Monday, January 11, 2010

Funk the War

From Students for a Democratic Society:

Fossil Hawks are the war-making corporate climate criminals and the politicians who serve them. They are the mining companies, energy companies, weapons manufacturers, military logistics companies, and mercenaries who profit from resource wars and lobby to sabotage US and UN environmental regulation. They are diversified corporations and lobbies invested in war and environmental exploitation.


* Exxon is expanding natural gas operations using Halliburton's "fracking" process, poisoning North American aquifers while selling jet fuel to US forces bombing Afghanistan until it's "stable" enough for pipelines moving Caspian natural gas.

* Shell simultaneously profits from Iraqi oilfields and from the fuel US tanks burn to protect them while clear-cutting for tar sands in Alberta and lobbying for "Clean Coal" technology in DC.

* Caterpillar sells the same monstrous gas-guzzling D-9 bulldozers to Massey Coal for mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia that US tax dollars buy for Israeli Military demolition of Palestinian homes.

Last month, Fossil Hawks celebrated two great victories: the US-led failure of the Copenhagen climate summit and Obama's escalation of the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thanks to their aggressive lobbying, the world's worst CO2 emitters, companies like Shell and Exxon, are free from new international pollution regulations and stand ready to reap huge profits from Obama's expanding resource wars in the strategic oil and natural gas-rich warzones of the Middle East and Central Asia.

The importance of challenging the violence and treachery of corporate power is becoming increasingly clear to the Climate and Anti-War Movements. If we want to turn the tide of climate chaos and corporate resource imperialism, then 2010 must be a year of unprecedented cooperation between our movements in creative resistance against the Fossil Hawks.

>> What to do, what to do.

We're doing an action in DC later this month that we're calling "Funk the Warming" and we'd like to see other folks around the country taking on the Fossil Hawks by any funky means necessary.

We'd also like to hear your feedback on the idea. So, hit up the wall on our group or email us at funkthewar9@gmail.com

♥ + justice

the rebel funk armada

Monday, October 12, 2009

October 24th - 350 Day of Action

If you take part in only one climate protest in your life, it should be this one: October 24th - International Day of Climate Action

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Case for (and Against) Grass-fed Ruminants

Dearest Jeffie Poo II,

In response to your comment left many moons ago, I offer a link to this article on the environmental impacts of beef, both pastorally raised and otherwise. The article again sites Diet, Energy & Climate Change (PDF) as a primary source, and points out that grass-fed cows actually burp up more methane than corn-fed cows.

But global warming pollution isn't the only monster under the bed. As Eschel Gidons, co-author of Diet, Energy & Climate Change discusses with Grist: [Cow manure] could [...] reduce eutrophication of waterways caused by excess fertilizer runoff. "...Cows have this uncanny ability to recycle local nutrients. Pooping is one of their biggest talents. And that’s what we need of them, really.”

So cow pies, in small, well-distributed batches, have a role in sustainable food production. But if global green-house-gas emissions needed to peak by 2015 in order to not torch the Amazon or displace millions of people (which they must), in spite of an ever-growing, ever-richer, ever-more energy intensive world population, then we probably need to eat less cow.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Biggest Ever Protest on Global Warming at D.C. Coal Plant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 3, 2009

Advisory: Biggest Ever Civil Disobedience on Global Warming at Congressional Power Plant
1000+ Already Signed Up to Participate; Dr. James Hansen, Others to Protest Use of Coal

WASHINGTON— A national coalition of more than 40 environmental, public health, labor, social justice, faith-based and other advocacy groups today announce plans to engage in civil disobedience at the Capitol Power Plant in Washington D.C. on the afternoon of March 2, 2009. The Capitol Climate Action (CCA), the largest mass mobilization on global warming in the country’s history, reflects the growing public demand for bold action to address the climate and energy crises.

“The Capitol Climate Action comes not a moment too soon. For more than thirty years, scientists, environmentalists and people from all walks of life have urged our leaders to take action to stop global warming; and that action has yet to come,” said Dr. James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists. Dr. Hansen will join the protest. “Coal is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country and that must change. The world is waiting for the Obama administration and Congress to lead the way forward on this defining issue of our time. They need to start by getting coal out of Congress.”

The Capitol Power Plant, which is owned by Congress and sits just blocks from the American seat of power, burns coal to heat and cool numerous buildings on Capitol Hill. The facility no longer generates electricity but its reliance on coal – the country’s biggest source of global warming pollution and a documented health hazard – has made it the focus of political controversy and a powerful symbol of coal’s impact on the environment and public health.

“This demonstration marks the beginning of a sustained effort to draw a line in the sand against this dirty and dangerous fuel,” said Matt Leonard of Greenpeace, which is helping to organize the protest. “Our leaders cannot promise us a healthy and prosperous future as long as coal is polluting our soil, water and atmosphere.”

"We can no longer wait for the changes we know we can, and must, make today,” continued Rebecca Tarbotton of Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a lead sponsor of the action. “We’ve got to take the slogan ‘yes we can’ seriously. With a new administration and a new Congress, we have a window of opportunity to build a clean energy economy that will protect the health of our families, our climate and our future.”

The diversity of groups involved in the action reflects the number of people affected by global warming. Of all the fossil fuels, coal is the single biggest contributor to global warming. Burning coal cuts short at least 24,000 lives in the U.S. annually, inflicts catastrophic damage to the landscape and water supplies, and jeopardizes the lives of coal miners. Furthermore, the December coal ash spill in Tennessee makes it clear that there is no adequate means of safely storing coal combustion waste.

“As the impacts of global warming accelerate, thousands of people from all walks of life will join together in early March,” said Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN). “We will be participating in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful resistance, this time in the name of stopping the great moral wrong of climate change.”

In response to public pressure, the House of Representatives converted half of the plant’s fuel to cleaner natural gas. But attempts to remove coal from the fuel mix entirely have been blocked by powerful coal-state Senators Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

A recent University of Massachusetts study found investing in clean energy projects like wind power and mass transit creates three to four times more jobs than the same expenditure on the coal industry. The wind power sector has grown to employ more Americans than coal mining as demand for clean energy has jumped over the past decade.

For a list of sponsors and more information about the Capitol Climate Action, visit www.capitolclimateaction.org

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CONTACTS: Mike Crocker, Greenpeace USA Media Officer, 202-319-2471; Nell Greenberg, Communications Manager, Rainforest Action Network, 510-847-9777; Anne Havemann, Communications Director, CCAN, 240-396-2022

References:

“Reliance on Coal Sullies ‘Green the Capitol’ Effort.” Washington Post. April 21, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002128.html

“Dirty Air Dirty: Mortality and Health Damage Due to Pollution from Power Plants.” A Clean Air Task Force Report
http://www.catf.us/publications/reports/Dirty_Air_Dirty_Power.pdf

“Wind Jobs Outstrip the Coal Industry.” CNNMoney.com.
http://greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/01/28/wind-jobs-outstrip-the-coal-industry/