Mobilization for Climate Justice

Archive for September, 2009

In ancient times some places we now know as vast arid deserts, or desert-like plains, were deeply forested and thrived with abundant wildlife. What happened? Human populations pushed the envelope too far. The human race has a distressing penchant for clear-cutting great stretches of forest to feed fires, build cities, sail fleets, graze herds, or do whatever. Making matters worse, we seem to have had little interest in replanting, or better yet, intelligently managing such forests. Some gruesome examples include the once “Fertile Crescent” in the Mideast; the ancient Mediterranean;Haiti in the Caribbean, but also in the more recent past, giant swaths of the Amazon.

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Shortly after G20 protesters were attacked by police at the University of Pittsburgh, on September 26 about 1,500 people took direct action to shut down one of Copenhagen’s coal fire power plants. The SHUT IT DOWN action plan had been openly announced several months earlier and Danish police had been gearing up for massive use of force to trial new anti-protest laws. Around 100 protesters managed to get inside the power plant. Although at that point the plant should have been shut down due to safety regulations, it was kept running.

Around 100 people have been arrested. One person so far has been charged. The action was widely and positively covered in Danish news. The protesters regard this act of mass civil disobience for climate justice an encouraging success and a positive trial run for the actions surrounding the COP 15 climate conference in December in Copenhagen (On Dec 16, RECLAIM POWER!).

Action pics:
http://modkraft.dk/spip.php?article11552

For google-translated movement and mainstream news about Shut-It-Down:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmodkraft.dk%2F

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F 2Fpolitiken.dk%2Findland%2Farticle797115.ece

For the original Danish versions go to:

http://modkraft.dk/

http://politiken.dk/indland/article797115.ece

South Australia Climate Camp 2009: A great success!

For immediate release 26 September 2009

Climate camp activists gathered in Port Augusta, South Australia have declared the state’s first climate camp a great success. On Friday Flinders Power announced that the coal train from Leigh Creek, the longest coal train in the world, would not run over the weekend.

On Saturday morning a crowd of 50 gathered outside the Port Augusta power stations to demand that the aging, inefficient stations be closed down and replaced with renewable energy. The power stations had been declared a “protected area” under the Protective Security Act 2007 for the period of the Climate Camp. Protesters then marched two kilometers through the protected area to a point where they were stopped by 70 police including many mounted police and a canine unit.

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Earth Island Institute has an interview with NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen. He denounces cap-and-trade, the Waxman-Markey bill, and calls for civil resistance in the face of the fraudulent inaction of the US government.

When I give a talk on this, I show that the three options for getting the actions that are obviously needed are through the democratic process, influencing the elections of the administration and Congress; secondly, the courts; and then thirdly, civil resistance.

full audio mp3

Last weekend, activists from across the west coast joined residents of Richmond, CA for the West Coast Convergence for Climate Justice and Action, from September 18-20th at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Richmond. The goal of the Convergence was to connect local environmental justice struggles, especially the Richmond community’s ongoing struggle against the local Chevron refinery, to the global fight for climate justice. The global climate justice movement recognizes that the impacts of climate change fall most heavily on poor communities and that true solutions must come from those same communities on the front lines.

The West Coast Convergence for Climate Justice consisted of 3 days of plenary speeches, workshops, and strategy sessions, followed by a non-violent direct action on Monday, September 21st. Workshops and plenary sessions placed the local struggle against Chevron in the broader context of the movement for climate justice leading up to the Copenhagen climate negotiations. Speakers emphasized the role of corporations like Chevron in watering down climate policy and drew connections between the Richmond fight and other frontline community struggles, including those against tar sands in Canada and against the Dooda Desert Rock power plant in New Mexico. Other workshops focused on organizing skills and on local solutions, from urban gardening to local climate action plans. According to Carla Perez, one of the conference organizers, “the convergence was a gathering of stellar minds & hearts rooted in community organizing for social and ecological justice. It brought clarity and a deep understanding of the root causes of the climate problem and inspired Richmond leaders to connect their local work to this global struggle for a livable future.”

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For Immediate Release:

Climate Activists Drop Banner Over UN Motorcade, Raise Warning of Ineffective “False Solutions” to Climate Change

New York, NY – Early Friday morning, at the end of the first week of the High Level meetings during Climate Week in New York, a caravan of police-escorted limousines and SUVs carrying UN delegates was delayed as they approached the 42nd street bridge.A 25 foot banner reading “UN: Cap + Trade is a Dead End” was deployed as the motorcade drew near.

A group referring to itself as the “Greenwash Guerrillas” claimed credit for the banner, and prior to a hasty departure threw leaflets down onto the stalled traffic articulating their demands:

(TEXT:)

• We know a highly-developed campaign has been launched in the United States by the worst transnational corporate polluters, Wall Street financiers, and well-funded professional enviros along with their lesser-funded camp-followers to pass a bill, any bill, possessing the namesake of ‘the climate’;
• We hold that polluting corporations have never advocated for anything that would harm their bottom line, their short-term profits or their shareholders;
• We recognize that Wall Street financiers, responsible for a world-wide economic recession due to a speculative bubble collapse, have set their sites on a $14 trillion carbon trading system as a means of reviving their fortunes;
• We know that corporate polluters have effectively defanged the mainstream US environmental movement.  Many organizations that appear to publicly support environmental defense are welcoming disastrous policy within the US and the leadup to the December COP15 Climate Talks in Copenhagen.  The mainstream environmental movement has become little more than a sounding board for corporate sponsors of profit-generating climate change legislation.

As a people, we cannot define the systematic destruction of our environment, the unprecedented exctinction crisis, and oncoming impacts of climate catastrophe as a  money-making opportunity. We will not forget or forgive those who mindlessly, selfishly advocate a cap-and-trade system. The False Solutions agenda of the corrupt circles  of government at home and abroad will meet resistance.

Signed,

Agent Simple Green

The Greenwash Guerrillas

(New York) Climate justice activists from Rising Tide North America and Climate SOS in New York took to the streets on the final day of the UN Climate summit, making housecalls to the New York offices of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and the Nature Conservancy. NRDC’s street-level banner was festooned with a 14 foot mock “Climate Bill” in the form of $2 trillion bank note (the approximate value of a U.S. carbon market). Imagery on the giant spoof bill critiques roles of many large environmental groups in their push for passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA), chiefly for its advocacy of an carbon market. Following NRDC, the offices of EDF and The Nature Conservancy received delivery visits where activists desperately tried to present organizational representatives with their version of the “green”.

These organizations are leading members of the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), which has united them with highly polluting corporations such as Dow, DuPont, General Electric and Alcoa Aluminum under the auspices of lobbying Congress to reduce emissions. This unsavory alliance played a major role in crafting the Waxman-Markey ACESA bill (HR 2454) passed by the US House of Representatives in July, and expected to make its way for a Senate vote imminently. Read the rest of this entry »

Environmental activists, some dressed as “Trillionaires for Bad Math” today delivered a “climate bill” to Copenhagen, ahead of schedule.  The mock “bill” was delivered at a 3 pm lecture at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs hosted by Danish Climate and Energy minister Connie Hedegaard. Hedegaard is the chairperson of the UN climate summit to be held in Copenhagen this December, where many hope that a strong global climate agreement will be signed.

Representatives of groups including Climate SOS and Rising Tide North America presented a 14-foot banner representing the climate bill currently being debated in the US Congress, which many consider essential for strong US participation in Copenhagen. The banner depicts a two trillion dollar note, representing the size of the new market in carbon dioxide emissions allowances that would be established by the Waxman-Markey climate bill that passed the House of Representatives in late June.

The centerpiece of the banner is an image of a bewildered Al Gore, who introduced the concept of tradable emissions allowances into the UN process in Kyoto in 1997. Hundreds of environmental groups are critical of the current US climate bill. Many view the bill’s cap and trade provisions as a dangerous false solution, that is inherently unstable and ultimately incapable of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Leading Trillionaire, Cap’n Trade, dressed in pirate regalia, told the assembled crowd, “‘Tis a bloody shame for the climate that Congress has chosen me to clean up this mess for ‘em. But I don’t mind a bit,” he continued, “’cause rising seas and booty and plunder are just my thing and soon the land, air and water will be all mine.”

The “trillionaires for bad math” argue that the House bill “just doesn’t add up”, pointing out that it falls far short of scientifically valid targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions; removes the EPA’s authority to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act; and incorporates massive corporate giveaways into its cap-and-trade program. Corporations would be able to defer needed emissions reductions for decades under the bill’s offset provisions. International groups widely condemn the lack of US leadership on climate issues and demand that wealthy countries pay their share of the accumulated “climate debt.”

“If these lily-livered politicians aren’t ready to do something about the climate, those scurvy activists on the streets of Copenhagen are going to make ‘em walk the plank,” said Cap’n Trade.  “We’re all going to end up in Davy Jones’ Locker.”

As the Climate SOS crosscountry tour culminates, activists from Climate SOS, Rising Tide, and other groups of environmental activists in New York launched direct action interventions to signal the widespread opposition to the Waxman-Markey climate bill and its inadequate targets and schedules and financial mechanisms for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

For press materials, photos and video: contact mutualaid@earthlink.net More info at: climatesos.org, risingtidenorthamerica.org

Contacts (Mobile phones): Rachel Smolker, Ph.D.802 482 2848 Brian Tokar, 802-595-9677

Pittsburgh, United States — Greenpeace activists rappelled off of a Pittsburgh bridge with a massive banner displaying our message to G20 leaders gathering for tomorrow’s summit. The banner takes the form of a stylized “road sign” that warns of the political maneuvering and delay that have put an international climate treaty in jeopardy as the world enters the final stretch on the road to Copenhagen.

“It is imperative that developed world leaders do not fail again in Pittsburgh. They must put money on the table to support developing countries” said Damon Moglen, Greenpeace USA’s global warming campaign director. “It is also critical that G20 leaders agree to kick-start economic recovery through clean energy investment. Both of these elements are vital to achieve a good deal in Copenhagen and avert catastrophic climate change.”

read more:

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/climateweek

By Robert S. Eshelman

September 23, 2009

Editor’s Note: Follow Rob Eshelman’s dispatches from the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh at TheNation.com all week.

Tuesday afternoon, US District Court Judge Gary Lancaster rejected a request by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Center for Constitutional Rights for an injunction against the Pittsburgh Police. The lawyers alleged in the suit that local law enforcement has been systematically harassing and carrying out unconstitutional searches and seizures of members of two G-20 protest groups–the Seeds of Peace Collective and the Three Rivers Climate Convergence (3RCC). The judge refused to restrain the police and suggested that if police conduct warrants damages claims, then the ACLU should file suit. The ACLU says it will pursue such claims.

read the whole article at The Nation

[This from Grist]:

The “culture jamming” prankster troupe The Yes Men contributed to the Climate Week excitement in New York City this morning by distributing fake copies of the New York Post. The illicit special edition of the tabloid warned that climate change could unleash heat waves, flooding, and other disasters over the next decades.

The fake paper (also online) contains actual non-fake information, the group says:

Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.

“This could be, and should be, a real New York Post,” said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. “Climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of every paper, every day until we solve the problem.

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Democracy Now! “New Voices on Climate Change”

• Federal Judge Dismisses Police Harassment Claims by Activist Groups at Pittsburgh’s G-20

  Thousands of additional security forces have been brought into Pittsburgh ahead of the G-20, and tall steel fencing now runs along the the convention center in this former steel town. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled against two protest groups who accused the Pittsburgh police of harassment. Seeds of Peace and Three Rivers Climate Convergence claim the police used illegal searches, vehicle seizures, raids and detentions to discourage them from taking part in protests later this week.

Click here to listen to Micklem’s radio interview excerpt

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Roland Micklem is an 81-year-old military veteran from Richmond, VA. State police arrested Micklem and three others for blockading Massey Energy’s regional headquarters in an act of non-violent civil disobedience on the morning of Wednesday September 9. In his statement, Micklem announced his intent to lead a five day, 25 mile march for senior citizens, ages 55 and older, in a protest against mountaintop removal (MTR). Micklem and other participants will depart on the morning of Thursday October 8 from the state capital in Charleston, W.Va.. The march will conclude at the gates of the Massey-owned Mammoth MTR site in Kanawha County on Monday October 12, where those who choose to will engage in an act of non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal.

In Micklem’s open letter, he states, “No substantial gain in our efforts to continually evolve into a more humane and caring society has been made without the willingness of individuals—with non violence as both a creed and a strategy–to step outside the framework of law and tradition in order to correct wrongs when conventional measures had failed. The abolition of slavery, the enactment of civil rights legislation, the right of women to vote, the termination of the Vietnam war could not have come about without the help of the same kind of non violent, direct, and sometime unlawful action that we are using here to stop mountaintop removal. And as a Christian as well as one who basically respects the laws of the land, I see the growth and maturing of my Faith to be in direct proportion to my readiness to stand for truth, and to embrace causes that will contribute to our moral and spiritual uplift as the dominant species on the planet.”

Micklem’s march is a collaborative project between Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice, Intergenerational Justice, and Christians for the Mountains, and is part of an ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal. Micklem and march co-organizer, Andrew Munn, age 23, are planning evening activites and speaking events to conclude each day’s walk and educated the public about MTR and related issues. Larry Gibson of kayford Mountain and 2004 Green Party gubernatorial candidate, Jesse Johnson are among those expected to speak and participate in the march. Senior citizens who are unable to march are invited to join in for the evening activities. More information on programming will be made public in future releases on www.climategroundzero.org.

According to Micklem, five people, including clergy men and women, are committed to the full march, and at least ten others will join for stretches. He expects more will join as word spreads.

Massey subsidiary Mammoth coal operates a mountaintop removal site and coal processing plant next to Route 60 east of Charleston. In 2004, Massey bought out Cannelton Coal, which formerly operated that site, cut the United Mine Workers contract, and reopened it as the non-union Mammoth Coal Company despite a union organized picket and lawsuits.

Here is an article by Suzanne Hoeksema about women leaders, climate justice, and New York Climate Week. The full article can be found here.

NEW YORK, Sep 23 (IPS) – Women’s voices remain highly underrepresented in the climate change debate, say international civil society leaders attending events taking place around the United Nations Climate Summit Tuesday.

The summit was attended by 146 national delegations, of which only seven were headed by women. On the eve of the meet, the head of Oxfam in Britain, Barbara Stocking, noted that “once again, women find themselves left out of the negotiations on issues that affect them most”.

Oxfam is one of the main contributors of the “tck tck tck” campaign to “stop the clock on the climate change”.

Climate Week, Sep. 20-26, was launched Sunday by a “Human Countdown” in New York’s Central Park. Over a thousand volunteers came together to call on world leaders attending Tuesday’s U.N. Climate Summit to take swift action to curb greenhouse gases.

The crowd of New Yorkers, dressed in green sweaters and blue ponchos, formed a human sculpture “the shape of the earth trapped inside of an hourglass with the earth dissolving like sand”.

Among the climate activists here are four women from the “frontlines of climate change”: Uganda, the Cook Islands, Biloxi, Mississippi and the Carteret Islands, whose lives have been directly affected by flood, drought, hurricanes and rising sea levels.

So why do we need a focus on women in the climate change debate? And what can women’s organisations do for climate change mitigation?

Stocking argued that women are most deeply affected by climate change. “They are the ones responsible for the most basic needs: fetching the water, feeding the family and till the soil and clean the dirt. They work with water in a very direct way,” she told IPS.

In a statement, Finnish President Tarja Halonen said that “climate change hits most seriously the poorest regions and the weakest groups of people. Since about 70 percent of the world’s poor are women, they will suffer most.”

Sharon Hanshaw, director of Coastal Women for Change in the city of Biloxi, Mississippi in the southern U.S. and a mother of three daughters, added that “women have a different perspective on the future. They think of their children’s future, their children’s children’s future and the community’s survival.”

In a compelling story on the effects of globalisation and climate change on the lives on the Inuit people, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit herself and holding the International Chair for the Inuit Circumpolar Council, connects climate change to human rights.