Author: sparki

Rising Tide North America Statement on the No Coal Exports Action Camp

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2012

Rising Tide North America Statement on the No Coal Exports Action Camp

Rising Tide North America released the following statement on the status of the West By Northwest No Coal Exports Action Camp that had been planned for August 2-10th in Wyoming:

“Due to unforeseen logistical issues, Rising Tide North America is pulling back from and cancelling the West By Northwest No Coal Exports Action Camp, scheduled for Aug. 2-10 in Wyoming.

“We’re instead focusing our time and resources on supporting the Coal Exports Action in Helena, MT taking place August 10-20. The Coal Exports Action, at this juncture, is more strategic use of the Rising Tide’s time and resources as its focus is to affect a decision from the Montana Land Board on coal exports in the West.

“Any inquiries should be directed to media@risingtidenorthamerica.org.”

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Media Release: Tar Sands Blockade Calls For Non-Violent Direct Action In Texas To Stop The Keystone XL Pipeline

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 25, 2012

Contact: Ron Seifert: 843-814-2796 and at ronseif@gmail.com

A Call for Nonviolent Direct Action to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline from the Tar Sands Blockade

Texas—This summer, environmental activists from across the country will be converging in Texas to blockade the Gulf Coast portion of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Tar Sands Blockade will be coordinating nonviolent direct actions along the pipeline route to stop the zombie pipeline once and for all. We are working with national allies as well as local communities to coordinate a road show that will travel throughout Texas and Oklahoma as well as a regional training effort for activists interested in getting involved in the blockade movement against the Keystone XL.

“Our action is giving a new meaning to ‘Don’t Mess with Texas,’ says Tar Sands Blockade Collective Member Benjamin Kessler. Kessler is also a member of Rising Tide North Texas and Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Tar sands giant TransCanada will be granted permits for construction of the Gulf Coast portion of the pipeline from the Texas Army Corp of Engineers as early as today. President Obama announced he wanted to expedite the ‘Gulf Coast Project’ earlier this year when he gave his ‘all of the above’ energy address in Cushing, Oklahoma.

The Keystone XL remains key to the expansion of the Alberta tar sands, and leading NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen has called the pipeline “a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet.” According to Hansen, if the carbon stored in the tar sands is released into the atmosphere, it would mean “game over for the climate.”

350.org Founder Bill McKibben has worked hard to get Hansen’s message out to the public and to lawmakers in Washington. After more than 1,200 were arrested during the onset of the Tar Sands Action last fall, and another

12,000 turned out to surround the White House to tell President Obama that the Keystone XL is not in the nation’s best interest. McKibben was elated to hear that the Tar Sands Blockade is continuing to foster the spirit of resistance against the pipeline in the south with the use of nonviolent direct action.

“Let’s be clear what the drama is here: human bodies and spirits up against the unlimited cash and political influence of the fossil fuel industry. We all should be grateful for this peaceful witness,” McKibben said.

Because this is an export pipeline, working Americans will pay the cost of environmental destruction, and never see any of the profits.

“The pipeline will make TransCanada rich while encroaching on ranch land, poisoning Texas’ working class communities, and destroying the environment that makes the Lone Star state so beautiful,” says Tar Sands Blockade Spokesperson Ron Seifurt.

This is not a political issue as much as President Obama and Governor Romney would like it to be in this divisive election year. This is a community issue. Ranchers, landowners, green activists, occupiers and self-identified tea party members are currently working together in common interest to stop the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas.

Tar sands oil threatens streams, water tables, grasslands, forests—all of which families along the pipeline route need to survive. Texas landowners are organizing on their own to stop the pipeline, and we are doing everything we can to help them.

For more information visit http://tarsandsblockade.org/

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Rising Tide North America is an all-volunteer climate justice network with over 50 chapter, allies and local contacts throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States that works to confront the root causes of climate change.

Rising Tide North Texas, based in Denton, TX, is the North Texas chapter of Rising Tide North America.

RAMPS Media: Pro-Mountain Activists Board Coal Barge & Blockade Kayford Strip Mine Haul Road

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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 Hendrix 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.

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 XX
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.”

Rising Tide Chicago Disrupts Heartland Institute’s Climate Denial Conference

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Contact:  Josh Trost, 312 343-8259 email:thisperfectworld@yahoo.com

Rising Tide Chicago Action Video

“HEARTLAND’S LIES DESTROY OUR PLANET,” CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SAY
Activists protest “climate denier” mis-information at Heartland
Institute’s annual climate change conference

CHICAGO—Today, two climate action advocates with the group Rising Tide
Chicago challenged the nation’s biggest climate denier organization on its
home-turf – a national conference taking place in Chicago organized by the
now infamous Heartland Institute. The two activists displayed a banner
during the Conference which read “Heartland’s Lies Destroy Our Planet.”
The Protesters were escorted out of the building by security while
chanting.

The action came at the end of the second day of Heartlands “6th Annual
Climate Conference.” The fossil-fuel industry-funded Heartland Institute
is a self-proclaimed “think tank” fueling the climate change denial
industry to work against the public interest.

“I’m willing to risk my arrest, because if Heartland Institute gets its
way, it could be the end of civilization as we know it,” stated Alice
Coffey an activist who risked arrest at today’s event.

“Anyone who can deny climate change has never been to Texas where there is
an historic record drought caused by the climate crisis,  or Arizona,
where we no longer have monsoon season, but haboob season – just wind, and
dirt and heat, but no rain,” said Ian Fecke-Stoudt, who also participated
in the climate confrontation.

A second group held a rally outside the event earlier in the day.  Scores
of activists demonstrated outside the Hilton Hotel protesting the
Institute and the Conference while a banner was dropped from a hotel
window.

“The Heartland Institute exists to spread climate disinformation to
protect the profits of the few,” said Josh Trost of Rising Tide Chicago.
“Climate Deniers have no right participating in policy discussions.
Daily, the global scientific consensus strengthens as planetary health
indicators decline. Each lie is a theft from the remaining time we have to
act to limit escalating climate chaos.

“For the sake of the future of humanity, we demand the Heartland Institute
to respect the global scientific consensus and stop disseminating climate
lies,” Trost said.

James Hansen quoted in The Guardian said, “[Climate change] can’t be fixed
by individual specific changes; it has to be an across-the-board rising
fee on carbon emissions,” said Hansen. “We can’t simply say that there’s a
climate problem, and leave it to the politicians. They’re so clearly under
the influence of the fossil fuel industry that they’re coming up with
cockamamie solutions which aren’t solutions. That is the bottom line.”

In May 2012, DeSmog Blog reported that the Heartland Institute had added
the Illinois Coal Association (ICA) as a new “Gold Sponsor” for its 2012
ICCC-7 climate conference. ICA joined following the Heartland’s leaked
documents and Unabomber billboard campaign. In Heartland’s leaked 2012
Fundraising plan, Murray Energy gave $100,000 in 2010 and was expected to
give $40,000 in 2012; the company’s subsidiary, The American Coal Company,
is a member of the ICA.

The Heartland Institute has lead many mis-information campaigns which have
included:

  • Denying the harmful effects of tobacco
  • In 2010 the Institute defended BP during its infamous oil spill in
    the Gulf of Mexico
  • The Institute opposes the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact,
    which was signed into effect in December of 2005 by the governors of eight
    states that border the great lakes, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois,
    Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York, and the premiers of
    the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The compact was proposed in
    light of the unprecedented low levels of water in the lakes, which are now
    at the bottom end of the historical fluctuation range of 4-6 feet. In
    order to mitigate diminishing water levels, the compact will limit the
    consumption of water from the Great Lakes to areas within these eight
    states, or to areas outside of the boundary only by petition subject to
    strict regulation.

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Rising Tide is an international, all-volunteer, grassroots network of
groups and individuals who organize locally, promote community-based
solutions to the climate crisis and take direct action to confront the
root causes of climate change.