Mobilization for Climate Justice

Posts Tagged ‘climate camp’

August camp will target Trailbreaker tar sands pipeline project

The camp will take place from August 7th to 23rd in Dunham, Quebec with convergence days from the 18-22

Climate Justice Montreal on the Media Co-op

We must act swiftly to tackle the root causes of climate change and create the systemic change needed to avert climate catastrophe. So that’s what we’re doing. Taking action. Building a movement. Collectively, we can become a force to be reckoned with. Come to Dunham this August and be a part of it.

The Quebec Climate Action Camp will bring together rebels and renegades, gardeners and guardians, young and old.  We will combine our hearts, hands, minds and spirits to challenge the Trailbreaker, a pipeline that snakes from the heart of the Tar Sands to the Eastern seaboard.  Specifically, we will be trying to prevent the construction of a proposed pumping station – a key component of the Trailbreaker’s infrastructure – that threatens the local community of Dunham, Quebec.

But the goal of the camp is not only to confront a single destructive entity.We want to show the possibility of another world – green, sustainable, and free of fossil fuels.

The camp will take place from August 7th until the 23rd, with Convergence Days on 18th to 22nd. Run on participatory, non-hierarchical principles, the camp will be the product of the participants. There will be organized workshops and trainings, but also plenty of space for autonomous workshops, discussions, collective cooking and everything in between.

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A primer for climate justice in Quebec and the 2010 Climate Action Camp

Cameron Fenton on the Media Co-op

Montreal – Climate Justice Montreal released its newest publication, entitled Stop the Flow of Destruction, this week to draw attention to the upcoming Quebec Climate Action Camp. The 12 page publication includes information about the camp, and basic primers on climate justice, the tar sands, the Trailbreaker pipeline project, and moving forward on people’s solutions to the climate crisis.

The release comes as organizers gear up for the Quebec Climate Action Camp in Dunham QC, the site of a proposed pumping station to facilitate the a pipeline reversal which would bring tar sands oil through Quebec as part of a project known as the Enbridge Trailbreaker.

The publication is available for download here, and paper copies can be requested at climateactionmtl@gmail.com. A French version of the publication will be available by the end of the week.

Download the report from the Media Co-op -
http://www.mediacoop.ca/sites/mediacoop.ca/files2/mc/stoptheflowofdestructionssmall_1.pdf

Rising Tide North America is pleased to announce the release of our latest publication:

The Climate Movement is Dead… Long Live the Climate Movement!

In the aftermath of the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, the inability of the Big Greens, governments, and market approaches to find genuine and sustainable solutions to climate change is undeniable. As author Naomi Klein so aptly observed at the end of COP15 talks, “A particular model of dealing with climate change is dying.”

DOWNLOAD HERE [PDF]

In the same uncompromising spirit as Rising Tide publications such as Deal or No Deal, and Hoodwinked in the Hothouse, CMID:LLCM delivers a timely critique of the failures of this “particular model” as exemplified by the mainstream NGOs who have grown all too cozy with corporations and the political establishment. It explores the ways in which “green” capitalism,electoral politics, and market mechanisms, far from solving the climate crisis, are some of the climate movement’s biggest obstacles.

Not content with mere polemic, CMID:LLCM charts a course that diverges from the dominant discourse of the mainstream climate movement. The essay lays out a strategy of supporting and escalating frontline struggles againstdirty energy while building a new global climate movement from the ground up, based around core principles of climate justice, grassroots power, solidarity, and direct action.

The Climate Movement Is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement is a must-read for anyone left disenchanted by the mainstream climate movement, and all who are ready to step it up and fight for climate justice.

You can download a digital copy to view online or print yourself.

Or send us an email to contact (at) risingtidenorthamerica (dot) org with your name, address, and how many copies you would like to receive. We are happy to provide this publication for free but as an all volunteer collective we greatly appreciate donations. Also consider joining in our print run collaboration:

COLLABORATE ON OUR PRINT RUN!

Rising Tide North America is excited to announce a “Print-Run Collaboration” project for CMID:LLCM. Local groups and allies can help us raise the funds necessary for an initial print-run of several thousand copies, and in return, receive a big stack “hot-off-the-presses” at approximately the cost of printing (cheaper than photocopies!).

Click HERE to join in

December 21, 2009

April 22, 2010: International Day of Mother Earth

CHUQUISACA, Bolivia, December 20 — Bolivian President Evo Morales announced today that a world conference of social movements is to take place in Bolivia, as a response to the failure of the 15th Summit on Climate Change, recently held in Copenhagen.
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by Takver – Climate Indymedia

Greenpeace and Indigenous Climate activists in Indonesia have
unfurled a 20 metre by 30 metre banner protesting Deforestation
which said, “Obama you can stop this,” calling on President Obama to take
a leadership role in climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December
and at APEC in Singapore this weekend.
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Ratcliffe Coal Action: ‘Massive Success’

October 18, 2009

Climate change activists have hailed this weekend’s direct action as a “massive success” after repeatedly breaching the fence and spending 24 hours outside Ratcliffe coal-fired power station.

Three activists are said to have recovered from injuries suffered at the hands of the police, while one more activist is believed to still be in hospital after collapsing yesterday afternoon. Footage was released last night of a protester-medic aiding a policeman taken ill at the protest (1).

Activists gathered in various points on Saturday morning, swooping on the power plant in separate groups to arrive at 1pm. Within five minutes they had already broken down one of the perimeter fences and several had entered the plant.

On Saturday night around 300 activists pitched tents in two camps outside the gates, despite attempt by police to intimidate campers by standing next to the campsite in full riot gear. The police have confirmed 58 arrests, but there are believed to be more arrestees yet to be booked in. Further action is expected to take place today.

Natasha Blair from the Camp for Climate Action said: ‘We’ve achieved what we came here to do: to show that coal has no future and there is a growing movement which is prepared to take action on climate change.”

This weekend, activists from around the world met in Copenhagen to finalist plans for similar actions during the UN climate talks taking place in December. The Camp for Climate Action has announced that they will be joining other activists in the ‘Push for Climate Justice’, which aims to take over the talks for a day.

Natasha Blair continued: “In the run up to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen this December, acts of civil disobedience to confront big business and governments that are causing catastrophic climate change are gaining support.”
Notes

1. Find the full video at: http://blip.tv/play/njSBqIoGAg

Northern Indymedia firsthand article
UK Indy media: great photos
Climate Camp live video coverage and more

commercial news
photos galoorie
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Australia Climate Camp
Climate Camp Day of Action Begins – Press Release

50 people peacefully blockade Peabody’s Metropolitan Colliery

Climate Camp shuts down Dendrobium coal mine – Sunday AM

Press Release October 11, 7am 2009

7.05am. Currently, four people from Climate Camp 2009 have scaled
and locked themselves onto the coal conveyor belt at the Dendrobium
coal mine near Helensburgh, NSW.

Spokesperson for the group Aimee Bull-McMahon said “We have shut
down the conveyor from this underground polluter as part of the Climate
Camp 09 three days of action. The Dendrobium coal mine, owned by
Illawarra Coal, has been disastrous for the surrounding water ways that
the local community relies on for drinking water.”

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Mark Tran and David Adam of the the Guardian/UK report that direct action stopped the planned new Kingsnorth coal plant in England.

Environmental campaigners were celebrating tonight after controversial plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent were shelved, as the company behind the scheme postponed the project and blamed the recession.

E.ON, the energy group, tonight effectively threw in the towel on its plans to build a new coal-power station at Kingsnorth, blaming the recession.
In a heavy blow to the government’s plans to promote energy from coal, E.ON said lower demands for electricity due to the recession had pushed the need for the new plant in the UK to around 2016.

The company said, however, that it remained committed to the development of cleaner coal and carbon capture and storage “which we believe have a key role to play alongside renewables, gas and nuclear in tackling the global threat of climate change while ensuring affordability and security of energy supplies”.

While the company described the decision as a postponement, the announcement effectively scuppers the whole project, green groups said.

Kingsnorth has been shrouded in controversy ever since inception, with protests over several years including a high-profile Climate Camp protest.

full article here
and here

Photo: Langelle/ GJEP

Pittsburgh, PA–During the September 25th march towards the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the heavily fortified facility where leaders of the twenty richest countries of the world were meeting, activists standing atop the railing of the Andy Warhol bridge demonstrate their feelings about the corporate globalization agenda of the G-20 leaders. Thousands of activists and organizations marched against the G-20, including Iraq Veterans Against the War, trade unionists, Grassroots Global Justice, the Mobilization for Climate Justice, concerned citizens, peace groups and a large contingent of young anarchists.

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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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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

FROM THE MOBILIZATION FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE

For Immediate Release            22 September 2009

Actions Spreading Across the U.S. Against Corporate-Driven Climate Policy

Pittsburgh, PA–As groups protest the Pittsburgh International Coal Conference days before the G-20 arrives in the city, additional actions against U.S. climate policy and the fossil fuels industry took place on both the east and west coasts.

In New York City, Climate SOS, New York Climate Action Group and Rising Tide North America protested what they called “a greenwashed U.S. climate agenda” at the opening of NYC Climate Week.  Activists distributed their version of the ACESA (American Clean Energy and Security Act) bill to event attendees and media in the form of fake $2 trillion bills [1] which subtly depict a collusion of prominent Green NGOs (NRDC, the Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund among others) with corporate backers of the bill (BP, Shell, Dow, and others). Climate SOS organizers Dr. Rachel Smolker and Dr. Maggie Zhou engaged ceremony patrons with a pointed critique of the bill’s corporate-friendly implications.

Meanwhile on the west coast, the Mobilization for Climate Justice also took action in San Francisco against Chevron and the corporate-driven U.S. climate bill. Activists blocked four lanes of traffic with a parachute-shaped banner which read “Climate Justice or Climate Chaos.”  “If Congress wants to protect the public interest, they would never consider adopting the current climate bill (ACESA) that was written by big oil and energy corporations in the first place,” said Carla Pérez of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. “Cap and Trade legislation coupled with direct subsidies to oil, coal, nuclear, bio-fuels and incinerator industries will only serve to add hundreds of toxic smokestacks in our backyards, she added.” Read the rest of this entry »

by ADAM D. SACKS

In the 20 years since we climate activists began our work in earnest, the state of the climate has become dramatically worse, and the change is accelerating—this despite all of our best efforts.  Clearly something is deeply wrong with this picture.  What is it that we do not yet know?  What do we have to think and do differently to arrive at urgently different outcomes?^[1]

The answers lie not with science, but with culture.

Climate activists are obsessed with greenhouse-gas emissions and concentrations.  Since global climate disruption is an effect of greenhouse gases, and a disastrous one, this is understandable.  But it is also a mistake.

Such is the fallacy of climate activism^[2]: We insist that global warming is merely a consequence of greenhouse-gas emissions. Since it is not, we fail to tell the truth to the public.

I think that there are two serious errors in our perspectives on greenhouse gases:

Global Warming as Symptom

The first error is our failure to understand that greenhouse gases are not a cause but a symptom, and addressing the symptom will do little but leave us with a devil’s sack full of many other symptoms, possibly somewhat less rapidly lethal but lethal nonetheless.

The root cause, the source of the symptoms, is 300 years of our relentlessly exploitative, extractive, and exponentially growing technoculture, against the background of ten millennia of hierarchical and colonial civilizations.^[3] This should be no news flash, but the seductive promise of endless growth has grasped all of us civilized folk by the collective throat, led us to expand our population in numbers beyond all reason and to commit genocide of indigenous cultures and destruction of other life on Earth.

To be sure, global climate disruption is the No. 1 symptom.  But if planetary warming were to vanish tomorrow, we would still be left with ample catastrophic potential to extinguish many life forms in fairly short order: deforestation; desertification; poisoning of soil, water, air; habitat destruction; overfishing and general decimation of oceans; nuclear waste, depleted uranium, and nuclear weaponry—to name just a few.  (While these symptoms exist independently, many are intensified by global warming.)

We will not change course by addressing each of these as separate issues; we have to address root cultural cause. Read the rest of this entry »