It's Getting Hot In Here

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A call to join the 2010 Quebec Climate Action Camp in Dunham Quebec, August 7-23 – Convergence Days 18-22

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. The concentrated programming and organized workshops and trainings will happen during the Convergence Days, but there will also be plenty of space for autonomous workshops, discussions, collective cooking and everything in between.

The camp will feature issues of food security, migrant justice and indigenous solidarity, local agricultural initiatives and fossil fuels, green solutions, biking and climbing, queer and gendered analysis of environmental justice and lots, lots more. The camp will also include creative non-violent direct actions.

Details:

The camp will take place at the Hameau l’Oasis de Dunham located 1 hour southeast of Montreal at 1964 Scottsmore Rd, Dunham. We are asking for a daily contribution of $5 to cover location and logistical costs. Three free, delicious meals a day will be provided from our communal kitchens. There is a large area set aside for camping. Or you can rent rooms for $10 a night at the Hameau. Check out http://www.jardinsdelaterre.org/hameau.html or call 450.263.6056 for more details. Continue reading ‘Like Action? Like Camping? Like Learning How to Tackle the Climate Crisis? Then This Climate Action Camp Is For You!’

2 minutes in English. Quick explanation summary of how the G8/G20 can address climate change at the upcoming Toronto G8 & G20 summits.

2 minutes en francais. J’explique comment les dirigeants peuvent aborder le suject des changements climatiques pendant les sommets de G8 & G20 a Toronto.

(English) (Francais)

Hi there. Recently Rainforest Action Network teamed up with two of the most prolific independent rock bands on the planet, Propagandhi & Strike Anywhere, the organization Substance, with help from Indigenous Environmental Network to do a tour of the midwest US and Canada to educate, organize, and mobilize people to take action against the Tar Sands dirty oil expansion. While on tour we made a small series of two minute webisodes called the Freedom From Oil Tour Diaries. Wanted to share them here. Below are the two most recent ones – the grand finale, and an interview with Clayton Thomas Muller. Below the cut is the whole series in order! See adventures, organizing, behind the scenes rocking, me breaking my neck, band interviews and more.

Continue reading ‘Freedom From Oil: Tar Sands Resistance Tour with Propagandhi’

Second time’s a charm. Deuxième fois, ça suffit.

Yesterday, Canada’s parliament voted in support of the second reading of Bill C-311 (French and English full text here, summary here and below) the country’s first national commitment to greenhouse gas reductions. As a ratifying member of the Kyoto Protocol, the government has now committed, through this bill, to reduce emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

The Bill now needs to be passed in its third reading and then approved by the Senate. Once this happens, Canada will be committed to meeting scientifically required levels of greenhouse gas emission reductions.

This is an excellent move forwards, and the complete passing of the Bill would be a big step forwards for Canada, a country that has been known to show up at the UN climate negotiations in recent years to speak misleadingly of its commitments relative to current emissions, when the world talks in terms of the internationally-accepted baseline of 1990. Continue reading ‘MPs Vote YES to Bill C-311, Canada’s Climate Change Accountability Act’

As Madagascar commences the recovery process from the devastation of Cyclone Ivan, the local population is still struggling with flooding issues in many parts of the country.

The provisional official report as of February 23th on damages and casualties accounted for 42 human losses and 82, 228 people relocated or without homes and 18.000 hectares of rice fields underwater.

The violence of the tropical storm was comparable to Hurricane Katrina yet as Chris Mooney wrote in “the intersection”, the reports from mainstream media was rather minimal:

“When Britney shaves her head, everybody hears about it.When Ana Nicole Smith dies, everybody hears about it.But when Madagascar gets struck by a record six tropical cyclones in one season, killing hundreds and displacing perhaps as many as a hundred thousand, not to mention jeopardizing food supplies for many more, does it garner major and sustained U.S. press coverage?”

Marie-Sophie of planete vivante also noticed that the coverage in the french press was reduced to a bare minimum. “Hardly some paragraphs in the newspaper “Le Monde” and on the national television. Many Malagasy complain here and rightly!!!”

Mainstream media may have dropped the ball on covering the cyclonic season in the Indian Ocean but alternative citizen media filled the void and try their best to keep the lines of communication open within the country and with the rest of the world. Continue reading ‘The Cyclonic Season in Madagascar Deadly but With Very Little Press Coverage’

Madagascar is well-known for the stunning diversity that its rainforests encompass. It has some of the richest biodiversity on the planet with roughly 200,000 known species found on the island and of which 150,000 exist nowhere else. Our flora is home to as many as 12,000 different species of plants, making it one of the most diverse floras on the planet. However, the Malagasy forest is in danger of disappearing at a rapid pace as 95% of its rainforests have already vanished for the past 50 years. The impact of deforestation on global climate is evident in the increased release of CO2 as the rainforest is major regulator of CO2 fluxes.

A critical threat to the Malagasy rain forest is the increasing interest by mining companies for the countries’ mineral resources (ilmenite, nickel and cobalt among others…). Renown mining companies such as Rio Tinto, Kumba or Implats have invested in mineral sand projects on sites that not only could interfere with endangered ecosystems but also directly affect the way of life of the local populations, often resulting in the transfer and reassignement of a group of population.

Many associations in Madagascar have come together to try to prevent any further endangerment of the forests by human cause. Educating villagers against the practice of slash and burn is one of the most direct courses of action that are often undertaken.

Planting trees in dry endangered areas is the other activity that 3 associations in Madagascar are pushing through: Namana serasera, the association milasoa and Foko-Madagascar. Here is a video of the latest tree planting event that gathered 45 people on February 9th, 2008. The selected planting site is surrounding one of the most important spring of the region, source of Madagascar’s main mineral water. For the same video with English subtitles, click here.

Continue reading ‘Fighting Deforestation in Madagascar’

Its Getting Hot In Here is launched in French:

En direct de Bali, Indonésie à la 13e Conférence des Parties, le lancement de notre site satellite de It’s Getting Hot in Here, C’est Chaud! Le mouvement jeunesse du climat qui continue de s’épanouir… maintenant en français!