Tag Archives: Climate Change

Cartoons Against Capitalism

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Cartoons may seem like a questionable choice of medium for conveying complex political theory, organizational strategy, and scathing critique of mainstream movements, But then, if you feel that way, you must not have read the work of Stephanie McMillan.

 

McMillan, a cartoonist based out of Florida in the United States, has two main cartoons. The first, Minimum Security, is a daily comic strip in the form of a long-form narrative, about a group of friends trying to stop ecocidal maniacs from destroying the Earth. The second, Code Green, began in August 2009 as a weekly editorial cartoon focused on the environmental emergency.

 

From the author, Stephanie McMillan:

“I’ve been thinking of quitting drawing “Code Green,” my weekly editorial cartoon about the environmental emergency. My income from paying clients has crashed; if I’m going to continue it, it needs to be supported by readers. So I’ve started a fundraising campaign.

I’m not going to be pushing this much at all. This is the only post I’m going to make about it. I’m okay with quitting this cartoon. But because some readers seemed dismayed when I talked about quitting, I didn’t feel right about ending it without giving you a chance to keep it going.”

 

Support Stephanie McMillan’s Code Green here: http://www.indiegogo.com/codegreen

Earth First! Round River Rendezvous

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Between July 1st and July 7th, Earth First! activists, friends, and allies (including a caravan of DGR activists) will be converging on Western Pennsylvania, the heart of the Marcellus Shale region where fracking is running wild.

 

From the organizers: “We are inviting all wild-eyed Earth First!ers, forest defenders, environmental activists, and interested rural community members to join us for a week of celebrating the history and culture of the Earth First! movement, as well as learning about the impacts of natural gas extraction on the bioregions and wildlife of Pennsylvania and the rest of the Marcellus region.”

 

Directions and more information about the Rondy can be found at the Marcellus Earth First! chapter website:

http://marcellusearthfirst.org/

Direct Action Mobilization Against Mountaintop Removal

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Photo from Mountain Justice and RAMPS action after Mountain Justice Summer Action Camp. They stopped 9 coal trucks and a coal barge (Photo originally posted here)

From RAMPS Campaign in Southern West Virginia

From the RAMPS Call to Action:

At PowerShift 2011, currently imprisoned activist Tim DeChristopher pointed out, “With only the people in this room, we could send 30 people onto a mountaintop removal site, shut it down temporarily, start to clog up the West Virginia court system. And we could send 30 people the day after that and the day after that and the day after that every day for a year. I believe we would never get to the end of that year because mountaintop removal would end before we reached that point.”

This summer we will take the first step toward that vision. Come to southern West Virginia on July 25. RAMPS will host a mobilization where people will prepare to take nonviolent direct action to shut down a strip mine. We are calling for as many people as possible to come together and do what the politicians, the regulators and the courts have been unwilling to do; to defend the land and the people; to stop strip mining.

The success of this depends on your participation. Whatever your skills, availability, or ability to risk arrest, there are ways for you to make this mobilization a success. To join ongoing working groups or find out more about ways to participate, please email [email protected]. We also deeply need your financial support. Please donate today so RAMPS can continue its vital work. Most importantly, spread the word.

Read the whole thing here

CrimethInc’s Field Guide to False Solutions

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Published in the EarthFirst! Journal

“They aren’t going to stop destroying the planet until we make it too costly for them to continue. THE SOONER WE DO, THE BETTER.”

If we really believed what scientists are telling us about global warming, the fire engines of every fire department would sound their sirens and race to the nearest factory to extinguish its furnaces. Every high school student would run to the thermostat of every classroom, turn it off, and tear it out of the wall, then hit the parking lot to slash tires. Every responsible suburban parent would don safety gloves and walk around the block pulling the electrical meters out of the utility boxes behind houses and condominiums. Every gas station attendant would press the emergency button to shut off the pumps, cut the hoses, and glue the locks on the doors; every coal and petroleum corporation would immediately set about burying their unused product where it came from- using only the muscles of their own arms, of course…

Read the whole thing here

New Study: Current Climate Change Models Underestimate Rate and Severity of Species Extinction

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Mark Urban, lead author of a new study about the effects of climate change on plants and animals, under one of many ice sheets threatened by a warming environment

Excerpt:

Plenty of experimental studies have shown that species are already moving in response to climate change, says [Mark] Urban, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut. For example, as temperatures rise over time, animals and plants that can’t take the heat are moving to higher altitudes where temperatures are cooler.

But not all species can disperse fast enough to get to these more suitable places before they die off, Urban says. And if they do make it to these better habitats, they may be out-competed by the species that are already there — or the ones that got there first.

Read whole article here.

Feature: Occupy the Machine – Stop the 1% Has Begun

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Our Bodies Will Be Our Demand

Photo Credit: Not a DGR Action. Earth First and Rising Tide blockaded a gas-fired power plant construction site in Palm Beach County, Florida in 2008. http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2008/02/19/blockade-shuts-down-south-florida-power-plant-construction-27-arrested/

Click here to download this document as a pamphlet to distribute anywhere.

Occupy the Machine is an ad hoc umbrella group using serious, sustained direct action campaigns to shut down major targets that destroy the land and exploit humans, permanently.

Sign up here to be notified when the target is announced.

Occupy the Machine has begun.

We are pleased to announce the Occupy the Machine US Speaking Tour! Click here to learn more


Pass it on!

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The Occupy Movement is beautiful. We support it and though we are small, we are participating all over the country. We invite all occupiers to read, give feedback, and if you feel moved to do so to present this at a General Assembly or committee meeting near you.

We invite you to imagine, as many of you already probably have, if thousands of people occupied local refineries, roads, ports, oil and mining extraction sites, etc. – in other words, imagine if people occupied the locations where the 1% destroy the land and exploit humans, all for profit.

Imagine their stock prices falling, their cash flow being interrupted, their ability to get loans and/or expand “production” – a euphemism for converting living beings into dead products – finished.

Imagine if we were able to stop them, stop the 1%. Literally. Not symbolically.
We think it can be done if we all do it together. We think it can be done if we all figure out how to do it and if we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices, together.

Here’s one way we could start:
Continue reading →

Billionaires Who Benefit From Today’s Climate Crisis

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A new report from the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) identifies the world’s top 50 individuals benefiting from climate change.

For Informational Purposes Only

From the IFG summary of the report:

“The world’s richest corporations and capitalists have been branded by the Occupy Wall Street movement as the “one percent,” yet there has been scant attention to the individuals within in the “one percent” who have greatest responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. Little information has been publicly available about the identities of the industrialists, investors and ideologues who are most responsible for the decisions over carbon-intensive activities that drive greenhouse gas emissions far past danger levels.”

Read the whole report here.


“Here we have the ‘Who’s Who List’ of crony capitalists who have gotten rich by polluting the planet, and now they are plowing their cash back in to prevent any legal protections for the planet and its most vulnerable peoples. Behind each of these billionaires are the stories of countless peoples and places that are being erased from the face of the earth by unregulated greenhouse gas emissions. These climate destroyers must be pulled out of the shadows so that peoples of the world can understand who is responsible for the world’s predicament and can figure out the solutions.”
- Victor Menotti, IFG director and co-author of the report.

Feature: Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, Waziyatawin, Aric McBay Speak at Occupy Oakland

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New on Deep Green Resistance’s YouTube Channel:

Watch Derrick Jensen, Waziyatawin, Lierre Keith, and Aric McBay speak at Occupy Oakland to a welcoming audience!

Click here for a preview of the talks below.

Lierre Keith

[The Occupy] movement has staked a claim on being the 99%. I think that’s self-evident. Capitalism is the 1% taking from the 99%. But add this. 98% of the old growth forests are gone. 99% of the world’s prairies are gone. That means 99% of the pasque flowers and 99% of the prairie dogs and 99% of the bison. The wealth is created from their dead bodies. The point isn’t to distribute the wealth, it’s to stop the death while there is something left alive.

Subscribe to the Deep Green Resistance Youtube Channel.

 

Aric Mcbay

What we need is two pronged. On the one hand we need to build local, sustainable, democratic communities in which everyone’s basic needs are met…We have to learn how to meet our own needs. On the other hand we have to fight to stop global industrial capitalism. We can only win if we shut down the machine. That is the only way to ensure a livable future. What we need is a real resistance movement.

Subscribe to the Deep Green Resistance Youtube Channel.


Waziyatawin

Given the realities of peak debt and peak oil, we are now facing the collapse of the American economy and the collapse of civilization more broadly. These combine with the crises emerging from global warming, climate change, and the collapse of ecosystems do to hyper-exploitation, meaning that it is time for everyone to recognize the harm of the existing system and institutions and to seek to dismantle them completely to save all life before it is all destroyed.

Subscribe to the Deep Green Resistance Youtube Channel.


Derrick Jensen

Since the legal system won’t hold destructive institutions accountable, the responsibility falls on each of us. This means that all of us who care about salmon, for example, must learn to be accountable to salmon rather than loyal to political and economic institutions that do not serve us well. The same is true for those who care about San Francisco Bay, for those who care about democracy, for those who care about communities, for those who care about the future, for those who care about any living being. We must act on that loyalty. We must do whatever is necessary to protect our homes and our land bases from those who would destroy them… Only then will we have a future.

Subscribe to the Deep Green Resistance Youtube Channel.