Communities around the world are under attack from extractive industries that poison our families, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosystems we cherish. The BP oil spill was unfortunately just one of an endless string of disasters born of an economic system that must endlessly consume the Earth’s  resources.

Extraction is the act of taking without giving anything back. Extraction takes workers lives so  corporations can make a few more bucks. Extraction takes clean water and air and gives us blackened oceans and a climate in chaos. Extraction takes the natural wealth of communities and ecosystems and leaves behind poverty and ecological wastelands.

For a stable climate, clean air and water, we must stop the extraction of fossil fuels and other “resources.”  From the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf Coast, people are fighting back against the extractiveindustries  that have declared war on our planet. Rising Tide is calling for a day of direct action against extraction on the 1 year anniversary of the BP oil spill.

On April 20th take it to the point of production.  Shut down a well site, occupy a mine, take over an office, blockade a bank. Nobody’s community should be a sacrifice  zone.

For climate justice and a livable planet,

Rising Tide North America

[click for printable poster]

JOIN THE CHAIN REACTION

www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/extraction

Ever since I was a kid music and activism have both been driving forces in my life.  The sounds of the Beatles and Nirvana in my elementary school classrooms inspired me to start playing guitar, and my uncle’s tireless campaigning around environmental justice issues in India, such as dams in the Narmada River valley and the Bhopal gas disaster, ultimately moved me to become part of the youth climate movement here in the U.S. For a long time I dreamt of merging these two passions to create a driving force for change.  I thought about starting a singer/songwriter type project, singing ballads about struggles for justice and freedom.  I even had a name for the project: “Narmada Bhopal,” in tribute to the battles my uncle fought in India, and that many continue to fight to this day.  But even though I had the concept figured out, I wasn’t sure how to get it off the ground.

Then during the summer of 2004, I figured it out.  While on a retreat with a group of youth climate activists in New York City, I caught an evening of slam poetry and spoken word at the Nuyorican Poets Café on the Lower East Side.  I had never heard anything like it before, and I was amazed.  Here were people on stage without any instruments, speaking directly from the heart, twisting the English language inside out on itself (with some forays into Spanish for good measure) to tell their stories!  I thought to myself, “Hey, maybe I can do that!”

And so I did, and Narmada Bhopal was born, and the poems below became part of that project.

I have been blessed to share these poems with many friends and colleagues in the youth climate movement over the years, bridging the gap between poetry and performance, and now I am excited to share them with you.  Enjoy!

“The Earth Grows” (written in April 2005 for Fossil Fools Day)

The Earth grows warm as our hearts grow cold
And lies are traded and bought and sold
We can no longer accept what we are told
We need a new vision, something bold
To transcend false reality and learn to breathe free
And create a world based around you and me
Not corporations and politicians repressing liberty
We need to speak together as one community
Because global warming’s looming as a threat every day
CO2 makes our world hot and melts it away
And we the people suffer and choke on the ashes
Of the toxic fumes and the greenhouse gases

But in Washington DC they’re denying the facts
As the government and coal companies sign business pacts
And as they try to keep the black rock flowing fast
They show just how much they are stuck in the past

And the Senate keeps trying to drill offshore
The latest chapter in our never-ending war
On our environment, destroyed devastated degraded
The assault on our land continues blind and unabated
Poisoned atmosphere, we have much to fear
As global warming’s effects become more and more clear
The diagnosis is in, Mother Nature is sick
The time for action’s now, we’ve gotta move quick so

Know that another future is possible
One based on solar and wind and renewable
Energy, the key to setting us free
From corrupt politicians and corporate hegemony

We need to start demanding these alternatives
So that we our world and its creatures may live
Start locally, in your community
And ask yourself, what do I want for me?

To live in a world sick and choked by heat
Where insecurity manifests itself on the street
Where the world’s oppressed peoples cry out in vain
Because we have all become numb to their pain?

Or to live in a world where we all come together
Enjoying a stable climate and weather
Preserving our environment as a natural treasure
And rediscovering our lives and spirits and pleasure?

We’re at a crossroads and the choice is ours
In this hour of darkness we’ve got the power
The Earth grows warm as our hearts grow cold
When will we warm up to the Earth?

-

“One World at a Time” (written in August 2006 at the Sierra Student Coalition retreat in New Hampshire)

One campus at a time
One city at a time
One state at a time
One country at a time
One world at a time

One world at a time when we are standing on the edge of a new beginning
One world at a time when we are rising to the challenge of a generation

I can feel this movement coursing through my veins
As I gaze into the eyes of my brothers and sisters
Knowing that we are all in this together
Knowing that the bonds of solidarity will connect us forever

One campus at a time
One city at a time
One state at a time
One country at a time
One world at a time
We are making change and reclaiming our future

And we will continue to transform minds
One world at a time

It’s Getting Hot In Here: Create Our Climate is a month-long series to feature the creative work of the youth climate movement.  Through poetry, prose, visual and performance art, we aim to use these different media to communicate the passion, struggle and imperative of our work tackling climate and energy issues.  Please join youth leaders for posts on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout April.

Late Wednesday night volunteers with Portland Rising Tide covered Portland, OR with 3,500 fake newspaper covers wrapping the local Willamette Week. With content including an interview with Bigfoot about pipeline plans through Mt. Hood and a chart explaining the Columbia River Crossing project as understood by Glenn Beck. The action was part of Fossil Fools Day, a national day-of-action with the tag-line, “Pull a prank that packs a punch” meant to inspire playful actions targeting the fossil fuel industry.

The action was pulled off to provide light-hearted education to the public and simultaneously call out those corporations and projects that have been using an elaborate public relations campaign to “green” their image.

Ryan Caraway with Portland Rising Tide explained the action, “Our region is threatened by a number of projects that would increase our dependency on fossil fuels as well as threaten some of the most pristine areas left in this country. Unfortunately, we feel that we don’t see enough critical media surrounding these issues and we wanted to change that – at least for one night.”

Portlanders decided to heavily target NW Natural for their foolish plan to rip through hundreds of rivers and streams, rural farms and Mt. Hood National Forest. While the company has spent millions to project an image of climate leadership and environmental stewardship, the company is aggressively pursuing the Palomar pipeline and Liquefied Natural Gas development.

Some of the articles included headlines activists would like to see, such as NW Natural canceling their plans for the Palomar pipeline. While others were of a more humorous nature, such as an interview with Bigfoot, who is angry because the Palomar pipeline project would require a huge clear-cut through Mt. Hood National Forest.

In addition to targeting NW Natural, other targets included: the Columbia River Crossing project, PGE’s coal fired Boardman power plant, and Chinook Ventures, a controversial petroleum coke processing plant located in Washington.

As one volunteer placed the fake cover into the display window of the newspaper box she playfully sighed, “Finally, news I can trust”.

If you can’t use the display above you can download a PDF file here. (If you can’t read PDFs, download the free Adobe Reader!)

7 communities in Canada: Toronto (ON), Waterloo (ON), Peterborough (ON), London (ON), New Westminster (BC), Duncan (BC), and Victoria all targeted RBC as the top financier in dirty tar sands projects. In Waterloo, one indigenous activist was arrested after a banner drop at a local branch of Royal Bank of Canada.  This is the second day of action in which RBC was targeted. On March 3^rd, the same day as the bank’s Annual General Shareholders Meeting where 11 communities in Canada held rallies and actions at RBC branches. “This is the second year that Royal Bank of Canada is receiving the Fossil Fool of the year award,” says Taylor Flook, organizer with the Rainforest Action Network Toronto.

Photo credit: Tristan Glenn Cyclists at an oil refinery in East Montreal

In Montreal, 70 people staged a bike bloc protest shutting down the roads in and out of Montreal’s oil refining sector with clean, green people power.  A banner was hung in front of the Enbridge Trailbreaker Pipeline stating “Changeon le System, Pas le Climat. Trailbreaker=Tar Sands” where cyclists blockaded the road to draw attention to the downstream, destructive effects of the Athabasca Tar Sands. “The east end of Montreal is a seldom seen and discussed region, but it is the largest urban oil refining center in Canada,” says Cameron Fenton, a member of Climate Justice Montreal.  ”It is a vast wasteland of oil, gas and chemical storage tanks, threatening the health of local residents and all Montrealers. If completed, the Trailbreaker would bring the direct effects of the Tar Sands right here.”

In Edmonton and Calgary, local residents delivered “awards” in the shape of Black and Gold ducks to Premier Ed Stelmach and Environment Minister Jim Prentice respectively.  In Halifax, local youth called out Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Environment Minister Jim Prentice and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in front of CBC radio for failing to respect the rights of first nations communities affected by tar sands development, and suspending the popular ecoEnergy retrofit program yesterday.  “Harper doesn’t grasp the science [of climate change] let alone the moral issues,” says Emily Rideout, student at Dalhousie University.  “I’d like to see Canada adopt a science-based target, pull out of the tar sands – or at least put a moratorium on development.  Instead, we’re cutting eco-energy programs and funding.”

Victoria residents award RBC "Fossil Fool of the Year"

“Fossil Fools Day is an international day of action to hold dirty politicians and industries accountable for expanding a fossil fuel industry that is fast destroying our planet and our communities,” said Fenton. “In Canada, the biggest Fossil Fools are tar sands developers, investors and political supporters. It’s time they stop the foolery, stop the tar sands, and start building the green economy we want to leave for the next generation.” The group is calling for a global response to ensure that we respect Aboriginal title and peoples and avoid catastrophic climate change.

“Tar sands projects are destroying our forests, our water systems, and are endangering people in Canada,” says Skye Augustine, student at the University of Victoria. “As a member of the G8 and the G20, we have the resources to look for alternatives and create a clean, green energy economy that protects people and the planet.”

Worldwide, Fossil Fools Day is promoting strong, just climate legislation, corporate responsibility and a clean renewable energy future.  “It is time that Canada cleans up its dirty energy addiction,” said Kimia Ghomeshi, National G20 and Climate Organizer for the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition.  ”People in Canada are ready for change. We need to stop providing subsidies to dirty fossil fuel industries, make substantial investments into the renewable energy sector, and provide a just transition for workers in the tar sands. This is what real climate justice looks like.”

In the lead up to the G8 and G20 meetings taking place in Canada in June 2010, climate justice activists are raising the profile of the tar sands industry in Canada as the key reason the Canadian government is refusing to do its fair share to set deep and binding greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and tarnishing Canada’s international reputation as a result. For details of days of action leading up to the arrival of the G20 in Toronto, visit http://g20.torontomobilize.org

For photos, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/climatejusticecanada/

For nomination and action videos, visit www.youtube.com/canadaclimatejustice

For more information on Fossil Fools Day actions, visit

People for CJ have nominated several tar sands supporters, all worthy of the dubious prize.  It will be a tough choice. Who really and truly is the most foolish to be tangled up in the dirty fossil fuel industry? To make this easier for you, we have nomination videos and a little information about all of our nominees.

Stephen Harper

“Honourable” Stephen Harper is being nominated for his first domestic Fossil Fool award! With a long-standing history of avoiding climate action, the Canadian Prime Minister has some serious tricks up his sleeve. During the UN climate negotiations in Bali, leaders from 77 developing nations left the table when the Harper government blatantly refused to take any responsibility for their share of climate change pollution. Other noteworthy pranks pulled by the Harper government includes refusing to negotiate during Climate Change NEGOTIATIONS in Copenhagen, and continuing to provide outrageous subsidies for the industries fuelling the climate crisis. In the spirit of April Fools day, the Conservative government’s emission reduction plan is also quite a gag: 3% below 1990 levels with no substantial framework or plan to see this through.  Today let’s congratulate the Prime Minister for being the Fossil Fool of the year, an award which should hang nicely beside the international “Colossal Fossil” award he received in Copenhagen last December.

Ed ‘Can’t Touch the Brakes’ Stelmach

After receiving a Fossil Fool award in 2009, Ed Stelmach is going for the Fossil again. As the only provincial premier nominee of the year, being so silly as to file an emissions reduction plan that will actually see emissions rise. In addition to that, he is one of the tar sands biggest cheerleaders ruling with a ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ approach to governing the province. While he wears an eye mask and puts in his ear plugs, Ed Stelmach’s government has a 100% approval rating when it comes to tar sands projects, as they look at every proposal with googly-eyes and their green lights.  Alberta’s little neighbourhood menace slashed the provincial environmental budget while increasing the public relations budget—which will surely accomplish more than actually acting responsibly. And of course the menace avoids any rules. But don’t worry! The tar sands mega corporations will police and enforce themselves. As the tar sands horror story grows so does Stelmach’s Fossil Fool repertoire. Will he add to his collection?

Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment

Honourable Minister Prentice has earned himself a place amongst these nominees. As Minister of the Environment, he has shown his deep concern for the economy…ahem, the environment. Moving on, Prentice is paying close attention to Canada’s environment. With the tar sands covering an area of 140,000km², an area larger than Nova Scotia and New Brunswick combined, Prentice has shown the size of his commitment to covering up the tar sands and pretending they don’t exist. While Prentice admits that the “general perception of the oil sands is profoundly negative,” he chooses to stay positive. This trickster has used his title of Minster of the Environment to convince the Canadian public that he cares about people and the planet too. He wants you to know that he shares your values. Having you thinking that is his way of contributing to the bright future you promised your children.

Shell Canada:

Shell has used the art of disguise as its preferred form of tom foolery, earning it this most distinguished honour. Not only is Shell known at the international level as shameful exploiters of human rights to extract oil, but also claims over half the stakes in the Albian Sands Energy Project with their strip-mining and upgrading operations. Even Shell’s shareholders think they have been playing this foolish game too long. In January, a committee of shareholders began pressuring the company to actually audit the impacts of this “risky” business.  And if this was not enough to convince us that Shell deserves this award, consider the prank they played on Canadians by launching a 6 week ad campaign disguising their paid propaganda advertisement as editorials on climate change, brought to us straight from the dirty oil sands.  To boot, Shell sold off their solar division to invest more in dirty oil.  Silly oil company, tricks are for kids! And thanks for their tricks, Shell is set to become the most carbon intensive company on the planet.

Gordon Nixon

CEO Gordon Nixon is nominated to accept this award on behalf of his beloved Royal Bank of Canada, a former recipient of the Fossil Fool award. RBC remains the largest financer of the Tar Sands, recognized internationally as one of the most environmentally destructive projects on the planet and Canada’s largest gag. But Gord is trying to come clean as he green washes his bank’s practices with his “Blue Water Project.” He has chosen to smile about the money RBC is putting into clean water, and how he is making clean water even more valuable by destroying it as well. It is supply and demand. You need to be a smart dude to run Canada’s largest bank. He has also proven his intelligence by informing the public that RBC is “not an oil company.” It is just the institution bankrolling projects that are violating aboriginal and treaty rights.

Michael Ignatieff

The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada is a well-known joker. Take for example his hilarious climate action plan released just weeks before leaders from around the world met in Copenhagen to discuss binding emissions reduction targets. This plan sought to keep the climate “in check” with no targets to be mentioned. You trickster, where are you hiding those targets? Ignatieff pulled a grand prank on Canada when, after having voted three times for Bill C-313, blocked the bill which was Canada’s last hope for legally binding climate action before heading to UN talks in Copenhagen. Ignatieff loves to fool around when it comes to dirty oil. As a strong supporter of the expansion of tar sands projects, he has consistently ignored the huge role the Canadian oil Industry plays in climate destruction. As Canadians await Iggy to jump out from behind his mask and yell: “April Fools, I’m really a conservative,” he continues to have his sticky feet in the tar sands where he fails to play the role of opposition.

There you have it folks! Those are your nominees. So don’t forget to VOTE! We are living in a democracy, so we must exercise our right to vote.

More information about what you can do and what other communities in Canada are doing for Fossil Fools Day to pay homage to our nominees will be posted later today, or you can check out more information on the Canada Climate Justice website. Make a phone call, send an email, or play a little prank for this year’s Fossil Fools Day. We have the resources for you!

In the months leading up to the G8 and G20 meetings happening in Canada, climate and environmental justice activists are raising the profile of Canada’s dirty fossil fuel industry, and Fossil Fools Day is just one opportunity to do so. Community members supported by the Toronto Community Mobilization Network will be taking part in a week of action prior to the G20 taking place June 25-27, with June 23rd is the day for climate and environmental justice.

All eyes are on Canada this June…but for now, all eyes are on our nominees.

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

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!

Climate change is no laughing matter, but we can’t take things too seriously all the time. Join us this Fossil Fools Day as we employ our senses of humor to hatch some harebrained schemes that will strike a blow to fossil foolery everywhere!

And remember what Abbie Hoffman said: “The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.”

Let us know if your group wants to endorse or co-sponsor!

WHAT: Actions, Jokes and Pranks Galore to Stop the Fossil Fools
WHERE: Your Town USA
WHEN; April 1st, 2010
CONTACT: fossilfoolsday@risingtidenorthamerica.org
FOR MORE INFO: http://www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org [to be updated soon!]

Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood radical climate network, Rising Tide North America

The mainstream media imagery that emerged this morning in London, England was largely focused on the violent demonstrations, graffiti and the broken windows at the Bank of Scotland. It seems that while holding to the mantra that destruction and violence sells papers, they missed the non-violent civil disobedience images of Climate Camp in the City.

Workshops, music, games and free vegan food were the order of the day outside the European Climate Exchange on Bishopsgate in London. Campers were spotted reading papers outside their tents, growing flowers, gardening bus stops and cooking meals. The camp was complete with a free vegan kitchen and composting toilets.

Despite the non-violent actions of all the campers, the police tactics changed abruptly after dark as they kettled the camp. (Kettling is a controversial police tactic to encircle the protest and not let anyone out or in, including families and children). After 3+ hours of kettling, those campers that were caught and wished to return home were allowed to go free. Several hundred chose to stay and were forcefully and violently evicted by the police early in the morning. Despite the police actions, the campers maintained a spirit of satyagraha until the end.

More images here (©Robert vanWaarden)

Today Rainforest Action Network activists kicked Fossil Fools Day off with a bang, dropping banners off of a highway, greeting over 4,000 cars (we counted) stuck in deadlock traffic over a period of two hours. From bridges, we broadcast messages about Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)’s financing of the Canadian Tar Sands from our makeshift Pirate Radio station. Our banners read “Pirate Radio 89.9 FM Tune in now” and “Royal Bank creates climate chaos. Renewables not tar sands.” The pouring rain didn’t block our view of car after car reaching for the radio dial as they drove under us. Listen to the audio broadcast we played here!

We moved on to RBC’s headquarters downtown, and throughout the day were joined by over 30 activists filtering in and out for the festivities.

We began by dressing up and impersonated bank employees. About 16 of us rode elevators for up to two more hours, chatting up other RBC personnel – “Hey, on my way to work today I heard about how RBC is financing the destruction of Native territories in Alberta, causing people cancer and polluting the water! Tar Sands are the world’s dirtiest oil. Did you know that? I had no idea! I’m telling my manager right away!”

Meanwhile, outside the HQ, several more of us leafleted and held banners reading “RBC Creates poisoned water in our community,” “Renewables not tar sands” and “RBC: financing cancer and toxic sludge.”

Back inside, a lone Torontan walked inside the main office with a beautiful bouquet of balloons. I don’t know where he got the idea to release them in the atrium, or how a banner reading “ROYAL BANK CREATES CLIMATE CHAOS” got attached….I also don’t know how they’re gonna get it down. We have undercover footage of the prank here:

Later that evening, dozens of activists reconvened outside RBC headquarters alongside “Tarbie,” an oil-soaked version of RBC’s prized mascot “Arbie” who explained to passersby that he and RBC are helping finance one of the fastest growing sources of water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions on the planet, and how they conflict with the financial giant’s PR promises to promote clean water.

With more than $1 trillion in assets, the financing decisions of RBC greatly impact Canada’s $1.3 trillion economy. When RBC finances tar sands expansion, it locks in a polluting infrastructure that will have permanent negative impacts on regional water and air quality and accelerate global warming. RBC last year launched a new Blue Water Project, a PR initiative “committed to donating $50 million toward global fresh water initiatives over the next ten years.” In contrast to the $3 million dollars actually released in water quality improvement donations under the program in the first year, RBC financed an estimated minimum of $641 million for oil and gas companies operating in the Alberta tar sands, one of Canada’s largest sources of water pollution.

“If RBC is serious about supporting clean water,” said Melina Laboucan-Massimo earlier this year, member of Lubicon Cree Nation, a community fighting a TransCanada pipeline to the tar sands through their territory; “Why are they financing projects that are contaminating the lakes and rivers around my community?”

Extraction of oil from the Alberta tar sands is also a major threat to climate change, resulting in three times more global warming-causing greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil. Tar sands development is turning once pristine stretches of forest into desolate, post-apocalyptic landscapes and producing toxic pollution that is harmful to the health and quality of life of the region’s First Nations and other frontline communities.

“RBC’s investments in tar sands are having serious consequences for people living in nearby communities through elevated rates of cancer and polluted water supplies,” said Lionel Lapine at RBC’s Annual General Shareholders meeting, member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, a community directly downstream from tar sands developments. “RBC needs to start considering the price of their investments in human suffering, not just in dollars spent.”

RBC has been greeted with similar protest today in five other Canadian cities, expressing nationwide discontent with RBC’s policies.

Check out more photos here.

Go rock the vote!

This is democracy at its finest people – you choose the fool and then we’ll all go challenge them to stop their ridiculous and destructive fantasies of converting land for fuel.

This is no April fools joke. If you haven’t heard, biofuels are naaaasty. People are already being displaced by big agribusiness to grow crops for fuel. And, biofuels won’t get us off of fossil fuels anyway. Replacing just 10 percent of world demand for diesel for road transport with biodiesel would require 75 percent of the world’s existing soy, oil palm and rapeseed crops. Even current government mandates for these so-called renewable fuels will create enough demand for biofuels to cause food shortages and human rights and environmental catastrophes around the world.

So go vote! www.biofoolsday.org

Nominees include:

• Linda Cook, Executive Director, Shell Oil. She says that Shell will no longer invest in wind and solar energy and focus their energy solely on liquid fuels, hugely increasing the oil giants investment in biofuels.
• Hugh Grant, CEO, Monsanto. The global biofuels rush has provided a perfect new market for Monsanto’s genetically modified plants, an inevitable ingredient of biofuel feedstocks. The agribusiness giant dismisses evidence that biofuels are harmful for the environment or have anything to do with food price spikes and shortages.
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). He says biofuels are “contributing to a cleaner environment,” ignoring the scientific evidence that biofuel production is contributing to the rapid destruction of rainforests abroad and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico here at home.
• Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D-SD). She’s trying to separate federal forest protections from biofuels policy, claiming that prohibiting the clear-cutting of our federal forests for biofuel production keeps us dependent on foreign oil. (Is she forgetting that we are dependent on food and the planet’s biodiversity too?)
• Sen. John Thune (R-SD). A longtime proponent of biofuels, he wants to increase the amount of biofuels that can be blended into gasoline, remove forest protections and the global warming standards in biofuels policy.
• Patricia Woertz, CEO, Archer Daniels Midland. A former Chevron executive before coming to ADM, Woertz is leading the agroenergy charge. ADM is a leading importer of palm oil, a popular biofuel feedstock and a leading cause of deforestation in Southeast Asia.