WOODINVILLE, Wash. (AP) — Fires gutted four multimillion-dollar model homes in a Seattle suburb on Monday, and authorities found a sign purportedly left by eco-terrorists that mocks claims that the homes were environmentally friendly.

“Built Green? Nope black!” said the spray-painted sign that bore the initials of the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front.

Explosive devices were found in the homes, and crews were able to remove them, said Fire Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District 7. The FBI was investigating the fires as a potential domestic terrorism act, said FBI spokesman Rich Kolko in Washington, D.C.

The fires started at the “Street of Dreams,” a strip of unoccupied, furnished luxury model homes where developers show off the latest in high-end housing, interior design and landscaping. The homes are later sold.

No injuries were reported in the fires, which began before dawn in the wooded subdivision and were still smoldering by midmorning.

The homes are in a development near the headwaters of Bear Creek, which is home to endangered chinook salmon. Opponents of the development had questioned whether the luxury homes could pollute the creek and an aquifer that is a drinking water source, and whether enough was done to protect nearby wetlands.

The sign, a sheet with red scraggly letters, said “McMansions in RCDs r not green,” a reference to rural cluster developments.

One of the people involved in the project said the homes used “green” techniques such as water-pervious sidewalks, super-insulated walls and windows and products made with recycled materials, such carpet pads. Advertising for last summer’s Street of Dreams show focused on the environmentally friendly aspects of the homes, which were smaller than some of the huge houses featured in years past.

Say what you want about the tactics, but I agree with the message. As long as we are made to believe houses like this are “good” for the environment, the millionaires who buy them can continue to justify their irresponsible lifestyle. Why is there not a bigger movement to retro-fit old houses or older cars with more efficient amenities. Why does it seem that “buying green” automatically means buying new? This all stinks of environmental inequality. The tiny fraction of people in this country who can afford mansions like this can now also claim moral superiority because their houses are “Green.”

Who: ARN! (animal rights now! of NAU/flagstaff)
What: Demonstration.
When: 10:30 - 12:00.
Where: We are meeting on the east side of Wall Aquatic and in front of the Wettaw building- from there, we will march to the Biology Annex (21B)
http://home.nau.edu/maps.asp
Why: Animal Rights NOW! is holding a demonstration to protest the animal testing facility on campus. Members of ARN! have tried to contact employees of the facility, but they have ignored our requests for information and refuse to meet with us. Though NAU has said that students’ tuition does not go directly to animal testing (they like to call it “using animals for research”), our dollars DO go to pay for equipment, chemicals, and the salaries of these “scientists.”

To throw a little fuel on the fire, I suppose, a faculty member of NAU contacted the boss of one of the ARN! members (the same one I’ve been talking to recently about an article for December) and said this person is a threat to the university and should be fired (and that these views were shared with Pres. Haeger). So there will be increased security, including police. All this for an animal rights protest on campus? What are they hiding?

Come support ARN! and show NAU that we DEMAND answers.

This is very good news for anyone who has been following Jeff’s case.

From Bombs and Shields:

Oregon, U.S. - The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled that environmentaly motivated arsonist, Jeffrey “Free” Luers, will get a new reduced sentence that could be as much as 15 years shorter than his current one. Luers was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2001 for burning and damaging three SUVs as a protest meant to call attention to global warming in Eugene.

Luers was convicted of three arson counts and three attempted arson counts. The sentences were ordered to be served consecutively but according to the appeals court Luers’ judge should have ordered that they be served concurrent. It’s possible that he could be released from prison as early as 2008.