Category: Front

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.

Press Release: Multiple State and Local Police Agencies Violently Raid Weelanuee Forest Music Festival, Week of Action Perseveres

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cross-posted from Defend the Atlanta Forest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARCH 5, 2023

CONTACT: defendtheatlantaforest@protonmail.com

MULTIPLE STATE AND LOCAL POLICE AGENCIES VIOLENTLY RAID WEELAUNEE FOREST MUSIC FESTIVAL, WEEK OF ACTION PERSEVERES

ATLANTA, GA. Tonight multiple police agencies dressed in militarized gear and armed with lethal weapons raided a local family-friendly music festival in a public park within the Weelaunee forest. They used excessive force to arrest dozens of concert-goers and threatened to shoot people in the park. The event was being held on the second day on the fifth Week of Action to protect the Weelaunee (Atlanta) Forest and stop Cop City.

Around a thousand people gathered in a field among the trees in Weelaunee Forest for a second day of the music festival to listen to musicians perform, catch up with friends, enjoy an inflatable bounce house and share food.

A separate protest group with hundreds of people marched to the forest near the Old Prison Farm, the site leased to the Atlanta Police Foundation for Cop City. The march was in response to the murder of activist Tortuguita and a move to reclaim the Weelaunee Forest as a public commons through non-violent economic sabotage.

Sometime after this action, police retaliated viciously by raiding the entire forest, arresting at least 35 people at the nearby music festival, including people with no connection to or awareness of the action on the other side of the nearly 600 acre forest.

People attending the festival say police tased concert-goers who were moving away from the commotion, tackled people to the ground and threatened to use lethal force. One cop reportedly kept an indigenous concert-goer in a chokehold while fully on top of them. Another eyewitness reports that a police officer of unknown agency said, “I swear to God I will fucking kill you” to civilians in Weelaunee People’s Park (Intrenchment Creek Park). The Atlanta Community Press Collective reports that tear gas and pepperballs were used on people during arrests.

 

Despite this indiscriminate and violent attack by the police, the festival continued for over an hour with the crowd chanting “Stop Cop City” and “the show must go on” between musical acts. Then, an army of police forces, without warning, raided the festival en masse. Unicorn Riot reports that officers surrounded the inflatable bounce house, pointed guns inside and later tore it down. The heavily-armed officers then surrounded the remaining crowd, which included children, and deployed LRAD (acoustic warfare equipment). The police threatened to arrest all of the music festival participants on domestic terrorism charges.  In defense, festival-goers, park-goers, children, and musicians stuck together and chanted, “We have children here!” and “Let us go home!”. According to the Atlanta Community Press Collective, after festival-goers demanded to be released, the police checked identification cards of those leaving the forest. At least one legal observer was confirmed to be arrested, as well as several musicians. Additionally, a reporter from It Could Happen Here was threatened with arrest by police. No serious injuries have been reported because organizers and activists on the ground looked out for every single human in the Weelaunee Forest.

There have been many additional reports of police aggression that are still being confirmed.  The Atlanta Solidarity Fund stated, “Indiscriminate police violence tonight against Stop Cop City festival-goers. Police seem to be lashing out at anyone present at the music festival. Music is not a crime, protest is not a crime. People lawfully exercising first amendment rights cannot be held criminally liable for the actions of others. ”

Cop City will never be a legitimate project. It continues to be widely opposed by Atlantans. The civil rights violations committed by  police today reaffirms that this  cop training facility should never be built. We stand steadfast in our conviction to build a new world in which all people are safe from police terror.

To support those arrested, please visit https://atlsolidarity.org/ and donate to the bail fund.

Tomorrow, the Week of Action continues with a Faithworkers/Clergy Press Conference and city council address at noon, forest tours in the afternoon, a Purim celebration in the evening, and more. You can visit https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/calendar/
for a full schedule.”

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.”