Mountain Activists Board Coal Barge In Kanahwa River, WV

Bold and beautiful.

This morning pro-mountain activists launched a summer of actions with two direct actions in West Virginia.

Five of them boarded a coal barge in the Kanahwa River with a banner that read “Coal leaves, cancer stays,” and then locked their bodies to the barge.

On Kayford Mountain, family home to Keeper of the Mountain Larry Gibson, dozens more have blockaded a strip mine haul road.

Keep up with the action at http://action.mountainjustice.org.

Pro-Mountain Activists Board Coal Barge And Blockade Kayford Strip Mine Haul Road

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Contact: Robert Livingston 304.731.1740

http://action.mountainjustice.org

KAYFORD, W.Va. –Mountain Justice and RAMPS activists blocked coal transport in two locations Thursday morning. Five boarded a barge on the Kanawha River near Chelyan, with a large banner that read “Coal leaves, cancer stays,” and locked their bodies to the barge. At the same time, dozens of concerned citizens obstructed access to the haul road on Kayford Mountain, stopping coal trucks from entering or leaving the Republic Energy mine.

“These actions against coal transport were taken because the viability and health of mountain communities are being destroyed by mountaintop removal—the coal and the profits are shipped away, leaving disease and destruction in their wake,” Rebecca Loeb, one of the people on the barge said.

According to Nathan Joseph, another activist on the barge, the struggle against mountaintop removal in Appalachia is linked to the struggles of other fossil fuel extraction communities across North America and the world.

“The coal industry’s continued disregard for the well-being of Appalachian communities is connected to the struggles of other North American extraction communities. Strip mining tar sands for low-quality oil, fracking for dirty gas and deep sea oil drilling are signs we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. The extraction, transport, processing and combustion of these fuels all disproportionately impact low-income communities, indigenous communities,and communities of color,” Joseph said.

According to a study co-authored by Dr. Michael Hendryx in 2011, a researcher at West Virginia University, “Self-reported cancer rates were significantly higher in the mining versus the non-mining area after control for respondent age, sex, smoking, occupational history, and family cancer history (odds ratio = 2.03, 95% confidence interval = 1.32–3.13). Mountaintop mining is linked to increased community cancer risk.” The study’s researchers collected data from 773 adults in door-to-door interviews.

Dozens of Mountain Justice and RAMPS activists blockade strip mine haul road on Kayford Mountain, WV.As people in West Virginia see the lack of opportunities, they often leave the area to pursue a future elsewhere. Larry Gibson, of Kayford said, “Our biggest export in this state besides coal is our young people.”

Marilyn Mullens of Coolridge, W.Va., said “Clean water and air is a human right. My electricity is not worth my human rights being violated–I’ll live with the lights off. I want my children and grandchildren to enjoy the beauty of West Virginia. We’re tired of the corporations lording over us, and no one is hearing our voices, so it’s time to take it further than talking.” Mullens is an organizer of Women United to End Mountaintop Removal, a May 28 event, in which women will shave their heads in front of the W.Va. Capitol in protest of mountaintop removal.

“For the past 150 years the coal industry has been pillaging this place and taking everything, leaving nothing but death and destruction in their wake. I am personally very thankful to these young folks who ain’t from around here necessarily who decided to put their freedom and bodies on the line to stop this vicious cycle, even if it is just for one day,” Junior Walk of Whitesville, WV said, “I would love to see some of my native West Virginia brothers and sisters stand up and tell this industry they can’t do this anymore.”

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Our friends in Wild Idaho Rising Tide waged a tenacious fight against the heavy hauls. Now as the trucks are taking new routes, the fight against the tar sands has moved to Spokane WA where the trucks have been re-directed.

In early May, Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Occupy Spokane began protests late at night as the trucks began their late night hauls.

Here’s their press release:

Washington/Idaho Megaload Resistance

At about 11:30 pm on Sunday night, May 20, a dozen activists from Occupy Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tide converged in Spokane, Washington, to protest megaloads of oversized equipment bound for Alberta tar sands operations from the Port of Pasco.  ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil has been using Highway 395, Interstate 90, and city streets in Spokane and Spokane Valley since mid-October to transport road damaging shipments weighing up to 400,000 pounds and stretching over 200 feet long.  Diverted in Idaho from their originally intended Highway 12 route by court challenges and from their alternative Highway 95 path by Moscow area protests, these pieces of a tar sands/bitumen processing plant will expand Canadian carbon fuel extraction, American dependence on oil, and continental greenhouse gas emissions, while reaping hefty profits for one of the wealthiest corporations on Earth.

From the pedestrian walkway over East Third Avenue near South Regal Street, Spokane climate justice activists draped banners asserting “No Dirty Energy,” “Occupy 99%,” “Climate Killers,” “Highway to Hell,” and other statements (see photos).  While waiting for the megaload convoys’ arrival, they observed flaggers and warning signs posted along Third Avenue, support vehicles cruising the area, and up to six Spokane city police cars parked near the demonstrators.  Between midnight and 1:00 am on Monday, four megaloads traversed Third Avenue, narrowly fitting under the pedestrian overpass and between parked cars and activists with protest signs lining both sides of the street.  Convoys consisting of Washington state trooper escorts, flagger vehicles, and pilot trucks displaying illuminated “oversized load” signs accompanied a silver, cylindrical module, two large, blue, trailer-like boxes, and a frame structure full of pipes and parts.  A protester later saw another megaload among a cluster of vehicles similarly leaving the interstate at the Altamont Street exit in Spokane and the Barker Road off-ramp in Spokane Valley.

Recognizing the international impacts of these transports, citizens throughout the Northwest will continue to coordinate and organize demonstrations to oppose and impede tar sands megaload traffic, to prevent increasing carbon emissions causing global climate change and to dissuade investors in such dirty energy schemes.  The mostly foreign-owned corporations who have mined only two or three percent of the Alberta tar sands are advancing the second fastest rate of deforestation in the world, as they consume more energy, mostly derived from natural gas, than tar sands fuels ultimately yield.  Their largest industrial project on Earth pollutes exorbitant volumes of fresh water and deposits heavy metals, carcinogens, and oil across vast swaths of Canadian boreal forests and wetlands.  Resident First Nations villages practicing subsistence lifestyles suffer rare cancers and disproportionate deaths, as the single greatest contributor of atmospheric carbon in North America bodes “game over” for the Earth’s climate.

People interested in upcoming expressions of First Amendment rights through anti-megaload assemblies in the Spokane area can contact Occupy Spokane and/or Wild Idaho Rising Tide for more information about the time and location of protests.

These camps are great spaces for not only teaching people organizing and action skills, but also networking and building our communities, and our movements. Not to mention lots of fun post-camp direct actions that always accompany them.

It’s the bonding at these camps around late night campfires or in long action planning meetings that builds strong lasting relationships that power us through long hard struggle. I’ve been to lots of action camps over the years and I definitely feel a sense of large family or a clan that bands together in fighting to stop environmental destruction and oppression.

Here’s a list of some of the enviro direct action camps happening this summer.  All free and open to the public.

Mountain Justice May 19-26, Pipestem, WV: “Join us as we build pressure and momentum in stopping strip mining and other exploitative resource extraction in Appalachia. This Summer Action Camp is the place to learn new skills, expand on ones you already have; strengthen ties, meet new friends and get ready for bigger events later in the year.”

Wild Feral Futures June 16-24, San Juan Mountains, Colorado: “We are very happy to announce that, for the 4th year running, the Wild Roots Feral Futures (WRFF) eco-defense, direct action, and rewilding encampment will take place in the forests of Southwest Colorado this coming June, 2012. WRFF is an informal, completely free and non-commercial, and loosely organized camp-out operating on (less than a) shoe-string budget, formed entirely off of donated, scavenged, or liberated supplies and sustained through 100% volunteer effort. Though we foster a collective communality and pool resources, we encourage total self-sufficiency (which we find to be the very source and foundation of true mutual sharing and abundance).”

Earth First! Round River Rendezvous! July 1-7, Somewhere in the Marcellus Shale: “Marcellus Shale Earth First! is working side by side with many local groups, attending meetings, offering workshops and trainings, and helping to build a campaign of direct action that is putting increasing pressure on the drillers, to show all of those fighting fracking that there is effective resistance growing in rural areas. One of MSEF!’s primary goals is to be an uncompromising presence in defense of the healthy waterways and forest ecosystems being polluted and fragmented by the gas industry in the Eastern states.”

West By Northwest:No Coal Exports Action Camp August 2-10, Gillette, WY: “This August, High Country Rising Tide is convening activists and concerned citizens from all over the continent at West By Northwest, the first annual No Coal Exports Action Camp. In the heart of the coal fields, we’ll look over the chasm into the world’s largest strip mines, gather stories from the communities at the heart of the battle, and learn the skills of resistance. Students, ranchers and activists will take to the streets, or the mines, or the rails to take back the power to determine our own future.”

NATO (and the Chicago police) will be meeting Occupy Chicago and thousands of anti-war activists and anti-capitalists in Chicago this week for mass protests. The city has responded with heavy handed repressive ordinances and police tactics (sound familiar?). Regardless thousands will be marching and taking action on a whole range of issues from the war in Afghanistan to austerity to immigrant rights to climate change.

In fact, direct actions began this morning as 8 anti-war activists were arrested in Obama For America’s offices in Chicago demanding an end to the war in Afghanistan.

This is all happening with a climate justice twist as Rising Tide Chicago and Chicago based environmental and climate justice groups, aka Climate Action Chicago, are hosting a number of events, marches and actions in solidarity with the anti-NATO protests.

Noam Chomsky recently remarked that the Occupy has created something that never really existed in the U.S.–solidarity.

“The other aspect, which in my estimation may be more significant, is that the Occupy movement spontaneously created something that doesn’t really exist in the country: communities of mutual support, cooperation, open spaces for discussion”

Now, we are seeing unprecedented amounts of “post-issue activism.” The sort of organizing that transcends single issues and becomes about real transformational work around our economy, our environment and our democracy. Occupy has liberated that space.

Now the corporations and the state are fighting back. But so are we. This weekend in Chicago is another opportunity to link arms and march side by side with folks fighting foreclosures, deportations, the war and environmental injustice.

If you are anywhere near Chicago, go join them.

Here is Climate Action Chicago’s schedule of events if you are going:

Climate Action Chicago Joins NATO Summit Protests

Join Rising Tide Chicago, Chicago environmental groups and their allies for the NATO summit weekend to give corporate criminals, and the governmental lackeys and military who serve their interests a clear message: putting profits over our planet threatens our survival and will NOT be accepted any longer!

This weekend, we’ll call for real solutions to climate change and war by encouraging communities to come together to restore natural ecosystems, create clean power & transportation and establish local food systems.

Let’s create communities that are fair and provide access to basics needs for everyone rather than our current throwaway society that benefits the 1% and destroys our planet.

*Join us for Events during Summit Weekend!

———— —————– ————— ————–
Thursday, May 17th @ 3 pm;
Occupy Chicago Day of Environment — Planet Over Profits & War
Protest Canadian Tar Sands at Consulate with Die-In
Canadian Consulate, 180 N Stetson Ave.
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/446122835402400/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–
Friday, May 18th @ 1:00 p.m;
Crime Busting March on Chicago’s Climate Crooks
March around the loop with us as we issue warrants for arrest for corporations and government organizations responsible for destabilizing our climate.
Daley Plaza (Clark & Washington) @ 1:00 p.m. Directly after the Nurses Union March
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/194508444002886/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–
Friday, May 18th@ 6:30 pm;
Dinner & Overview of Summit Events
@ Holy Innocents Church, 1447 W. Superior (near Chicago & Ashland)
RSVP at risingtide.chi@gmail.com
———— —————– ————— ————–
Saturday, May 19th @ 6:30 pm ;
Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands, Documentary, Dinner & Climate Justice Discussion
@ Holy Innocents Church, 1447 W. Superior (near Chicago & Ashland)
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/426580744037196/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–
Sunday, May 20th @ 12p (noon);
Environmental Contingent in March & Rally to NATO Summit
March with thousands during the NATO summit to deliver our message: Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, Our Pensions and the Environment: Not War!
@ Petrillo Bandshell in Grant Park (Columbus & Jackson)
Meet us at NW side of the Petrillo Bandshell. Look for a big green flag!
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/286684528085764/?ref=ts
———— —————– ————— ————–*

To confirm locations and to RSVP, visit http://www.climateactionchicago.org

Cross-posted from the Coal Export Action

On Saturday, as part of the international Connect the Dots day of action organized by 350.org, activists in Missoula, MT highlighted the connection between dirty money, government, and climate change.  At the Missoula Farmers Market, organizers from the Blue Skies Campaign, Occupy Missoula, and other local groups enacted a creative street theater routine to draw attention to the Montana Land Board’s support for Arch Coal at the expense of ordinary people and the climate.

In 2010, the Montana Land Board voted 3-2 to lease coal tracts in the Otter Creek area to Arch Coal.  Developing Otter Creek for coal mining would set off one of the largest carbon bombs in the world, facilitating construction of the Tongue River Railroad, and the opening of vast additional tracts of land to mining.  With a quarter of US coal reserves sitting under Montana soil, this is truly one of the most important fights on the planet.

Help diffuse this carbon bomb: join the Coal Export Action this summer!

Fortunately, Land Board members – all of whom are statewide elected officials – still can stop mining at Otter Creek.  It will take massive public pressure to make them do so, though.  The ones who can really diffuse this bomb are the Montana people.

Thus the inspiration for Saturday’s street theater, which showed what it will take to keep Montana’s largest coal reserves underground.  During a tug-of-war match between the people of Montana and pro-coal members of the Land Board, climate activists discovered pro-coal politicians couldn’t be budged as long as they remain tied to the coal industry by dirty money.

In the theater skit, the people of Montana eventually solved the dilemma by cutting a rope tying Land Board members to an immovable rock representing Arch Coal (meanwhile, an Arch Coal lobbyist offered Governor Brian Schweitzer and other Land Board members coal).  And though this creative action was all in good fun, the message is deadly serious: we really do need to cut the link between state politics and giant energy companies.

Later this year, we have a chance to do just this at the Coal Export Action, a weeklong sit-in at the Montana Capitol.  People from communities throughout the region affected by mining, transportation, and export of Montana coal will peacefully risk arrest to convey the moral seriousness of our demand.  Together, we will steer Montana and the Northwest toward a prosperous, clean energy future – and keep Montana’s coal reserves safely in the ground.

Want to stop the real Montana Land Board from igniting this carbon bomb?  Sign up to join or help organize the Coal Export Action here!

Over then next 24 hours, our crew at 350.org is going to be working hard to compile these images and get them out to the public and press. As Bill McKibben wrote yesterday, It’s time for each of us to get involved in the full-on fight between misinformation and truth.”

Posted on behalf of Sam Akiha, Communications and Research Intern at Better Future Project

As a reminder that sustainability is not an annual event, Better Future Project today released The State of the Movement: New England’s Transition Beyond Fossil Fuels, a new report that catalogues sustainability efforts throughout the region. The report details dozens of local projects that are not simply about recycling or solar panels; rather, people investing time and energy to transform their community one garden, one street, or one building at a time.  It demonstrates that the movement beyond fossil fuels is diverse and thriving.

The report is the result of Better Future Project’s Climate Summer program. In the 2011 program, 31 cycling college students toured New England spreading a simple message: New England needs to move beyond fossil fuels. The riders collaborated with local organizations and individuals in the towns they visited. They lent hands to their projects, co-organized events, and connected them to other efforts in the area. These Climate Riders will return to towns throughout New England for the program’s fourth year this June, July, and August.

The State of the Movement focuses on the following categories: sustainable economies, sustainable food systems, waste and materials management, transportation, green spaces, building efficiency, renewable energy, environmental justice, and community resilience. In addition, it includes town profiles that provide information of what specific cities and towns are doing to rely less on fossil fuels.

Better Future Project, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a new, grassroots organization dedicated to moving America and the world beyond energy sources that harm human health, human dignity, and human life. The organization’s first report, Energy Casualties, released in February, explores the public health, security, social justice issues surrounding the fossil fuel industry. With a focus on leadership development, network-building, and engagement platforms, Better Future Project’s main programs include Climate Summer, Ride for the Future, which will launch in New Orleans in May, and 350 Massachusetts.

Reposted from the RAN Understory

On Tax Day, RAN Boston activists joined a national day of action targeting Bank of America over….. well… everything.

Bank of America currently pay no taxes to the government, yet received massive bailouts after they crashed the economy. They are currently the largest forecloser of homes in the U.S. and the largest funder of the coal industry. They’ve laid off tens of thousands of their own employees, while bestowing their execs with lavish bonuses. It has just been recently reported that CEO Brian Moynihan’s salary quadrupled in the past year.

Early in the afternoon, RAN Boston activists showed up to Bank of America’s downtown offices at 100 Federal St. with flyers, signs and chants. They were soon joined by over 30 housing activists with Right To The City and then more with Occupy Boston. Tax Day all over the country focused on Bank of America’s misdeeds against the American public and this combination of housing, climate and economic justice activists.

The Boston campaign to highlight Bank of America’s involvement in the coal industry is just beginning. On May 5^th in Sudbury, MA (neighboring community to many BofA execs) will host “The Real Cost Of Coal” forum featuring speakers from coal impacted communities from Appalachia to the Powder River Basin. Then on May 6^th, another forum will happen in Cambridge, MA.

Many of Bank of America’s operations and most important decision-makers reside in the Boston area. And we are there to say no to their financing of coal.

Across the Northwest, people are waking up to the threat of coal export projects in their communities.  Recently, students from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington took action, organizing a march against coal exports a few days before a forum on how coal exports and increased coal train traffic would negatively impact Spokane.

On Sunday, April 15th, Gonzaga students marched from the University campus to a busy street intersection, where their signs reading “Honk for Clean Air” garnered attention from drivers parked at the street intersection.  Says Gonzaga student Adriana Stagnaro, “As we walked we remembered our intentions of supporting the community with an action to raise awareness about issues surrounding coal exports.  We smiled and waved to cars as we made our way into town.”

At the intersection, students talked with passersby waiting at crosswalks, and explained what an increase in coal train traffic would mean for Spokane.  This city sits on at the intersection of two existing rail lines coal trains could use to get from eastern Montana and Wyoming to the West Coast, putting the community at the front lines of the fight against coal exports.  Of course, with every additional coal train to hit the tracks comes an increase in coal dust, diesel emissions, and climate-changing carbon pollution.

A few days after the march, coal-free activists held a forum at Gonzaga University, featuring speakers  Bart Mihailovich of Spokane Riverkeeper, Gonzaga professor Hugh Lefcort, and local farmer Walter Kloefkorn.  According to Stagnaro, the panel “really exposed the complex nature of environmental-human issues surrounding coal exports.”

Like communities throughout the five-state region of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, Spokane residents may have a long road ahead of them when it comes to protecting their public commons from the threat of coal exports.  But this community with a history of leadership on social issues is already getting organized, and students at Gonzaga are setting an example.

No doubt this won’t be the last we hear from Spokane residents.  With communities across the Northwest rallying to stop coal exports, King Coal’s CEOs don’t know what they’re up against!