It’s Getting Hot In Here

2 years ago I and several friends shut down construction at the site of the Cliffside Coal Plant in North Carolina. It was April 1^st, Fossil Fools Day. After public hearings, petitions, legislative efforts, and protest failed, we knew we had to do something to up the ante in the fight against coal plants in this country. So it was that we found ourselves locked to Duke Energy’s bulldozers on that dark, drizzly morning.

Did we permanently stop the Cliffside construction site? No. However this action, along with the countless other actions like it by groups around the country, have greatly increased the cost, both politically and economically, of building coal plants in this country. While the construction at Cliffside continues, I feel confident that our direct actions, and those of others, is in part responsible for the wave of coal plants that have been canceled in the US (100 and counting).

No doubt utility companies and state governments pursuing new coal plants took note of the fight against Cliffside and decided that the constant controversy and harassment was not worth it (of course the recession and prospects of CO2 being regulated has helped as well). Well its 2010 and Fossil Fools Day is once again rounding the corner. We’ve witnessed the spectacular failure of Copenhagen, the Obama administration time and again capitulating to big business, and corporations doing there best to stall our efforts.

Yet we’ve seen inspiring resistance around the country, from Climate Ground Zero’s relentless direct action campaign against mountaintop removal to citizens shutting down Chevron’s refinery in Richmond, CA. The question is: What are you going to do to raise the stakes on April 1^st?

www.fossilfoolsday.org

If you live in the Southeast and want to do something for the struggle against mountaintop removal coal mining come on over to Atlanta March 1st to tell the EPA to ban MTR.

End Mountain Top Removal!

* Rally for the Mountains in Atlanta *

1:00 pm Monday, March 1^st

EPA Region 4 Headquarters
Meet outside the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center
61 Forsyth Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303

To date, the practice of mountain top removal coal mining has leveled more than 800 square miles of mountains across Appalachia, destroyed over 2,000 miles of freshwater streams, and poisoned and displaced countless communities that call the mountains home.  Each working day, 3,000,000 pounds of explosives are used against the mountains of West Virginia alone.

It is time to end this tragedy.  On March 1^st, join Asheville Rising Tide, Rainforest Action Network and other allies as we demand that the EPA do their job to protect the land, water, and livelihoods of Appalachian coalfields residents.  EPA’s Region 4 office in Atlanta has the power to stop granting new mountain top removal mining permits, and the EPA nationally has the power to ban this devastating practice forever.  They need to hear from us!

Help shine a spotlight on the central role that our regional decision-makers play in perpetuating the practice of mountain top removal.  Come out on March 1^st and show your support for the mountains and communities of Appalachia!

For more information, check out www.ran.org, dirtymoney@ran.org or call 828-280-3462.

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.”

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. Continue reading ‘The Climate Movement is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement’

The fossil fools ain’t no joke – but that doesn’t mean we can’t fight them with one!

The Fossil Fuel Empire is real and it’s here. The stakes couldn’t be higher: destabilization of the global climate, communities from Alaska to Appalachia being destroyed by dirty energy extraction and combustion, devastating super hurricanes, droughts, flooding, the list goes on…

Last December in Copenhagen, the politicians sold us out to the fossil fools, corporate lobbyists and big banks. Now we’re left with “green capitalism,” carbon market shenanigans and continued assaults on our communities and ecosystems. If we’re going to stop climate change, the only real solution is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

This April, join Rising Tide North America as we pull some pranks that pack a punch. Use the simply subversive to the downright disruptive: office occupations, banner drops, road blockades, clownish parades, spoof product launches, sub-vertising, leaflets, street theater, lock-downs and laugh-ins. Whatever works for you and your group! Continue reading ‘Fossil Fools Day 2010: Pull a prank that packs a punch April 1′

Civil Society Groups Inside and Outside The COP Process Issue Call to Unite in “Peoples’ Assembly” to Demand Real Solutions to the Climate Crisis

www.climate-justice-action.org

Don’t have a plan for the Mobilization for Climate Justice’s day of action on November 30? Here are six corporations with offices in thousands of cities around the country that you can plan an action at. As many of you know, November 30th is the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Seattle, a day when people’s power triumphed over corporate power.  As corporate interests continue to derail real climate action on the national and international scene, it is more important than ever to confront these corporations head on.  Of course these are just suggestions, we encourage action against all climate criminals.

JPMorgan Chase

• HQ: New York, NY
• Branches/offices in 38 states, in all regions of U.S.

Financing Climate Change

• JPMC is the top corporate financier of the oil & gas industry in the world, having extended $385 billion in financing to the industry since 2000. (Bloomberg)
• JPMC is the 10^th biggest corporate financier of the coal industry in the world – and the 4^th-biggest in the U.S. – having extended $3.8 billion in financing to the industry since 2000. (Bloomberg)
• JPMC is the biggest corporate financier of mountaintop removal coal mining. They are the third-biggest financier of Massey Energy ($479 million since 2000) and the third-biggest financier of International Coal ($58 million). (Bloomberg)

Gambling on Carbon Markets

• JPMC’s Environmental Markets division is specifically devoted to carbon trading. They bought UK-based carbon trader ClimateCare for an undisclosed price in March 2008, and bought leading carbon trader EcoSecurities for $200 million in Nov. 2009.
• JPMC also belongs to both the European Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Exchange – as well as being a member in a number of groups that lobby for carbon trading, such as the Carbon Markets & Investors Association and the International Emissions Trading Association. Carbon Insider calls JPMC and Morgan Stanley the two biggest carbon traders in the U.S.
• JPMC received $95 billion in bailouts from the federal government in 2008 (in that year, CEO Jamie Dimon was paid $19.7 million). They played a major role in causing the subprime lending crisis (the cause of the current global recession): they provided financing to the top two subprime lenders in the U.S., Countrywide and Ameriquest. (“Do we trust JPMC to do a better job with carbon markets than they did with subprime markets?”)

Pushing a Corporate Climate Agenda

• JPMC is also involved in lobbying against strong climate policy. They’re a member of a number of particularly bad lobbying groups – including the International Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Council for International Business, and the European Federation of Energy Traders.

Existing Campaigns

• Campaign by RAN and allies over mountaintop removal and coal power finance. Active campaign; protests are ongoing. Numerous protests against bank bailouts, organized by labor & social justice groups. Continue reading ‘6 suggested corporate targets for November 30th Day of Action’

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

As the world’s biggest companies and their friends in government continue to fight a transition to more just and sustainable ways of living, climate change threatens to turn our world upside down with water shortages, crop failures, sea level rise and ecosystem collapse. A million species face extinction by the end of the century, and the people who have contributed least to the problem will continue to be the hardest hit. What can be done at this critical juncture, with our future at stake?

Throughout history, social change has come about when regular people get fed up with business as usual, get organized, and take to the streets. If we leave climate solutions up to politicians and corporations, then we will lose – not just a political battle, but the life-support systems of the planet. Time is running out to avert the worst impacts of climate change: the time to act is now.

A broad coalition of organizations working for social, ecological, racial and economic justice has come together under the banner of the Mobilization for Climate Justice. Join us as we organize mass action on climate change on November 30, 2009! November 30 (N30) is significant both because it immediately precedes the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen and is the ten-year anniversary of the protests that shut down of the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle, demonstrating the incredible power of collective action.

Every indication is that any agreement that emerges from Copenhagen will be nothing more than business as usual—sacrificing real emissions reductions in favor of market-based approaches that enhance corporate profits while delaying a transition away from fossil fuels. The current approach to climate change in the UN, and in the US Congress, is based on the creation of a new market in carbon emissions. Carbon trading (aka “cap and trade”) and carbon offsets do not address the root causes of global warming, nor do they reduce emissions. They are designed by and for corporations, and are a dangerous distraction that should be abandoned. Continue reading ‘November 30th – Take Action for Climate Justice!’

As further proof that the Obama administration is serious about tackling climate change kissing up to big oil, the Dept of Interior announced today that it would go ahead with a second round of federal oil shale leases. While most news outlets focused on the DoI scrutinizing royalties for shale oil, the real news is that the Obama administration is opening up our public lands to destructive oil extraction. “With this new round of [research, development, and demonstration] leases, we hope to move closer to responsibly and sustainably developing our oil shale resources,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Of course there is nothing responsible or sustainable about oil shale. The process of extracting oil shale is similar to tar sands. The land is  strip mined, then the oil is baked out of the rock by heating it to high temperatures. This is a process that destroys the land, uses massive amounts of water (most US oil shale is in arid climates), and uses massive amounts of energy. If tar sands are any indicator, it may take as much as 1 barrel of oil to extract two barrels of oil, greatly boosting the carbon footprint of shale oil. Continue reading ‘Obama administration moving forward on oil shale development on public lands’

Rising Tide North America and Carbon Trade Watch would like you to join us on the October 24^th day of global climate action to spread the word about the biggest financial scam in history – Carbon Trading.

In order to stabilize the climate before billions of people around the world suffer the consequences, it is imperative that carbon-trading schemes are stopped and real, democratically determined solutions are implemented.

We cannot afford to waste any more valuable time and resources relying on such market-driven strategies to deliver science-based goals (such as 350 ppm of CO2) when so many lives and livelihoods are at stake. If we truly wish to protect people and planet, then we must put climate justice before corporate profits.

However, first and foremost, we need to dispel the misguided notion that carbon trading has anything at all to do with climate change mitigation, or the present and future wellbeing of our communities.

We are proud to announce the launch of www.350reasons.org – a website presenting 350 reasons why carbon trading will not serve to stabilize the climate. You can submit your own reasons for opposing carbon trading via a web-form on this site. We will release the full 350 reasons next week. Continue reading ‘Coming Soon! 350 Reasons Carbon Trading Won’t Work’