After an 18month+ campaign by activists in the Northeast the proposal to build an Liquid Natural Gas terminal and artificial island 13 miles south of Long Beach has been shut down!

In April of 2009 The Sparrow Project partnered with Clean Ocean Action, The Surfrider Foundation, local environmentalists, politicians, and artists in an effort to raise awareness about and eventually challenge the LNG island proposal.  Specifically, the plan included the building of an artificial island comprised of dumped construction waste 13 miles south of Long Beach, New York, large enough to allow two Liquid Natural Gas tanker ships to dock at the same time, and the construction of a connecting pipeline that would route the re-gassed LNG inland to the Northeast.  At it’s heart, the proposal put forth by a consortium of investors calling themselves “The Atlantic Sea Island Group” catered to fossil fuel special interests whose primary objective was the control, price regulation, and trade over this green-washed fuel.  LNG is almost always foreign, it is liquified for the purposes of compressing it and sending it across oceans.   LNG, like crude oil, is often sourced from geographic locations where the political climate is one of violence and although natural gas burns cleaner than oil or coal, moreover the extraction process is at times far worse on the environment than that of oil exploration.  Hydraulic fracturing or “fraking” is the forced displacement of sub-terrainian gasses by the pumping of fluids under the earth surface.  Fraking at times will destroy entire water tables and aquifers, and here in the states is a procedure that is exempt from the standards set forth in th eclean water clean air bond act.  Lastly the area of proposed construction was that of the shallowest point along the Cholera Bank, the tri-state’s only hard bottomed reef ecosystem and a breeding ground for threatened sea turtles.  Collectively Long Islanders, activists, environmentalists, musicians, students and every-day folks joined the call to shut this project down before it could begin.

The Sparrow Project could not have done any of this without the help of local artists & activists Daniel Bobis, Cipher, Ryan Hunter and Envy on The Coast. Ryan and Daniel partnered with Sparrow to produce a video PSA against the proposed LNG plan (see attached video), Photo Finish records was kind enough to help us syndicate the video to their larger audience, and from that day forward the ball started rolling. T-shirts were printed, meetings were arranged with politicians, lecture after lecture was booked at local colleges, town halls, and green fairs, volunteers from Sparrow were even called to governor Patterson’s office to discuss the issue. After a great deal of hard work from David Byer at Clean Ocean Action, New Jersey governor Chris Christie stated at an Earth Day press conference that he would oppose the plan, putting the proposed plans required adjacent state consent at risk. The following month was a slippery slope for the Atlantic Sea Island Group, as NY state governor Paterson refused to issue a position on the proposal. In June of this year news came that the Atlantic Sea Island Group CEO Howard Bovers would be resigning and prospects for the proposed plan looked bleak. I remember getting the call while out on tour, and furthermore I remember wondering to myself if we truly had won. I was told to sit tight on the information until we had confirmation that the state application for the proposal was actually pulled.

A few weeks ago we received word that the application was indeed pulled and that yes, the activists won… I remember thinking to myself, “so this is what victory looks like?” The victory was bittersweet, knowing that part of the ASIG’s momentum was lost when the BP disaster took place, and that the government and corporate officials did not in whole pull their application because it was was the right thing to do, but rather because they felt they could not get away with it in the wake of the BP spill.

I got on the phone and immediately called Ryan, he was elated that his voice and the art that he and his band made were able to play a part in something so big. The efforts of Ryan, Envy On The Coast, Daniel Bobis and Cipher exemplify this idea of braiding arts with activism. Together their work, coupled with the efforts of the Surfrider Foundation and Clean Ocean Action managed to shut down a project as large as the Transocean Deepwater Horizon Facility in the Gulf. One can only imagine what the gulf would have looked like if there was never an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent spill that followed.

Nationwide this fight is far from over, fossil fuel companies are refusing to let go of their current infrastructure of trade and adopt renewable energy, their answer to post-peak oil prospects is increased gas exploration, and Liquid Natural Gas will quickly become their primary energy commodity for trade. Plans for installations like the Atlantic Sea Island are being proposed all over the country and it’s up to local activists to fight them wherever they rear their ugly heads.

To learn more about the LNG proposals in the Northeast please visit Clean Ocean Action’s website and if you are feeling bold you can buy one of these limited run t-shirts that benefit the efforts of Clean Ocean Action.

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To book a screening of Bold Native at your college contact danielle@sparrowmedia.net

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Calling all community-based graphic designers! Author Andrew Shea is looking for projects to feature in his upcoming book. Have you used a graphic design to help a community in need? Do you have insights into this process? If so, visit andrewshea.com/book.html and submit your work.

From the website: “This book will emphasize strategies to help designers address the complex dynamics of working with communities. Twenty social design case studies will make up the bulk of the book…Each project will show how graphic designers worked closely with communities to develop design solutions that address specific social problems. While some of these projects made a significant impact on communities, others may have missed the mark. The design process will become transparent in both cases. These can be either pro bono or for profit and submission is free.”

Visit andrewshea.com/book.html for more information and to download the submission form.

Submissions are due by August 13, 2010.

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When Open Road Film’s Denis Hennelly and Casey Suchan set out to make Bold Native they wanted to work in the spirit of revolutionary films like Easy Rider. They succeeded. Bold Native is a feature film on the subject of animal liberation but at its heart, much like Easy Rider, it’s a road film about the fight for freedom in a corrupt America.

Bold Native follows Charlie Cranehill, played by Joaquin Pastor, an animal liberator working outside the law and Jessica Hagan who plays Jane, a woman working for change for animals within the confines of the legal system. The film’s hero, Charlie, is an ordinary activist who accepts a challenge by his girlfriend to ‘walk the talk.’ When things go awry and he is wanted by the U.S. government as a domestic terrorist, he must go into hiding. He emerges later in the plot to coordinate a large-scale action to free animals nationwide while both his estranged CEO father and the FBI hunt him.

Interspersed into the film are clips of institutionalized animal cruelty, which provide the much-needed context to underscore Charlie’s willingness to take such great risks. The filmmakers manage to do this in a way that supports the plot and pace of the film while avoiding seeming preachy.

Hennelly and Suchan show similar bravery by including a chilling scene of Charlie’s old friends taking a tactical heinous path of their enemies, which tests the viewer’s trust in Charlie.

The dialogue throughout the film is true to the movement and at times refreshingly comical. The gripping exchange between Charlie and his father toward the end of the film will easily make Pastor a star.

Pastor captures Charlie and presents him in a way that everyone can understand. Pastor is also a musician who contributes to the film’s soundtrack along with household names like Sufjan Stevens.

The filmmakers capture the all too real conflict between factions of today’s animal rights movement. But even for a viewer who knows nothing of the struggle or it’s inner arguments, Bold Native is a great primer on the ideology of a diverse movement that at its’ core is really about life, love and freedom.

Like all good revolutionary films, Bold Native is both inspirational and challenging. The film forces the audience to confront uncomfortable notions of brutality, betrayal and greed while inspiring us to fight for justice and freedom at all costs.

Nobody went to see Easy Rider just once. Bold Native will be the same. As soon as the credits rolled, I wanted to see it again.

You can catch an early screening of Bold Native in Washington DC on July 16th, or in NYC on July 26th.

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The Uganda Skateboard Union in Kitintale Uganda has whittled itself out a little place in the hearts of us here at Sparrow. If you are able to, please consider buying one of these t-shirts we made to support their beautiful program that embodies solidarity and hope.

One year ago Cassi Amanda Gibson visited their handmade skatepark and emailed us photos. Since then the kids of the skateboard union and Jackson Mubiru, the union’s founder, have consistently inspired us and everyone else who we shared their story with.

To say that skateboarding will put an end to a 20 year long civil conflict would be naive, but the principals exercised by the Uganda Skateboard Union have, and will continue to change lives for the better. In a region where international non-profits and NGO’s providing aid are often viewed with skepticism, or viewed as parental, these youth have created their own social epicenter where their positivity and creativity is infectious.

Their numbers are growing exponentially every day, and with the growing numbers, gear and resources are being run through faster then they can arrive in the region. Sparrow was stoked to team up with Sky High Skateshop, Special Sauce, Supreme, and Boundless NYC in helping provide the Union with over 100 pairs of brand new skate shoes, dozens of new decks, trucks, clothes, books & magazines. The kids were stoked too. Cassi and her sister Nicolette returned to Kampala twice over the course of the year to bring the kids more supplies and to film a short video for http://sparrowmedia.net. The kids are also pretty good at getting their own press, like this photo feature on BBC.com and most recently this video feature on CNN.com

With their growing numbers their dreams are growing too…

The kids hope to expand their park and build an adjacent school. In a country where publicly subsidized schooling ends at age 12 and only the most fortunate can further their education, this kids are taking their DIY approach one step further with a plan to build a solar powered learning center as part of the programming offered through the union. This will cost them $13,800 (US Dollars) to build and outfit with books & five computers. The Sparrow Project has made these shirts to support the dreams of the Uganda Skateboard Union, when you purchase one %50 of the proceeds will go directly to the Uganda Skateboard Union. The kids in Kitintale live the very essence of solidarity, we tried to capture a piece of that and put it on a shirt.

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Last week Andy Stepanian of The Sparrow Project wrote an article for The Huffington Post declaring that, “all of BP’s greenwashing can clean up their spill,” and this week that is becoming evident. The article drew a lot of responses from activists and readers alike, but one was most interesting…

Last week we got a tip from a twitter follower, that the re-branding of BP & similar greenwashing campaigns came out of a design studio in the UK called Ogilvy Earth even worse they have issued a sort of greenwashing manifesto, they call their “greenwashing guide; without the greenwashing.” It takes a lot of audacity to keep doing what they were doing without even a hiccup considering the reality of the situation in the gulf of mexico.  Now it would be foolish to somehow blame Ogilvy Earth for BP’s current mess, but they are a symptom in a larger sickness to which all of us that drive, buy plastics, or consume animals, take part in daily. These events will only stop when we drastically shift our worldview from that of a mentality of taking to that of peaceful coexistence. What if each of us upheld a worldview that the earth, it’s elements, and it’s animals existed for their own reasons and not simply for our consumption?

That said, our prior notions are being challenged all the time now, and not just from activists. Wether it’s figures that show a waning ecological carrying capacity, figures that show that we may have already reached global peak oil, or an exponential increase in species extinction people are being challenged with a reality that we, and the things on this earth are finite and not inexhaustible. Activists are also challenging this notions, and some of them are doing so in very creative ways. In the UK alone there were two brilliant actions last week that creatively shut down business for those responsible for the BP spill, and the destruction of the Alberta tar sands.

Greenpeace held a contest for the best re-branding of BP’s flower re-brand. This is what the very talented winner came up with, and it was so good that before it ended up on any handbills it had to replace the company flag at BP’s headquarters. This video is brilliant…

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Worldwide, 10 million children die each year from preventable diseases.

You can help make a difference by participating in Swim 4 Humanity in order to raise money and awareness for SurfAid International’s life-saving programs.

Surf Aid International is a non-profit humanitarian organization, dedicated to the improvement of the health, wellbeing, and self-reliance of people living in isolated communities connected to us through surfing.

Swim 4 Humanity is hosted in six cities on the west and east coasts from March to May 2010 and this year the Long Beach High School Surf Club is playing host to the NY Swim For Humanity event on Sunday May 16th, from 12-5 pm in Long Beach at the LBHS pool.

Prior to the event, participating teams and individuals get sponsored by friends and family for a 30-minute swim at one of the swimming pool venues. Competitive freestyle swims will be held each day and fun team relay races will take place in the afternoon. The ‘getting sponsored’ fundraising is pretty effortless and done through the email program on your personal donation webpage that’s set up for you once you sign up for the event.

Awards and prizes are presented to participants based on their fundraising totals. Top fundraisers, top fundraising teams, relay race winners, and top competitive freestyle swimmers recieve premium prizes. This years top fundraiser will receive a surf trip to Indonesia including round-trip airfare, courtesy of World Surfaris and Joyo’s Camp, the list of prizes & great stuff goes on…

SIGN UP HERE –   http://www.surfaidinternational.org/swim4humanity

If you want to donate to the LBHS Surf Club Fundraising Team click here

SWIM FOR HUMANITY – NY event page http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=433970965415&index=1

SURF AID ON FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/surfaid

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“Before Abu-Sayyaf was an inmate in a secretive US political prison called a ‘Communications Management Unit’ Abu-Sayyaf was a computer programmer for a software company in Florida. Abu-Sayyaf was an immigrant, he attained rights as a US citizen, he gave back to his community, to his co-workers, he generously donated to UNICEF, and he gave much of what he had to people outside of this country, specifically to children in Bosnia…” (to read the full story click here)

Please Submit Comments to The Bureau of Prisons & Please Share This Article With Your Friends. You can submit your comments online or through the mail.  If you submit comments via regular mail, please send them to the following address and include the following docket number in your correspondence:

BOP DOCKET #1148-P COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT UNITS
Rules Unit, Office of General Counsel Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street, NW. Washington, DC 20534

Please consider submitting your comments by June 2, 2010* and sending The Center for Constitutional Rights a copy of your comments as we’re hoping to collect these pieces to illustrate the depth of collective public outcry over the creation of the CMUs.

*The official deadline for comments is June 7, 2010.

**Please send copies via email to: nzamani@ccrjustice.org or via regular mail to:

Nahal Zamani

Center for Constitutional Rights

666 Broadway, 7th floor, New York, NY 10012.

To download a sample letter click here.

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A few weeks ago the sparrow project had the privilege to sit down with multi-platinum recording artist and producer, Moby and Miyun Park, executive director to the Global Animal Partnership to discuss their new book Gristle out now through The New Press. Gristle addresses issues ranging from workers rights to animal welfare to the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. Whether it is John Mackey’s essay on big agriculture’s impacts on the tax payer, or Lauren Bush’s essay on animal agriculture’s impact on climate Gristle makes a powerful case for adopting a vegan diet. Gristle also takes a step outside of the mold set by prior critiques of animal agriculture & factory farming because it has something for everyone. This is further supported by the fact that not all of Gristle’s contributors are vegans, in fact, Gristle includes a contribution from a pork producer. This may raise questions amidst vegans and make Gristle a subject of debate for some animal activists, but Gristle is not about preaching to the choir it is about bringing a message of animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and health to a large section of americans who need to hear it and may not have otherwise been exposed to it.

Gristle’s diverse contributions assure that the book will resonate with the widest possible audience. For the billions of animals who are raised and slaughtered on factory farms Gristle spells hope.

Gristle was co-edited by Moby & Miyun Park and includes contributions from Brendan Brazier, Lauren Bush, Christine Chavez, Michael Greger, Sara Kubersky, Tom O’Hagan, Anna Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, John Mackey, Danielle Nierenberg, Meredith Niles, Wayne Pacelle, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Paul Willis, and Phyllis Willis.

For more information or to buy a copy please visit http://gristle-book.com

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Long Island says, “NO TO LNG!” With little public review a group of investors proposed the construction of an artificial island 13 miles south of Long Beach that would import and re-gas foreign Liquid Natural Gas (LNG.) The plan is bad for our environment, it poses a threat to our coastal security, and has a laundry list of negative social & economic impacts. Nassau County legislator Dave Denenberg, Claudia Borecky chair to Denenberg’s Anti-LNG Taskforce, Marvin Weiss, and Andy Stepanian of the Sparrow Media Project will present an overview of the proposal, list it’s environmental and social impacts, and will highlight what we as Long Islanders can do to stop it before it is built.

Dave Denenberg

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