Tag: climate 2019

Elliston, VA: Pipeline Fighter Locks Onto Mountain Valley Pipeline Helicopter!

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pic via Appalachians Against Pipelines.

cross-posted from Appalachians Against Pipelines

Yesterday, a pipeline fighter has locked themselves to a Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) helicopter near Elliston, VA. The banner on the helicopter reads “DOOM TO THE PIPELINE.”

The pipeline fighter taking action, going by Squirrel, stated: “I took action today in an attempt to slow the construction of this destructive pipeline project. If completed, the MVP will ship billions of cubic feet of natural gas to be burned every single day. This pipeline will inevitably leak, and many natural gas pipelines have exploded, killing people and wildlife.

“In times such as these, with the catastrophic effects of global warming accelerating at an alarming pace, it is imperative to act now. The planet is in crisis, and the ruling class would rather continue the genocidal and ecologically destructive projects of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism, than address the largest existential threat in human history. It’s up to us to intervene — they won’t stop unless we make them stop. For a world and a future without exploitation, capitalism, and the destruction of the wild! No compromise!”

pic via Appalachians Against Pipelines

MVP uses helicopters for a few purposes, including surveillance and large scale hydroseeding. Hydroseeding is a process in which they drop proprietary pellets on the pipeline easement (and everywhere else they happen to hit within a mile or so) as part of their bogus, destructive attempt at “environmental remediation.” In 2018, MVP dropped “erosion control” pellets on Neal Laferriere’s organic farm Blackberry Botanicals in Summers County, WV, a quarter mile from the easement, hitting Neal’s children in the face and causing the family to lose their organic certification and livelihood. Hydroseeding has been proven worldwide to be incredibly damaging to native plant communities and long term ecosystem stability.

The action took place just down the road from the Yellow Finch tree sits, which have been preventing construction and defending some of the last remaining trees on the pipeline route for 398 days and counting!

DONATE to support Squirrel and the tree sits: bit.ly/supportmvpresistance

 

San Francisco: Strike for Climate Justice on September 25th!

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Cross-posted from Diablo Rising Tide

Strike for Climate Justice!

This September, millions of people will take collective action to demand climate justice.

Join us in San Francisco for a mass non-violent direct action on September 25th to confront the corporations and governments responsible for this crisis.

Wednesday Sept 25th: Direct Action – 7am at Montgomery & Market in downtown San Francisco

RSVP for the action!

DISRUPT: THE CLIMATE WRECKERS IN THEIR CORPORATE SUITES: We have identified and will take nonviolent direct action to disrupt key locations of climate of corporations, financial institutions and government offices along or near Montgomery St.We’re asking affinity groups to take nonviolent direct action and disrupt these locations.

CREATE: SOLUTIONS IN THE STREETS: We will paint 20 circular street murals of solutions to climate chaos and injustice along Montgomery St., together with music and popular education about solutions, transforming “Wall St West” (Montgomery St) into a positive vision of solutions. There is a Bay Area tradition of large scale community street murals for climate justice, culminating last Sept in 50 street murals of solutions in the streets around SF Civic Center.

We are asking affinity groups–and mural teams from our communities–to commit to one mural. Music and education is also encouraged along the streets.

SUSTAIN: We will not just show up for an hour or two, but like other catalytic climate justice actions around the world. We will sustain our action for the full workday, beginning at 7am and continuing to 5pm. The public is invited to join us.

The first KICK OFF MEETNG for the September 25th “Strike for Climate Justice” will be September 4th at the Omni Commons in Oakland. Details here.

Read the full Call to Action here.

Initiated by Idle No More SF Bay, Extinction Rebellion SF Bay, Diablo Rising Tide, 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations, and the Society of Fearless Grandmothers

For more info: https://www.climatejusticesf.org/

Guardian: Climate activists plan Washington DC protest to ‘disrupt workings of power’

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Cross-posted from the Guardian

Climate activists plan Washington DC protest to ‘disrupt workings of power

Local groups join together for an event that seeks to shut down traffic on 23 September, during the UN Climate Action Summit

Climate activists will escalate their protests next month in Washington DC, seeking to shut down traffic with blockades at key intersections to bring attention to the intensifying crisis.

Several local groups are planning the action for 23 September, as youth leaders call for a global strike and a week of action. Hundreds of events are planned, with more than 100 of them in the US, organizers said.

Patrick Young, a 35-year-old who works with the group Rising Tide called the protest “a big ambitious plan to disrupt business as usual”.

“The level of frustration with the inaction of political leaders and corporations on the climate crisis is just really boiling over,” Young said.

Rising Tide North America is joining other local organizers with Extinction Rebellion DC, 350 DC, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Friends Meeting of Washington’s Social Concerns Committee, Movement for a People’s Party and Code Pink.

The groups are announcing their broad plans – without disclosing strategic details – as the 16-year-old Swedish youth climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives in New York via boat for plans to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

A call-to-action document for Shut Down DC highlights worsening superstorms, floods, droughts, and wildfires, and notes that they unevenly hurt people with low incomes and people of color.

“We do not take this action lightly. We know that this shutdown will cause massive disruption to people who bear little responsibility for the climate catastrophe we are facing. But we will also cause massive disruption for politicians, huge corporations and the lobbyists who control our government,” the groups say.

Extinction Rebellion in July glued themselves to doorways to attempt to block lawmakers from entering the US capitol building.

Sean Haskett, a 24-year-old who protests with the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said he was most inspired by the UN report warning the world has 11 years to take significant steps required to avoid climate catastrophe.

Haskett said protestors want to “disrupt the workings of power”.

“There’s a tremendous amount of power that drives through those streets and parks next to those sidewalks and walks into those buildings,” he said. “We want them to think about what they’re doing with that power.”

Organizers say the Shut Down DC day is attracting people they’ve never seen protest.

Amanda Trebach, who worked for a clean energy company before going to nursing school, is recruiting other health professionals to join her through her union, National Nurses United.

She is a 33-year-old stroke and neurology nurse at Medstar Washington Hospital Center, where she says she sees an uptick in heat-related illnesses. On a recent day in Baltimore, she said she saw a man die of what appeared to be heat stroke while he was waiting for an ambulance.

She said her coworkers have been talking about the news of fires burning down the forests in the Amazon in Brazil.

“The crisis is just escalating so quickly – people are talking about it more so people are more open to doing things like this,” Trebach said. “Things need to change, and things need to change so quickly that we can’t have business as usual.”