Category Archives: Tar Sands

by | 2012-03-22 · 15:45

KPFK Earth Segment: Marty Cobenais of IEN on Obama’s Keystone Pipeline reversal and ETC Group’s Jim Thomas on the threat of synthetic biology

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod and the Sojourner Truth show at KPFK Pacifica in Los Angeles for weekly Earth Segments and weekly Earth Minutes.

This week’s Earth Segment features Marty Cobenais of Indigenous Environmental Network giving IEN’s perspective on Obama’s Keystone pipeline reversal, and Jim Thomas of ETC Group on the threat to communities of synthetic biology, and the upcoming public forum Unmasking the Bay Area Bio-labs and Synthetic Biology: Health, Justice and Communities at Risk.

To listen to the Earth Segment, click on the link below and scroll to minute  42:00:

http://www.archive.org/details/Sojournertruthradio032212

Comments Off on KPFK Earth Segment: Marty Cobenais of IEN on Obama’s Keystone Pipeline reversal and ETC Group’s Jim Thomas on the threat of synthetic biology

Filed under Climate Change, Climate Justice, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Genetic Engineering, Green Economy, Media, Synthetic Biology, Tar Sands

by | 2012-03-21 · 13:30

Last Week’s Earth Minute: Indigenous Blockade of the Tar Sands–in Colorado

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod’s Sojourner Truth show on KPFK–Pacifica Los Angeles radio show for a weekly Earth Minute on Tuesdays and a weekly 12 minute Environment Segment every Thursday.

Go to the link below and scroll to minute 30:04 to listen to this week’s Earth Minute:

KPFK Earth Minute Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Text from this week’s Earth Minute:

On March 10th, Members of the Stop Suncor and Tar Sands Coalition, including the American Indian Movement and other groups, occupied the site of a Suncor Energy oil spill on the shore of Colorado’s Sand Creek.

Suncor Energy boasts of being the first corporation to begin extracting the tar sands in Athabasca, leading to the deforestation of thousands of square miles of Boreal forest and the destruction of First Nations cultures. Suncor produces more than 90,000 barrels of oil per day at its refinery in Commerce City, Colorado.

Tessa McLean of the American Indian Movement said, “the oil that’s being spilled here came from Athabasca, a First Nations community. My people up are suffering there because of the oil we’re refining here.”

Deanna Meyer of Deep Green Resistance Colorado added, “Suncor has so poisoned this land that oil is bubbling up through numerous burst sub-surface pipelines.  Benzene levels in this water—that fish, ducks, geese, beavers and other beings depend on—are 100 times the safety limit.”

While the spill was first reported last November 27th, it is believed to have begun in February 2011.

Comments Off on Last Week’s Earth Minute: Indigenous Blockade of the Tar Sands–in Colorado

Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Earth Minute, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Pollution, Tar Sands

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | 2012-01-19 · 18:52

Radio Hour: Keystone XL Pipeline Decision, Analysis of the Durban Disaster, Preparing for Rio+20

The KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show on January 19th hosted a special hour-long Earth Segment devoted to discussing the announcement of the Obama Administration that it was rejecting the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline, as well as analyzing the outcomes of last month’s UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa, and what comes next for the climate change movement with the Rio+20 Earth Summit to be held in Rio de Janiero in June.

Speakers on the show included Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network, Teresa Almaguer, Youth Program Director at PODER!, a member of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, and Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project.

To listen to the hour-long show, go to: Sojourner Truth show Jan 19, 2012

Global Justice Ecology Project and the Sojourner Truth show partner each week for an Earth Minute every Tuesday and an Environmental Segment every Thursday.

Comments Off on Radio Hour: Keystone XL Pipeline Decision, Analysis of the Durban Disaster, Preparing for Rio+20

Filed under Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Climate Justice, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Indigenous Peoples, Rio+20, Tar Sands, UNFCCC

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | 2012-01-18 · 16:15

KPFK Sojourner Truth Show Special One Hour Reportback from Durban Climate Talks Thursday (19 Jan.)

Tune in to KPFK Los Angeles’ Sojourner Truth show Thursday morning (19 January) at 7am Pacific US, 10am Eastern US and GMT-8 to listen to a special hour-long reportback from the UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa plus the latest on the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Also, what is the state of the environmental movement and what is the way forward. 

Guests on the show will include:

• Pablo Solón, former Ambassador to the UN for the Plurinational State of Bolivia

• Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network

• Teresa Almaguer, Youth Program Director, PODER!, a member of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

• Anne Petermann, Executive Director, Global Justice Ecology Project

The host of the Sojourner Truth show is Margaret Prescod.

To listen to the show live, go to: http://www.kpfk.org/listen-live.html

To listen to the archived show after the broadcast is over, go to: http://archive.kpfk.org/ and click on the “Sojourner Truth show” from Thursday, 19 January.

Global Justice Ecology Project and the Sojourner Truth show partner each week for an Earth Minute every Tuesday and an Environmental Segment every Thursday.

Comments Off on KPFK Sojourner Truth Show Special One Hour Reportback from Durban Climate Talks Thursday (19 Jan.)

Filed under Carbon Trading, Climate Change, False Solutions to Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Tar Sands, UNFCCC

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | 2011-11-30 · 13:48

Live from South Durban: Indigenous activists from North America join African activists to target Shell

South Durban, South Africa, across the city from the conference center where thousands of UN delegates debate climate change solutions, is home to the second largest petrochemical complex in Africa. Like petrochemical plants around the world, South Durban is a site of daily climate crimes and massive community health problems from toxic releases, explosions, fires and workplace accidents and hazards. The asthma rate among schoolchildren is a staggering 80 percent. Two months before COP17 convened here, a refinery explosion and fire caused 100 children at a nearby school to be hospitalized with burns and acute skin and respiratory issues. Engen, the petrochemical Company responsible, responded by donating 100 new uniforms to the school. A second explosion occurred two days before COP17 began.

As National delegates to the climate conference down the road negotiate, for the seventeenth straight year, over how to “leverage funds” and build “private sector engagement” to make a transition to a “green economy” and “climate friendly development,” here is what a handful of North American Indigenous People and their African allies have to say about the cost of ongoing fossil fuel development, which shows no sign of abating.

For more in-depth note, see the previous post. For the street-level view, watch the short videos below.

– Jeff Conant, for GJEP

Daniel T’seleie, K’asho Got’ine Forst Nation, Fort Good Hope, Canada:

Ben Powless, Mohawk from Canada:

Nnimmo Bassey of Nigeria, Chair of Friends of the Earth International and Director of Environmental Rights Action:

 

Comments Off on Live from South Durban: Indigenous activists from North America join African activists to target Shell

Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Indigenous Peoples, Pollution, Tar Sands, UNFCCC

by | 2011-11-18 · 16:30

GJEP on KPFK Pacifica Los Angeles This Week: Climate Change, Forests, and the Keystone Pipeline

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod’s Sojourner Truth show on KPFK–Pacifica Los Angeles radio show for a weekly Earth Minute on Tuesdays and a weekly 12 minute Environment Segment every Thursday.

This week’s Earth Minute discusses the impacts of climate change on bark beetles, which are wiping out vast expanses of conifer forests in North America.  On this week’s Earth Segment, Kari Fulton, of Environmental Justice Climate Change discusses the recent announcement that the decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would be  “postponed.”

Text from this week’s Earth Minute:

At the upcoming UN climate conference in Durban South Africa later this month, protecting forests will once again being looked to as the solution to climate change.  Meanwhile a tiny beetle, assisted by warming temperatures, is devouring coniferous forests across North America.

Since the 1990s, bark beetles have killed 30 billion trees in North America. Climate change is expanding the range of the beetles and increasing their numbers, while human activities–such as wildfire prevention and logging the best and strongest trees–has further assisted the beetle epidemic.

But instead of stepping back to evaluate what’s causing this forest crisis, the timber industry is moving ahead with plans to turn these trees into wood chips to be shipped around the globe for so-called “renewable” electricity production.  While this will supposedly help replace fossil fuels and mitigate climate change, it will also result in bark beetles spreading into and destroying new conifer forests–which will, in turn, worsen climate change.

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth show, this is Anne Petermann from Global Justice Ecology Project.

To listen to the Earth Minute, Click here: earth-minute-11_15_11

To Listen to the Earth Segment with Kari Fulton of Environmental Justice Climate Change being interviewed about the recent Keystone XL Pipeline decision, click here and scroll to minute 48:45.

Comments Off on GJEP on KPFK Pacifica Los Angeles This Week: Climate Change, Forests, and the Keystone Pipeline

Filed under Climate Change, Earth Minute, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Natural Disasters, Posts from Anne Petermann, Tar Sands, UNFCCC

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | 2011-11-08 · 14:01

Earth Minute: White House Protest Against the Tar Sands: Honor Treaties–Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod’s Sojourner Truth show on KPFK–Pacifica Los Angeles radio show for a weekly Earth Minute on Tuesdays and a weekly 12 minute Environment Segment every Thursday.

This week’s Earth Minute discusses the Indigenous Peoples’ protest against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project that occurred in Washington DC on Sunday, November 6th.  To listen to this week’s Earth Minute, click here.

Text from this week’s Earth Minute:

This past Sunday, thousands of people traveled to the White House to protest the massive pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from the devastated boreal forests of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama will decide if the pipeline project can proceed in early 2012.

While the US is obligated to honor the Treaties it made with the Lakota and other indigenous nations, there has been virtually no consultation regarding the environmental impact of this massive pipeline that would endanger their lands.

At the DC rally, Cree/Métis Tantoo Cardinal, stated, “I was raised in the Fort McMurray area, the heart of the current tar sands projects. We are all protectors of the land and water. If you were to see with your own eyes the incredible destruction of our ecosystem, you’d understand that blind greed is destroying our land, water, and way of life.”

If approved, US based Native Nations in solidarity with First Nations from Canada have sworn to stop the pipeline.

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth show, this is Anne Petermann from Global Justice Ecology Project.

Comments Off on Earth Minute: White House Protest Against the Tar Sands: Honor Treaties–Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

Filed under Actions / Protest, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Earth Minute, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Posts from Anne Petermann, Tar Sands, Water

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | 2011-09-08 · 15:45

Challenge Oprah Winfrey’s Support for Tar Sands Thursday Sept 8

Note: This action alert comes from Clayton Thomas Muller.  Clayton is on GJEP’s Board and is the Tar Sands Campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network

Oprah Winfrey has had Ethical Oil ads running on her Network OWN promoting tar sands as the ethical choice to middle eastern oil.

Tune in to Facebook Live (http://on.fb.me/fblivehq) on Thursday, September 8 at 1:30 PM PT / 4:30 PM ET for a live discussion with Oprah Winfrey.

Lets get as many people logged in to deluge her on how inaccurate the argument is and why there is nothing Ethical about Tar Sands!

Fcebook groups for event:http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=251369618236031

background article from Desmog Blog: http://www.desmogblog.com/open-letter-oprah-winfrey-ethical-oil-ads

–Clayton-IEN Tar Sands Team

To listen to Clayton’s Interview about the tar sands on KPFK today, click here

Comments Off on Challenge Oprah Winfrey’s Support for Tar Sands Thursday Sept 8

Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Justice, Tar Sands

Tagged as , , ,