Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement
This afternoon in l’Aquila, I just had the displeasure of sitting in the front row of the press conference for US President ‘Oh-Bummer’, Australian Prime Minister ‘Krudd’ and Climate-Sceptic Italian PM Berlusconi.
Coverage of the conference is, predictibly, fairly positive:
It’s difficult for me to express how excited I was when I read several minutes ago that on July 2nd, 2009, a county judge ordered Chevron to halt construction on the expansion of its Richmond oil refinery.
This is a huge step in a long and bitter battle fought between the world’s sixth-largest corporation, and a tough and dedicated coalition – including RAN – of environmental, anti-war, and public health groups.
Perplexed by the inter-related problems India faces as it develops at the cost of 2/3 rd of its population living outside the economy, two young activists from Switch ON, rode their cycles 1800 kilometers across India through the coal belt – to question India’s growth based on fossil fuel, and to seek and highlight alternatives for a sustainable and equitable development.
Why New Coal gives a new perspective to Coal in India – addressing India’s growing energy needs, problems of energy security and Climate Change Vulnerabilities – by interviewing experts across the nation, while also documenting Vinay and Hoob’s epic journey across the nation.
Hundreds of anti-mountaintop removal activists gathered today at the Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, WV, deep in the Appalachian mountains. Hundreds of pro-coal counter protesters also turned out, resulting in constant interruption of speakers and musical performers and culminating in charges of battery against a local woman who struck Goldman Environmental Prize winner Judy Bonds in the face.
Check out Climate Ground Zero for pictures and updates, Jeff Biggers always excellent article for more info.
You can check the Charleston Gazette for more info — including a brief video.
Editor’s Update: RAN is pulling together a group to continue fighting Mountain Top Removal Mining, click here if you are interested in learning more.
Posted by Adrian from Rainforest Action Network.
Today, RAN took the fight against dirty Tar Sands oil to Washington.
At the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC today, the Canadian-American Business Council held a high-profile forum on energy and environment. Speakers included Canadian Prime Minister Harper’s senior energy advisor, the Premier of Manitoba, and several U.S. members of Congress – as well as senior officials from Shell, Iogen, and TransAlta. (The entire event was sponsored by ExxonMobil.) Overall, it was a big chance for some big-time greenwashing of the Tar Sands – the world’s dirtiest source of oil, and a huge threat to Indigenous rights and climate change.
And also in attendance were about thirty protestors, organized by ForestEthics and RAN, who stood outside the Hilton and protested the Canadian government’s ongoing support for dirty Tar Sands – as well as two super-sneaky RAN and ForestEthics activists, who went inside the meeting to disrupt it.
Continue reading ‘Activists Disrupt Canadian Business Conference in DC, Says “No Tar Sands”’
COAL RIVER VALLEY, W. VA.—Moments ago, four concerned citizens entered onto Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal 
mine site near Twilight WV and have begun to scale a 150-foot dragline machine to drop a banner that says, ‘stop mountaintop removal mining.’ The climbers plan to stay on the enormous dragline, a massive piece of equipment that removes house-sized chunks of blasted rock and earth to expose coal, until police arrest them. Equipped with satellites phones and a web camera, the climbers will be available for interviews.
This is the first time a dragline has been scaled on a mountaintop removal site, and marks the latest in a string of increasingly dramatic protests in West Virginia by residents and allies from across the country. This act of protest against mountaintop removal comes just days after the Obama Administration announced a plan to reform, but not abolish, the aggressive strip mining practice.
more updates and photo/video coming later today. stay posted at www.mountainaction.org and on www.twitter.com/mtnaction
On June 23rd Dr. James Hansen, a leading climate scientists and environmental hero, will join community members in Coal
River Valley, West Virginia to launch a year of activism to end mountaintop removal coal mining. Blowing the tops off of mountain ranges to harvest dirty coal harms the people and places of Appalachia, destroys the economic potential of the Appalachian Mountains for clean energy opportunities and furthers the burning of climate killing coal.
Dr. Hansen and the people of West Virginia need you and as many friends as you can muster to come to West Virginia on June 23rd to help build the wave of activism needed to stop mountaintop removal this year.
This is the year we must stop the most ecologically and culturally destructive form of strip mining on earth.
Continue reading ‘Get Arrested with James Hansen to stop MTR!’
This April, the roots of leadership were laid in the Climate movement. From Powershift to the FTN Town Hall Campaign, young people across the country moved into positions of leadership, and engaged their community and policy makers on our vital clean energy future. A sea change in the quality and quantity of leadership occurred, and on the eve of the first ever US climate legislation it continues to breed success and momentum.
Since April, certain needs have arisen that must be addressed. First, we must continue pressure on policy makers and institutions to accelerate our transition to clean energy sources, and to strengthen ACES and our local legislation. At the same time, we must fulfill the less noticed need of developing and empowering our new climate leaders.
Continue reading ‘From Coal to Copenhagen: An Opportunity for Leadership’
The true cost of oil
At least 84 indigenous people have been killed fighting to defend their traditional territories from oil exploration. As part of a free trade agreement with the US, Peru has altered their constitution and implemented new laws stripping indigenous tribes of their land rights and opening their lands to oil companies. In response there has been a massive uprising for the past month with tribes around the country shutting down major highways, rivers, oil installations, trains, and other critical infrastructure. To put it bluntly these new laws are a death sentence for the indigenous of the Peruvian Amazon.
It is often easy to get caught up in the abstractions of climate change, with our parts per millions and international treaties. This is not an abstraction. This is life and death for thousands of people. And may I add it is death being fueled by our addiction to oil. If we are serious about climate justice we need to provide solidarity to those resisting genocide in Peru.
Contact the Peruvian Embassy at:
Address:
1700 Massachusetts Ave., N.W
Washington D.C. 20036
Driving Directions
Telephone: (202) 833-9860 to 9869
Fax: (202) 659-8124
Email: webadmin@embassyofperu.us
Or organize a demo at one of their consulates around the country. They are located in:
DC, Miami, New York, LA, Chicago, SF, Boston, Houston, Atlanta, and Denver.
Cross-posted from: here
I have a column out today in the paper about the Obama Administration’s shameful approval of 42 mountaintop removal permits. I want to be sure to post it for you. This was largely motivated by a trip my friend Davey Rogner made to West Virginia, and what he told me was going on.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently approved 42 of the 48 permit applications for mountaintop removal operations in West Virginia, deeming them environmentally responsible. A review of mountaintop removal would serve the EPA well. Continue reading ‘Mountaintop Removal Op-Ed’
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