Category: Announcements

Announcements from Rising Tide and Rising Tide affiliates and close allies. An announcement is pretty much never also a reportback!

Health Professionals Urge FERC to Deny a Controversial Plan to Expand a Fracked Gas Pipeline

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Health Professionals Urge FERC to Deny a Controversial Plan to Expand a Fracked Gas Pipeline
  • More than 500 physicians, nurses, and other public health officials signed onto a petition calling on FERC to deny TC Energy’s proposed fracked gas pipeline expansion
  • Pipeline passes through rural, low-income and Indigenous communities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho
WHAT
More than 500 physicians, nurses and community members signed onto a letter urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to deny a proposed bid to expand shipments of fracked gas through an aging Northwest pipeline.
As soon as mid-March, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, could vote on whether to approve a bid from the Canadian-owned natural gas company TC Energy, the owner of the infamous Keystone Pipeline, to expand the amount of fracked gas exported through the aging Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline. The pipeline runs through communities across Idaho, Washington and Oregon, including low-income neighborhoods and lands important to indigenous communities.
Physicians and other medical professionals, including members of Physicians for Social Responsibility, are joining other community members in sounding the alarm about the impact the pipeline’s expansion could have on local communities. More than 500 people have signed onto the letter.
WHY
Pipelines and expansion projects are frequently approved at higher rates in rural, Indigenous and low-income communities, which force these communities to bear the health disparities such projects are associated with: air, water and noise pollution.
Should TC Energy’s bid be approved, the proposed expansion would include the construction of expanded or new compressors which vent methane and other volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. All of these air pollutants have serious health impacts, including increased risks of stroke, cancer, asthma and low birth weight and premature babies.
QUOTES
“We are in a climate crisis, where we are already experiencing the devastating effects of rising temperatures, the direct result of burning fossil fuels, including so-called “natural gas” i.e., methane,” said Ann Turner MD, a member of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. “As medical practitioners, we see the impact the climate crisis has on people each and every day. And we have a responsibility to sound the alarm. We urge FERC to prioritize the health of our most vulnerable communities over profit.”
“States in the Northwest have made great strides in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and creating healthier communities,” said Dr. Mark Vossler, board member at Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. “I urge FERC to consider the human health impact of the proposed pipeline expansion and respect the leadership of local, state and Tribal governments in addressing the climate crisis. FERC should deny the permit for this  pipeline expansion proposal which is both unnecessary to meet our energy needs and harmful to people in our communities.”
“Idahoans dread FERC approval of the GTN Xpress expansion project, which would force greater fracked gas volumes and hazardous emissions through the aging GTN pipeline. This expansion project would further threaten and harm the health and safety of rural communities, environments, and recreation economies for decades,” said Helen Yost of Wild Idaho Rising Tide. “This proposed expansion does not support the best interests of concerned Northwesterners living and working near compressor stations and the pipeline route.”
ORGANIZATIONS
ADDITIONAL DETAILS AND CONTACT
To coordinate interviews: Contact Byron Kimball, Byron@gomixte.com, 619-732-0789 ext. 297
Link to use in your story:

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  • About Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility works to protect human life from the gravest threats to health and survival. Learn more. 
  • About Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility engages the community to create a healthy, peaceful, just and sustainable world. Learn more. 
  • About San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility works to protect human life from the gravest threats to health and survival. Learn more. 
  • About Wild Idaho Rising Tide Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) confronts the root causes of climate change, water degradation, and air pollution, by asserting direct actions and promoting locally organized solutions, in solidarity with frontline communities of resistance and an international, volunteer, grassroots network of activists. Learn more.

Hunger Strike and Blockade for the Redwoods in Humboldt

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Feb. 20, 2023

For immediate release: PRESS RELEASE

Info: Email forestaction@riseup.net
Follow  lost_coast_forest_action on Instagram for updates.

Venmo@forestdefense to support.

 

HUNGER STRIKE AND BLOCKADE FOR THE REDWOODS IN HUMBOLDT

Humboldt County, CA–On Sunday night, February 19th, forest defenders set up a sky-pod blockade, occupied by a protester commencing a hunger strike (statement below).

In January 2023 Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) filed commencement to begin logging in Freshwater,  California. The forest
that is being logged contains massive Redwood and Douglas Fir trees that are providing critical habitat to many endangered animals in the area.
HRC claims to log sustainably but there’s no such thing on an industrial scale when profit margins are the only concern. Forest defenders are determined to stop this logging plan.

STATEMENT FROM FOREST DEFENDER “ARISTOTLE”:

“As you’re reading this I am suspended above an entrance to one of Humboldt Redwood Company’s industrial timber harvest plans, blocking this entrance by the support lines of the net that is holding me. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and these are desperate
times indeed. On January 18th a forest defender named Tortuguita was murdered by state troopers while occupying the Weelaunee forest in Atlanta. They have since held activists with no bail or extremely high bail to prevent people from defending the forest. I am doing this to try and honor Tortuguita’s life and wish for the land to be protected, and in solidarity with activists in Atlanta facing extreme police repression.

I will not leave nor eat until HRC commits in writing to abandon this Timber Harvest Plan indefinitely. The police may try to use this as justification to extract me for “health concerns”. I am taking supplements that will allow me to subsist without food for months without endangering my health or safety. Any attempt to extract me is for the company’s profit, not a concern for my well-being.

This forest is filled with huge redwood and Douglas fir trees which are becoming increasingly rare as private timber ravages the landscape. It is already too late for 97% of the world’s native forests. Northern California is one of the very few places in the so-called “United States” where there are still intact forests. But not for long, if the industrial logging and commercial builders get their way.

These lands don’t belong to privatized companies.  These are lands stolen from the indigenous people of this area and stolen from the many animal and plant species that call these forests home. The bears, Redwoods, huckleberry, hummingbirds, mushrooms, newts, owls, and every other species need this forest to continue surviving in an increasingly unlivable planet. Please stand with all of them and come defend this land!

LET THE FORESTS GROW!!”

Please share this press release far and wide!

 

Love for Jen Angel

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pic via PM Press

Cross-posted from the Family and Friends of Jen Angel

[Rising Tide North America note: Jen Angel was a long time independent journalist, radical media activist and former member of Rising Tide North America.  We’re heartbroken by the news of her passing.]

“Update from Family and Friends on the Death of Jen Angel, Oakland Community Leader, and Bakery Owner

It’s with a heavy heart that we announce that Oakland baker, small business owner, social justice activist, and community member Jen Angel has been medically declared to have lost all brain function and will not regain consciousness. Her official time of death was 5:48pm (PT).

Friends and family of Jen hope that the story of this last chapter of her brilliant, full, dynamic life is one focused on her commitment to community, on the care bestowed upon her and her family by the people who loved her, and on the generous and courageous role of countless health care workers and public servants who fought to preserve her life. We know Jen would not want to continue the cycle of harm by bringing state-sanctioned violence to those involved in her death or to other members of Oakland’s rich community.

As a long-time social movement activist and anarchist, Jen did not believe in state violence, carceral punishment, or incarceration as an effective or just solution to social violence and inequity. The outpouring of support and care for Jen, her family and friends, and the values she held dear is a resounding demonstration of the response to harm that Jen believed in: community members relying on one another, leading with love, centering the needs of the most vulnerable, and not resorting to vengeance and inflicting more harm.

Jen believed in a world where everyone has the ability to live a dignified and joyful life and worked toward an ecologically sustainable and deeply participatory society in which all people have access to the things they need, decisions are made by those most directly affected by them, and all people are free and equal.

Angel Cakes, the popular community-based bakery that Jen founded in 2008, will remain open, supported by Jen’s estate, and staffed by the talented team that Jen built. Community members who wish to support the bakery can especially help through buying gift certificates and committing to long-term patronage.

Per Jen’s wishes, her organs will be donated, and her committed medical team has informed the family that those organs will serve to lengthen and improve the lives of up to 70 people.

If the Oakland Police Department does make an arrest in this case, the family is committed to pursuing all available alternatives to traditional prosecution, such as restorative justice. Jen’s family and close friends ask that the media respect this request and carry forward the story of her life with celebration and clarity about the world she aimed to build. Jen’s family and friends ask that stories referencing Jen’s life do not use her legacy of care and community to further inflame narratives of fear, hatred, and vengeance, nor to advance putting public resources into policing, incarceration, or other state violence that perpetuates the cycles of violence that resulted in this tragedy.

We wish for Jen’s legacy to be one of deep commitment to safety and dignity for everyone.”

February 9th: #StopCopCity Webinar at 8PM EST/7pm CST/6pm MST/5pm PST

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Frontline organizers in Atlanta are calling for urgent support to Stop Cop City.

For years, forest defenders, abolitionists and the community of Atlanta defended the Weelaunee forest and prevented the construction of a massive police training compound. On January 18, the Atlanta Police Department murdered Tortuguita, a leader of the resistance, during a violent raid to clear the defenders encampment. Two weeks after murdering Tortuguita, the final permits for Cop City were approved.

We stand with the people of Atlanta and honor Tortuguita. Cop City will never be built.

The movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest has called for a week of solidarity actions from February 19-26th, and for a Mass Mobilization in Atlanta March 4th-11th. We need to let the Atlanta Police Department, their foundation backers, the contractors and all the financiers behind this project know that this project is doomed.

Join the informational webinar to learn more about how to support this movement.

On February 9th, 8PM EST/7pm CST/6pm MST/5pm PST, the movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest is hosting No Cop City Anywhere, Defend the Forest Everywhere,. Join this informational webinar to hear from forest defenders and abolitionists to hear about what’s happening on the ground in Atlanta in the Weelaunee Forest, how you can join the upcoming Week of Solidarity Actions and the Mass Mobilization in Atlanta.

No Cop City Anywhere. Defend the Forest Everywhere.