Rising Tide has quite a number of projects. Some of these are just 1 or 2 people cranking out literature and resources, while others are major continent wide projects with many activists working together. Some are focused on a campaign or education on a particular climate change related issue, others on movement building, and others just keep Rising Tide North America’s network functioning. Still others are just ideas that one or more people have had, which need some extra energy to bring them to life.Below is a list of our working groups. Please email contact@risingtidenorthamerica.org for more information on any of these working groups!
Climate Action Tour 2007
RTNA is planning a multi-month tour of dozens of cities across the US, Canada, and Mexico during spring of this year. We plan to feature local struggles for autonomy, climate justice, and sustainability against the fossil fuel industry while offering our own engaging and fun presentations on climate change and the possibilities for preserving the planet. Art, music, and story telling will be play a prominent part in these events.
Climate Convergence 2007
RTNA hopes to bring hundreds of activists from across the continent together for a large gathering for networking and action. From ecosystem defenders to urban toxics activists, and from carbon-free campus campaigners to permaculture farmers, from system changers to solution seekers we intend to bring together the full gamut of organizers for networking, encouragement, and action.
Campaigns
Coal - we have a number of local campaigns focused on coal issues.more to come here soon!
Liquefied Natural Gas - we have a number of local campaigns focused on coal issues.more to come here soon!
Other Projects
Group of 8 (G8)
The Group of 8 ( G8 ) industrialized countries are advancing dangerous global “energy security” and “carbon trading” development policies that threaten to greatly aggravate climate chaos and worsen human dependence on fossil fuels. The mission of Rising Tide North America’s working group on the G8 is to inform, inspire and mobilize international action for our alternative vision of climate justice, and against the destructive energy/climate agenda of the G8 . Through popular education and direct action, we aim to unite people in all of the G8 countries and the Global South for a sustainable future that protects the Earth’s climate and natural life, and liberates people everywhere from a catastrophic future of continued addiction to oil, coal and gas.
On the first day of the 2006 G8 Summit we spearheaded the July 15th International Day of Direct Action for Climate Justice, and against Climate Change and the G8 . We are now focused on raising international awareness and action countering the G8 + 5 Dialogue on Climate Change , including Alternative Climate Justice Convergences and demonstrations at upcoming G8 + 5 Climate Forums in Mexico City (October 3-4, 2006) and Washington, DC (February 14-15, 2007). The next International Day of Direct Action for Climate Justice will take place in early June during the 2007 G8 Summit in Germany.
We need the help of translators, writers, researchers, independent media workers (audio, video and print), fundraisers, and local organizers to coordinate future solidarity actions in your community or bioregion! If you enjoy outreach or are fluent in a foreign language, we also need lots of help building our contacts with allies - environmental activists, community groups, progressive and radical movements - in all of the G8 countries and the Global South. Are you interested in being involved with the climate action wing of the global justice movement? Contact us at g8@risingtidenorthamerica.org
Indigenous Solidarity
The mission of this working group is to promote critical alliance building between Traditional Indigenous People and non-Native activists to supporting indigenous-led struggles for self-determination and against fossil fuel-based colonialism.
Long before prominent scientists began to recognize and understand the changes already taking place in the Earth’s climate due to anthrogenic forcing, Indigenous Elders living in and near reasonably healthy, intact wilderness ecosystems already recognized the changes that had already begun regarding weather & climate, as well as the ecological, geopolitical, & socioeconomic impacts of those changes.
RTNA recognizes (along with many other non-Native activists) that the survival of humans & other species is contingent upon Indigenous wisdom & cultural preservation. It is the Indigenous Environmental Network that coined the term “climate justice,” in recognition of the fact that it is the world’s poor and nonwhite peoples (as well as all other species) that are earliest and most severely impacted by human-caused climate change.
The primary focus of this working group is currently to support the struggle of the Traditional Dine’ (”Navajo”) people of Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona. For the past three decades, the Dine have been resisting forced relocation, a brutally effective form of genocide, at the hands of the U.S. government and at the behest of Peabody Coal Company, who operate the world’s largest strip-mine on the Dine’h (?? i’ve seen this spelled several different ways) reservation. Peabody seeks to expand this destructive mining operation even further, and force out the remaining Traditional Dine’ families from their ancestral homelands. For many years, outside allies have worked to provide critical support to the Dine’ Resisters, and RTNA will link w/ these ongoing efforts to provide resources (human, financial, logistical, and infrastructural) to their resistance and community-building efforts.
Clearinghouse Projects:
Katrina / Gulf Coast Oil Industry: Global warming is already creating catastrophic weather events, and there is a growing scientific consensus that hurricane’s like Katrina - during the catastrophic 2005 season - were partially fueled by climate chaos. The oil industry, besides their role in climate change has also been responsible for tremendous environmental damage and deadly toxic pollution in many hurricane effected areas, particularly in and around New Orleans. This working group works to raise awareness of the connection between oil, hurricanes, climate change, and environmental injustice with a focus on the problems of the gulf and hurricane Katrina.
On the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina we spearheaded a continental “Critical Mass” bike ride to mark the Katrina catastrophe. As many as 2,500 riders joined in, talking to hundreds of people in 32 cities around the US and Canada. From here we hope to continue outreach about oil and climate change issues effecting the Gulf of Mexico, as well as fundraising activities in support of groups fighting oppression in the Gulf of Mexico region.
We have an ongoing research and literature development project on these issues and would love to have help from people who are interested in doing research and/or developing materials! Anyone interested in distributing educational material or helping with fundraising efforts to support environmental and social justice groups in the gulf is encouraged to get in touch with us. While we do not currently have any events or campaigns planned, if you have both ideas and the energy to organize them, we would love to hear about them and may be able to support your efforts!
Anomalous and Extreme Weather: this group is monitoring the Earth’s weather and climate for purposes of understanding the changes that global warming will bring, to aid researchers and planners in their efforts to understand and respond to the implications of climate change, and-perhaps most of all-to keep climate change activists in tune w/ Nature Herself as the great changes ensue. By maintaining constant contact w/ Nature-monitoring the weather & climate in as many bio-regions as possible while striving to understand intimately just what climate change will mean for Life in any given bio-region/ecosystem/community, RTNA will work to provide a critical resource for journalists, researchers, educators, and community leaders the world over as they prepare to protect communities (human and non-human) and ecosystems in the face of inevitable, possibly cataclysmic Earth Changes. As a start, RTNA is instituting a page of its website dedicated to posting information on weather and climate around the globe as it comes available. This working group will work to anticipate weather & climate trends in as many regions as possible to help communities prepare.
Permaculture: We intend to highlight the importance of permaculture as a solution to climate problems and to highlight the rarely discussed connections between industrial agriculture and climate change.
Art and culture: We believe visual art, music, theatre, stories, and other cultural productions are crucial for exploring the issues facing our world. We are working to develop these creative endeavors in particular for use during the Tour and Convergence. We work closely with the Beehive Design Collective, which has been increasing its focus on climate change related artwork.
Anti-Oil: We are developing a clearinghouse of information on the oil industry. Rising Tide supports the phasing out of this brutal and polluting industry, and views any attempts at to green the petroleum industry with extreme distrust.
Disaster Response: We’re developing a resource base of information on grassroots responses of communities to climate disasters.
Ecosystem Protection, Defense, and Restoration: RTNA intends to provide support to existing ecosystem defense projects. Work on this project will soon start with a page of the website that provides news and information about other organizations’ existing campaigns.
Seeds needing water (and more organizing support!):
* Consumer culture
* Mega infrastructure project resistance
* Truly green energy
* False “Alternative” Fuels (oil sands, ethanol, etc.)
* Carbon offsets/trading, Kyoto, etc.
There’s also a lot of “nuts and bolts” internal work that also help make Rising Tide North America functional too from Spanish translations, to Anti-oppression work, to publication creation and fund raising - check out our “online interview” for more information about this and to let us know what you are interested in getting involved with!