• by s.e. smith
• April 10, 2013

Anti-fracking advocates in California are marking a big victory as a judge has ruled that no, you can’t just go drilling around willy-nilly without sufficient environmental impact reports. The ruling, made in response to a suit from environmental organizations, doesn’t cancel the oil leases originally issued for the land, but it does mandate that the groups reach a resolution with the government, which illegally granted the leases in the first place. That provides some wiggle-room for fighting fracking in the Monterey Shale, and it sent a clear message to the Obama Administration: fracking is not popular in the United States.

The story started in 2011, when the Bureau of Land Management in Monterey County issued potentially lucrative oil and gas leases without sufficient environmental analysis to determine the possible effects of fracking. A total of 2,500 acres in one of California’s most beautiful regions was slated for oil and gas development to access an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil. Environmental groups were deeply concerned about the potential risks to such development, especially given that it bordered a major watershed.

It was a surprise to see such proposals in California, a state where anti-oil and gas production and organizing have resulted in environmental clampdowns and some of the toughest laws on alternative energy production and emissions standards in the country. The state is famous for its level of environmental activity and focus on sustainable use of natural resources, and the case was a grim reminder that California’s reputation doesn’t spread throughout the entire state.

In the suit, activists argued that the BLM had not considered the risks before granting the leases, and Judge Paul Grewal agreed: “[the leases] did not adequately consider the development impact of hydraulic fracturing techniques…when used in combination with technologies such as horizontal drilling…The potential risk for contamination from fracking, while unknown, is not so remote or speculative to be completely ignored.” Granting the leases as-is was a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, which governs such activities.

His decision not to cancel the leases in the face of his findings was a blow for environmental advocates, but they’re still rallying. The decision puts any development on hold and provides breathing room for advocates to continue fighting. Critically, it also sends a message to the government as well as the BLM that it’s not allowed to dodge requirements for careful environmental analysis before leasing land for development, putting the Obama Administration on notice that when it comes to fracking, it had better tread carefully with leases on public lands.

The judge may not have said outright that fracking is dangerous, but he clearly referenced the concerns about the environmental hazards associated with fracking specifically in addition to oil and gas development in general in his ruling. That’s significant, because the government still seems caught in a web of denial when it comes to facing the facts about the dangers of fracking.

Anti-fracking advocates across the nation and the world are mustering a growing collection of evidence against the safety and reliability of fracking and using it to great effect in protests, lawsuits and other actions intended to halt or prevent proposed oil and gas developments in oil shale country. This case will join the body of work done by activists to fight fracking and encourage the government to turn to other means to support its energy needs — and it’s just possible that the ultimate resolution in this particular story will be a cancellation or a radical scaleback of the contested leases in response to more careful environmental review.

Related articles:

Fracking: Bad for the Environment, the Community, and Workers

Ohio Fracking Wastewater Test Reveals Toxic Mess

New Film Tackles Fracking Politics

Read more: environmental impact reports, fracking, obama administration, oil leases, oil shale

Photo credit: CREDO.fracking

Ashtar Speaks: Gaia Talks About the Actual Transition Period

Channelled by Philipp – April 8, 2013

I thank Ashtar for giving me the opportunity to speak to you through him.

I am Gaia. I am your Mother, who holds you and is there for you. Your development was carried by me. I have shepherded you, sheltered you and assisted you to gather your experiences. What you have achieved is astonishing. We were not certain if you would be able to change course and make your way back into the Light, as we had hoped. But you have managed it and we congratulate you wholeheartedly!

My Heart is giddy with pleasure and my Love for you is overwhelming. I am proud of you. Your development will now progress much quicker. Although you see disturbances on the outside that could convince you of the opposite, please be assured that everything is going as scheduled. You are positioned on the way back to the Light, so at this point let us talk about this.

In the meantime you should know that you have brought about the current transition phase and that Heaven has given consent. This short period will not take years – we are talking about months in your timing. During this period more of your brothers and sisters will have the opportunity to board the ship with the name “Ascension”. This fact alone should show you what mighty and loving Beings you are.

In this transition phase it is all about integrating even more Love. Everything that belongs to the old energy will be brought to the surface, to enable you to transform the remaining old energy. This leads to consequences inside and outside of you that might to some extent be quite uncomfortable for you. Let it happen and accept it – this is a sign that you are indeed changing.

The most important fact that you need to know during this transition, is that Heaven will never allow any new global conflicts to break out. The situation may appear alarming, with new conflicts erupting and the old ones intensifying everywhere on my surface. However, when you observe these conflicts, examine them with your heart and you will realise that none of them in itself has the potential to prevent our journey together.

Heaven has decreed that we will return to the higher dimensions, and nothing is going to happen which could derail or torpedo this decree. These negative energies now appearing are to be dissolved, so do not fear them. Our destination is Divinely decreed and we will achieve it all together, each in his time.

As has been reported, I as a Light Being, have already arrived in the fifth dimension. From a multi-dimensional perspective, I am already the planet that flourishes with beauty and no more low vibrational energies. You are still in the intermediate phase, in the transition. On the one hand you have already reached the end of your third dimensional experience, but you have not yet reached the final destination. By holding up and emanating your Light, Beloved Lightworkers, you will attract your fellow man. In this way you help them to free themselves from the shackles of the third dimension and to harmonize vibrationally with me.

What awaits you at the end of your current path? Me! I expect you in a dimension where Love is not a difficult word to define. You will need no more words to describe Love, for you will be Love. Unconditional Love is your goal. This means that your Love is free from any conditions, and you love All-That-Is so much that you are constantly overflowing with joy, happiness and well-being. From this elevated state you will derive your energy.

You are already beginning to feel that Love – not yet permanent as will soon be the case – but more and more. This energetic boost helps to release you from the old shackles and is the reason why ancient, hidden patterns are brought to the surface for transformation.

Co-existence in the fifth dimension is supported by the mutual Love. Your whole focus is exclusively on Love. From this focus you will co-create the paradise that I am already, but which you have not yet entered.

If you’re now thinking that this will take many centuries, I can reassure you that once you have managed to raise your vibrations – to discard the old energies like a coat – everything will progress very fast. You will encounter no more stones on your path, which you have to put aside first. All pull together and keep the same goal in mind. By consolidating your efforts you will succeed, in a manner that you would not have dared to dream about even some time ago.

All the promises that were made to you by your Light siblings can then manifest. Your energetic uplift is the precondition for all the new technologies, social changes and your personal development. It is important that you understand that this uplift must be achieved first and completed, before the changes that you have so much craved for can take place in the outside. And you are working on this in the Now and you do this with much passion and even greater success.

It is this uplift of your energies that is the precondition for the reunion of my several realms. I am not just speaking about my inner realms that we have talked about before. I am also talking about the natural and animal kingdoms, which adjourned behind the veil a long time ago while eagerly looking forward to being able to communicate and to interact openly and consciously with you again.

Did you not ask yourself, why legends exist about elves, fairies, hobgoblins and dwarfs? You were told that these are all bedtime stories without any truth – fabricated for your entertainment. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the realms of dwarfs, elves and fairies exist, in the same way as does your human Kingdom.

For truly, wonders await you. Your delight will be unlimited, when you can encompass these wonders. We are all looking forward to this time!

The long wait is reaching its end. Do not let your efforts weaken. Send Love and be Love. This is the basis of everything you can do to let the developments happen, as we all desire.

If you would know how much I love you. I am your Mother. My soul is Gaia. You are my children, that I protect and love. How much I am looking forward to the day when you all recognize that. And this day is near – very near.

In deepest, boundless Love,

Your Gaia

Translated by Petra

Archangel Michael via Ron Head: We Believe You Can Begin Now To Sense The Pot Beginning To Boil

Archangel Michael via Ron Head: We Believe You Can Begin Now To Sense The Pot Beginning To Boil

As channeled by Ron Head – April 10, 2013

http://oraclesandhealers.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/

We wish to spend some time today discussing your money and economies. It is rather unique to your world to do things in the manner you have chosen. On other worlds, everyone contributes to the society, of course. Without that there really would not be a society, would there?

However, you have chosen to make the basic necessities of life, the food, shelter, clothing, and education needed to live in your societies, those things which are essential to each and every individual, into salable goods. There really is no compassion there, is there?

Then you have allowed the control of the supply of that one item, money, to be placed, or rather taken, by truly a handful of individuals. You have literally given it away, rather than maintain it, once you had wrested it free from the grasp of a king. And then the system they invented to take control spread like a virus.

You see the problem lay in your allowing yourselves to believe them when they told you that they knew what was good for you. You began by saying, “Go and run our country as we wish it to be run”, and allowed it to become, “Go and run our country so we won’t have to.”

Now the question is whether or not you have realized your mistake in time. What do you think? Have you done so? We are speaking of one country, but the same situation has, as we have said, spread like the virus that it is. Have you awoken in time? It does not appear to be so, does it? But take heart, dearest angels. As you are fond of saying, things are never as they seem.

The problem for you now, in that regard, is that what you see is, in most cases, only what the controlling interests want you to see. That is because they have conveniently arranged to own the means of distributing information. They really are brilliant in some ways, you know. However, in their infatuation with themselves, they have made one or two little errors. They overreached, and they believed they could be more powerful than the life force itself. One cannot overpower what one is actually a part of. Doesn’t that make sense? And each created being is a part of the whole, the One.

So things are destined to turn out a bit differently than they planned. This situation has been allowed to continue to the point that will cause the corrections necessary to give you a bit of a bumpy ride though. We wish that were not so, but it is. This is what results in your wishing for an outside force to come in and save you from yourselves. But the universe is not set up that way, my dear friends.

In your case, however, it has been decided that your initiation of corrections, your intent, and your involvement are enough to invite help from others. Many of the others are here now, in spirit, in other dimensions, in short, in ways which make them not quite visible to you. That is also information which has been carefully kept from you.

Ideas such as these have been laughed at and scoffed at until you dared not express them. Well, there are a lot of things that have been scoffed at up until now which are about to take center stage in this little game. And we predict with certainty that you will enjoy the result.

Now, up until today, statements like that have always caused an outcry of ‘whens’ and ‘bring-it-ons’. And we have repeatedly replied that you must take responsibility for the initiation of events. And then there was a bit of timing involved, as well. We believe you can begin now to sense the pot beginning to boil.

If you are not one of those who has taken the initiatives involved, do not be dismayed. Your own progress has been a part of the change in consciousness needed as well. Do not let up now, my friends. In fact, it is time to redouble and reaffirm. Determine now to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs. Things will get a bit squirmy in a bit. Do not lose hope.

Trust yourselves to come out the other side. And at that time, we promise you, you will have made a system which allows for the compassionate care of every individual on your world, just as you have dreamed. Dreams, you see, are not the silly things you have been told they are. Not much is as you have been told it is.

Good day, my friends. Keep yourselves in good spirits. We will speak again soon.

Copyright © Ronald Head. All Rights Reserved. You may copy and redistribute this material so long as you do not alter it in any way, the content remains complete, and you include this copyright notice link: http://oraclesandhealers.wordpress.com/

Aisha North: The Manuscript of Survival – Part 298

As channeled by Aisha North – April 10, 2013

http://aishanorth.wordpress.com

As the tides turn, so too does your sense of the world around you. For it is indeed changing, little by little, day by day, and as such, you are growing and evolving. For it is indeed you who are changing, for the world as you know it is no longer the same.

But that is because you are no longer the same. For every day, you step closer into who you truly are, and as such, every day, a piece of the old you fall away, for never to be needed or retrieved ever again. For you are not here to gather the pieces that seem to be slipping through your fingers, whether they be pieces of your family, your relationships, your ideas or your wordly goods.

For remember, anything not a part of the true you will no longer be a part of your life, and as such, there are many partings going on now.

Fear not, this does not entail that you will be left bereft of anything that is at all familiar to you, it only means that you will be left with the true parts of everything. So your family or friends will not simply walk away from you, but your relationship to them will turn from the old version and into the new and true version.

If that entails growing closer or growing even further apart, only you will know. For remember they too have to decide their path in all of this, and even if you can face the truth to this, many of them cannot.

So again we say know that this is not always an easy journey, for what the light shines upon, will always have to revert to the truth. And as such, painful connections will be revealed and must be torn asunder, for sometimes to be healed and reconnected again, but for other times, to be bid a final farewell.

We know this will sound overly dramatic to some, but what we are trying to say is that in this, nothing will be left to fester and corrupt, because you have to walk your truth, no matter how painful it is. But again, this is not about stripping you of everything you love, this is about stripping you of everything that is harmful to you, and sometimes the painful truth is that the strongest of pains is the one we are most apt to hide away, even from ourselves.

But now, if there is anything left in your life that you need to reassess, it will be shown to you, and only when you accept this, will you be able to deal with it in a loving way. For this is all about love, not about anger, fear or hate, and as such, know that anything that comes up for evaluation, does so at the behest of the light.

The light wants only what is good for you, but sometimes, that means that you need to do something that will pain you. At least initially, but trust us when we say that you will soon see the wisdom in this, and you will also feel the deep love that lies behind each and every painful encounter with yourself you may have in the times ahead.

For what you are doing, is severing each and every bond that are holding you back, and these bonds are bound to run deep, not only in your life, but in other’s as well, and as such, it takes more than courage at times to stay the course in this. But again we say, if you need any help, please ask for it, and know that it comes in all shapes and forms.

For you might be surprised by the resonance your acts will have in those around you, even in those you would deem as the least responsive to anything that the light might bring. For remember this, what the light exposes is not only negative for you, it is also negative for those to which you are connected by these old bonds, and when you start to sever them, you will also set free those that have been tied down with these same chains.

For that is what this truly is, chains to bind you all down, and as soon as one of the prisoners starts to loosen his or her chains, the effect will be felt by everyone tied on to that same chain. For some, this sudden sense of freedom will be daunting, to say the least, but for others, it will be like a breath of fresh air that helps them to see things more clearly too.

So again we say, this is not a harsh and cruel cutting off of ties, this is a willful and deliberate freeing of you all, or rather, it is the offering of freedom, and then, it is indeed up to each and every one if they want to continue to loosen those chains completely, or if they want to wrap them even tighter around themselves.

For this is the fast track to freedom, and for many, nothing could be more fearful to contemplate. For just as for a prisoner standing at the gates of his prison after being incarcerated for years and years, the prospect of walking out into the world as a free man can be too much, and he will be tempted to turn around and go back to his old cell.

For the familiar confines can be more gratifying to him than the prospect of having to step out into a world where there are no familiar boundaries. And so too it is with this process. For you all have some old limitations in your life, whether they be internal or external, and when these limitations are given an option to cease to exist, it can sometimes be hard to embrace that option fully. So make sure that you do not shy away from that choice, for it is indeed one you have to make.

For this journey cannot be undertaken half-heartedly, it must be taken as a whole, not by picking out the parts that seem to be the least challenging. And remember, the choice was made by you even before you came, for if not, you would not even be here now, contemplating the results from that choice. For you chose to become free in this lifetime, and that is why you are being given the opportunity to be just that now.

As for the others around you, they have also been given the same choice, but remember they might have chosen a slightly more meandering path than the direct path you took. So to them, the options can be a bit wider. For they can have given themselves the opportunity to choose the freedom this time around, or to continue in the old school for a lifetime or more.

Again we say, you have chosen your option, just as they have chosen theirs, so in this, you have given yourself less leeway than some of the others have. For you have deemed that your time is now, while they have chosen to say ”my time might be now, but on the other hand, it might not”.

Therefore we say, prepare to be surprised as you yourself continue to cut asunder those old ties that are binding you to your old way of life. For as you do just that, the freedom to move will make many around you blink their eyes to the light and say ”I think I will follow your example, beloved one, and I thank you for giving me this opportunity to do so”.

For this is not an invitation to cast anyone or anything away from your life, this is an invitation to tear asunder any old and negative limitations that are keeping you all cemented to the old ground level so to speak. And no one of you will be able to climb those stairways to heaven if you do not remove the old chains keeping you there.

Let us leave it at that for today, and wish you all Godspeed on your continued journey. For many, the weights of the chains have started to lift off of you already, and you will already see some of the outcome of this, both in your life, but also in those around you. For others, these weights seem to be weighing heavily upon you, but please know that it takes much less of an effort than you mayhaps think to make them fall away from you completely.