Fighting fossil fuel industry crimes from Steven Donziger to the Karankawa Kadla in Texas
What Donziger's case teaches us about fossil fuel industry power + Why the Karankawa Kadla and Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend are fighting Enbidge in Texas
Karankawa Kadla fight to protect sacred land, water against Enbridge’s fossil fuel expansion in Texas
A group of close to 100 concerned community members and Karankawa Kadla Indigenous people gathered in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Saturday, April 23, under the banner “Stop Enbridge.” The group came together to act against Enbridge’s plan to expand a crude oil and liquid natural gas (LNG) export terminal off Corpus Christi Bay near Ingleside, Texas. Expanding the terminal would require dredging near the ecologically sensitive Redfish Bay and disturbing the culturally significant Karankawa archaeological site known today as McGloin’s Bluff.
Karankawa Kadla is the name mixed descendants of Texas’ Indigenous Karankawa people have taken for the Tribe. The Karankawa Kadla are not a federally recognized Tribe, which excludes them from certain legal rights and protections granted to other Indigenous groups. The Karankawas lived around the Texas coastal bend before Spanish settlers invaded the land. The Karankawas were able to survive for a long time despite colonizers attempting to take their territory.
Enbridge is a Canadian-based fossil fuel pipeline operating company that has become infamous for its Line 3 Pipeline project through Anishinaabe land and Mississippi river headwaters in Northern Minnesota and Manitoba, Canada. In September 2021, Enbridge purchased the Ingleside Energy Center Terminal from a much smaller company Moda, just weeks after the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend, the Karankawa Kadla and a local environmental group filed a legal action to stop the terminal expansion.
Steven Donziger released from house arrest — read about the mainstream media blackout on Chevron’s prosecution of the civil rights lawyer
Steven Donziger was released from more than two years of house arrest last month, following his trial and conviction for contempt of court. An alliance of Nobel laureates, environmental groups, human right groups, celebrities, independent media and others had formed calling for Donziger’s release.
In 1993, Donziger won a landmark lawsuit against oil giant Chevron in Ecuador over the company’s alleged role in the pollution of the Amazon Rainforest and poisoning of Indigenous people. Chevron retaliated, and Donziger ultimately spent 993 days under house arrest. He was found guilty of criminal contempt of court by a U.S. judge after a private law firm connected to Chevron took over the prosecution of the case. But you won’t hear much of anything about this story on U.S. mainstream media. Why not?
Science Desk
Things aren’t looking good. On the heels of the newest IPCC Report, and a climate activist setting himself on fire outside the U.S. Supreme Court, we are seeing a devastating heatwave impact India, Pakistan and neighboring areas. On top of that, a new report from Inside Climate News, dubbed the “Apocalypse Papers,” shows the reality of biodiversity loss and what it’s like to be a scientist right now.
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