!

The ignorant defenders of "free market" and "Industry crusaders" who will shout about progress and how that murders happen everyday but that it should not stop the march of industry and that ranching and logging is jobs and the economy needs bla blah blah

The minority of thoughtful people who will be saddened and angry and may make some changes in their lives to try and minimise their impact on this world.

ETA - BTW - Great thread, thanks for highlighting this on ATS S+F

Activism is dangerous, I don't see a conspiracy here. My hat is off to them nonetheless. Unless they work for the EPA, then I would say that two isn't enough.

Originally posted by Bobaganoosh
Activism is dangerous, I don't see a conspiracy here. My hat is off to them nonetheless. Unless they work for the EPA, then I would say that two isn't enough.

So let me get this straight...

Ranching and logging companies illegally remove indigenous people from their land. They destroy the forests and biodiversity of the landscape. And when these people, and others, protest about it they get murdered. While the government takes no real concrete action against the murderers and companies involved.

And you see NO conspiracy there

wow... just wow!

They must be on that "list"... I don't know if Obama specified how the people on his list would be killed. Maybe some will be made to look like an accident. Maybe they will use the heart attack gun. Maybe it will be made to look like a mugging. Whenever someone dies nowadays, you never know if they could've died because they were on that list....

reply to post by Muckster


Yeah....
I think someone needs to anonymously donate some AK-47's to those tribal members.
They might get their land back.

You never know if the lawyers twisted around things to make somebody legally "a terrorist"...
"Mr. President, our intelligence tells us this person has made statements that lead us to believe they would stop at nothing, including acts of terrorism, in order to defend the environment. In other words, they are a ticking time bomb."

"And this other person her said once on a message board that they would rather see you die than see another environmental catastrophe take place. We're not sure how serious they are, or even what they mean by that... But you know what they say... Why take a chance?"

Anybody could be deemed a threat... Based on "what they might do someday".

Originally posted by xuenchen

Now just who would be involved in this murder spree ?

China


China invests heavily in Brazil, elsewhere in pursuit of political heft

Just past a port where workers are building a two-mile-long pier to accommodate huge vessels known as Chinamaxes that will transport iron ore for China's ravenous steel industry, past berths for tankers to lug oil to Beijing, a city of factories is sprouting on an island almost twice the size of Manhattan. Many of the structures will be built with Chinese investment: a steel mill, a shipyard, an automobile plant, a factory to manufacture oil and gas equipment.

www.washingtonpost.com...

China Plowing $20bn into Brazil

China is expected to overtake Japan as the world's second largest economy this year and may already be the world's greatest energy consumer. Now it is set to become Brazil's top foreign investor, with its companies plowing $20bn into the country in the first six months of 2010, compared with $83m in 2009. A recent study by Deloitte predicted that Chinese investments in Brazil could hit an average of about $40bn a year between now and 2014, with companies throwing money at sectors ranging from telecommunications, infrastructure and farming, to oil, biofuels, natural gas, mining and steel manufacturing.

www.guardian.co.uk...

www.radford.edu...

en.wikipedia.org...

That's not suspicious at all. I work with a data analyst and we worked that out to be 0.0028% which is is hardly shocking. what if two were in a car together when they were killed (on any given week), plus is this just m urdered or killed? do car accidents count?. And over what time period is this data? For example, in the first week of Mad Cow Disease in the UK there were 2 vicars who died as a result. at that time (and for that time period) they accounted for for something crazy like 20% of those who died. that data set was flawed due to the time period as Mad Cow disease didn't target vicars although the stats would show that if mis-interpreted.

Any death is a sad, horrid thing. but you could probably draw even higher anomalies from this data set like the no. of teachers being killed or the number of doctors being killed. it's poor stats for the sake of scare mongering.