Last Friday in August: Critical Mass for Climate Justice on Hurricane Katrina Anniversary!
August 25th marks the 1-year anniversary of Katrina reaching hurricane strength. In the days that followed the storm would strengthen rapidly over an unnaturally warm Gulf of Mexico, ultimately striking the coast and leaving thousands dead and homeless, victims of an uncaring government, centuries of racism, and an ever more chaotic global climate.
This year, let’s take to the streets with a reminder that the tragedy in the Gulf continues and a demand that it never be repeated.
Get ready for a Critical Mass for Climate Justice on August 25th in your town! So far folks in Asheville, North Carolina, Boston, Massachusetts Chicago, Illinois, Edmonton, Alberta, Fort Collins, Colorado, Gothenburg, Sweden, Lewiston, Maine, New York City, New York, Ottawa, Ontario, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, California, St. Petersburg and Tallahassee, Florida, Toronto, Ontario, and Winnipeg, Manitoba are in!
Want to join us?
Why Critical Mass? Car Culture, Oil, and Environmental Injustice
Critical Mass is a celebration of bike culture, a meaningful alternative to car culture and greenhouse gas generating fossil fuels.
Looking closely, you can see a slick, oily residue connecting the dots of injustice from Colombia to Baghdad to the Gulf Coast.
Along Louisiana’s coast, once stunning wetlands are overrun by oil canals and drills. Residents of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”, a corridor of oil refineries and petrochemical plants, suffer the highest cancer rates in the United States. During Hurricane Katrina, black gold flowed from these plants into urban areas, bathing backyards in a petrochemical gumbo.
For the oil industry, demand nothing less than global Climate Justice: the dismantling of decades of racist exploitation, violence and murder, toxic pollution, and denial of oil’s role in climate chaos!
Climate Injustice: Katrina is just the beginning
As the climate chaos continues to escalate, the killer storms will become ever more frequent, sea levels will keep rising, and climate evacuees will go from thousands of millions. And the enduring racism in our society promises those suffering from these ecological disasters will continue to be the poor and people of color.
Climate change will affect all of us, but it will –and has– affected some more than others. Combating this social and ecological devastation is the movement for Climate Justice.
Join Us on August 25th!
Rising Tide North America (www.risingtidenorthamerica.org), a network of radical climate campaigners (including relief workers from Louisiana to New England) is working with Critical Mass groups around the country on August 25th to draw attention to the movement for climate justice and the important relationship between climate change, catastrophic storms, and environmental racism.
On Monday, August 25th, join Critical Mass riders around the continent and Rising Tide in exposing the oil industry for its role in decades of abuse in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world and illustrate that a world without oil and racist exploitation is possible.
Contact Rising Tide (Katrina@RisingTideNorthAmerica.org) and let us know where your ride is going to happen so we can help spread the word about rides around the continent. Spread the word to friends and help us organize this action!
On Rising Tide’s website you can find out if there is a ride planned in your area. We’ve also got flyers, ideas for bike signs, and useful stuff. We’ve also got a sign and banner designs featuring graphics from the Beehive Collective that you can get printed.
Remember: climate change was only a catalyst for the Katrina disaster. Please support and organize other Katrina anniversary events and challenge racism in all of its forms in the Gulf and your own community! Check out Rising Tide’s website for more information about Katrina survivor solidarity events, and let us know about other Katrina anniversary and solidarity events in your town.
We also encourage everyone participating to take up a collection for ongoing relief and advocacy efforts in the Gulf – check out www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/katrina/ for more details.
Rising Tide North America – working to support and encourage people and grassroots groups in taking action against the causes of climate change.
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org
http://www.globalexchange.org/war_peace_democracy/oil/bikeforclimate.html
Katrina [at] RisingTideNorthAmerica.org
Critical Mass – a worldwide movement of bicyclers reclaiming the streets. www.critical-mass.org (unofficial website)
