On April 8, 2012, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society took part in a massive opposition event on the beach of Bregançon, in the south of France, to oppose off-shore drilling in the Mediterranean Sea. The project site was to be off the coast of France, near Marseille and was to be carried out by the Melrose Oil Company. The opposition was initiated by José Bové, who now proudly flies the Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger flag on his ship. Mister Bové had met the week before with Captain Paul Watson and Lamya Essemlali, President of Sea Shepherd France, to invite Sea Shepherd to join the event. Thanks to the strong opposition of citizens, the French government finally refused to allow Melrose to drill off the coast, but many other drilling projects are still pending. Sea Shepherd activsts were among thousands of activists that day, along with a ship proudly flying the Jolly Roger. As a French reporter stated the arrival of the pirates did not go unnoticed. "We do not ever want to see what happened in the Gulf of Mexico, happen here in the Med" said Lamya Essemlali. "Every time the government will be tempted to sell out the marine biodiversity to oil companies, they must know that we, citizens and NGO's, will be there to oppose it. This is just the beginning of an ongoing resistance to oil companies". Sea Shepherd

As Victoria faces a wave of exploration licences for coal seam gas (CSG), coal, and tight gas, there is growing opposition to this industry. “Community groups have formed across the ‘coal belt’ of southern Victoria, from the Otways to Wonthaggi to Toongabbie” said Friends of the Earth campaigns co-ordinator Cam Walker. “Clearly local farmers and residents do not want to see their lands and water sacrificed for short term fossil fuel development.” “In Queensland and New South Wales there is a massive community backlash against the CSG industry” said Merryn Redenbach, spokesperson for Quit Coal. “Elsewhere in Australia, governments and individual members of parliament are standing up against the growth of CSG exploration and new coal mining in rural and urban areas. Locally, the Bass Coast Council has called for a ban on mining and gas operations, and Liberal MP Ken Smith has supported this demand”. Mr Walker said “the only response from the government of Ted Baillieu has been to increase opportunities for further coal development. Just this week it was reported that the Baillieu government is working on a strategy to try to head off community objections to its plans to develop Victoria’s brown coal reserves.” An alliance of 40 groups has today called on the Victorian government to ban all new on-shore coal and un-conventional gas operations until there has been a thorough investigation into the likely impacts of this industry. Full Article