Emergency Protest Rally to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline and Next Steps for Climate Justice in Springfield!
Table of Contents
Emergency protest rally to stop the Keystone XL pipeline – Dec 13
Springfield Climate Justice Coalition: Update and Next Steps-December 11
Mothers Out Front Family Event – Dec 14
Keystone XL Nonviolent Direct Action Training – Jan 3
Climate Action Open House – Dec 13
COP20 in Lima Peru
Join our working groups to fight the Kinder Morgan gas pipline
The Facts About Kinder Morgan: report
Colocation video
Article: Kinder Morgan proposing new pipeline route
Williams College Called to Divest
Solidarity moment
Article of the Week
Culture Corner
Get Connected with 350MA
Climate Action To-Do List
This Saturday!! Emergency Protest Rally to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline!
When: Saturday, December 13, 12 noon to 2 PM
Where: Old Northampton Court House, Main St. at King St.
President Obama will soon be faced with a decision on whether to allow the Keystone XL Pipeline to be built, taking massive amounts of filthy tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast for export. It must be stopped.
DEMAND IT BE STOPPED. OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT!
For more information or to help us build for the rally, contact Marty Nathan at martygjf@comcast.net, and don’t forget to RSVP on the Facebook event page!
Springfield Climate Justice Coalition: Update and Next Steps
Our sustained grassroots efforts have led to the Springfield City Council supporting a Climate Action Plan for Springfield but this is only the first step
Please join us on Thursday, December 11th at 6 PM.
We will gather in the Meeting Room at Chestnut Towers, 70 Harrison Avenue in Springfield
For more information and/or carpooling please contact Susan Theberge at susantheberge@comcast.net
Together we can help Springfield become healthier, safer, offer more and greener jobs, and become a leader in the struggle for climate justice. Read more here.
One of the things we most love about our Mothers Out Front work here in the valley is the opportunity to gather and get to know each other — while doing productive climate actions!
Come join us Sunday at the PV Cohousing common house (120 Pulpit Hill Rd. Amherst) from 12:45 to 3pm
- We’ll be attempting a production line of energy efficient door/window “snakes” – and if you’re crafty, help us lead this effort!
- We’ll be talking casually about our climate concerns and sharing how much this work feeds our souls
- We’ll be explaining the “switch” to “green” electricity
- We’ll be having fun
And we’ll have more fun if you join us for this whole-family event! Please RSVP to karen-at-innerfortune.com (or just show up!)
We need your help to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Please join us on Saturday, January 3rd!
That is the day we will gather to prepare for our Keystone Pipeline Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA). We’ll do the Action in Springfield at the TD Bank sometime between mid-January and March. It will be timed so it happens the same day 97,000 others take action – as part of the national Keystone Pledge of Resistance.
WHO SHOULD COME: Everyone who wants to participate in the Action,either by blocking TD Bank or supporting those who do. LOCATION: Springfield. We’re working to get the site now.
HOW TO GET UPDATES: We’ve created a Google Group so that we can easily update the list of interested people. We’ll be using this Group to send updates on local actions tied to the national Keystone Pledge of Resistance. If you’d like to be on the Google Group, please email Dave Roitman at droitman1@verizon.net. (Please note, that’s droitman1, not droitman.) Also let Dave know if you can help make phone calls to connect with other folks who want to participate. PS: We’ll also have a Facebook page soon. Read some of the background info for this action here.
Climate Action Open House
An open, just and sustainable world begins at home.
On Friday, December 19, Tim Holcomb opens his house at 59 Grantwood Drive, Amherst, to share a vegetarian potluck dinner, exchange ideas and learning and view the new documentary film:
COWSPIRACY- THE SUSTAINABILITY SECRET is a groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary following intrepid filmmaker Kip Andersen as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today – and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption and pollution, is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry, and is a primary driver of rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean “dead zones,” and virtually every other environmental ill. Yet it goes on, almost entirely unchallenged.
For more info contact Tim Holcomb at timholcomb55@gmail.com, 413-530-3233
COP20 in Lima, Peru
This week the 20th annual international climate change negotiations, the Conference of the Parties (COP), are going on in Lima, Peru. These talks are in preparation for the Paris conference next year, which many experts believe may be one of our last chances at an interational agreement that could save us from the worst effects of climate change.
Amy Goodman and her Democracy Now team is in Lima. They are providing outstanding coverage, especially at the alternative peoples conference. Find out how many of the indigenous people participating in this peoples alternative are organizing and how they are being affected by the oil and gas corporations. To tune in: Northampton WXOJ, 103FM at 5pm; Northampton Community TV at 8am, 12 noon, 7pm and midnight and on WMUA at 8am.
Insider Intel from the Experts: What’s happening on the ground in Lima? The U.S. Climate Action Network hosted a webcast briefer on the developments in the Lima climate talks with expert speakers from Oxfam America, World Wildlife Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Are you interested in joining in one of our working groups to fight the Kinder Morgan Fracked Gas Pipeline?
We need boots on the ground to make sure KM never gets to break ground.
Working group to get an Amherst resolution against the pipline:
Please join a new working group focused on getting a resolution passed in Amherst. Contact Rudy Perkins if you can lend a hand. We would love to hear your comments and feedback so please read the Amherst draft resolution here.
All about Drafting local laws and resolutions.
Working group to help coordinate statewide collaboration:
There are so many great groups across the state working to shut down this pipeline proposal, and collaboration is key. No experience necessary, just passion and an ability to dedicate your time and talents. If you’re interested, please contact Irvine Sobelman – mirvinea@gmail.com and/or Jenny Daniell jennyadaniell@gmail.com
….
The Facts About Kinder Morgan (report)
Energy giant Kinder Morgan has big ambitions. Best known for its empire of oil and natural gas pipelines, the firm aspires to enlarge its role in coal transport too. Expanding its export terminals in Louisiana and Texas would increase Kinder Morgan’s coal export capacity in the Gulf Coast region from roughly 5 million tons annually in recent years to nearly 29 million tons.
These coal terminal expansions could boost Kinder Morgan’s profits, but they also raise questions about what the projects might cost neighboring communities. The company’s existing coal export operations are well known for blighting neighborhoods and fouling rivers. In fact the company’s track record is one of pollution, law-breaking, and cover-ups. Read the report here.
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Colocation video – Stephen Wicks
This video notebook is a compilation of several field visits to a WMECO power corridor in Plainfield, Massachusetts during a weeklong period in November 2014. The images and words chronicle the survey work in progress for the colocation siting of a section of the planned Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline project Proposed by Kinder Morgan. The video is meant to help viewers understand what the potential impact might be when existing utility corridors are used as a route for a new natural gas pipeline project.
….
Kinder Morgan proposing new pipeline route
22 News, Dec. 5 2014
BOSTON (WWLP) – Kinder Morgan is proposing a new preferred route for its $5 billion Tennessee Gas pipeline; a plan which has drawn heavy controversy in Massachusetts. The new plan, which the company says is designed to minimize environmental impacts by keeping the route largely along existing energy corridors, would shift much of the pipeline from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. Read more here.
Williams College Alumni-Student Coalition Demands Quick Action on Fossil Fuel Divestment
Williamstown, MA – A coalition of over 500 Williams College alumni and students propelled its fossil fuel divestment movement into high gear yesterday, delivering a formal proposal to the school’s Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. The coalition is seeking a College decision by the April 2015 Board of Trustees’ meeting to eliminate all direct and third-party investments in the 200 largest fossil fuel companies within five years. Read the rest here.
Solidarity Moment
Please join us this Friday at 3 PM in Holyoke!
- Holyoke: Ferguson to NYC to Holyoke: March and Rally.
- Gather at 3pm from either Career Point (850 High Street) or Holyoke High School, marching to City Hall, and then rallying at the United Congregational Church (300 Appleton Street). There will be a speakout and poetry. Wear all black clothing!
Adapting to a warmer climate could cost almost three times as much as thought, says UN report
Adapting to a warmer world will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and up to three times as much as previous estimates, even if global climate talks manage to keep temperature rises below dangerous levels, warns a report by the UN.
The first United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) ‘Adaptation Gap Report’shows a significant funding gap after 2020 unless more funds from rich countries are pumped in to helping developing nations adapt to the droughts, flooding and heatwaves expected to accompany climate change. Read more here.
Get Connected!
Just can’t get enough climate news and events? Climate Action Now is part of a wonderful statewide organization, 350 Massachusetts, that puts out a fantastic weekly newsletter of their own. The newsletter covers all sorts of great campaigns from all over the state. Click here to sign up!
Culture Corner
Book: Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy by Chris Crass
This book is for activists engaging with dynamic questions of how to create and support effective movements for visionary systemic change. Chris Crass’s collection of essays and interviews presents us with powerful lessons for transformative organizing through offering a firsthand look at the challenges and the opportunities of anti-racist work in white communities, feminist work with men, and bringing women of color feminism into the heart of social movements. Drawing on two decades of personal activist experience and case studies of anti-racist social justice organizations, Crass insightfully explores ways of transforming divisions of race, class, and gender into catalysts for powerful vision,strategy, and movement building in the United States today.
This week’s Climate Action To-Do List
1. Join us on Saturday at noon in Northampton for our NO KXL Action! (see top of newsletter for details)
2. Get involved in our Climate Justice Working Group! Come to Springfield this Thursday at 6PM (Meeting Room at Chestnut Towers, 70 Harrison Avenue in Springfield)
3. Join one of our working groups
– Keystone Pledge of Resistance (email Dave Roitman at droitman1@verizon.net)
– Stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline Statewide work (email Irvine Sobelman – mirvinea@gmail.com and/or Jenny Daniell jennyadaniell@gmail.com)
– Springfield Climate Justice Group (email Susan Theberge @susantheberge@comcast.net)
– Divestment (email adele.franks@gmail.com)
– Amherst Pipeline Resolution (email rudyperkins@yahoo.com)
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Climate Action Now is a local, volunteer, grassroots Western Massachusetts organization, and also functions as the regional node of the statewide organization 350 Massachusetts.
