Activism Today by Julian Gearing

ACTIVISM TODAY

Environmental Action Worldwide WINTER 2012-13

IDLE NO MORE CANADIAN MOVEMENT BUILDS MOMENTUM

SPECIAL ISSUE An Earth Tribe Publication

TAKING ON GLOBAL CAPITALISM Max Wilbert discusses the Deep Green Resistance movement RECONNECTING WITH EARTH Brynn Goforth seeks the wisdom of the old ways DAMMING THE OMO Michael Asher talks of the danger to the environment and people in East Africa

GREEN IS THE NEW RED Will Potter’s crusade 1

SOLAR QUANDRY

Erik Curren on the hardships of bringing solar power to the USA

CONTENTS

JANUARY 2012 WINTER19, 2012-13

IDLE NO MORE

Four Women and a Rights and Environmental Message

14 This Canada-based movement for First Nations rights and the environment is going global TRACKING PAWNS AND PLAYERS IN THE WILDLIFE TRADE

GREEN IS THE NEW RED

Are you an ‘eco-terrorist’?

WALKING THE PIPELINE

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DAMMING THE OMO By Michael Asher

BECOME AN ECO-WARRIOR

TAKING ON GLOBAL CAPITALISM By Max Wilbert SOLAR QUANDRY IN THE U.S. By Erik Curren

MAKING THE NEWS

Photos courtesy of Idle No More, Tar Sands Blockade, Patrick Brown, Brynn Goforth, Ken Ilgunas Activism Today is an Earth Tribe Publication

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FROM THE EDITOR

JANUARY 19, 2012

Changing the language

n this upside-down world, big corporations wreck the land, poison the water, and pollute the air and receive government subsidies, tax breaks and political support for their efforts, whereas environmentalists using non-violence to oppose the destruction are called “radicals,” even “terrorists,” and treated accordingly. The words radical and terrorist are presented by the people in power as totally negative, a threat to peace and order. This is the modern-day reality of a world driven by capitalism and consumerism, where companies by and large hold the purse strings of political parties and governments. As seen in the world’s most prominent democracy, the United States, fossil fuel companies fund both the Republican and Democratic parties. Even foreign companies, it seems, can subvert the system within the United States to their benefit. Money talks and undermines the democratic system, which is imperfect at best. Aging grannies and teenagers, amongst others, are arrested for protesting or carrying out non-violent civil disobedience, as seen during 2012 when a campaign in Texas against the Keystone XL pipeline got underway. The pipeline, if completed, would transport some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet from the Alberta tar sand mines in Canada to refining facilities on the American coast. Draconian laws are used to charge nonviolent protestors, and the “fear of terrorism” is used as an excuse by governments, backed by

As the world begins to wake up to the threat of climate change and the massive destruction being wrought by Man against the Earth and its eco-systems, we, the people, need to change the rhetoric

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FROM THE EDITOR

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big business, to put making profit for the few before the rights of the many and before the need to protect the environment. This is no accident. It is a carefully thought-out plan, one in which governments, major companies, and banks are all complicit. As the world begins to wake up to the threat of climate change and the massive destruction being wrought by Man against the Earth and its eco-systems, we, the people, need to change the rhetoric. Politicians need educating. The mainstream media needs educating. Journalists and editors needed educating. And the people - brainwashed by a culture that has done a sterling job of hiding the destruction wrought by modernday society - need educating. In concert with this, laws and regulations need to be changed in an attempt to get rid of the corruption in the system that favors companies over the well-being of the people and the planet. The threats to Man’s future and the future biodiversity on the planet come from companies and company bosses and the politicians who sell themselves out to maintain power, and in many cases, make money under the table. Under these circumstances, mainstream rhetoric is wrong – a tract of fiction designed to exploit. Who are the radicals? Who is really crazy? And what can we do to awaken the people from their dream? It is time to change the language. It is time to recognize people for what they are and what they do. It is time to hold the real criminals accountable. They are the terrorists. They are the vandals. This is easier said than done, but we have to begin the process of reducing the destruction wrought on Earth. And to do so, we need to change the language.

ACTIVISM TODAY Environmental Action Worldwide

This is a special issue of Activism Today published by Earth Tribe Publications. Please contact the editors if you wish to reproduce any part of this magazine. Use the e-mail contact form on the About page of www.Earthtribe.co to contact our editorial team. The magazine is provided free to e-mail subscribers of Earth Tribe’s free newsletter. The magazine is not for sale. Earth Tribe - Activist News is a non-profit organization devoted to publishing news and resources on environmental activism around the world.

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The Activistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Site

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Are you going to sit and do nothing?

Protestor at the Copenhagen climate change talks 2009

GET INVOLVED! FOR NEWS AND RESOURCES ON ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM AROUND THE WORLD Stories, insight, blogs, videos, tips, contacts and lots more ... Visit www.earthtribe.co andwww.earthtribe.co our Facebook page www.facebook.com/environmentalactivism 5

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MAKING THE NEWS

JANUARY 19, 2012

DROUGHTS, FLOODS & HURRICANE SANDY

Message from activists in the US - Move away from fossil fuels

ith all the wild weather - everything from Hurricane Sandy that slammed into the east coast of the U.S. to the droughts and heatwaves - there is recognition that something drastic needs to be done to deal with the causes of climate change. Many people have been calling on their governments to take climate change seriously and move away from using fossil fuels to put the emphasis on renewable energy. It sounds good in theory - call on your president or prime minister to switch to solar, wind and possibly wave power. But these forms of energy generation have their own carbon-generating and resource-use costs. The underlying problem is modern-day society is hooked on consumerism and petroleum-based products, and the systems are currently dependent on oil and gas. In the drive to protect the planet, and ourselves, new and more radical ideas are called for.

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The UK had one of its wettest years on record with several periods of flooding.

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his is a story of despair and hope. “Fractured Land tells the story of a young Dene warrior from northeastern BC, taking on Big Oil and Gas to protect his land and people from the ravages of neocolonialism – all the while learning to accept the role he was born for, as one of Canada’s next generation of leaders.” This is the promotional spiel for a documentary that lives up to the promise. Caleb Behn is as good with a hatchet as he is with a law book. And he needs the latter as he takes on the threats posed by the multibillion-dollar oil and gas industry that he sees damaging the environment and human health. Filmmakers Fiona Rayher and Damien Gillis documented Caleb’s journey and battles. With a Mohawk haircut, tattoos and a three-piece suit, he appears as comfortable hunting moose on his land as he does taking on the companies causing the damage, whether in the boardrooms or the courts. As Caleb says in the film: “This isn’t a game, these are real people, real cultures.” Check out Fracturedland.com

Fracking Hell

t’s turned into a swear word, and, activists say, with good reason. Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is the process where water and toxic chemicals is pumped under high pressure into rock below ground in attempts to release gas that is then collected as a fossil fuel resource. Depending on how you view it, this is an energy boon or a massive environmental and health catastrophe in the making. Activists in North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere are fighting fracking, concerned at the negative effects on water tables, land, health and livestock.

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MAKING THE NEWS

JANUARY 19, 2012

BILL MCKIBBEN TAKES HIS CLIMATE CHANGE MESSAGE ON THE ROAD AND TO WASHINGTON

ob Stewart is calling for a revolution. This is not the type of revolution that Che Guevara fought and died for. As the filmmaker makes clear in his documentary, “Revolution: Save the Humans,” the battle to protect wildlife and the planet has expanded. Protecting the planet is just as much about us as the rhino or the shark. Stewart is the maker of the classic conservation documentary, “Sharkwater,” a journey to follow efforts to protect the shark, and a personal story of struggle. Now “Revolution” explores how our actions are harming all species and how, if we don’t take drastic action soon, we are endangering our own survival. With so many people using up so many resources, we are burning up the planet. Stewart calls for a rethink and with his United Conservationists group he hopes people - particularly the young - will look for a new way of living more in harmony with the natural world. “Revolution” is being released first in Canada and then in the United States.

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ill McKibben is hard to keep up with. Whether it was the Forward on Climate rally in Washington or the Do the Math tour, the author and environmentalist has a crucial message – we are on track for massive climate change unless we stop pumping billions of tons of carbon particles into the atmosphere. Mckibben admits he is not always right. Back in 1989, he predicted in his book, The End of Nature, that the year by which the amount of carbon parts per million would reach a tipping point of 350 ppm would be 2050. He got it wrong. We passed that point in 2007. McKibben’s point is the crisis is here. And we have to take action now. McKibben has by default become what he calls America’s “professional bummer-outer,” bugging the government and companies to do the right thing. One crucial issue in his sights has been the Keystone XL pipeline that will bring dirty tar

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Bill McKibben, in blue, at a Do the Math event sands oil from Canada across America to refineries in the Gulf, from where most of the oil will be exported for profit. Climate scientist James Hansen claims the mining, expansion, and burning up of the Canadian tar sands will spell “game over” for the planet in terms of tipping the balance with climate change. Politicians may make the right noises when it comes to what they claim is their concern about climate change and pollution but it is through their actions that they should be judged. McKibben recognizes this is a tough fight. Together with his 350.org, he has been spreading the message not just in North America. The 350 message has spread around the world. Naturally, given the high stakes for fossil fuel companies, the environmentalist gets some stick. And he faces a formidable array of climate change deniers with deep pockets. He also faces criticism from more radical environmentalists who claim he is merely trying to

green “business as usual” and encourage industrialization and consumerism albeit under green labels. The radicals claim the mainstream environmental movement has been co-opted by big business into “greenwashing” consumerism and industrialization, and that even renewable energy – including solar and wind – has a carbon footprint, though smaller than oil, gas and coal. Some critics claim 350.org has been soft on U.S. President Barack Obama, even to the point of mimicking the Democratic Party artwork. Whatever the complaints, which he may not have had the chance to reply to, McKibben keeps up a relentless schedule of talks, interviews and published stories to get the message across that modern-day man cannot continue along this path of destruction. It is hard to take issue with this stance - and the notion that he is the poster boy for America’s environmental movement.

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MAKING THE NEWS

JANUARY 19, 2012

Yao Ming

The Chinese connection

WildAid

ao Ming used to be a top basketball star. Now he is keeping busy with something close to his heart – protecting wildlife from extinction. As an ambassador for WildAid, he has visited Africa and helped publicize the threat from hunting elephants and rhinos for their tusks. Such is the demand, he says, that even dead rhinos in museums were not safe. Organized criminals have even taken to stealing horns and replacing them with fake ones. One campaign he has been particularly suited for is the effort to end the killing of sharks for their fins. Yao has made appeals to his countrymen to stop eating shark fin soup, and on a global level the campaign to encourage restaurants to stop serving the soup has had some notable success, though there is still a long way to go.

Matt Damon takes on the gas mining industry

nti-fracking screed or portrait of small town America trying to survive in today’s topsy-turvy economy? Maybe both, but there’s no doubt that Matt Damon and John Krasinski’s “Promised Land” is sparking many discussions. Directed by Gus Van Sant (though Damon was originally planning to helm the picture himself, but scheduling didn’t allow him enough prep time) the story follows Steve Butler (Damon), a corporate salesman who arrives in a struggling rural town with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand) to try and obtain drilling rights for their land. However, their deal comes up against a grassroots campaign led by local citizen (Krasinski) and a respected schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook). (Courtesy: Focus Features)

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WHY YOU SHOULDN’T MISS THIS FILM

n the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very wellbeing at risk. “Chasing Ice” is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multiyear record of the world’s changing glaciers.

James Balog As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. “Chasing Ice” depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbonpowered planet. (From Chasingice.com)

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MAKING THE NEWS

JANUARY 19, 2012

UP A TREE AND ON THE TRAIL

t was a major feat of endurance – 449 days up a tree in Tasmania. Miranda Gibson, of Still Wild Still Threatened, spent almost 15 months at the top of an ancient tree she named the “Observer Tree” after she climbed up on December 14, 2011, vowing to remain as long as possible to defend the forests, including the World Heritage value area in which the tree is situated. “Our campaign to stop the logging of these World Heritage nominated forests and of the proposed protected areas will continue despite my exit from the Observer Tree,” she said, after she descended to the ground on March 7. A bushfire burned to within a kilometer of her tree and for safety reasons the decision was made to come down. “Although it is disappointing to leave this forest whilst these precious places continue to fall to the chainsaw, I have a huge respect for the forces of nature that are in play,” she said. “And I remain as dedicated as ever to standing up for Tasmania’s threatened forests.” This was not an end, just a continuation of her campaign to raise awareness. “I want to stress that magnificent forests are still in jeopardy, including places it has been agreed should be protected and become World Heritage listed, and that our will to see them safe remains as strong as ever. The campaign for these globally significant forests will now move into a new phase,” Gibson said. MEANWHILE, Ken Ilgunas thinks we should be using our ingenuity to deal with energy challenges, not the Keystone XL pipeline, that when built would bring carry dirty tar sands oil 1,700 miles from Canada to refineries on the Gulf coast of America. Who’s Ken? Ken is the young guy who recently walked the length of the pipeline with a pack on his back, talking to people along the way, helping to raise awareness. He’s seen the tar sands in Alberta and was “shocked and awed” by the devastation, and he has met many of the farmers and land owners along the way who are being or will be affected by a pipeline that will leak again and again. All oil companies know pipelines leak. Ken is both impressed by man’s ingenuity – admitting he was wowed by the technology the oil companies use – but is also convinced there has to be another answer to America’s energy needs. Ken kept a blog, entitled, “Walking the Pipeline,” and ended it with a call for a rethink: “When I think of the men and women of North America, I don’t think we need this pipeline. A pipeline is built to send a resource from a place that has a lot of something to a place that doesn’t. But civilization won’t collapse without oil; it’ll collapse without clean water, healthy soil, and a stable climate. What we ultimately need, it seems, is what no pipeline can bring because it’s already here. Walk across America, and view the paths that were once been blazed by hand tool, the wilderness tamed by pluck, the tree roots yanked out by grit, and see, within us all, the deep reservoirs of goodness, the wellsprings of love, and you can’t help but believe that - with our nimble hands, inventive minds, compassionate souls, and a good pair of feet - we can go far.”

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“I want to stress that magnificent forests are still in jeopardy, including places it has been agreed should be protected and become World Heritage listed, and that our will to see them safe remains as strong as ever.” Miranda Gibson

Ken Ilgunas walking the pipeline

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REMEMBER It was the 50-Year Anniversary in 2012 of the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, in 1962

Larry Gibson (1946-2012), above, was a renowned anti-mining activist from West Virginia, U.S., who fought against mountaintop coal mining, where mining companies blow up and strip away the mountains. Julia (“Judy”) Bonds (1952-2011), below, was a organizer who came from a coal miner family but fought against the destruction of the mountains in Appalachia and was director of Coal River Mountain Watch.

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IDLE NO MORE A MOVEMENT WHOSE TIME HAS COME By Marc Jacob

rodie Lane Stevens is a Seattle-based rapper who goes by the name of “Redskin.” Stevens is one of many who have been inspired by the call of Idle No More movement that woke up Canada and is beginning to resonate not just over the border in the United States, where he lives, but around the world. Stevens resides on the Tulalio Indian Reservation just north of Seattle. In his rap songs, he sings about the highs and lows of his community and what he refers to as a 500-year history of indigenous resistance. For Stevens, Idle No More struck a chord. He sees it as a wake-up call for him and his fellow Native Americans. But he also says that the slogans and message focused on Canadian First Nations rights, and land and waterways protection, have a far wider appeal. Anybody who cares about human rights, the environment and protecting Mother Earth should be listening. “This isn’t just about the Harper government – it’s a worldwide issue,” he says, referring to Canada’s Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Creating a buzz on Facebook The rapid growth of Idle No More is partly testimony to the power of social media. Thanks largely to messages and information delivered through Facebook and Twitter to computers and mobile phones, the founders and supporters have been able to reach out to people across Canada and to get responses from people as far afield as Australia, Norway, South Africa and Egypt. Stevens picked up on the movement from people sharing their photographs, videos and messages and the Facebook page “IdleNoMoreCommunity.” In addition, he put his film production skills to work in a video entitled appropriately enough, “Idle No More,” that looks at how people have been awakened by the call. In many ways, the movement echoes the online activities of the Occupy movement or the pull of the viral Kony 2012 video, representing a new generation of media-savvy activists reaching out with their message and having it sent around the world with a couple of mouse-clicks. There have been a combination of strong visuals, a twitter hashtag (#IdleNo-

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An Idle No More rally in Canada. Photo: James Wicks, Facebook

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BASICS - Idle No More was started by four women in Canada for First Nations rights and to protect the environment, calling it a “grassroots” movement. Chief Theresa Spence went on hunger strike in support. The founders say First Nations chiefs are welcome to help. But it is not run by the chiefs

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Idle No More founders Sheelah McLean, Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdam and Jessica Gordon More), a growing Facebook and website presence and viral videos, like Stevens’ film. The main Facebook page now has over 100,000 followers. Idle No More continues to build despite some critics claiming support is waning, and the inevitable racist comments from opponents or people who misread the message. Genesis of a movement So where did Idle No More come from? It began by accident. It came about in Canada in November 2012 as a result of the efforts of four women - three indigenous and one non-indigenous. Sylvia McAdam, Jessica Gordon, Nina Wilson and Sheelah Mclean started to hold meetings in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert to bring awareness to indigenous communities about a raft of legislation introduced by the Canadian government aimed at breaking the hold of Native people over vast stretches of land, forests and water to allow easier exploitation of natural resources for profit. The founders began by holding teach-ins and

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meetings to try to explain the implications of bills pushed through by the government without consultation that have the potential to adversely affect First Nations rights and the environment. The activists decided to start a Facebook page and Gordon, who is from Pasqua 4 Treaty Territory, decided to name the page “Idle No More” as a reminder “to get off the couch and start working.” She is in charge of running and monitoring the group’s online space. Activist Tanya Kappo started the #idlenomore hashtag in late November on Twitter that quickly took off. McLean is the only non-Indigenous member in the initial group of four women. “It is a very loving movement…and it’s almost entirely female-led,” she told the media. “Even though there are hundreds of men who support the movement, the vast majority of the movement’s participants and organizers are women.” Not just ‘an Indian thing’ McLean’s involvement is a reminder that this nonviolent movement is relevant to every Canadian, even though

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MORE THAN JUST NATIVE RIGHTS The Idle No More movement has at its core the need to protect the land and waterways in the face of a government-sanctioned onslaught by fossil fuel companies

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In the Spotlight For a while, Chief Theresa Spence, 50, was the person in the spotlight as she pursued her hunger strike demanding the government talk to her. As chief of Attawapiskat, she oversees a reserve of about 1,500 people and has been in the Canadian news over poor living conditions and announcements by her of states of emergency. Critics claim there is a lack of transparency over how state funds for her reserve are spent. But at least one prominent supporter claims the true cost of living in remote locations such as Attawapiskat is notably higher than in populated areas in southern Canada. Spence has filed an “urgent action” with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

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some critics dismiss it as “an Indian thing.” Perception is important as the movement grows. On the one hand, the Native Indian cultural aspects of the movement including pow wows, the banging of drums and the indigenous images have helped its appeal to the First Nations people in Canada, many of whom feel disenfranchised. On the other hand, this aspect makes it harder for non-indigenous people to grasp that the legislative changes involving rights, land, waterways and the environment as a whole ought to matter to every Canadian. A Chief and a hunger strike Perception, or a misperception, also played a part early on in how the Idle No More movement has been portrayed in the media, both at home and abroad. A day after the movement held a “National Day of Action” on December 10, Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence went on hunger strike on Victoria Island, a stone’s throw from the Canadian parliament, demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General David Johnston to discuss the rights and treaties issues. The way the mainstream media portrayed it, Idle No More had a leader, a First Nations chief on hunger strike. Chief Spence was no stranger to publicity or, for that matter, controversy. She made headlines in Canada in October 2011 when she declared a state of emergency for the third time in three years over her reserve’s living conditions. As chief of Attawapiskat, she oversees 1,500 people on the reserve and has stood up for her people but also faced criticism over allegations of mismanagement and lack of transparency over the allocation of federally-supplied funds. Again and again the mainstream media were drawn to the hunger striker camped out in the snow. In the end, Chief Spence’s hunger strike, or limited diet of fish soup, lemon juice and water, lasted six weeks. She has since gone on to appeal to the United Nations for intervention,

WINTER19, 2012-13 JANUARY 2012 a move welcomed by many, but one that at least one columnist, clearly less-thanthrilled by the movement, described as a “publicity stunt.” A ‘grassroots movement’ A chief on hunger strike was a powerful image. But was Idle No More led by Chief Spence, as the media tended to portray it? The founders of the movement have been careful not to alienate the First Nations chiefs, who have rallied to the call, and they have expressed their respect for Chief Spence. However, they felt compelled to issue a statement in January 2013 saying that while they welcome the involvement of the traditional leaders of the First Nations, Idle No More is a “grassroots movement” led by ordinary people – indigenous and non-indigenous – who are concerned about rights and the environment in Canada. It was a subtle way to say the movement was not being led by Chief Spence or any of the other First Nations chiefs who have had a mixed record on effectively representing the interests of their people. The statement, and subsequent reiteration by the founders that this was a movement run by the people, for the people, for the good of the environment and Canada as a whole, was important. Idle No More was not a continuation of decades of troubled dialogue between the First Nations chiefs and the Canadian federal government. It was separate and it was new.

CANADA FACES SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS FROM FOSSIL FUEL MINING

Canada’s lakes and rivers are under threat and being polluted by fossil fuel mining, whether extraction of oil from tar sands or fracking for gas

Environmental groups have been campaigning for years, largely without significant success, against tar sands mining

Canada, the ‘world’s gas tank’ In simple terms, Idle No More is a reaction against the Harper government’s efforts to push the Native people and their treaties aside and get their hands on natural resources with little regard to the effects on the environment or communities in the vicinity or downstream. The government has pushed through Bill C-45, a large omnibus bill implementing numerous measures, many of which activists claim

Tar sands mining in Alberta, viewed from the air

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weaken environmental protection laws. In particular, the bill saw changes to the laws protecting all of the country’s navigable waterways, reducing the scope to only a few waterways of practical importance for navigation. Many of the affected waterways pass through land reserved for First Nations. The Canadian government is championing the mining of tar sands oil, coal and minerals and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for gas as engines for economic growth and employment. Overawed by the potential, Harper has equated the massive effort of mining the Alberta tar sands with the building of the pyramids in Egypt. These tar sands have been identified as the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions growth in Canada, as it accounts for 40 million tons of CO2 emissions per year, according to Greenpeace. The region contains some 2 trillion barrels of oil, but getting to it means cutting down the forests and destroying an area larger than the state of Florida, with plans for further expansion. Tar sands consist of heavy crude oil mixed with sand, clay and bitumen. Extraction entails burning natural gas to generate enough heat and steam to melt the oil out of the sand. As many as five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of oil. Apart from the serious concern over the massive demand for water, mining tar sands is considered the most polluting and energy-intensive extraction of the fossil fuels. While Canadian PM Harper waxes lyrical about the extraction and talks about the billion-dollar benefits of selling the oil, NASA’s James Hansen and other critics claim the extracting and burning of these deposits will mean “game over” for the climate, such is the size of the deposits and the potential for a massive release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Already, the vast, expanding opencast mining is so big it can be seen from

BIOS OF THE IDLE NO MORE FOUNDERS Nina Wilson is a Nakota and Plains Cree from Kahkewistahaw Treaty 4 territory, and is currently completing her Masters. Sylvia McAdam (Saysewahum) is a direct descendant of Treaty makers and is from the Treaty 6 territory. She has her law degree and currently resides in the Whitefish Lake Reserve lands #118. Jessica Gordon is from Pasqua Treaty 4 Territory, and has always been a contributing part of her community in many ways. She comes from a family with a history of treaty protection and social justice. Her grandfathers were Andrew Gordon and Walter Gordon also from Treaty 4 territory. Sheelah McLean is from Treaty 6 territory, and a 3rd generation immigrant whose Scottish and Scandinavian ancestors settled from Western Europe. Born and raised in Saskatoon, Sheelah is an anti-racist, anti-colonial teacher and activist.

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IDLE NO MORE MANIFESTO We contend that: The Treaties are nation to nation agreements between Canada and First Nations who are sovereign nations. The Treaties are agreements that cannot be altered or broken by one side of the two Nations. The spirit and intent of the Treaty agreements meant that First Nations peoples would share the land, but retain their inherent rights to lands and resources. Instead, First Nations have experienced a history of colonization which has resulted in outstanding land claims, lack of resources and unequal funding for services such as education and housing. We contend that: Canada has become one of the wealthiest countries in the world by using the land and resources. Canadian mining, logging, oil and fishing companies are the most powerful in the world due to land and resources. Some of the poorest First Nations communities (such as Attawapiskat) have mines or other developments on their land but do not get a share of the profit. The taking of resources has left many lands and waters poisoned â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the animals and plants are dying in many areas in Canada. We cannot live without the land and water. We have laws older than this colonial government about how to live with the land. We contend that: T-shirt design by Aaron Paquette

Currently, this government is trying to pass many laws so that reserve lands can also be bought and sold by big companies to get profit from resources. They are promising to share this timeâ&#x20AC;ŚWhy would these promises be different from past promises? We will be left with nothing but poisoned water, land and air. This is an attempt to take away sovereignty and the inherent right to land and resources from First Nations peoples. We contend that: There are many examples of other countries moving towards sustainability, and we must demand sustainable development as well. We believe in healthy, just, equitable and sustainable communities and have a vision and plan of how to build them. Source: Idle No More. More details, including notifications about teach-ins, meetings and rallies can be found at Idlenomore.ca

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JANUARY 19, 2012 worldview thing,” he says. “It’s a ‘protect the Earth’ thing. For those transfixed on race, you’re missing the point. The Idle No More movement simply wants kids of all colors and ethnicities to have clean drinking water. It’s also not a ‘Canada’ or ‘United States’ thing. Multinational corporations do not care about borders and neither should we.” Ross says that despite legislation intended to prevent pollution, corporations pollute freely with almost complete impunity and the children are the ones who suffer. “We likewise should not care about borders—we are mobilizing on both sides because we understand that what we do affects one another.” As author and academic Leanne Simpson writes in a story on how the mainstream media went wrong, “Idle No More is not just a fight for Indigenous nations, land, culture, decolonization, language, treaties and the environment; it is also a fight for the fair and accurate representation of Indigenous Peoples and our issues. It is a fight for a better relationship, and that begins with truth, dialogue and respect.”

space. Critics claim the mining of these tar sands is not about jobs or energy security, merely profits for a handful of oil companies seeking to export. A large proportion of the oil dug up in Canada is destined for China. To all intents and purposes, Canada could become “the world’s gas tank,” according to author and activist Naomi Klein. Communicating the message Gyasi Ross is an American activist and lawyer with Native roots. He has spoken at many Idle No More events in the United States and spreads the message about the movement in the mainstream media. He explains the Idle No More Movement is not a new movement but is the latest incarnation of the sustained indigenous resistance to the rape, pillage and exploitation of North America and its women that has existed since 1492. “It is not the Occupy Movement, although there are some similarities,” he writes in the Seattle Globalist. “It is not only about Canada and it is not only about Native people. Finally, and probably most importantly, it are not going away anytime soon. So get used to it.” Ross has been at pains to help explain the movement and to say it is “not just an Indian thing” but has relevance for anybody who cares about the planet and how we treat our fellow man. As he says, “The Idle No More Movement is about protecting the Earth for all people from the carnivorous and capitalistic spirit that wants to exploit and extract every last bit of resources from the land. Therefore, anybody who cares about this Earth should be interested in the Idle No More movement.” He says it was a response to Canada’s Bill C-45, which overhauled the Navigable Waters Protection Act and removed protections for many waters that go through First Nations land. “Changing the Act literally moves the emphasis of the protection—it morphs from protecting the waterways to protecting the navigation on those waterways. Now, instead of 30,000 lakes being protected under the old Act, only 97 lakes will be protected. As Canadian Parliament Member Kirsty Duncan states, “The days when Canadians take an endless abundance of fresh water for granted are numbered…” Ross stresses that these issues affect everybody. “It’s not a Native thing or a white thing, it’s an indigenous

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Worldwide appeal As Ross, rapper Stevens and many other commentators are saying, Idle No More has transcended borders. Yet it is early days and hard to predict how the movement will develop in Canada and whether it will take hold abroad and in what form. What is clear is that other prominent environmental groups see common cause with Idle No More. There have been linkups with other environmental actions, including the Forward for Climate Rally in Washington DC on February 17 attended by about 40,000 people. The rally led by 350.org, Greenpeace and the Sierra Club called on the US government to stop plans for the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring dirty tar sands crude south from Canada’s tar sands 1,700 miles across America to refineries in the Gulf. If ever there was a common cause, this is it – end the destruction of forests, land and water and pollution of the air caused by the dirtiest mining on the planet, the mining and burning of the fuel likely to tip the Earth’s climate into the abyss. As Idle No More co-founder Gordon says, this is reason to get off the couch and be idle no more.

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JOURNEY OF NISHIYUU

A 1,100-mile journey on foot inspired by Idle No More

Photo: Nishiyuu.ca

Abby Masty, probably the youngest of the walkers on the Journey of Nishiyuu, takes a break in a teepee. Photo: Nishiyuu.ca

From shopping malls to road intersections, to parliament, indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians have been publicizing the Idle No More message

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;From the beginning, this social structure we call civilization has been defined by hierarchy, slavery, imperialism, and relentless destruction of the land. This cannot last. It is not sustainable nor is it just. For these reasons, DGR advocates for the dismantling of industrialism and abandonment of civilization as a way of life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;

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Taking on Global Capitalism The Deep Green Resistance Movement By Max Wilbert

The seductive but deceptive face of Seattle, U.S.

’m writing this at 68 miles per hour in the left lane of I-5. The freeway is eight lanes wide here, a laceration running north and south for 1,500 miles. It is a major corridor of human trafficking. A river of oil, a friend calls it. A river of blood, too. A checkerboard of clearcuts scars the face of the mountains to the east. Silt turns the river brown as it runs beneath the road. Agricultural land comes in waves, green or brown fields flashing past. I wonder how many see them for what they are: biotic cleansing. But no, most people see a natural system. Mt. Vernon passes in a blur. The town is home to a massive drug problem, a conservative electorate, and a large population of poor migrant farmworkers. Not so different from many of the other small towns on the route. Then, suddenly, Seattle appears—a glittering inflammation on the land, arteries connecting the city to resources around the world, pipelines and trucks and barges and tankers bringing fuel and food and consumer goods. The police department is—once again— under federal investigation for racial profiling. The poor (mostly brown) people of the city are withering under a devastating flurry of foreclosures, layoffs, and gentrification. This city is home to a flourishing biotechnology industry, massive weapons manufacturers, an imperialistic coffee corporation, and an online bookstore that is destroying local businesses in an ever-accelerating downwards spiral. Some of the richest people on the planet live here. Meanwhile, as I walk into the local

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The horrors of industrial logging grocery store, I pass a homeless indigenous man who last spindly forests, the last desiccated soils. went to war in Vietnam, was ordered to kill other poor A few—a bare handful really—choose to fight back. brown people, and lost everything to the nightmares For me, the journey to revolution—to fighting that now come every night. He says hello and smiles, back—began early. I read The Communist Manifesto just like always, and I walk on with a heavy heart, feelin the 6th grade – those first lines were imprinted in ing I am not doing enough. my brain: “the history of all hitherto existing societies This culture is sick in brain and body. We all recogis the history of class struggles.” To my young mind, the nize this at some level. The reality of this civilization is teachers were the bourgeoisie – content in their comred in tooth and claw—or perhaps more accurately, red fortable salaried jobs, while we students slaved away in bulldozer and stock option. under a system of forced industrial schooling. It was The archaic notion of morality is long gone in toa joke, albeit a serious one, among my friends and I, day’s digital world. In fact, it’s not gone, it’s something but soon enough I would be able to apply the model to much worse: ironic. Post modernism has spread insidimore brutal systems of power – white supremacy, patriously to every nook and cranny of the culture, and in archy, capitalism, and civilization. that twisted and depressed world view, oppression is We all owe Marx a debt – he was the first to articuinevitable and resistance is futile. The inevitable conlate the model of class struggle, and since then political clusion: “why don’t we just party?” classes have been and remain the basis of radical orAnd people wonder why this ideology has risen to ganizing. Don’t get me wrong: Marx had many failings, the fore! Hmm… let’s think. Maybe because it beautiextreme racism not the least among them. I am not a fully serves those in power? communist. That has shown itself to be the path to anProfit is the highest god of the land. Patriarchy, other industrial nightmare. white supremacy, human supremacy, capitalism: these I organize now with a movement called Deep are a few of the overlapping systems of power in place Green Resistance, or DGR. Our movement is made up across this planet that are impoverishing people, killing of an international network of activists and communipeople, killing the land, and squeezing profits out of the ty organizers a radical political Clip from “Bidder 70,” a with documentary by Gage vision. & GageThe DGR

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natural disasters. Understand: agriculture is when you take a piece of land—a forest, wetland, or grassland— you clear every living thing off it, and you plant it for human use. That energy is no longer being shared. Instead of sustaining biodiversity, you are now sustaining an artificially high human population. When we say agriculture is theft, we are not joking. Anthropologists and archeologists also explain to us that agriculture marked the beginning of dense population centers – cities – that became the first nationstates as these early cities devastated the lands and soils around them and began imperialist conquests further and further afield. Make no mistake: civilization is not just characterized by aggressive resource wars, it is defined by them. The history of civilization is the history of conquest. The first standing armies were created by the first civilizations; their progress around the world is written indelibly on the land, a patchwork of gullies and deserts, the ghosts of forests, and desertified soils. Clearing forests, plowing fields, and harvesting grain is not easy work; thus, these early agricultural so-

analysis is different from anything that I had heard previously. We go deeper than I used to think possible – 10,000 years deep, to the end of that shadowed time called prehistory and the fragmentary beginnings of history. The end of the Paleolithic era; the beginnings of the Neolithic. At this time, several communities around the world began to cultivate annual monocrops in a process known as agriculture. Maybe you are thinking that agriculture has little to do with social and environmental issues. I would have thought the same, years ago. But now I know better. 10,000 years of evidence paints a bleak picture of agriculture. When they begin to cultivate fields, the archeological record shows that human skeletons shrink in stature and health. The pollen records, trapped in lakes and bogs, show that forests began to fall en masse around 8,000 years ago, as agriculture spread. Wetlands and grasslands show the same decline; they have never recovered. Agriculture requires land clearance. Annual plants require bare soil, and that bare soil was created by un-

Photo: Max Wilbert Spreading the Deep Green Resistance message - Derrick Jensen, left, with Waziyata Win, speaking

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JANUARY 19, 2012 cieties were characterized by slavery. Indeed, until the mid-1800s (when fossil fuels burst onto the scene) fully 3/4ths of all the people on the planet lived in some form of slavery or indentured servitude: this is the future of agricultural societies, once the fossil fuels run out. From the beginning, this social structure we call civilization has been defined by hierarchy, slavery, imperialism, and relentless destruction of the land. This cannot last. It is not sustainable nor is it just. For these reasons, DGR advocates for the dismantling of industrialism and abandonment of civilization as a way of life. The genesis of the DGR movement was a strategy based in this knowledge: that the culture of civilization is killing the planet, and that time is short. The system must be seriously challenged before it is too late. Part of the work we do in DGR involves preparing for the eventual collapse of civilization. The rest hinges on, to quote Andrea Dworkin, “organized political resistance.” We recognize that mainstream politics is largely a distraction. The votes are tallied, the lobbyists scurry about their work, and Earth is consumed by global capitalism. In the face of a global system such as this, we feel that many of our options for resistance have been foreclosed. But regardless of the ideological and political strength of industrial civilization, its physical infrastructure is fragile. This system (or global capitalism) rests on a brittle foundation of fossil fuel pipelines, refineries, mining sites, international trade, communications cables, and other similar infrastructure. This centralization makes the system strong, but also vulnerable. Let us not mince words: we call for militant, organized underground action to bring down the global industrial economy. Simply put, we need to stop this death economy before it completely destroys the planet. The pipelines need to be disabled, the power stations need to be dismantled, the mining sites need to be put out of commission. Global capitalism needs to be brought to a screeching halt. The ticking of stocks is the death knell of planet Earth, and our response is that revolutionary refrain: by any means necessary. As a group that operates within the boundaries of state repression, we do not engage in underground action ourselves. We limit our work to non-violent civil disobedience – an elegant political tactic that has been used for many decades with great success. If we had the numbers and the commitment, this system could be brought down through non-violence alone. But the numbers simply aren’t there. If anyone can make them

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appear, I will be forever grateful. But for now, I see no other option—we must fight back. I ask myself all the time if these tactics are justified – after all, we are talking about the collapse of a global industrial system that supports billions of people. The end of this system won’t be pretty. Won’t the culture make a voluntary transformation towards justice and balance? Will people wake up? Isn’t it great hubris to claim to have some sort of answer? But then I remember: like a good abuser, civilization systematically works to destroy alternative ways of thinking and being. Indigenous communities, which are living examples of ways to live in balance, have been the number one enemy of civilization. Against them, it is especially ruthless. We must always remember that

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Deep Green Resistance Great Plains members visit Wounded Knee, South Dakota, U.S. in 2012

members of settler culture (such as myself) are living on stolen land. Any plan for the future must take into account the needs and wishes of the original inhabitants. With the same cold logic used by abusers of women and children, the system has made many of us dependent upon it for our survival. Our food, medicine, shelter, water, transportation, even our entertainment all comes from the system that is killing us and killing Earth. When I walk down the street, I see people who are locked into a system that is killing the planet. Many of themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Democrat and Republican alikeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;have bought into this system. Will they demand change? Will they sacrifice for it?

Against all odds, and only for a few, the answer may be yes. But for the majority, the answer is a resounding no. Many are adopting a defensive posture, hunching around the elegancies and comforts of modern civilization and blocking out the cries of a bleeding world. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. But we hear the cries of people slaving away for a system that is killing them. We see more forests falling for shopping malls and strip mines. We choose to speak, and to not turn aside. Max Wilbert was born and raised in Seattle and lives in Salt Lake City. He works with the activist group Deep Green Resistance. He can be contacted at max_DGR@riseup.net.

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RECONNECTING WITH EARTH RECONNECTING WITH EARTH

Brynn Goforth on why we all should become Eco-warriors

Brynn Goforth seeks out the wisdom of indigenous ways and encourages you to become an Earth Warrior M - ZI N E+ ACTIVISM TODAY

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he number one pre-requisite for a sustainable future is a connection to the natural world. If we do not understand or value the abundance and brilliance of nature then we will continue to lack the inclination to protect it. Unfortunately, we do not have time to continue to twiddle our thumbs and continue partaking in destructive behaviors. Fortunately, we have not reached the “point of no return” and we still have the opportunity to save ourselves from ourselves. In order to do this, humans must start taking individual action to build a sustainable future for the generations to come. We have the power to do this as individuals not by what we say but by what we do. Everyday we are provided opportunities to shape present circumstances and future possibilities. We must remember that everything we do and depend upon comes from the Earth. Each time we forget about this simple reality, we loose an opportunity to create a harmonious existence for future generations. Earth Warriors is a film project which involves a journey to reveal the teachers who have mastered the art of living harmoniously on planet Earth. These people are not only your “everyday normal people” who have found ways to live independent, self-sufficient life-styles, these people also live hidden in the jungles, deserts, islands, and mountains patiently waiting to be heard and understood. The film project is also a movement dedicated to spread awareness about indigenous intelligence and the human connection to the natural world. As we know, the world is in a very disharmonic state. There

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JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY Brynn on her journey into the jungle of Papua. Coming out of the jungle was, back to what we call civilization, she said, was like a slap in the face. “I didn’t know if I was ready to enter the world outside of the jungle, it seemed so cruel after what I had just experienced,” she wrote

are is a vast collection of statistics that prove that the Earth is not only degrading at alarming rates, so are the indigenous people.

to teach us about being sustainable humans. Each culture has a secret to share, traditions to pass down, and knowledge to spread. It is our responsibility to reawaken to the intelligence that lies within the indigenous cultures of the world and realize that these messengers of divine knowledge hold the key to a sustainable future. We cannot assume that one culture has all the answers, but in this age of technology, we have the ability to choose from the wide array of information and knowledge that is ever evolving before us. Now we have the power to pick and choose not only what works best for us as individuals, but also what works in service for the dynamic balance of the natural world.

The old ways dying out Anthropologists and linguists say that within the next century half of the world’s native languages, cultures, and traditions will be totally obsolete. The purpose of the film is to bring consciousness to the importance of environmental recovery, while also igniting a new sense of respect for the indigenous cultures that must be heard. The film is not suggesting that as a collective we must “be tribal,” but we must acknowledge that indigenous cultures have clues and secrets about how to create a sustainable, harmonious future. Governments and societies all over the world have forced humanity to become dependent cultures, making us believe we cannot exist or be happy without attachment to products, fossil fuels, and foods that are unjustly designed. We must realize that our truest potential on this planet is to once again live self-sufficient lifestyles. When approached with a compassionate heart and open ears it cannot be ignored that tribal communities have much

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Filming self-sufficient lifestyles The first film will not only focus on “normal everyday people” living self-sufficient lifestyles, it will closely document three cultures who each have BIG lessons to teach the modern day working bee about reconnecting with oneself and the Earth. In West Papua, the natives will teach us the significance of simplicity. In Bali, the Hindu holy men and women will guide us through the spirit world and show us the importance of reconnect-

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ing with ourselves in order to realize that true sustainability comes from within. In North, Central, and South America, Native Americans of diverse tribes will reconnect us with our ultimate dependence and relationship with nature. It is of utter importance to document the wisdom of the people who know how to live balanced lives. It is time to empower the native people of the world and give credit to their ingenious mastery of the land.

tect the Earth. An “Earth Worrier” sees and hears the issues, it frightens them and makes them nervous about the future. Although these people do care about the issues (which is an important component) they are not necessarily motivated, educated, or inspired enough to take action to make a difference. “Earth Conquerors” see the Earth as a material possession to own, they see the potentiality of the resources and seek to control and manipulate it regardless of the consequences. There are two types of Earth Conquerors, the ones consciously reaping the rewards and the ones who unconsciously reap the rewards (consciously = BP “British Petroleum,” they know what they’re doing, and unconsciously = an unaware consumer). “Earth Warriors” are equipped not only with a passionate understanding and connection to the natural rhythms, systems and cycles of the Earth they are moved and motivated to take action to protect the fragile entity (in small or large ways). Brynn encourages her readers and community to contemplate their relationship with the Earth, provides

Earth Worriers, Conquerors, Warriors The Earth Warriors project, born, produced and driven by Brynn Goforth, is committed to enlighten humanity about information and realistic tools to start creating a more sustainable and satisfying lifestyle by slowly implementing small changes individually. Brynn points out that there are three types of people on this planet: those who worry about the Earth, those whose greed destructs the Earth and those who take action to pro-

Brynn Goforth tries to pass on the message that we all can become Earth Warriors

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them with tools and inspires them to take the actions to become conscious Earth Warriors.

Bringing understanding

To understand what an Earth Warrior is, one must redefine the word warrior. When most people think of a warrior they envision war, fighting, battle, confrontation, anger, hostility, and aggression. Although an Earth Warrior does possess a certain quality of aggressiveness, their mentality and purpose is aligned with the greater good. An Earth Warrior exudes characteristics of compassion, resilience, consciousness, peacefulness, and honor. M - ZI TODAY N E+ ACTIVISM

The overall mission for the movie is to film the diverse varieties of Earth Warriors that exist on the planet today, with a special focus on the indigenous Earth Warriors who have gone unheard and misunderstood for too long. By acknowledging and consciously uncovering the lessons of our greatest teachers, humanity will resonate to a new vibration of compassion for the native people and connection to the ultimate source, our provider, Mother Earth. It must be recognized that Earth Warriors are constantly in the making, people are becoming passionate about the health of the planet and the wealth of the native cultures on a daily basis. An â&#x20AC;&#x153;everyday normal personâ&#x20AC;? has the ability to also become an Earth Warrior just by making incremental changes in their daily lives. To understand what an Earth Warrior is, one must redefine the word warrior. When most people think of a warrior they envision war, fighting, battle, confrontation, anger, hostility, and aggression. Although an Earth Warrior does possess a certain quality of aggressiveness, their mentality and purpose is aligned with the greater good. An Earth Warrior exudes characteristics of compassion, resilience, consciousness, peacefulness, and honor.

Creating positive lifestyles The movement to create and inspire Earth Warriors is also part of Brynnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dynamic project; she believes that all people have the potential to be conscious creators of a positive lifestyle in the present and future. She does not want people to wait for the movie to understand that they too can become active caretakers of the planet, so the Earth Warriors community has become viral! She encourages people to stay connected with the frequent blog updates to

JANUARY 2012 WINTER19, 2012-13 keep the community aware of the progress of the film and monthly individual challenges and dares to remind everyday people how they can become a self-sufficient, compassionate, change-making Earth Warrior in today’s society. So what is it that triggered Brynn to start such a project? She has always been a mover and a shaker. Her incessant desire to confront human fears and injustices has fueled her passions and interactions since she was a little girl. Her yearning for the natural world has always been equally as important. The words by Ralph Waldo Emerson stick in her head like lovers stick by each others’ side through hard times. He said: “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Over time Brynn figured out that once we learn to be honorable, compassionate, and start to make change, happiness inevitably follows. She has been blessed with people coming across her path who have told her that she has the ability to make a difference in the world. The thing that separates Brynn from others is that she listened and truly believed them.

Following your passion Too often people get stuck dibble-dabbling in all the possibilities of what they could do that one day they die with the feeling of never mastering one thing. Brynn truly believes that once we become interested and passionate in something very important to us, it is crucial to dedicate ourselves to whatever that “thing” is. She believes we become most useful, powerful, and helpful once we commit ourselves to something that makes sense to us and with compassionate, peaceful aggression become warriors and artists of our passion. Quickly that passion becomes your purpose and once you discover your purpose you no longer aimlessly stumble through the world, you walk confidently in the direction you are meant to be heading.

Quickly that passion becomes your purpose and once you discover your purpose you no longer aimlessly stumble through the world, you walk confidently in the direction you are meant to be heading.

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Brynnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Native American roots guide her purpose to educate people about the importance of the human and Earth connection. Her own connection to the Earth has filled her with an ambition to protect those whose voices continue to go unheard. An activist is simply a person who knows exactly what their mission is on the planet and they will, with everything they have, protect whatever it is that is important to them. Stay connected with Brynnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey as she uncovers the secrets of the people who are most connected with themselves and the Earth. During the summer of 2012 Brynn visited West Papua to film the lifestyle and ways of the warriors in the Papuan jungle. For the time being, Brynn lives, teaches and films in Bali, Indonesia. She is also currently preparing herself for the biggest trip of all - filming in North, Central, and South America. Brynn says that you do not have to wait to see the movie to discover ways that you can become self-sufficient, sustainable, and work in service of the greater good - the Earth Warriors community is viral and ever evolving. You, too, can become an Earth Warrior.

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Stay connected, motivated, and challenged with blog updates, Earth Warrior challenges and dares, and Facebook live feeds here: www.earthwarriors.net www.facebook.com/earthwarriorsthefilm If you are interested to help the Earth Warriors mission there are several ways to become involved, please contact Brynn directly here: www.earthwarriors.net

Solar Quandary in the U.S. Erik Curren shows how a greener energy future for America is proving a tough battle

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hat a difference a year makes if you’re a solar energy developer in the United States. For example, take this book I was asked to review on smallscale energy projects. A year ago I would’ve loved the optimistic and can-do tone of “Power from the People: How to Organize, Finance, and Launch Local Energy Projects.” The book is not only inspiring. It’s also realistic. Greg Pahl is practical enough to see that once the coal and natural gas deplete and get too expensive, if we want any electricity at all in the future it will have to come from renewables. Before my own descent into the hell of trying to finance and put up commercialscale solar energy systems in a conservative southeastern state, I would’ve cheered Pahl on as he called for a switch from today’s centralized power plants to a bright democratic future of “distributed generation” — a solar panel on every roof. But now, after my company had to fight an expensive legal battle with the state’s largest electric utility before we were able to complete a solar installation at a university, I bring a wary eye to Pahl’s cheery case studies of cutting-edge community energy projects in such greenie paradises as Oregon, Colorado and Pahl’s own Vermont. In my state of Virginia, we have to suffer under a Republican governor who pays lip service to “all of the above” energy sources but spends his real effort pushing offshore drilling, and coal and uranium mining, all while America’s seventh richest state enjoys about as much “clean energy” as Rwanda. In this state, you’ll get coal. And you’ll like it too. In the U.S., all forms of energy are subsidized and policy on energy is split between federal and state governments. For solar power, the federal government offers a 30% tax credit through 2016. But that’s not enough to make solar affordable for most potential customers. To make up the difference, many states have stepped in with

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JANUARY 19, 2012 requirements and limitations. Interconnection processes are highly complex, costly, uncertain, and time consuming. Land use entitlements, environmental approvals, zoning, planning, building and safety issues all add additional barriers to solar development. Political and regulatory barriers, which add extra cost to solar power as they do to all renewables, are the reason why the United States, still the world’s largest economy, is lagging behind such nations as Italy, the U.K. and even Indonesia in the amount of electricity we get from renewables. And even though California is America’s renewable energy leader, the Golden State is still no great shakes in Rosen’s book. “Germany, with the same sunshine as Anchorage, Alaska, installed far more solar in the fourth quarter of 2012 than California has installed in total.” Again, don’t blame the sun or the wind. America is falling behind on renewables because of politics. Don’t let me get you down After surveying dozens of inspiring small-scale renewable energy projects from solar coops in Colorado to wind turbines in Minnesota to the combined heat and power biomass plant at Middlebury College in Vermont, Pahl gives a nod to the challenges of doing renewables in most parts of the U.S. From lack of a coherent national energy policy with on-again off-again federal incentives; to resistance from electric utilities; to the complexity of financing community energy projects; to inflexible and outdated government approval processes; to NIMBY opposition

additional incentives, primarily requirements for utility companies to offer their customers a certain minimum amount of clean energy. In some cases, the minimum would rise each year, meaning that the market for solar power would get bigger and bigger. Such a system has allowed both sunny California and un-sunny New Jersey to lead the U.S. in solar installations. Like the Golden State, the Garden State supports solar power through excellent public policy — a combination of a robust renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and the ability for renewable energy companies to enter into power purchase agreements with their customers, allowing a customer to use solar power without having to invest tens of thousands of dollars upfront in solar panels. Both policies are key to cutting costs for renewables and getting close to the holy grail of “grid parity,” where clean energy from an alternative source costs about as much as dirty power from the electric company. But with the exception of California, Colorado and a handful of traditionally liberal states in the Northwest and Northeast that have enacted serious policies to support renewable power, the rest of America remains a clean energy backwater. As California solar developer Al Rosen writes in Renewable Energy World, There’s no solar gold rush or windfall profit. Most solar developers and their projects are struggling. The failure rate is extraordinarily high. Financing and investment is hard to come by. There are few viable programs and they all have small capacity and difficult

STARK FACT The United States, the world’s so-called “superpower,” probably has as much renewable energy as Rwanda in Africa

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JANUARY 2012 WINTER19, 2012-13 from neighbors, most parts of the U.S. present a hostile environment for households and communities wanting to take energy into their own hands. “Contacting your state and federal representatives and urging them to enact long-term support for renewables is one of the most important things that you can do to promote energy resilience,” writes Pahl. Of course, Pahl is right. But the way he puts it, makes it sound so…easy. You say solar, I say Solyndra Let’s not forget that, as a group, federal and state legislators receive millions of dollars in dirty energy money each election cycle from companies such as Chesapeake Energy, Peabody Coal and Duke Energy to ensure that government will help to keep the electric grid humming with electrons from fossil fuels and nukes. Maybe all that dirty energy money is why so many Republican legislators join Rush Limbaugh in hammering again and again on Solyndra, the California PV manufacturer that went bankrupt after receiving federal incentives and whose name has become shorthand in conservative circles for clean energy bunkum. Frustratingly, Americans who contact their state and federal legislators often find that when they talk about solar, all too many politicians just want to talk about Solyndra. Even in places like California or Vermont with plenty of environmentally conscious voters who make themselves heard at the state capital, the major obstacles to getting much clean energy will still be political.

In the face of opposition from utility companies and other powerful special interests blocking renewables, it’s easy to get discouraged. Recently, Siemens became the latest big company to announce that they were getting out of the solar business, citing slow growth, low profit and high costs, largely in the formerly hot U.S. market. Author Richard Heinberg has said that, even though industrial economies will need renewables more than ever once the oil, coal and natural gas start to deplete, very little renewable generation will be installed because the capital to finance solar panels and wind turbines won’t be available. It seems that Heinberg is right. Tragically, even in today’s recession, there’s plenty of capital just sitting around looking for a safe place to invest. But politics has set up a wall between renewables and the money they need to take off. Meanwhile, approaching an energy crisis that will make the gas lines, brownouts and high costs of the1970s look tame, after a period of progress, the U.S. now seems to be going backwards on energy, letting the solar and wind industries slowly die while putting more and more eggs into the basket of fossil fuels. And as the world’s biggest energy user, America leaving green energy behind so that it can go back to brown power will be tragic not just for the American economy after peak oil but for the global climate as well. – Erik Curren, Transition Voice

Erik Curren and the solar panels which he says hold so much promise for America

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Trading to Extinction A photographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quest to capture images of the wildlife trade decimating animal species

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hotographer Patrick Brown is a driven man. He used to shoot fashion. Now he shoots wildlife and those intent on shooting the animals for profit. As he says, day by day, hour by hour, our planet’s rarest creatures are being hunted, trapped and slaughtered to feed a global black market in wildlife products. “Trading to Extinction” is Brown’s hard-won struggle to document the trade that is wiping out species on the planet at an alarming rate. “Trading to Extinction” is a book of black and white photographs that in their monochrome simplicity tells a shocking tale of cruelty, crime and human greed. “As with drug trafficking, money fuels the animal trade,” he says. “Its tentacles wrap around the world, from the remote forests of Asia to the trafficking hubs of Beijing, Bangkok, London, Tokyo and New York.” Although there was the recent Cites meeting in Bangkok, where the Thai government committed to ending the trade in ivory, the trade remains alive and well. As he says, “A poacher who kills a rhino and removes its horn in India gets $350. That same horn sells for $1,000 in a nearby market town. By the time it reaches Hong Kong, Beijing or the Middle East, the horn is worth $370,000. Tiger bones are worth up to $700 per kilo.” Despite the bleak picture, there is a movement trying to save the endangered species before it is too late. In that respect, “Trading to Extinction” is also a story of hope as dedicated individuals and groups fight against the evil trade.

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PHOTOS: Page 40-41, Nepalese soldiers on patrol in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Page 42, Top: Man sells animals for medicinal purposes in Dali, China. Middle: Crocodile for sale in a restaurant. Bottom: Shark fins for sale in a shop. This page - A 50-year-old bull elephant is kept in captivity in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. It is kept chained because it has killed five handlers in its lifetime. Brown finds this one of his most moving photographs.

Interested in the book? Want to support the project? Check it out at www.Emphas.is 43

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Damming the Omo

hen World Bank President Jim Yong Kim declared recently that his organization had “a clear, simple goal – to eradicate poverty absolutely,” he probably wasn’t thinking of the half million indigenous peoples in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia whose livelihoods are threatened by the construction of the Gibe III dam on Lake Turkana, and by associated land-grabbing on the Omo river. Though the Bank isn’t funding either of these schemes directly, it has agreed a loan for a US $684 million transmission-line that will shift power from the dam to the interior of Kenya, effectively legitimizing an ecological disaster-in-the-making, by indirect – some say devious - means.

A Recipe for Ecological Disaster By Michael Asher

Largest permanent desert lake Lake Turkana is the world’s largest permanent desert lake – a unique and stunningly beautiful sight as it emerges, a rich jade-green, from the stony wastes that surround it. Though mostly in Kenya, its northern end lies across the Ethiopian frontier, where the Gibe III dam is under construction on the Omo River, the lake’s main tributary, washing down silts from the Ethiopian highlands. Since last year, Ethiopian military forces have been systematically intimidating and evicting communities of indigenous peoples who have lived for centuries on the banks of the lower Omo, to make way for state-run sugar-plantations, sponsored by Kiraz Sugar Development of India. And all this despite the fact that, in 1980, the lower Omo valley was designated a UNESCO world heritage site. These indigenous tribes – the Bodi, Kara, Kwegu, Mursi, Nyangatom and others, numbering an estimated 200,000 people - have developed an agropastoral culture intimately linked to the Omo’s flood cycle. Wandering away from the river with their cattle-herds in the flood season, they return when the waters recede, to plant sorghum, maize and beans in the rich silt of the riverine plains. Some groups hunt and fish: all prize their cattle highly, not for their ex-

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JANUARY 19, 2012 Criminal Court. No such indictment has been forthcoming, yet this still seems an odd time for the World Bank to be supporting an associated scheme – the Gibe III dam, lynch-pin of Ethiopia’s Omo river development project - especially as the Bank withdrew funding for the dam two years ago, on the grounds that the project fell short of its social and environmental standards. Since these standards haven’t changed – officially anyway – and since nothing about the Gibe III scheme has changed either, by approving the transmission-line loan, the Bank is violating its own principles. “The World Bank effectively condones the building of Gibe III,” says activist, Ikal Angelei, founder of Friends of Lake Turkana, “thus threatening the lives of half a million people, and damming perhaps the only significant natural life-support system in the Omo-Turkana ecosystem.”

change-value, but as sources of meat, milk, blood and hides, and as payment for bride-wealth - the essence of social cohesion among most traditional African tribes.

Culture under threat This delicately balanced, sustainable culture is currently being dismembered by the Ethiopian government in its bid to achieve a 2.5 percent share of the global sugartrade by 2017. Sugar-production has already begun on the east bank, irrigation-canals have been dug, sugarprocessing plants are under construction: over 100,000 hectares of land are being cleared for the cultivation of other products including palm-oil and cotton. “They are cutting down bush and forest and bulldozing our gardens,” one local resident told a Human Rights Watch survey. “They want us to sell off our cows: no-one is going to sell their cattle. They should go away. They should leave our forest alone and leave it to us to cultivate with our hands.” To gag such embarrassing resistance from the local population, with their awkward land-rights, members of Ethiopian military units have beaten, raped, tasered, tortured and humiliated men, women and children, stolen and slaughtered their cattle, and subjected scores to arbitrary detention. The plan is to move them out to three large “resettlement camps” or reservations, where they will no longer be able to pursue their traditional livelihoods nor keep their cattle: they will have no other choice but to migrate to city slums or become laborers toiling as wage-slaves, on land where they and their ancestors once lived freely with direct access to their own food supply.

Forerunner of a greater tragedy The devastation of local communities on the lower Omo may be only the overture for an even greater tragedy in northern Kenya, where more than 300,000 indigenous people are directly dependent for their livelihoods on the lake. If construction of the dam continues, as now seems likely, the lake’s water-level will drop by 30 feet, increasing salinity, destroying fish-stocks, and wiping out plant and wildlife species, including Nile crocodile, hippo, 84 species of water-birds, and 34 paleoarctic migrants. Not only will the lake’s flood regime be affected, but the influx of phosphate-based fertilizers washed down from Omo sugar-plantations will change the chemical balance of the lake, altering its ecology irreversibly, making its water undrinkable, and leading ultimately to tribal conflict over scarce resources, and to the displacement of thousands of local people. By tacitly endorsing the Gibe III dam project, the World Bank is not only encouraging breaches of international humanitarian law, but also going against the advice of its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which, in 2011, warned that states in East Africa should minimize dependence on hydropower, because of climate-change and the probability of future drought. That the Bank seems to have ignored this warning shouldn’t perhaps be surprising, given its dismal history in Kenya. The country’s longest river, the Tana, for instance, has been called a ‘museum of failed World Bank projects’: ‘from conservation parks created as zoos to keep the local population out,’ as one

Government fails to recognize rights The displacement of peoples from land they have historically occupied, without their free, prior, and informed consent, is contrary to the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and, with rape, torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, including arbitrary detention, is illegal under international humanitarian law. The Ethiopian government has not, of course, recognized the rights of the indigenous tribes, nor asked for their consent, nor even offered them compensation: the systematic transfer or deportation of a people from their homeland by a state authority is a crime against humanity, indictable by the International

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Local groups should have the right to live on their own land and not be evicted. Photo: Carsten ten Brink

report put it, ‘ to shrimp farms that destroyed valuable mangroves, and misconceived irrigation projects, the Tana delta is a testament to the World Bank’s strategy of top-down projects that fail to take the local people and environment into account.’ These schemes not only failed, but caused long-term ecological and social damage, including tribal clashes over dwindling resources that are still with us today. How does this gel with Jim Yong Kim’s claim that the World Bank is “working for a world free of poverty”? The answer is “not at all.” The Bank promotes capital investment and international trade that favors the industrial world, and, in fact, creates poverty: statistics show that no less than 90 percent of recipients of World Bank loans either got poorer or stayed the same. The Bank’s renegade former chief economist, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, put it more cogently, “the World Bank’s approach has condemned people to death. They don’t care if people live or die.”

remain and live sustainably on their ancestral lands, so rivers, lakes, forests, deserts, mountains, and nonhuman species have rights of their own. As the tenets of deep ecology tell us, humans do not have the right to interfere with the diversity of Nature except to satisfy vital needs: such needs do not include the enrichment of private individuals, states, or international corporations. As for the future of the Omo-Turkana development project, a report from the Oakland institute summed it up succinctly. “Growing thirsty crops such as sugar-cane and cotton for the world market doesn’t make sense in a region that is scarce in water and prone to hunger and resource conflicts. The dam and associated land-grabs will turn Gibe III hydro-power project into a social and environmental disaster on several accounts.”

Right to live on their own land

Michael Asher is an author, explorer, and deep ecologist based in Kenya.

In any case, just as indigenous peoples have a right to

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GREEN IS THE NEW RED

American journalist Will Potter warns of the hidden agenda of governments and companies to portray environmental activism as a threat to society Story by Marc Jacob

A protestor is trussed up by police at the site of the Keystone XL pipeline construction in Texas

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Kevin Redding - Tar Sands Blockade, Texas

evin Redding does not look like a terrorist. The young Texan was one of dozens of activists who took part in a blockade of the Keystone XL pipeline being laid by foreign oil company TransCanada through Texas during the winter. Photographed with a scarf to hide his face, Redding has a hint of skullduggery, but he looks a far cry from a terrorist suicide bomber intent on crashing a plane into a building, just the opposite. Redding’s self-appointed task was to try to use non-violent opposition to stop the oil company’s diggers and bulldozers destroying the land. By camping out up a tree in the path of the pipeline, he was able to at least temporarily block TransCanada’s machinery. The activist was part of a campaign by the activist group Tar Sands Blockade (TSB) to stop the pipeline they say poses a threat to the land and trees and has the potential to leak and damage the watertables and rivers. TSB believes tar sands mining in Canada poses a serious threat to the local environment, and the burning of the resulting fuel could dramatically alter the climate for the worse. Unlike those protestors at the site who were physically man-handled by on-duty and off-duty police - some of whom used tasers and pepper spray - Redding was able to escape from his tree at night, when the pressure grew too hot, and evade arrest. TransCanada, a foreign company, has been using the U.S. legal measure of “eminent domain,” the power to take private

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JANUARY 2012 WINTER19, 2012-13 property for public use by the state, having paid “just compensation” to the owner of the property. Some land owners on the Keystone XL pipeline route allege the company has used intimidation, lies and false promises to buy up their land. Some have refused to sign the deal yet have still seen bulldozers come onto their land. Off-duty American policemen have been paid by the company as security guards and for surveillance, taking video and photographs of the protestors who, like Redding, tried where possible to hide their faces and identities. Part of the tactics used by the company and police was to shine strong lights into the trees at night, where the protestors maintained their vigil, and to use loudspeakers and try to intimidate them. As Redding recalls, police officers taunted him by shouting he would be charged as a “terrorist,” in a relentless barrage of loaded rhetoric.

ECO-TERRORISTS?

An environmentalist gets arrested

Demonizing environmentalists In modern-day America, “terrorist” is the last thing you want to be labeled. This is something award winning American journalist Will Potter knows all too well. Potter has been tracking the tactics used by the U.S. government, its security apparatus and companies to clamp down on dissent. Even before the terrorist attacks of 9/11in the United States, measures were being put in place to better control the general population to allow the government and multinational companies greater control over the lives of the people. If it sounds Orwellian, it is. Tree sitter Redding and other activists are caught in the cross-hairs of a government system growing ever more draconian. Given the new powers that have been brought in, largely under the guise of “fighting terrorism,” the U.S. authorities can now clamp down on anything they deem or would like to portray as subversive or counter to an agenda that puts the desires of the state or companies above the freedoms of the people. Redding had reason to fear the expanded powers of the police. If you get put on a list, you could be branded for the rest of your life. Journalist Potter himself ran foul of the authorities a couple of years back for the simple action of giving out leaflets. Potter received a knock on the door by FBI agents. The threat was made clear. After asking why he had been giving out leaflets concerned with an animal welfare cause, one of them, who gave his name as “Chris,” said: “After 9/11 we have a lot more authority now to get things done and get down to business. We

Diane Wilson has been arrested many times

A Tar Sands Blockade tree sitter who was arrested

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A policeman stands guard in the path of the Keystone XL pipeline can make your life difficult for you. You work at newspapers? I can make it so you never work at newspapers again.” The agents wanted Potter to act as an informant. He was given a phone number to call. “If we don’t hear from you, we will put you on the domestic terrorist list,” he recalls “Chris” saying.

What’s the greatest terrorist threat to America today? It is not Muslim suicide bombers. As the Federal Bureau of Investigation has publicly said, radical environmentalists and animal liberation activists pose the greatest “terrorist threat” to the United States.

Documenting the ‘Green Scare’ clampdown

Activist Redding’s run-in with the law is just one of the ugly manifestations of the war on anybody who steps out of line. “The backlash against the tar sands activism has included police charging blockaders with felonies in Texas for non-violent civil disobedience, which is grossly disproportionate to their minor crime,” Potter told Activism Today. He points to another incident of non-violent civil disobedience, the act of Tim DeChristopher who was sentenced to more than two years in prison for disrupting an oil and gas lease auction in Utah. As he was facing trail, some state lawmakers tried to pass a new bill labeling his civil disobedience as eco-

The encounter was frightening. But instead of being cowed, Potter set out to find out why he was targeted as a terrorist for doing nothing more than leafleting. In a book entitled, “Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege,” he takes a hard look at how environmental and animal rights activists are being targeted by the authorities as “ecoterrorists” and what that means for activists, the general public and anybody who values their freedom. As he says, the “Red Scare” of communism during the Cold War has made way for the “Green Scare.”

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A Tar Sands Blockade tree sitter blocks the path of the Keystone XL pipeline terrorism, according to Potter. The author and journalist says there are multiple factors at work and players behind this, but by far the most significant influence has been corporate. Corporations and industry groups were behind the creation of the term “eco-terrorism” in the early 1980s, and they were responsible for elevating its prominence to the “number one domestic terrorism threat,” according to the FBI. As Potter says, this cuts to the heart of this crackdown: it’s not about activists’ crimes, it’s about the corporate profits they are jeopardizing. In simple terms, legislation and law enforcement is being as a tool for big business. Unfortunately, the mainstream media has tended to parrot the rhetoric of the companies and the authorities rather than taking the time to look at the situation objectively. “The mainstream press was certainly complicit in the rise of this terrorism rhetoric, in that most reporters did not question its usage or the corporate interests behind it,” Potter says. “However, mainstream attention to

these issues has certainly been increasing dramatically. The press is similar to the mainstream public in that most of them simply have no idea what is going on.” This is part of the problem. Most people don’t recognize what is happening. Green movement growing As Potter points out, the irony of this “Green Scare” is that it is occurring at a time of unprecedented environmental awareness. “These issues have worked their way into mainstream consciousness like never before. And at the grassroots level, there has been a resurgence of bold, courageous activism by environmental groups. The tar sands campaign is a wonderful example of that.” The environmental movement is at a crossroads, he says. These issues have become mainstream, and with that has come a two-fold corporate response. The first has been the backlash already outlined in terms of legislation and the actions of the authorities. The second is greenwashing, or attempts to define environmental

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Two journalists covering the Tar Sands Blockade to block the Keystone XL pipeline who were arrested at least twice

activism and consciousness in terms of consumerism. “The best way to be an environmentalist, we are told, is just to spend more money,” Potter says. “The biggest challenge facing the environmental movement today is how to maintain its integrity and not let its message be co-opted.” As a journalist, Potter finds he has to take care to remain objective while championing freedom of speech. “The advocacy element of my work is fighting for checks and balances on government power, and exposing how public policy is shaped by corporate interests. I also make clear to my readers and in my lectures that I’m sympathetic to these social movements, and how that has allowed me to be more effective and accurate in my work.” Public education important Keeping the public informed is important. “As a journalist I place a high value on public education and the central role that education plays in a healthy democ-

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racy. I think there’s power in examining the specific tactics being used so that we can more accurate confront them, and also we can better recognize them as they appear against other movements and in other countries. That education must go hand-in-hand with community building and action. I don’t think any of us knows the best way forward, and we need to have the humility to recognize that, and the strength to risk failure.” In this upside-down world, non-violent protestors are often being arrested, even jailed, for demonstrating against violence perpetrated by corporations against the environment or animals. As Potter notes, there is a reason environmental activists are being labeled a “terrorism threat”: they have been incredibly effective at threatening corporate profits. The actions of environmentalists like Redding matter. “The best way to resist these tactics is to get out there and keep fighting,” says Potter. “Be a threat.”

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Not just the U.S. - The 7 Ways Canadian Environmentalists are being Targeted As Will Potter says, his book has focused on how environmentalists and animal rights activists became the “number one domestic terrorism threat” in the United States. What is taking place in Canada parallels the U.S. campaigns, step by step, but at an accelerated pace. Here are seven ways environmentalists in Canada are being targeted by the authorities: 1. Media campaigns smear environmentalists as extremists 2. Canada’s first counter-terrorism program targets environmentalists 3. Harper threatens the tax status of environmental charities 4. New counter-terrorism unit formed to protect the oil sands 5. Canada sends diplomats to scare Fortune 500 corporations 6. Government trainings identify environmentalists as “terrorists” 7. “Terrorism” reports that blur the line between legal and illegal conduct

Activism Today caught up with Will Potter who took a

moment out from his busy schedule of talks and writing to talk about his book. Q - How is the book, Green is the New Red, doing? It appears to have hit a chord and received favorable reviews. Do you feel the message in the book is getting out as the public appear oblivious? It’s wonderful to see the book receiving favorable coverage in publications like Rolling Stone and the Washington Post, and also within the movement itself. There’s no doubt that the message is getting out there. As an example of that, the book was cited in a Congressional report on domestic terrorism recently, and the report even had a section discussing the concept of the Green Scare. At the same time, though, the book is showing up in Counter Terrorism Unit surveillance documents, and elsewhere. You’re right that the mainstream public is largely oblivious to these issues, but that shouldn’t deter us. I’ve found that when every day, non-activist people learn about what’s going on they are outraged. There’s a lot of untapped potential for education and organizing efforts.

Will Potter

Q - Do you still get knocks on the door from the authorities? What is your relationship now with the authorities following the publication of the book and your various public appearances? Any attempts to muffle your work? The book has shown up in various reports and surveillance I obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and FBI agents have (openly) attended my lectures and book readings. In the grand scheme of things that pails in comparison to what the people I write about are experiencing, and what other journalists and activists throughout U.S. history have stood up against.

“Activisism is not terrorism” message on a T-shirt

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SLOW DOWN FOR A MOMENT Sometimes it is hard to know how to take steps to protect our planet. It can seem too big to contemplate. But it is within everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grasp to slow down, quit buying stuff you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need, quit making journeys that are unnecessary, take public transport when you can, bicycle, walk and get out into nature, even if the weather is cold. Try to keep things simple. Take these steps first. Clear your head. Then maybe you can begin to become a real activist.

Time to take action

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