Author Archives: GJEP

by | 2014-11-12 · 11:15

Earth Watch: Clayton Thomas-Muller (with added video from his Bioneers talk)

Clayton Thomas-Muller talked with Margaret Prescod for KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show. Their focus was on the recent discoveries of RCMP surveillance of Thomas-Muller, who said that this surveillance and the criminalization of Indigenous dissent shows how high the stakes are right now in the fight between extractive industries and the Indigenous rights movement. Prescod rightly noted the link to COINTELPRO’s targeting of social movements in the US, in particular, activists of color.

Earth Watch is coordinated by GJEP in partnership with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show with Margaret Prescod.

As an added treat, here’s Clayton at the most recent Bioneers Conference talking about the broad based movement with Indigenous rights at the forefront that he’s helping build to challenge extractive industries and what he calls the Canadian petro-state government.

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Filed under Earth Radio, Earth Watch, Independent Media, Indigenous Peoples

by | 2014-11-07 · 13:59

Sign the petition to prevent GE trees from contaminating forests

With the Right to Know labeling movement in full swing, GMOs are making headlines in every major website and newspaper in the U.S. However, genetically engineering food isn’t the only way that industry is trying to sneak their modified plants into our lives.

Enter genetically engineered trees.

Companies like ArborGen, jointly owned by International Paper and MeadWestvaco among others, are pressuring congress and the USDA to give them permission to release billions of GE eucalyptus seedlings in vast plantations across the U.S. Teamed up with another false solution to climate change, bioenergy, these GE trees, also called GM trees or GMO trees, could invade our natural forests, altering them forever. Not to mention drying up ground water and causing massive firestorms.  It is time to say no to corporate greenwashing  and no to genetically engineered trees.

GE ecualyptus farms are a growing threat to biodiversity. This is a eucalyptus greenhouse in Brazil.  Photo: Anne Petermann/GJEP

To prevent GE trees from contaminating natural forests, the Campaign to STOP GE Trees is circulating a petition demanding the USDA ban ArborGen and other entities from selling/distributing GE trees and creating “frankentree” planations across the U.S. The USDA is set to make a draft decision any day now. The more signatures the Campaign gets, the greater the chance we have to stop GE trees.

Sign the Petition to Ban Genetically Engineered Trees

To Whom It May Concern, I demand that all petitions by GE tree company ArborGen to plant or sell their genetically engineered eucalyptus trees be rejected. In addition, I demand that all petitions to release dangerous GE trees into the environment be rejected as they are inherently destructive and the full extent of their social and ecological risks has not been assessed. Further, I demand the USDA ban planting GE trees and all such plantings of GE trees be banned outright.

Sign the petition!

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Filed under Biofuelwatch, GE Trees, Genetic Engineering, Synthetic Biology

by | 2014-11-05 · 15:00

Earth Watch: Maeve McBride on the VT sit-in to oppose the fracked gas pipeline project

On October 30th, Maeve McBride from 350 Vermont was interviewed by Margaret Prescod.

McBride was one of the organizers and media spokespeople for the Oct 27th occupation and sit-in of Vermont Governor Shumlin’s Office, opposing the fracked gas pipeline project and the build out of new fossil fuel infrastructure.

She was also one of the 64 protesters arrested that night at the governor’s office.

Earth Watch is coordinated by GJEP in partnership with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show with Margaret Prescod.

 

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Filed under Earth Radio, Earth Watch, Pipeline

by | 2014-10-29 · 14:00

Update: 64 Arrested at VT Governor’s Office, Demanding End to Pipeline

Montpelier, Vt. – Sixty-four people were arrested last night, after occupying Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin’s office for over six hours, demanding a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure and that the governor stop supporting a fracked gas pipeline in the western part of the state.

Half the group occupied the governor’s office, while the other half stayed in the main lobby of the building.  500 people attended a rally outside of the building, supporting the sit-in.

“We are fed up with a broken, unaccountable, and biased process that is ignoring the clear and present danger of expanding fossil fuel infrastructure so that Gaz Metro and International Paper can increase their profit margins,” said Jane Palmer, a landowner in Monkton along the Phase 1 pipeline route. “The Shumlin administration is ignoring the thousands of Vermonters, including impacted landowners and over 500 ratepayers, who know we can’t afford this project.”

Demonstrators from across the state are concerned that the Shumlin administration, including the Public Service Department, are promoting dirty fracked gas as a climate solution, despite the well known climate impacts of extracting and burning fracked gas.

Dr. Maeve McBride, coordinator of 350 Vermont, said, “Today, hundreds of grassroots Vermonters are sitting in to call for a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, including Vermont Gas/Gaz-Metro’s proposed fracked gas pipeline, and to demand energy and climate solutions that are transparent, accountable to our communities and put people and the planet first.  As the Governor said himself, these solutions need to come from the grassroots, not from the top down.”  McBride was among those arrested.

Supporting arguments made before the Public Service Board over the past two years, the demonstration focused on how, despite industry rhetoric, fracked gas may actually be worse for the climate than other fossil fuels.

“The science is clear – whether the goal is avoiding CO2 emissions or sparking a transition to an emissions-free energy system, the fracked gas boom and this pipeline are no substitute for ambitious energy and climate policies, weatherization, efficiency and decreased consumption,” said Dr. Rachel Smolker, a Hinesburg resident. “Once the gas bubble pops, ratepayers are going to be stuck with higher bills, paying the cost of this pipeline for years to come and still struggling to heat their homes.”

After police issued a final dispersal order, sixty-four people stayed in the building. All were removed from the building by Vermont State Police, and cited with criminal trespassing.

The coalition planning the event is also calling for a blockade at the Vermont Gas Pipeyard in Williston, Vt., this coming Saturday at 9 am.

Other Media

Aljazeera covered the event, including great photos reposted from Twitter.

Margaret Prescod will interview Dr. Maeve McBride on tomorrow’s Earth Watch Segment, which is coordinated by GJEP in partnership with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show with Margaret Prescod.

Maeve was one of the organizers and media spokespeople for Oct 27th occupation and sit-in of Vermont Governor Shumlin’s Office. Maeve was one of the 64 protesters arrested yesterday at the governor’s office opposing the fracked gas pipeline project and the build out of new fossil fuel infrastructure.

 

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Media, Pipeline

by | 2014-09-26 · 13:00

Another take on the UN Climate Summit Declaration on Forests

There’s been much in the news about the Declaration of Forests out of the UN Climate Summit. In this essay, Chris Lang of the REDD Monitor echoes criticisms made by GJEP Executive Director Anne Petermann about the lack of anything binding in the declaration. Lang adds to this criticism an interesting account of its process and further close reading of the declaration itself. Really useful and important work!

The New York Declaration on Forests: An agreement to continue deforestation until 2030
By Chris Lang, REDD-Monitor.org. September 26, 2014

By signing the New York Declaration on Forests, which was announced this week during the UN Climate Summit, governments, companies, civil society and indigenous organisations have endorsed “a global timeline to cut natural forest loss in half by 2020, and [will] strive to end it by 2030″.

The declaration has been fêted in the media. The Independent asks “Is this the end of the ‘war on trees’?”, Treehugger describes it as an “Ambitious plan to end forest loss”, and the Guardian announces that “UN climate summit pledges to halt the loss of natural forests by 2030″.

Read the whole article here!

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Filed under Climate Change, Forests, REDD

by | · 09:00

Langelle Photography opens new gallery, launches updated website

Concerned photography — it’s about doing more than just documenting the world; it’s about educating and changing the lives of those who live in it. Instead of just being a passive observer behind a camera, concerned photographers are active participants with a camera in hand.

That’s what international photojournalist and social and environmental activist Orin Langelle has been doing for decades. His newest exhibit, Climate Change: Faces, Places & Protest – photos from the front lines, kicks off the October 3 grand opening reception of ¡Buen Vivir!, a new climate and social justice themed art gallery in Buffalo, NY. The event is open to the public and will include wine, live music and hors d’oeuvres.

Gallery-Poster-CC

Langelle Photography, a project sponsored by the Global Justice Ecology Project, documents the “struggle for societal transformation toward justice, equity and ecological balance.” This new exhibit focused on climate change continues that piercing look into the ramifications of corporate green washing on both the land and people. Photos featured span 5 continents, and range from the aftermath of hurricanes to protests and demonstrations during UN Climate Conferences. Langelle Photography recently launched an updated website, as well as new Facebook and Twitter feeds. 

¡Buen Vivir! Gallery Opens in Buffalo, NY, on 3 October
by Langelle Photography, 1 September 2014

A new gallery in the historic Allentown district in Buffalo, NY, ¡Buen Vivir¡, opens its doors Friday 3 October 2014 with an exhibit “Climate Change: FACES PLACES & PROTEST – photos from the front lines,” that showcases more than two decades of work by photojournalist and gallery curator Orin Langelle.

The opening reception is on Friday, 3 October, from 6 to 9 p.m., and the exhibit closes on 19 December. The gallery is located at 148 Elmwood Avenue.

The climate crisis was chosen as the theme for the gallery opening due the impacts it has on communities, ecosystems and human rights struggles. The theme is also timely. The exhibit begins shortly after the 21 September climate march and the 23 September UN Climate Summit hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in New York City, and ends just after the UN Climate Conference and Peoples’ Climate Summit, in Lima, Peru in December.

Read the full article here.

 

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Filed under Climate Justice, Photo Essays by Orin Langelle

by | 2014-09-22 · 13:19

Climate: UN “Worse Than Useless” — Activists Take to Wall Street

MSNBC reports: “After historic climate march, supporters flood to Wall Street.” There is reportedly a massive police presence in downtown Manhattan, including Battery Park, where activists are now gathering. Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street protests began, has been sealed off.

 

MICHAEL PREMO, mpremo@gmail.com
An organizer with #FloodWallStreet, Premo is quoted by MSNBC: “Runaway climate change and extreme weather events, such as the extreme flooding that we saw here in New York City with Hurricane Sandy, are fueled by the fossil fuel industry. We are flooding Wall Street because we know that there’s no greater cause of runaway climate change than an economic system that puts profit before people – and before the planet.”
KEVIN ZEESE, kbzeese@gmail.com, @KBZeese
Zeese is an organizer of PopularResistance.org. He recently appeared on The Real News on the climate protests.
ANNE PETERMANN, globalecology@gmavt.net
Executive director of the Global Justice Ecology Project, which just released the report “Green Shock Doctrine” and runs the climate-connections.org blog, Peterman said today: “Yesterday’s march brought together a diverse mix of constituencies from anti-capitalists to Indigenous Peoples to representatives from communities impacted by climate change both in the U.S. and around the world. Each had their own set of demands, but the overarching theme was the need to build power from the grassroots and stop relying on governments and the UN to do this for us. Today hundreds to possibly a few thousand of these folks will be taking part in the Flood Wall Street direct action to bring attention to the real culprits of climate change, and to expose the corporate capture of the UN.”Peterman recently wrote the piece: “Confronting Climate Catastrophe: Direct Action is the Antidote for Despair: Or, Why the UN is Worse than Useless and we need to Flood Wall Street!“

PAUL QUINTOS, pquintos@iboninternational.org
Currently in New York City, Lauron and Quintos are with the Peoples’ Movement on Climate Change. See their most recent statement: “400,000-strong People’s Climate March on eve of summit.”Quintos notes that the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. He also states that it’s one of the most dangerous places for human rights defenders. He notes that the U.S. military tried to use typhoon Haiyan to re-establish U.S. military bases in the Philippines.

 

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

And here’s video:

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Justice

by | 2014-09-19 · 12:00

Two Earth Watches: Janet Redman and Anne Petermann on NYC Climate Events

On September 11, Janet Redman, director of the Climate Policy Program at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, was interviewed by Margaret Prescod about the upcoming events in NYC, including the NYC Climate Convergence, People’s Climate March, and the People’s Climate Justice Summit.


On 9/18, Anne Petermann, executive director of Global Justice Ecology Project, was interviewed also about her take on the NYC climate events, and added more about Flood Wall Street in particular. Listen to both here!

 

Earth Watch is coordinated by GJEP in partnership with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show with Margaret Prescod.

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Filed under Climate Justice, Earth Radio, Earth Watch