Climate Justice Action News – June 2009

On the December 6th, 2009 the governments of the world will come to Copenhagen for the fifteenth UN Climate Conference (COP-15). This will be the biggest summit on climate change ever to have taken place. Yet, previous meetings have produced nothing more than business as usual. We call on all peoples around the planet to mobilize and take action against the root causes of climate change and the key agents responsible, both in Copenhagen and around the world. Read and pass on the Mobilization’s Open Letter @ www.ActForClimateJustice.org

Victories Against Shell AND Chevron!
Major victories in two campaigns Rising Tide activists have supported:

A settlement was reached in the historical case against Shell Oil for the murder of activists in Nigeria – $15.5 Million will be given to human rights and environmental activists. Read more at “The Case Against Shell“

Meanwhile, community and public health advocates are cheering as a Contra Costa County judge tossed out the Environmental Impact Report for a major expansion at the Chevron Refinery, in Richmond, California. Check out the story here!

DC Rising Tide Disrupts Coal-to-Liquids Conference

DC Rising Tide and their allies kicked off last spring, interrupting a coal industry conference to denounce coal-to-liquids as a corporate scam that would continue the destructive path of the fossil fuel industry. Check out the action here!

84 indigenous people massacred in Peru’s “oil war”

Already this month, 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. The Indigenous Environmental Network has more on their website, along with solidarity actions.

Tar Sands – The World’s Most Destructive Project – A featured essay by Rising Tide’s Ananda Tan…

In the first quarter of 2009, with the world reeling from a global financial meltdown and entire nations declaring bankruptcy, the world’s largest oil companies were reeling in some of their largest quarterly profits ever. The real irony is that while terms like “sub-prime mortgage” and “credit” crisis were being bandied about, this colossal collapse was being induced by the very same Big Oil and their hedge fund friends – in a rush to exploit one of the craziest debacles of our time – the Alberta Tar Sands. Continue Reading…