Tag: climate justice

#GulfSouthRising Remembers and Resists BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster

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Today we remember and resist.

Five years ago BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. 11 workers were killed and oil gushed into the Gulf for 87 days. This remains the largest accidental oil disaster in human history.

Today, Gulf South Rising—with representatives from across the region—are holding a memorial at BP’s headquarters in Houston, Texas. This afternoon, they will march in New Orleans to demand BP must stop lying and pay for what it’s done. BP must admit the oil remains in the Gulf region and continues to damage communities and ecosystems. BP must pay for the billions in health and environmental damages they caused.

Will you stand in solidarity with Gulf South Rising? There are two ways you can help right now.

  1. Give a shout out to #GulfSouthRising by sharing this photo from the march on BP headquarters to Facebook and Twitter right now!
    Make BP Pay
  2. Donate. Gulf South Rising is organizing powerful communities for climate justice in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. They are in it for the long haul and need your support.

Gulf South Rising are throwing down big this week.

The BP Week of Action will stage events in more than 13 cities culminating in at the BP Headquarters in Houston On April 20. Gulf South Rising is demanding BP must stop lying and pay what it owes from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest oil disaster in history. 

Five years since the beginning of the BP oil disaster, the Gulf’s people and wildlife continue to reel from the impacts of BP’s negligence: health problems from exposure to oil and toxic chemical dispersants, diminished seafood populations that sustain local communities, disrupted ecosystems and wildlife die-offs.

Gulf South Rising is a regional movement organizing coordinated actions and events to highlight the impact of the global climate crisis. The BP Week of Action could be their most important effort yet.

In their own words, “Gulf coast residents are banding together and rising up to call for the restoration of our Gulf communities, cultures and environment. BP must stop lying and pay what they owe. The oil and gas industry must be held accountable for their ongoing desecration of our bioregion, and ultimately we must work towards a just transition to a more sustainable clean energy economy.”

Support climate resistance in the Gulf Coast region. Donate to Gulf South Rising today.

 

Rising Tide North America Rocked The House In 2014!

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Wow. What a year.RisingTideSeaSept

 We took amazing action. Not only did we shake things up with direct action against the fossil fuel industries, but also worked with frontline communities most impacted by extraction in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.. Whether it’s blockading pipelines and oil trains or organizing training camps to educate the next generation of climate activist, we’ve truly been rocking the house to make a better world possible.

 Can you donate to Rising Tide North America to “rock the house” in 2015?

 Here’s just a taste of the things we did in 2014:

  • In the western region of the continent, our chapters in Seattle, Portland, British Columbia, Utah and elsewhere have led actions against fossil fuel infrastructure. Whether it’s been train blockades in Washington or Oregon, or  civil disobedience against the tar sands in Utah, Rising Tide has modeled a new level of resistance across the continent.

  • From Vermont to Cove Point, Maryland, Rising Tide groups and affiliates  have organized fierce disruptive campaigns to stop fracking infrastructure throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.  As the gas industry attempts to expand their pipelines and export terminals, we mobilize to stop them.

  • In New York City, in the wake of the massive People’s Climate March, Rising Tide activists, organizers and trainers joined with climate activists around the world to Flood Wall Street.  We successfully helped organize a massive occupation of New York’s financial district truly taking the fight to one of the root causes of climate change–Wall Street and it’s investments in oil, gas and coal!

  • And finally, beginning last March, our chapter in Mexico, Marea Creciente, launched La Caravana Climatica that traveled from Northern Mexico the United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru this month. While traveling in Ecuador, they had their bus confiscated and are targeted by the authorities on trumped up charges.  Despite this government oppression, the group made it to Lima to denounce extraction and industry in Lima.

Can you help us bring more of the same in 2015?seattle

We’re an all-volunteer network of activists and have done a lot this year. Now we need your support to keep going in 2015.

Can you give $5, $10 or $50 to support us in 2015?

Thanks for all you do.

Solidarity,

Rising Tide North America

Build The Climate Justice Movement In 2015

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There is good news for the climate. And there is bad news for the climate. 15321845232_dabd18f6cd_o

The good news is that movements for climate justice and action are growing. From the Pacific Northwest to the eastern plateau of Utah to Vermont and the streets of New York, we’ve mobilized against the fossil fuel industry, the big money behind it and the politicians that love it. We’ve blocked oil trains in Seattle and Oregon. We joined in actions against the first U.S. tar sands mine in Utah. We’ve launched powerful and effective campaigns against fracking from Vermont to Maryland.

In late September, we joined Flood Wall Street to occupy New York City’s financial district with 3,000 people. And we’ve been critical in supporting current organizing in St. Louis, British Columbia and Mexico around Ferguson, Burnaby Mountain and the United Nations Climate talks in Lima, Peru. Furthermore, seeking to connect the dots between climate change and social justice, we have built a network throughout North America that has not only fought on the frontlines of climate change, racial injustice and capitalism.

Rising Tide North America has been central to building these movements.

Can you make a donation to support Rising Tide North America?

Unfortunately, the bad news is that our movements are not growing fast enough. And we need more to happen sooner rather than later.

The most recent round of climate talks in Lima, Peru resulted in a draft agreement that removed all hard targets for cuts in carbon emissions. Government leaders have once again delayed goals on emissions cuts until the next round of talks in Paris in 2015. In North America, oil companies, coal companies and gas companies are constantly creating new extraction project. For every pipeline or coal mine shutdown, the industry moves to open more. The reality is that carbon must remain in the ground and only social movements are pushing back against fossil fuels.

Now, we MUST go bigger and bolder to make resistance and disruption more widespread. And we need you to help us do it.

We need you to donate and help us make these movements bigger and bolder. Whether its $5, $50 or $500, we’ll take whatever you can give. We’re a small all-volunteer network of activists and our primary base of support is you.

Please donate and help us fight for climate justice in 2015

Thanks for all you do.

For the Earth and the people on it,

Rising Tide North America

Dispatch From Lima: Climate Justice At COP20

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peruCross-posted from chriseaton [dot] net

Dear ones and fellow travelers,

I arrived safely in Lima Wednesday night, but even before I got here the grave challenges and inspiring opportunities of the COP20 United Nations climate negotiations had set into full swing. I’m traveling here on behalf of Rising Tide North America to organize actions and communications for climate justice.

La Caravana Climatica

On Tuesday Ecuadoran police repeatedly harassed our friends with the Caravana Climática (Climate Caravan) as they headed to Peru on the last leg of their journey. In the middle of the night the police seized their converted school bus!

The Caravana Climática had traveled all the way from Northern Mexico to Ecuador without problems. Along the way they worked with and recorded the voices of dozens communities fighting for climate justice. In Ecuador, The Caravana teamed up with YASunidos, a collective fighting oil extraction in Yasuni National Park in the Amazon. It seems that the Ecuadoran government wants to prevent YASunidos from rallying around their struggle in Lima and making sure the world knows that the only way to build a just and sustainable future is to keep the oil in the ground!

The bus might remain in custody for 7 days but the Ecuadoran government unleashed an outcry. YASunidos, the Caravana and its allies quickly created a social media storm exposing Ecuador’s political oppression. We we’re even able to reach out to Democracy Now! and make sure this embarrassment does not escape international attention.

Will you help protect the Yasuni by watching and share Democracy Now’s short segment found at the following link?

Members of YASunidos and the Caravana will not be deterred. They’ve continued on by other means and will join us today in Lima.

CasActiva

Here in Lima, the climate justice movement is set by frustration and possibility. I spent my first full day Yesterday at the CasActiva convergence space. The space, organized by Peruvian and Bolivian youth activists with Tierra Activa, is now full of beautiful art and art making and has at least four (four!) wifi routers to help activists organize and communicate out to the world.

Last night, a climate justice assembly gathered at the space. Real frustration, even agony was present. NGO allies with observer status inside the UN negotiations reported that the negotiations we’re not going well. Emissions targets are weak. Rich nations won’t discuss technology transfer and fight to use climate funds to make our planet even less hospitable with increased border patrol and even coal plants. Carbon traders and petrol states are pushing hard for false solutions like carbon capture and storage.

The potential for a terrible international climate agreement sparked a impassioned debate in the assembly. A woman from the Philippines—whose country might face another super-typhoon this week—asked when is it time to say enough, and work to discredit the UN. Another comrade from Madagascar responded that UN is discrediting itself but we need to fight for nations with no historical responsibility for climate change. Compañeros from La Caravána Climatica its time to make clear that local movements will fight for the real solutions to climate change, keeping oil in the ground, community protected forests, and ensuring water is a common good for all and not a commodity for corporate industries.

One clear sentiment emerged from out of this frustration and debate: the global climate justice movement must be more than the United Nations. Think about that, what would it mean to be more than the United Nations? To me, these are the central questions of Lima. What is the global climate movement? What unites us? And since a compromised UN process will never be enough (or even worse than nothing), what will our global movements create for ourselves?

In Solidarity,

chris