From June 14-16th students, community members, and activists from across Ohio and around the country are converging in Columbus to build a movement through trainings, story telling, and workshops… AND on June 17th WE are taking over the OHIO Statehouse, demanding a BAN on Fracking and ALL injection wells.
Stopping the industry in Ohio has major implications for the entire nation, that is why we are asking YOU to join US in OHIO! We will also be joined by inspiring leaders, like Bill McKibben & Josh Fox.
by Connor Gibson, Research Assistant, Greenpeace USA
Adding to a growing list of defections, Eli Lilly, BB&T Bank, and PepsiCo have announced they will not fund the Heartland Institute in 2012. They join State Farm, USAA, and others who have stopped financial support of the Chicago front group after Heartland released a billboard featuring a picture of Ted Kacynski next to the text “I still believe in Global Warming. Do You?”
Sign our petition asking the rest of Heartland's corporate sposors to stop funding climate science denial.
Last Saturday marked the second big environmental event in as many weeks for me. I have been a volunteer community organizer for 350.org since 2009, and when they announced plans for a day of “connecting the dots on climate change” I was immediately in, despite the quick turnaround between events.
At that point, I was still heavily involved with planning for the Charlottesville Eco Fair, and knew that most of my Dots planning would fall into the last two weeks prior to May 5. Little did I know that I would attend an event during Earth Week that would challenge my thinking on climate change and an entire segment of the environmental movement.
by Jeff Mann, Online Director, Energy Action Coalition
We're in Charlotte today marching on the Bank of America Shareholders meeting to confront Fossil Fool CEO Brian Moynihan and send a message to BoA that we won't sit by while they bankrupt our future.
The action, organized by our partners at the Rainforest Action Network and the 99 Power Coalition will feature three marches, a boxing match between Brian “Big Banks” Moynihan and the 99% that is being billed as the “Showdown in Charlotte”, and all sorts of other creative, peaceful protests.
The action gets started at 8AM. We'll be live-tweeting from @EnergyAction and posting updates to the live blog below throughout the day. Other places to keep up with the action in real-time include the livestreams below and on twitter through @RAN, @99Power, @BankVsAmerica, #MakeBoAPay, and #99Power.
by Chris Diming, VA Campus Organizer, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Last Saturday, 350.org and other similarly-minded groups organized a Climate Impacts Day (climatedots.org), where activists throughout the country "connected the dots" between climate change and its associated impacts. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) coordinated with many of these activists in Maryland and Virginia to facilitate their events. In Virginia, CCAN worked with student groups to highlight important climate sources and impacts on or near their campuses.
by Jeff Mann, Online Director, Energy Action Coalition
Do you support coal’s assault on our climate and our communities?
Well, if you have an account with Bank of America, your money does. Bank of America is the largest backer of the U.S. coal industry, to the tune of $4.3 billion.
On Wednesday, I’m heading down to Charlotte, NC for the bank’s annual shareholder meeting Joining with the 99% Power coalition and Rainforest Action Network, we will confront BofA and Fossil Fool CEO Brian Moynihan, and I need you with me.
Together, the coalition has collected more than 10,000 pledges from citizens who will no longer tolerate Bank of America using our money to trash our economy and our environment in the name of its own profits.
On Saturday, as part of the international Connect the Dots day of action organized by 350.org, activists in Missoula, MT highlighted the connection between dirty money, government, and climate change. At the Missoula Farmers Market, organizers from the Blue Skies Campaign, Occupy Missoula, and other local groups enacted a creative street theater routine to draw attention to the Montana Land Board’s support for Arch Coal at the expense of ordinary people and the climate.
by Jacquie Ayala, Florida Organizer, Southern Energy Network
Cross posted from the Southern Energy Network blog.
Dirty energy corporation Progress Energy is at it again in Florida – just this week, Progress announced its plans to ask for a 78% increase in its nuclear cost recovery fee from rate payers, raising the added monthly cost of new nukes in Florida from $2.86 to $5.09 next year.
At the height of the Keystone XL battle, some of the pipeline's toughest opponents came from Nebraska, where people of all political persuasions were alarmed at the damage a potential spill would cause. And rightfully so: According to the original plan, KXL would have crossed the Nebraska Sandhills, an ecologically-sensitive area that sits above the Ogallala aquifer.
TransCanada just re-applied for a permit to build KXL along an alternate route, one that avoids the Sandhills. But, according to the new plan, the pipeline would still threaten the crucial aquifer. Lisa Song of InsideClimate News reports:
by Chris Diming, VA Campus Organizer, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Students at the College of William and Mary assembled at a Bank of America location in Williamsburg, VA on May 1 to protest the bank's funding of mountaintop removal. Alongside local activists, the students waved signs and chanted outside the building, while participants with Bank of America cards went inside to close their accounts. A couple members of the group simulateneously handed out fliers at nearby businesses. As the location was along a major thoroughfare, the protesters frequently heard supportive honks from passing cars and observed locals curiously reading their signs.