Ten years in prison? Your career? Or just your permanent record?

A little over two years ago, our friend and comrade Tim DeChristopher put it all on the line when he entered a federal auction and derailed it so that oil and gas companies could not destroy the planet.

Tim is now facing ten years in prison on two felony charges for stopping that illegal sale of public land. Furthermore, federal prosecutors have decided to make an example of Tim, so that anyone speaking out or taking effective action to save their community or the planet will be intimidated into staying home.

Rising Tide North America is proudly standing with Tim DeChristopher, and anyone else who takes bold action in the defense of the planet. At his trial on Feb. 28, we’re joining Tim’s group and Rising Tide affiliate, Peaceful Uprising as they mobilize outside the courthouse in solidarity with Tim.

If you able to join us, please come to Salt Lake City for the Uprising Summit on Feb 25-27 and Tim’s trial on Feb 28. If you can’t join us, consider organizing a solidarity action in support of Tim in your home town.

Thanks for all your support.

]]> http://www.beyondtalk.net/2011/02/what-would-you-risk-to-save-the-planet/feed/ 0 http://www.beyondtalk.net/2010/11/take-action-to-support-the-youth-people%e2%80%99s-assembly-in-canadian-parliament/ http://www.beyondtalk.net/2010/11/take-action-to-support-the-youth-people%e2%80%99s-assembly-in-canadian-parliament/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:47:04 +0000 deadlyvine http://www.beyondtalk.net/?p=511

The 5 demands for Climate Justice:

Come learn how peaceful civil disobedience can help defend our climate at the Greenpeace Climate Action Camps in Toronto, Montreal and the Edmonton Area. If we don’t act, millions will suffer.

Each camp will be an intensive three-day training session to help prepare participants to gain grassroots organizing skills, and training in Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA) to stop the growing climate crisis.

Participants will be trained on the following topics:
•    Climate change & climate justice
•    History of civil disobedience
•    Environmental justice and anti-oppression
•    Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA) theory and practice
•    Action planning and decision-making,
•    Affinity groups
•    Campaign planning and powermapping
•    Working with the media
•    Know your rights, legal briefing

At the camp you will meet other participants ready to take action. The training will be provided by experienced grassroots organizers, and NVDA trainers, and will be open to those who have previously done activism, NVDA and/or Civil Disobedience, or have little or no experience but want to learn more!

We’ll be learning how to plan and implement activities that will RAISE THE ALARM ABOUT THE GROWING CLIMATE CRISIS. Whether you’re joining as an individual or part of a group, this camp affords an opportunity to meet and join others wanting to get active on climate change and create just and healthy communities for the future.

So what are you waiting for?!

Contact: Eryn

for more info about how to register in your area…

• TORONTO – June 4-6 DONE! and it rocked
• EDMONTON AREA – September 24-26 APPLICATION HERE! Due Sept. 20 at Midnight MST
• MONTREAL (Bilingual) – October 15-17 Application coming soon

At a recent climate camp in North America, activists began collecting signatures for a tar sands pledge of resistance.  We invite you to sign on to commit to action against a fossil fuel pipeline and pumping project (”Trailbreaker”) that may bring tar sands bitumen through infrastructure across several American states and Canadian provinces.  If we cannot overturn these industry plans, tar sands bitumen will be sent through Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Vermont, and Maine — before tankers bring this sludge to the Gulf Coast of Texas!

These and other tar sands operations amount to the single-most destructive and unsustainable project on earth.  (See this brief H2oil segment for an excellent introduction.)

Just north of Vermont, over 200 people recently joined the resistance as they passed through the Quebec Climate Action Camp in Dunham. The camp was erected to strengthen growing resistance toward the construction of a pumping station, which would be part of the Enbridge Trailbreaker project, cutting across the community. At the end of the climate camp, activists and community members launched the next step in the campaign against dirty oil’s eastward expansion: a Pledge of Resistance. Activists in the region around the climate camp will continue creating a broad network of community members and supporters to educate about the dangers of the Trailbreaker project, and take action to stop it.

—

The Quebec Climate Camp Pledge of Resistance

Enbridge and the Portland Montreal Pipeline’s proposed pumping station threatens the health, water, environment and lands of the people of Dunham and the region.

The pumping station, part of Enbridge’s Trailbreaker pipeline project, is intended to carry dirty oil from the most environmentally destructive enterprise in human history, the Alberta tar sands.

The companies and government-backers behind this proposed pumping station are ignoring community wishes and concerns, including demands for an independent environmental assessment.

The community has never consented to the project. All along the trail of the pipeline, opposition is growing.

Between August 7 and 23, 2010, community members joined forces with supporters from across Quebec, Canada, and North America to hold a Climate Action Camp. to strengthen the campaign against the Trailbreaker. We gathered to educate, create new ties, and mobilize a diverse movement to stop oil companies from polluting our communities and contributing to climate catastrophe.

Because of the grave threat the Trailbreaker project poses to the climate, the community and all others in its path, we pledge to engage in non-violent direct action to stop the pumping station should they ever attempt to follow through with its construction without community consent.

Sign now!

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While this trail breaking pledge is local, the context and needed responses are global, with connections to your home.  There are many points of intervention against tar sands infrastructure, but we also must form a united front!

As you may recall, a lively protest took place on the streets of Chicago’s financial district last November 30, on the 10th anniversary of the “Battle of Seattle” and a week ahead of the big UN climate summit in Copenhagen.  Several groups from across the city had come together to demand just, equitable, and effective solutions to the climate crisis, starting with the shut-down of the Crawford and Fisk coal plants in Chicago’s Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods.  The November 30th (N30) event also targeted “false solutions” to climate change like carbon trading, nukes and agrofuels, and was part of a national day of action for climate justice.

Now, the city has decided to charge these folks $8,340, with a deadline of mid-August to pay the fines.

Please help us raise the funds we need by donating what you can!

Following visits to several local “climate criminals,” including JP Morgan Chase (one of the leading funders of mountain top removal coal mining), Midwest Generation (the owner of Chicago’s two coal-fired power plants), and the Board of Trade (which trades in palm oil, one of the leading drivers of rainforest destruction), the N30 march arrived at the main target, the Chicago Climate Exchange.

The Chicago Climate Exchange is the first and largest carbon trading institution in North America.  Carbon Trading is a system of trading in carbon that intensifies social injustice, does not reduce emissions in a meaningful way, results in more pollution and more displacement for communities on the ground, and acts as a dangerous distraction from the real climate solutions we urgently need.  (It does succeed in making a bunch of money for big polluters and their cohorts.)  Unfortunately, participation in this fraudulent market has become the primary way that governments, corporations, and mainstream environmental groups have attempted to “solve” the climate crisis.

To draw attention to carbon trading as a false solution, 12 people locked their arms together in lockboxes, formed a large circle, and took over the intersection of Adams and LaSalle, outside the offices of the Chicago Climate Exchange, for several hours, encircling a banner that read, “Chicago Climate Exchange – the Air is Not for Sale!”  (Check out photos and video from the action at http://howgreenischicago.org.)

Now, the city has decided to charge these folks $8,340, with a deadline of mid-August to pay the fines.  We need your support!!  Please consider donating whatever you can to support the N30 defendants.  Throw a benefit party, pass a hat, sell some cupcakes — it all adds up!

You can donate online below,  or send a check payable to LVEJO with “N30 Legal Defense” in the memo line to:

LVEJO – Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

2856 S. Millard Ave.

Chicago, IL 60623

Thank you!  All donations are much appreciated!!!

Love,

The Climate Exchange 12

Please help us raise the funds we need by donating what you can!

A coalition of environmental activists led by GatewaySucks.org is calling on climate change activists to join the convergence at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

When the 2010 Winter Olympics start a couple of weeks from now in Vancouver, BC the athletes and spectators will be joined by organizations with some of the worst records on climate change.

General Motors is a national partner for the games, and one of the leading corporate opponents of effective action on climate change. Only two years ago, a vice-chairman of GM called global warming a “total crock of shit.” GM is supplying a large fleet of vehicles for the games, almost all of which are gas-guzzling SUVs.

Petro-Canada, another National Olympic Partner, is the retail arm of the largest extractor of Oil Sands bitumen. The Oil Sands are Canada’s biggest ghg emissions point source.

RBC (the Royal Bank of Canada) in addition to being a prominent Olympic sponsor is the largest commercial bank funder of the Oil Sands,. TransCanada pipelines, whose pipelines connect to the Oil Sands, is also an official supplier.

The government of British Columbia is the main funder and promoter of the games. They kicked off a massive plan to add over 1,000 km of new highway lanes (an increase of over 2,000,000 annual tonnes of CO2e emissions ) with the Sea-to-Sky Highway expansion for the Olympics. These plans include the controversial Gateway Program. It continues to heavily subsidize the oil and gas industry which resulted in it being the only Canadian province to see ghg emissions from industrial sources increase in 2008.

The Federal government of Canada which consistently earned “Fossil Awards” at the most recent international climate talks also is a major funder for the Olympics.

These corporations and governments want to fool the world with their claim that these are the “Greenest Games Ever” despite the links to climate change deniers, highway expansion and the Oil Sands.

If you would like to endorse this call-out and the welcoming committee event please contact info@gatewaysucks.org.

MORE INFORMATION:

Convergence Info: http://olympicresistance.net/

Welcoming Committee: http://2010welcoming.wordpress.com/

Green Olympic Watch: http://2010greenwatch.org/

GatewaySucks.org: http://www.gatewaysucks.org/

2010 Climate Crime Scene: http://2010climatecrime.org

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