[eastbay]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1494889765

As oil resources decline humanity has been forced to turn to other sources of fuel to fill the growing gap in the supply of liquid fuel. On Sumatra, for example, the rainforests are being systematically cut and burned to free up land to grow palm oil, most of which is processed into biodiesel and burned in vehicles across the EU.

But not everyone's happy about this. In Direct Action, my latest novel, a small group on Sumatra have given up on traditional environmental activism and decide it's time to take a different approach against those destroying the rainforests. They need all the help they can get.

The link to the Amazon page is found above. The Kindle version will be ready soon. Please enjoy.

[Graeme]

Eastbay, This looks like quite an extreme measure to stop deforestation. Shouldn't you be going after P and G?

[Islander]

The problem with books like this is that they make people think environmentalists are the violent ones whereas in reality it is the corporations that are doing the killing. Plus it probably ignores the fact that people wouldn't be funding armed groups like that because all the people with money in the world are profiting either directly or indirectly from the very things that environmentalists want to destroy so funding them would be going against their own interests.

[eastbay]

Graeme, I do, and the characters in the book hit 'em pretty hard. But since the overwhelming majority of palm oil is converted into biodiesel that's their focus.

Islander, books like this? I was unaware there are many fiction novels featuring people fed up with mainstream environmental tactics who begin fighting back hard and dirty against those performing deforestation in the tropics.

In this story a small group realizes that decades of traditional Big Green activities have resulted in the near total destruction of the tropical rainforests. The letter writing campaigns, boycotts, flashy television commercials, assorted print and online advertising, the countless studies, the conferences and endlessly lobbying industry and politicians has only speeded the pace of the carnage. This story is about a group that decides it's time for another approach, before it's too late. And the truth is that unless there's a new approach, the world's tropical rainforests will soon vanish.

[SeaGypsy]

Hi EB,
Good on you for keeping up the good fight in a way which is available- writing and publishing too often folks fall into a sense of powerlessness and just give up.

How realistic did you make the confrontation? Did the palm oil plantation folks resort to hiring armed security with helicopters? Did the government send in hit squadrons and air support?

Having been in rural SE Asia myself off and on for a few years, I am well aware of the kind of nightmare scenarios going on in this part of the world. Greed as a primary motive, propagandizing of poor native people that they can only become wealthy by merging their interests with those of the plantation's. Often what happens in real life in SE Asia and Latin America is that the capital interests resort to extreme brutality and force of superior arms to undo and undermine resistance.

I'm not asking you to reveal what happens in your novel, just talking about your intro and thoughts it brings to mind.

[eastbay]

Hey, SeaGypsy, The struggles waged follow a wide variety of paths, some expected but most not. Sorry, man, that's all I can say.

Having flown over the length of Indonesia, driven through what was once rainforest, and sailed along the narrow Strait of Malacca the destruction is everywhere apparent, and it's sickening and unbelievable. It's to make someone cry. Or give up, as you suggested. And the pied pipers of Big Green still expect the green, renewable, eco-friendly environmentalists to follow the same old tune that got us into this horror. And that's even more sickening and unbelievable. My hope is that the destruction ends and the rainforests will, over enough time, be reborn. But to make that happen a new approach is desperately needed.

[eastbay]

http://www.amazon.com/Direct-Action-W-R ... ap_title_0

The Kindle version of Direct Action is now available. Please enjoy.

[careinke]

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The Kindle version of Direct Action is now available. Please enjoy.

[eastbay]

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The Kindle version of Direct Action is now available. Please enjoy.

[Plantagenet]

Sunny and a beautiful 34° here in central Alaska.

Since you've got some time now after book #5, I suggest you take some of the earnings from your books and go visit Russia.

Given your longterm political support for Russia I think you'd find a visit to modern Russia very interesting indeed. You might also look into the possibility of writing off the cost of the trip on your taxes as a business expense if you do background research on the trip you need to locate your next book in Russia.

I bet a DIRECT ACTION book set in Russia would be a big hit----the noble eco-warriors versus the evil oligarchs and their private army made up of former Gulag guards and hired killers from the Russian mafia!

CHEERS!

[eastbay]

Although it's no longer critically important to actually set foot in the places written about, I like to do just that, and have. And, although a DA2 set in northern Siberia is being researched, a trip to the northern reaches of Siberia is difficult, time consuming and expensive. Oh, sure, I can always fly to the various Siberian cities, but it then requires a grinding journey overland to reach the extreme locations where methane is gurgling out. And that would be well beyond what my body, mind, schedule and budget can conquer. But I may do it anyhow. Interesting, even serendipitous, that you suggested this.

[Plantagenet]

You're right---thats tough country to get into.

I've been there once.....On a trip organised by the Russian Academy of Sciences I went to Magadan as a "foreign expert", and then travelled north along the Kolyma River in Siberia with Russian colleagues. There were some old gulag prison camp sites just north of Magadan but then it was mostly very stark and wild Arctic landscape. The best way to get into those areas is with some local contacts and be prepared to spend quite a bit of money. When I went in USSR days it was pretty straight forward to travel around, but when I went back after Yeltsin was in power, you had to have a very large pile of small bills to bribe the people in authority to get anything done. They have an "internal passport" system in Siberia so to travel within Russia you need a whole additional set of internal visas which all require paperwork and bureaucrat approvals --- your passport isn't good enough. And thats just where the bribery and corruption starts----many small gifts are required to go anywhere and get anything done.

If the eco-warriors can do some DIRECT ACTION and stop all the methane releases that will be great!!!!! And while they are at---have them take a whack at the endemic corruption too!

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'A')lthough it's no longer critically important to actually set foot in the places written about, I like to do just that, and have. And, although a DA2 set in northern Siberia is being researched, a trip to the northern reaches of Siberia is difficult, time consuming and expensive. Oh, sure, I can always fly to the various Siberian cities, but it then requires a grinding journey overland to reach the extreme locations where methane is gurgling out. And that would be well beyond what my body, mind, schedule and budget can conquer. But I may do it anyhow. Interesting, even serendipitous, that you suggested this.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'e')xtreme locations where methane is gurgling out.

[eastbay]

Keith, thanks, solid advice, but my wife made me quit smoking cigars.

[Graeme]

EB, You might be interested to know that USC has written a report on deforestation for palm oil in Indonesia and elsewhere. Apparently, some progress has been made in stopping deforestation.

Momentum Builds for Deforestation-Free Palm Oil (Op-Ed)

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t's always great to see the door crack open for progress on an issue when the parties involved start to recognize a "win-win" solution. Such a tipping-point moment is coming into view in the campaign to halt the widespread, devastating deforestation currently resulting from the growing world consumption of palm oil. It's a classic case of science and transparency shining the way forward.

The problem is far from solved, but in a major development, several large palm-oil purchasers, including Kellogg's and Hershey's, have recently pledged to buy only deforestation-free palm oil for their products. Two of the world's largest palm oil suppliers — Wilmar and Golden Agri-Resources — have made similar commitments for the palm oil they sell. Now pressure is mounting on some of the remaining hold-outs — like Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and McDonald's — to follow suit and do the right thing for the planet.

[eastbay]

Hey, Graeme. At the very most all those green harvest proposals and "sustainable" palm oil standards, which are mentioned several times in the book, are similar to a slow to 55 zone on a Texas freeway. All palm oil is grown on former rainforest and the acreage is expanding like the mushroom cloud from a just-detonated atom bomb.

And bear in mind, all equatorial rainforest is targeted by someone as potential plantation land, ready and waiting to be clearcut, sooner or later. Unless, of course, and the only glimmer of hope remaining, is for the true defenders of the rainforest to get away from Big Green, Inc. and begin a truly different approach. Because the Big Green approach leads to mass extinction.

[Graeme]

Yes I understand the speed that deforestation is occurring. I am merely suggesting that by legally holding foreign corporates to account over their actions in destroying forests is one way to solve this problem. The countries involved also have to do something themselves. And additional pressure needs to be placed on these governments by using "normal" demonstrations or "extreme" measures. Is the UN REDD scheme not working?

[Graeme]

Have you seen this news?

Palm oil row erupts in Sumatra, leaving one dead

Forest Peoples Urge Land Rights Action

[eastbay]

Hadn't. Thanks.
One thing's for certain. Trees are falling faster than ever before. Environmentalists will, at some point, quit the pointless and time wasting asking, pleading and begging. At some point they'll take the words of Malcolm X seriously: "Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it."