see also Earth First Call for Action and G Ate My Planet.
July 15th 2006 -- Direct Action for Climate Justice
International Day of Direct Action against Climate Change and the G8 Rise Up Against G8 Policies Target Fossil Fuel Industries in Your Town or Bioregion
On July 15th, the "Group of 8" (G8) industrialized countries will gather in St. Petersburg, Russia to plot their continued commodification and domination of the planet, this time under the euphemistic banner of "Energy Security." A leaked G8 "Communique on Energy Security" calls for trillions of dollars in new investments in oil, gas and coal production worldwide, plus wide-scale global expansion of nuclear energy. With runaway climate change* looming just over the horizon, such neoliberal business-as-usual poses a direct threat to the continuation of life on Earth as we know it. Resistance is self defense. The G8 agenda promotes petroleum-dependent "Energy Security" that pollutes our land and atmosphere, exploits poor and indigenous communities, and scorches the Earth's climate. Their recipe for disaster must be met with our massive global dissent!
July 15th will be an International Day of Action Against Climate Change. As G8 energy ministers promise trillions in new subsidies to the industries destroying our planet and our future, we will take action to shut them down! This is a call for autonomous, decentralized actions appropriate for your town, city, or bioregion. Use this international day of action to support local struggles against oil refineries, gas pipelines, strip mines and coal-fired power plants. Disrupt the financial backers of the fossil fuel industry. Host teach-ins to spread sustainable post-petroleum living skills. Find a weak point in the infrastructure of resource exploitation and throw a literal or symbolic wrench in the works. Visit your local polluters and give 'em hell!
The July 15th International Day of Action Against Climate Change is being mobilized by Rising Tide North America, a new network initiated in the US by the Earth First! Climate Caucus, with inspiration and support from the UK's vibrant Rising Tide direct action movement for climate justice and against climate change. Rising Tide North America is actively mobilizing July 15th actions in local bioregions, as well as reaching out to environmental justice, climate action and radical sustainability movements in all of the G8 countries plus the Global South.
Rising Tide North America is building a large collection of outreach and agit-prop materials that can be used by groups around the continent (and the world) to organize locally. These materials will be downloadable from www.reclaimthecommons.net and from the website of Rising Tide North America (comin' soon).
Join the Rising Tide North America network, and tell us about July 15th actions against climate change being planned in your community or bioregion! Contact us at efclimatecaucus@wildmail.com.
For more information and updates about July 15th international actions against climate change, plus news and links about additional global resistance against the 2006 G8 Summit from July 14th to 17th, go to www.reclaimthecommons.net.
To learn more about the global Rising Tide movement, visit www.risingtide.org.uk and read "Rising Tide Takes the Helm: Mapping Strategies for Climate Justice"in
May-June 2006 Earth First! Journal: http://reclaimthecommons.net/article.php?id=316 To learn more about the origin and purpose of Rising Tide North America, read "Earth First! Climate Caucus: A New Birth in the No Compromise Movement" in
May-June 2006 Earth First! Journal: http://reclaimthecommons.net/article.php?id=317
- 19 of the 20 hottest years on record have occurred since 1980. Islands in the South Pacific are already evacuating due to rising sea levels. Storms and hurricanes are growing more severe. Polar bears are drowning as their icy habitat breaks apart and drifts out to sea. Greenland and Antarctica are melting. Everyday we spew more greenhouse gases burned from fossil fuels into the atmosphere; everyday we are one step closer to what scientists refer to as "the tipping point," on the verge of catastrophic and irreversible climate chaos.