Anti-Coal Banner Drop at Indiana University

Official Press Release
4/9/2012 – Bloomington, IN 

Anonymous student activists drop a massive 30’x20’ banner in front of IU’s coal-fired heating plant: “IU HAS BLOOD ON ITS HANDS”

Early Monday morning, several anonymous IU students concerned about the climate-related death toll of their campus’ coal-fired heating plant dropped a massive 30’x20’ banner over the two-story bridge of the Kelley School of Business on Fee Lane. The banner, which was dropped intentionally within eyeshot of the campus’ coal plant, read as follows: “CLIMATE CHANGE KILLED 315,000 PEOPLE LAST YEAR ALONE. IU HAS BLOOD ON ITS HANDS.” The students responsible for the banner cited this alarming figure from a study released in 2009 by the Global Humanitarian Forum, a non-profit foundation presided over by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. This landmark publication, entitled “The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis,” found that every year approximately 315,000 people die prematurely due to weather-related disasters and environmental degradation (such as deterioration of arable land) associated with anthropogenic climate change and what by the year 2030, “the lives of 660 million people are expected to be seriously affected.”

Radical cultural shifts required to stave off ecological collapse

Durango Earth First!er Nathan Coe with some recommended reading: "Igniting A Revolution: Voices In Defense of the Earth"

An interview with Durango Earth First!er Nathan Coe

By Ryan King, special to Mongabay.com

Many ideals, actions, and movements considered as fringe or radical by the standards of mainstream culture have gained prominence as global biodiversity withers and the biogeochemical cycles of the entire Earth System are upset by human activities. As endangered species and ecosystems are increasingly threatened, direct confrontation between activists and the entities that drive environmental damage seems also to be increasing. At the same time, concern that present global governance and distribution systems are unable to provide security, clean water, affordable food and a stable future to most of society, is spurring some to move toward new models, including sustainable, autonomous communities and decentralized production.

Mongabay recently had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with activist and writer Nathan Coe.

A life-long resident of Southwest Colorado and a lover of all things wild and free, Nathan has been involved in the formation of a local chapter of Earth First!, taking direct action to protect local and regional wilderness, as well as initiating a Transition movement in his community in preparation for life after gridcrash. Nathan is also part of the organizers’ collective for Wild Roots Feral Futures, an annual rewinding & eco-defense gathering in Southwest Colorado.

Click here to read the interview…

Global day of action for climate justice, October 12th

System Change not Climate Change! Taking direct action for climate justice

In 2009, indigenous peoples throughout the world called for a global mobilisation ‘in defence of mother earth’ on October 12, reclaiming the day that used to be imposed as ‘Columbus Day’. Responding to this call, and the demand for a day of action for ‘system change, not climate change’ issued by the global movements gathered in Copenhagen last year, Climate Justice Action is proposing a day of direct action for climate justice on October 12, 2010.

Today, we know…

For years, many had hoped that governments, international summits, even the very industries and corporations that caused the problem in the first place, would do something, anything to stop climate change. In December 2009, at the 15th global climate summit in Copenhagen (COP15), that hope was revealed as an illusion: a comfortable way to delude ourselves into believing that ‘someone else’ could solve the problem for us. That ‘someone’ would make the crisis go away. That there was someone ‘in charge’.

Today, after the disaster of COP15, we are wiser. Today we know:

– That we cannot expect UN-negotiations to solve the climate crisis for us. Governments and corporations are unable (even if they were willing) to deliver equitable and effective action on the root causes of climate change.

– That the climate crisis isn’t a natural process, nor is it accidental. Rather, it’s the inevitable outcome of an economic system that is bound to pursue infinite economic growth at all costs.

– That only powerful climate justice movements can achieve the structural changes that are necessary, whether it is through ending our addiction to fossil fuels, replacing industrial agriculture with local systems of food sovereignty, halting systems based on endless growth and consumption, or addressing the historical responsibility of the global elites’ massive ecological debt to the global exploited.

Today we know that is up to all of us to collectively reclaim power over our daily lives. It is we who must start shutting down and moving beyond the engines of capitalism, the burning of fossil fuels, the conversion of all life into commodities, and the toxic imaginaries of consumerism. It is we who must create different ways of living, other ways of organising our societies.

Today we know that climate justice means taking action ourselves.

Click here to read more…