Category: RT Press Releases

Idaho: Idaho Train Increases & Blocked Roads, Wyoming & Montana Derailments, Rejected Colorado Railway, Pipeline & Mine Protests

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Cross-posted from Wild Idaho Rising Tide

Our comrades with Wild Idaho Rising Tide have been fighting fossil fuels in their region for over ten years. Their campaign began with blockades and arrests of people fighting Exxon’s “megaloads” hauling tar sands mining equipment through Idaho to Alberta during 2011 and 2012. But the group has over the past decade taken on all fossil fuels in northern Idaho and other parts of the Northwest.

This includes persistent monitoring and documenting of coal and oil trains traveling through the region.

They also host a weekly radio show on local community radio station KRFP called “Climate Justice Forum” that describes continent-wide grassroots opposition to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change and many local issues.

Here’s details on a recent episode about the monitoring of Northwest fossil fuel trains:

“The Wednesday, April 7, 2021, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news and reflections on our tenth anniversary, volunteer opportunities, and recent, social media absence, north Idaho railroad-blocked road access and fossil fuel train increases during March and from tar sands pipeline opposition, a Wyoming river locomotive fuel spill settlement, Montana chlorine train crash remembrances, federal rejection of a potential Colorado oil train corridor, and indigenous and allied actions against pipelines and lithium mines.  Broadcast for nine years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.”

For more info and regular updates, check out Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s website.

Vancouver BC: Land and Water Protectors Lockdown Trans Mountain Pipeline Insurers’ Offices

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Cross-posted from @qtcatspictureclub on Instagram
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Land and Water Protectors Lockdown Trans Mountain Pipeline Insurers’ Offices
[Unceded Musqueam, Squamish), and Tsleil-Waututh territories, Vancouver, BC, April 14th, 2021]
What: Land and water protectors have locked down the entrances to Chubb Insurance and Liberty Mutual Insurance, two of the insurers of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project (TMX).
When: April 14th, 8:00 AM Now! Come witness the direct action currently taking place. Strict physical distancing and masks required.
Where: Chubb Insurance Company,250 Howe St AND Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, 999 W Hastings Street on Unceded x?m??k??y??m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and S?l?ilw?ta?? (Tsleil-Waututh) territories, in so-called Vancouver, BC.
Why: We demand that Chubb and Liberty Mutual stop insuring TMX.
Indigenous and settler land and water protectors have locked down the entrances and four youth have chained themselves to two doors at two insurance companies, Chubb and Liberty Mutual, in so-called Downtown Vancouver this morning. Work is being disrupted at these companies’ offices on the same day as Liberty Mutual’s Annual Policyholder meeting to draw attention to the irreparable harm that these companies are causing by enabling Trans Mountain to force a pipeline through unceded territories without prior, informed consent.
Anishinaabe’kwe, Indigenous Elder from Turtle Island and supporter of the group, Veronica Butler says, “We are targeting Chubb and Liberty Mutual in solidarity with all Indigenous land and water defenders who persistently oppose TMX for degrading their ancestral homelands and sacred waters. Chubb and Liberty Mutual, alongside other TMX insurers like AIG, must stop insuring this genocidal project.”
Following pressure from Indigenous youth earlier this year, the federal government-owned Trans Mountain Corporation submitted a request to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) asking to protect the identities of TMX insurers. “This demonstrates that direct action works, and that these companies are fearing for their reputation and profits as the public becomes aware of their complacency in genocide.

New Book Uncovers Critical Climate Change Flaws Ahead of Earth Day

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 12 April 2021

Download at www.climatefalsesolutions.org

Register for telepress conference featuring experts and book authors on 15 April at 2pm EDT here

 

NEW BOOK UNCOVERS CRITICAL CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY FLAWS AHEAD OF EARTH DAY

At a time when governments are rolling out climate change policies around the world, activists and experts from climate and environmental justice groups across North America and globally are explaining why  real climate solutions must go beyond the greening of business-as-usual and require an entirely different framework for addressing the climate crisis. These groups have come together to publish the Third Edition of Hoodwinked in the Hothouse: Resist False Solutions to Climate Change to highlight the need for real solutions that go beyond the profit motive.

Using sharp wit and original artwork, the authors argue that this is a decade of no-turning-back in order to address the crisis. Hoodwinked is an easy-to-read, concise-yet-comprehensive compendium of false corporate promises designed to hoodwink elected officials and the public, leading us down risky pathways poised to waste billions of public dollars on a host of corporate snake-oil schemes and market-based mechanisms. This is not hyperbole. Written by grassroots veteran organizers, movement strategists and thought leaders from across climate, Indigenous, peasant and environmental justice movements, the authors draw on expert data as well as on-the-ground knowledge and experience to show  that corporate and market focused false solutions distract from real solutions that could serve our most urgent needs (see authors and organizations listed below).

As a pop-ed toolbox, Hoodwinked promises to be instructive for activists, impacted communities, social movements, educators and students, and anyone who seeks to engage in a deeper discussion  about climate solutions. It also offers elected officials with a critical lens to examine a complex, technocratic field of climate change policy strategies, from local to national and international arenas.

The second version of Hoodwinked in the Hothouse was released in 2009 as a popular education zine collaboratively produced by Rising Tide North America, Carbon Trade Watch and a number of allied environmental justice, Indigenous and climate action organizers leading up to the 2009 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen (COP 15). During that mobilization and in years since, Hoodwinked has played a major role in raising awareness across climate movements around the world – both helping organizers in their fights against dirty energy proposals and shifting policy positions of many non-governmental organizations.

With the proliferation of false solutions in the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as national and subnational climate plans, including many emerging from the Biden Administration, the new and updated third edition of Hoodwinked in the Hothouse aims to provide a resource that dismantles the barriers to building a just transition and a livable future. It points to a plethora of ways forward that do not rely on false solutions and are based on Indigenous traditional knowledge, community health, deepening democracy, and respecting the territorial integrity of Mother Earth.

See Quotes from Authors and Contributors

Interviews and comments: Download our list of experts and authors available for interviews

Download the book and more information: www.climatefalsesolutions.org/

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Bemidji: Water Protectors Blockade Enbridge Office Demanding #StopLine3

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cross-posted from the Giniw Collective
(Bemidji, MN) This morning, 11 water protectors locked to one another in front of all entrances to Enbridge’s Bemidji, MN, office, protesting the company bulldozing through Minnesota wetlands, watersheds and Anishinaabe treaty territory as lawsuits led by three Ojibwe tribes opposed to Line 3 remain pending.
The Enbridge office sits in Beltrami County, one of the top-billing counties to the “Public Safety Escrow Trust” funded by Enbridge and overseen by Minnesota to pay police for all costs associated with Line 3 protests. Much of Northern Minnesota has heavily militarized, purchasing riot gear, less lethal weapons and ammunition, etc.
Law enforcement along the proposed route have billed thousands of hours of “overtime” to Enbridge, with Cass County alone billing 7,500 hours to the Enbridge escrow account in 3 months. Indigenous people and local Minnesota residents have reported heavy surveillance, targeted pullovers and harassment by law enforcement in connection with Line 3 resistance.
Water Protector Khalea said, “During Ferguson so many people came out and supported us, and I want to keep doing that… I am here for the liberation of all oppressed people, for the earth, for the liberation of all of our people, I am here to stand with Mother Earth and to protect the water and the wild rice and to stand with my Indigenous friends and loved ones as we all fight this collectively, we are all opposing these systems of oppression.”
Water Protector Alex said, “This is part of my responsibility as someone who is a guest on this land and as someone who faces the impacts of climate change. Enbridge lies.”
Water Protector Ishmaiah said, “I have spent the last several years fighting for the liberation in St. Louis, specifically Black St. Louis, and I see this as expanding and having a more holistic approach to what that fight can look like, because this land and this water touches us, and I think without that connection, grounding myself in the land and the water, doing solidarity with my Indigenous family, we can sometimes forget about the universal struggles around us.”
Water Protector Adam said, “We need people, we need bodies, to come up here and Stop Line 3. We need those of us who have benefitted from settler colonialism to put our bodies on the line and be in solidarity with Indigenous leadership to stop this construction.”
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