New fronts in the fight for climate justice
Last year, Idle No More made our list of Top Memes, and the struggle for native sovereignty continued on many fronts in 2013, particular in the fight for climate justice where Indigenous communities led actions across North America. See more coverage on Storify.
IDLE NO MORE
"Eight of the nine members of the Nez Perce tribal executive council in northern Idaho were arrested ... during a peaceful but boisterous effort to prevent mega tar sands processing equipment from moving across tribal land." Read the complete article here.
NEZ PERCE TRIBAL LEADERS ARRESTED
CAN FRACKING SHOWDOWN ON NATIVE LAND HELP BREAK CANADA'S CYCLE OF COLONIALISM?
"When members of the Elsipogtog First Nation attempted to prevent seismic testing on their land that could lead to fracking, armed police appeared and violence ensued. Here, indigenous writer and academic Leanne Simpson puts the issue into context." Read the complete YES! article here.
CSS was honored to support the launch of the Our Power Campaign which is uniting nearly 40 fossil fuel impacted communities in a common effort for a just transition to local, living economies.
The camp was hosted by Black Mesa Water Coalition, and the event united fossil fuel impacted communities across the US. More photos from the camp here.
NOKXL
Community members across north America spent another year putting their bodies on the line to send Obama a message and stop the development of the Keystone XL pipeline. NoKXL.org writes: "The spill-prone pipeline would carry 800,000 barrels a day of toxic tar sands bitumen, from the tar sands fields of Alberta, Canada, across our entire country — including hundreds of waterways and Nebraska’s Ogallala aquifer which is one of our most important sources of agricultural water – to the shipping ports of the Gulf Coast, where it would be exported to oil-hungry nations like China.
The project will lead to “essentially game over for the climate” according to NASA’s former chief climate scientist James Hansen, because it will dramatically increase production in the Alberta tar sands, one of the largest pools of carbon on the planet. In May, our atmosphere crossed the threshold of 400 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere for the first time in millions of years, and the history of human life on earth. Keystone XL is the fuse to the carbon bomb of the tar sands – which we cannot afford to detonate in our atmosphere."
NEXT GENERATION LEADERSHIP
Meanwhile the youth climate movement continued to grow and expand the debate from the first international powershift in Istanbul to the US powershift in Pittsburg where 7000 young climate organizers gathering to share vision, build skills and strategize.
National Training Program Director, Christine Cordero, trained leaders.
In Pittsburg at US Powershift, CSS trained organizers and released #FrackingBad, to brand bust natural gas.
Every so often our messages have a chance to hitch a ride on popular culture. Breaking Bad, the award winning drama about a methamphetamine empire, provides such an opportunity.