40 Climate Solidarity Actions Launch Worldwide to Defend Our Homes From Dirty Energy and Climate Change

UPDATE: Thurs­day, Nov. 15th – Four arrest­ed for shut­ting down an Amer­i­can Petro­le­um Insti­tute lun­cheon in New Orleans

Four pro­tes­tors where arrest­ed after a group of over a dozen shut down an Amer­i­can Petro­le­um Insti­tiute lun­cheon in the Roo­sevelt Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. Today’s action in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Tar Sands Block­ade was in response to Hur­ri­cane Sandy and the new­ly approved Park­way Oil Pipeline that would endan­ger the cities beloved Lake Pontchar­train.

New Orleans res­i­dents under­stand what the impacts of cli­mate change mean for the health and safe­ty of their com­mu­ni­ty. The cli­mate super pow­ered storm of Hur­ri­cane Sandy serves as an all too famil­iar reminder of the dev­as­ta­tion these more fre­quent storms will bring to the most vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies around the globe. Today over a dozen orga­niz­ers marched in the streets and shut down the Amer­i­can Petro­le­um Insti­tute lun­cheon to protest the source of this threat, Big Oil’s stran­gle­hold on our econ­o­my and our liv­able future. They chant­ed: “No pipeline! No tar sands! No destruc­tion of Louisiana land!”

UPDATE: Wednes­day, Nov. 14th – Ris­ing Tide Ver­mont shuts down a talk by a Shell Oil Exec­u­tive 

Nine mem­bers of Ris­ing Tide Ver­mont inter­rupt­ed a Shell oil exec­u­tive last night while he was speak­ing on a pan­el about ‘Big Oil in the Niger Delta.’

Activists shared tes­ti­mo­ny from Niger Delta com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers suf­fer­ing the impacts of Shell Oil oper­a­tions on their home­land. Shell Oil has a long-stand­ing rela­tion­ship with Nigeria’s var­i­ous mil­i­tary dic­ta­tor­ships and has been impli­cat­ed in the geno­ci­dal dev­as­ta­tion of ecosys­tems and com­mu­ni­ties in the Niger Delta. They also read state­ments from mem­bers of com­mu­ni­ties in Nige­ria, Alber­ta fac­ing tox­ic tar sands extrac­tion.

After the speak­er was inter­rupt­ed sev­er­al times in a row, police were called and the event was cancelled/postponed.  Many peo­ple who planned on attend­ing left, and the voice of Shell Oil was suc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenged and silenced.  No one was arrest­ed.

“This day kicks off a week of actions in sol­i­dar­i­ty with front­line strug­gles in the move­ment for cli­mate jus­tice,” said Avery Pittman.  “From the oil­fields of the Niger Delta, to the tar sands in Alber­ta, to the ongo­ing block­ade of the Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline in east Texas, com­mu­ni­ties are resist­ing extreme ener­gy and assert­ing their right to a healthy envi­ron­ment.”  Read more here.

UPDATE: Wednes­day, Nov. 14th – Cli­mate Sol­i­dar­i­ty Action in the Philip­pines as part of Glob­al Week for Cli­mate Jus­tice 

Hun­dreds march through the streets of Manil­la, Philip­pines toward the US Embassy to call for urgent action on cli­mate change. Ris­ing sea lev­els caused by cli­mate change are a mat­ter of sur­vival for the thou­sands who live along the coast­line of this island nation. Marchers con­nect­ed the dots on cli­mate change and oth­er cli­mate super pow­ered storms like Hur­ri­cane Sandy with their signs. The march fea­tured beau­ti­ful, the­atri­cal street the­ater and giant pup­pets was orga­nized by the Philip­pine Move­ment for Cli­mate Jus­tice as part of the Glob­al Week for Cli­mate Jus­tice, which list­ed Tar Sands Blockade’s Mass Action on Mon­day the 19th as part of their glob­al week of action.

UPDATE: Wednes­day, Nov. 14th -  Mon­tana ral­lies to stop dirty coal exports and cel­e­brate civ­il dis­obe­di­ence 

Over 30 peo­ple gath­ered in Hele­na, Montana’s Con­sti­tu­tion Park to sup­port the ven­er­a­ble US tra­di­tion of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence. Imme­di­ate­ly before an omnibus court hear­ing for the 23 peo­ple arrest­ed dur­ing last August’s peace­ful protests against coal exports at the Mon­tana Capi­tol, the group gath­ered with signs read­ing “Sup­port the Coal Export Action 23,” and “No More Coal Exports.”

Sev­er­al peo­ple addressed the crowd, includ­ing some of the 23 who had been arrest­ed in August. “I came to Hele­na, to my own state­house and got arrest­ed because it looks to me like there is no more time for writ­ing rea­soned let­ters to the edi­tor or hav­ing meet­ings with the politi­cians,” said Lin­da Kenoy­er, describ­ing why she par­tic­i­pat­ed in last summer’s civ­il dis­obe­di­ence. ”The time has come to put my body on the line, to risk my safe­ty and clean record if that’s what it takes to get someone’s atten­tion.”

View more pho­tos and read about the action on Coal Export Action’s blog.

Almost 40 cli­mate sol­i­dar­i­ty events have sprung up across the globe as part of the week of action Novem­ber 14–20! These actions are in direct response to the after­shock of Hur­ri­cane Sandy, clos­ing out the hottest year on record and the ongo­ing eco­log­i­cal dev­as­ta­tion of tar sands extrac­tion.

Cli­mate change con­tin­ues to put a dis­pro­por­tion­ate bur­den on low income com­mu­ni­ties and com­mu­ni­ties of col­or around the world, and this weeks events high­light this strug­gle as locals rise up to defend their homes from cli­mate chaos. These events serve as a reminder that we are part of a grow­ing move­ment to demand cli­mate action. Get ideas for your own local action here.

“Com­mu­ni­ties around the world are work­ing togeth­er to expose the threat that the fos­sil fuel econ­o­my pos­es to fam­i­lies every­where,” said Arielle Klags­brun of Mis­souri­ans Orga­niz­ing for Empow­er­ment and Reform. “As extrac­tive indus­tries grow increas­ing­ly des­per­ate for prof­its, cor­po­ra­tions like Peabody Coal and Tran­sCana­da are resort­ing to the most dan­ger­ous of ener­gy reserves, like hydro-frack­ing, tar sands exploita­tion and moun­tain top removal coal min­ing.”

This week’s actions are hap­pen­ing in almost 40 loca­tions includ­ing the fol­low­ing:

• • Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 17 – Occu­py Sandy and Stop Spec­tra Pipeline Coali­tion takes action to respond to the dev­as­ta­tion of the cli­mate super pow­ered storm, Hur­ri­cane Sandy and put an end to hydro-frack­ing.
  • Sun­day, Novem­ber 18 – Over 3,500 peo­ple ral­ly at the White House to call on Pres­i­dent Oba­ma to reject the per­mit for the Key­stone XL north­ern seg­ment. Event orga­nized by 350.org, Sier­ra Club, and oth­er allies.
  • Mon­day, Novem­ber 19 – Dozens of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers ral­ly in Nacog­doches, Texas to oppose the con­struc­tion of the Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline from endan­ger­ing their homes. Tar Sands Block­ade will be tak­ing non­vi­o­lent direct action to halt its con­struc­tion.
  • Mon­day, Novem­ber 19 – Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions in St. Louis are tak­ing action to tar­get JP Mor­gan Chase for bankrolling the tar sands extrac­tion. Event orga­nized by Mis­souri­ans Orga­niz­ing for Empow­er­ment and Reform and Cli­mate Action St. Louis.
  • Mon­day, Novem­ber 19 – Res­i­dents of Salt Lake City are per­form­ing the­atri­cal exhi­bi­tions out­side The Bureau of Land Man­age­ment for its approval of pub­lic lands for the first tar sands mine in the US. Event orga­nized by Peace­ful Upris­ing and Utah Tar Sands Resis­tance.
  • Tues­day, Novem­ber 20 – In Lon­don, UK Tar Sands Net­work, Ris­ing Tide UK and oth­ers will protest a meet­ing of Cana­di­an tar sands exec­u­tives, bank­ing indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives and gov­ern­ment lead­ers meet­ing to dis­cuss fur­ther expan­sion of Alber­ta tar sands extrac­tion.
  • More events are on the map in these loca­tions: Water­loo, Ontario, Cana­da; Nor­man, OK; Char­lotte, NC; Den­ton, TX; Eugene, OR; Mid­dle­sex, NY; Cor­val­lis, OR; Seat­tle, WA; Fair­fax, CA; Bridge­port, CT; Bloom­ing­ton, IN; Burling­ton, VT; Hele­na, MT;  Nashville, TN; Cincin­nati, OH; Port Townsend, WA; Jef­fer­son, NH; San­ta Clari­ta, CA; Albany, CA; Burling­ton, VT; New Orleans, LA; Salt Lake City, Utah; Austin, TX; Eure­ka, CA; Port­land, OR; Den­ver, CO; Min­neapo­lis, MN; New York, NY; Lon­don, UK; Minisk, NY; Asto­ria, OR; Wilton, NH; Swarth­more, PA; Philadel­phia, PA…and count­ing!

“It’s encour­ag­ing to see these sol­i­dar­i­ty actions spring up across the globe in response to the esca­lat­ing dev­as­ta­tion of cli­mate change,” said Nicole Browne of Tar Sands Block­ade, who helped put out the call for the sol­i­dar­i­ty actions. “From the Alber­ta tar sands to the forests of East Texas and all around the world, these actions give hope to peo­ple every­where who are defend­ing their homes from reck­less ener­gy extrac­tion that is fuel­ing cli­mate chaos.”