For many years environmental activists in Oregon have protested against logging companies that legally cut down large swath of forests in that state. Sometimes protesters have climbed trees and sat up there for weeks or even months.

Oregon is a state in northwestern part of The United States.Apparently fed up over the expensive delays these eco-activists can cause, Oregon’s state legislature recently passed a law that reportedly would allow district attorneys “to charge these terrorists with a crime and make them accountable.”

Since forest protesters already are arrested when they exert what their supporters say is their right to free speech, the idea of passing new laws to do the same thing seems a little heavy-handed. The legislature seems intent on making eco-activists suffer financially for their acts, which in the past have included driving spikes in trees, thereby exposing workers to possible injury.

Nobody should ever get hurt as a result of a public protest. Still, the idea of equating terrorism with environmental activism seems, in Earth Preservers’ opinion, to be out-of-bounds. What do you think? For more, read this OregonLive story.

Italy (in dark green) is in Southern Europe

A news video reporting on the Italian government’s efforts to counter the Mafia’s growing involvement in environmental crime, especially waste hauling and disposal. This is a serious problem for the entire world, because the Mafia is illegally transporting large amounts of garbage to other countries such as China, where it is turned into inferior materials used by many different industries. What a mess!

In Leicestershire County in England, officials decided to save energy and money by turning off the street lights along a busy section of road.

Now, as reported by the Leicester Mercury, there’s a petition going around to get the street lights turned back on.  Petitioners say that while saving energy and money is always a good idea, turning off street lights poses too great a safety and crime risk for pedestrians using the road.

While it looks like the lights will be turned back on in Leicestershire, we’ve got to ask:

Is it ever a good idea to turn off street lights in order to save energy and money?

“Crimes Against the Environment: Who Pays?” is the title of a provocative blog post by Alexandra Rengel, an international lawyer.

No matter how much damage a company causes by, for example, illegally dumping toxic waste or polluting the air, Ms. Rengel writes that “it is rare to hear of company executives going to prison for breach of environmental laws.”  Instead, their companies simply pay a fine, making environmental crime a cost of doing business -- in other words, no big deal.

With global environmental crime now estimated to cause a whopping $70 billion worth of damage every year, maybe it’s time for the top executives of giant corporations that are convicted of environmental crimes to be held personally responsible.

What do you think? 

View poll on GoPollGo

Whatever the case, Paul Watson clearly is continuing his campaign against whaling. Even though international law permits Japan to catch a certtain number of whales each year for scientific research, Watson’s aim is to put commercial whaling fleets out of business.

It’s dangerous business, that’s for sure.

Illegally logged timber seized by Ayun villagers. Credit: Imran Schah/IPS

More and more forests around the world are being destroyed by crooks out to make a fast buck. But in the Chitral district of Pakistan’s Khyber Panhunthwa province, residents are fighting back.Khyber Panhunthwa is a province of Pakistan

According to this Inter Press Service story, local residents have been intercepting trucks loaded with logs felled by criminal gangs.

According to one of the local heroes quoted in the story, “There is a timber mafia working within the government’s forest department which is behind the felling and sale of timber, resulting in extensive deforestation.”

The government sees things differently. Again according to the IPS story, government officials have been arresting the protesters.

Seems unfair, but if the Pakistani forest department is indeed corrupt, you’d expect it to cover up its crime.

Sad to say, not every organization dedicated to preserving the environment is on the up and up.

A Greek organization called Circle of Pantos organized eco-cruises to places like the Amazon rainforest. So far, so good.

But when the Greek government recently audited the books of this organization, it discovered millions that may have been diverted to person or persons unknown, for reasons still to be determined.

As this Reuters story notes, some of the money appears to have found its way into a London bank account. That would be a no-no. The organization reportedly has been charged with fraud.

US Defense Secretary Leon PanettaRecently Panetta made headlines when he said the next war essentially could be fought over the Internet as hackers from other countries and organized crime gangs try to disrupt the Internet-connected systems the world depends on.

Panetta’s warning echoes a 2010 report by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warning that cyber attacks against the US power grid are now a “high impact” risk.

There have been real cyber attacks against energy infrastructure in recent weeks, specifically in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Computers went haywire at the Saudi national oil company after they were attacked, though fortunately the flow of oil wasn’t disrupted. Same thing with natural gas in the Mideast country of Qatar. US officials fear the attacks came from inside Iran, which, if true, would move those two nations one step closer to outright confrontation.

Long story short: everyone should be concerned and should pay attnetion to what’s going on..

To learn more about Panetta’s warning, read this Time article. 

To learn more about about NERC report, read this Network World story.

To learn more about Saudi and Qatar attacks, read this New York Times article and this article from Arabian Business.

World leaders at a UN meeting highlighted wildlife trafficking along with other severe threats to the rule of law such as corruption and drug running © Christopher Chan / Creative CommonsFrance’s representative to the United Nations said that, when it comes to protecting natural resources, “international law is lacking.”

Pascal Canfin made the statement at the meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Canfin’s statement gets to the heart of why environmental crime is surging all over the world. Without strong laws, eco-criminals appear confident that they will get away with destroying rainforests, killing endangered species for their parts, depleting fish species, polluting water, and so on.

Illegal logging alone is estimated to be a $15 billion-a-year business. Illegal trafficking in animal parts is reportedly a $5 billion-a-year business.

To learn more, read this article from TRAFFIC.