Monthly Archives: June 2015

Climate Justice Forum: Coal Exports, Oil Transport, & Solutions Forum 6-29-15

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The Monday, June 29, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) airs excerpts from the Coal Exports, Oil Transport, and Solutions Forum held at the Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington, on Tuesday, June 23, and video-recorded by Rosie Ennis and Joe Comine of Dancing Crow Media.  We will hear from forum moderator and Center for Justice executive director Rick Eichstaedt, Spokane Tribal air quality coordinator Twa-le Abrahamson, Railroad Workers United steering committee co-chair Jen Wallis, Spokane City Council president Ben Stuckart, and Sierra Club organizing representative Jace Bylenga.  The next Climate Justice Forum, on the July 6 Lac Megantic bomb train disaster second anniversary, will likely host forum keynote speaker and Sightline Institute policy director Eric de Place.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide climate activism and community opposition to dirty energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

2015 Inland Northwest Climate Activist Workshop 1

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2015 Inland Northwest Climate Activist Workshop 1

Throughout the summer and fall of 2015, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies are providing workshops on nonviolent direct action, community outreach, and industrial activity monitoring, each with guest trainers.  Various Northwest groups are hosting and/or contributing toward these ongoing trainings, to educate, empower, and mobilize regional residents for upcoming protests of expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in southwest Idaho and dirty energy transportation through northern Idaho and eastern Washington communities, for Washington state and local agency hearings on Northwest coal and oil train terminals, and especially for coordinated, region-wide, Flood the System fall actions.

The first of these training sessions features Matt Landon of Vancouver Action Network in Washington.  Over the last few years, Matt has provided leadership, insights, and guidance among the Northwest community of citizens and activists, through two programs that he has developed, the Listening Project and the Twitter Oil Train Watch.  Through canvassing and other methods, the Listening Project has reached out to thousands of residents of the mile-wide “blast zones” around rail lines carrying volatile Alberta tar sands and Bakken crude oil trains through the Vancouver and Portland, Oregon metropolitan areas.  As reported by widespread, track-side train spotters, the Twitter Oil Train Watch has documented hundreds of dangerous oil trains moving across Washington.  Two significant situations make the techniques learned at this workshop critical components of community knowledge and protection: Every oil train passage increases the risks of devastating derailments, leaks, spills, and fiery explosions, and recently released federal regulations restrict the information about these trains available to the public and emergency responders.

This weekend, please join regional activists at Matt Landon’s Skyped, two-hour workshops in Spokane, Washington, and Sandpoint, Idaho.  Converge at 11 am on Saturday, June 27, in Meeting Room 1B, at the street level of the downtown Spokane Public Library, 906 West Main Avenue in Spokane, or at 2:30 pm on Saturday, June 27, in Rooms 103 and 104 of the East Bonner County – Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar Street in Sandpoint.  Do not miss these opportunities to enhance your personal and collective capacity to thwart the fossil fuel onslaught currently rampaging the Northwest, by attending these Inland Northwest Climate Activist Workshops and encouraging your friends, family, and co-workers to participate, and print and post the enclosed, letter-sized, event flyer.  Although event coordinators have worked to minimize workshop expenses, such as facilities rental and trainer and organizer travel, we would greatly appreciate participant donations to offset workshop costs.  WIRT welcomes your questions, suggestions, and discussion about and during these events and your advance confirmation of participation.  Thanks!

Climate Justice Forum: Laura Ackerman 6-22-15

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The Monday, June 22, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes Laura Ackerman, a nature enthusiast, activist, and organizer for over 20 years, who serves as the oil and coal campaign coordinator for The Lands Council in Spokane, Washington.  Laura will talk about existing and proposed Northwest oil and coal facilities, upcoming public hearing opportunities, and oil train forums occurring in Spokane and Sandpoint, Idaho, this Tuesday and Wednesday, June 23 and 24.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide climate activism and community opposition to dirty energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Rod Tharp 6-15-15

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The Monday, June 15, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes climate activist Rod Tharp of the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation Climate Crisis Action Group in Washington, the principle co-organizers of the People’s Climate Action Fleet.  The June 21 water-based direct action against oil bomb trains, on the Salish Sea by the coastal tracks near the U.S. Open golf tournament at Chambers Bay, is drawing protesters from across Cascadia and worldwide media attention, like recent Arctic oil drilling blockades around Puget Sound.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide climate activism and community opposition to dirty energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Upcoming Summer WIRT & Allied Events

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WIRT and allied agents of change, Please plan to participate in the following Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and associated events, and check the WIRT website Events Calendar often, for updates on upcoming happenings.

June/July: Climate Activist Training Workshops (Dates and times to be announced (TBA), Downtown Spokane Public Library, 906 West Main Avenue, Spokane, Washington; East Bonner County – Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar Street, Sandpoint, Idaho; The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street, Moscow, Idaho; and Main (downtown) Boise Public Library, 715 South Capitol Boulevard, Boise, Idaho

June/July: Ongoing WIRT and allied mobilization of regional residents for 1) an August, Lake Pend Oreille, water-based, mass protest of expansion of rail bridges and fossil fuels train transportation, 2) agency hearings on Northwest oil train terminals, and 3) coordinated, region-wide, #FloodTheSystem, fall actions

JUNE 2015

June 18: WIRT Third Thursday Sandpoint Monthly Meeting and Pizza (Thursday 7 pm, Second Avenue Pizza, 215 South Second Avenue, Sandpoint, Idaho)

June 23: Coal Exports, Oil Transport, and Solutions Forum hosted by Earth Ministry, Gonzaga Environmental Law Caucus, Power Past Coal, Sierra Club, Sightline Institute, Spokane Riverkeeper, Stand Up To Oil, and The Lands Council (Tuesday 7 pm, Gonzaga University School of Law Courtroom, 721 North Cincinnati Street, Spokane, Washington)

June 24: Sandpoint Oil Train Forum, Pipeline on Wheels through North Idaho hosted by the Idaho Conservation League, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper, and Sightline Institute (Wednesday 5:30 pm, The Heartwood Center, 515 Oak Street, Sandpoint, Idaho) Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Dirty Energy Resistance 6-8-15

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The Monday, June 8, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) discusses recent and upcoming coal, oil, gas, and tar sands resistance in Canada, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Minnesota, and Texas, and government facilitated, fossil fuel industrial developments.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide climate activism and community opposition to dirty energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Vote for Rising Tide North America!

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Please vote early and often throughout June 2015 for Rising Tide North America (RTNA) to receive tens of thousands of dollars in donations from CREDO Action.  As Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and comrades across the continental, grassroots network of volunteer activists organize frontline communities to escalate resistance to the fossil fuel industry and its government facilitators, radical climate justice advocates need your support more than ever.

During November 2013 through October 2014, $1000 in funding from RTNA advanced WIRT collective work against Alberta tar sands and Montana refinery megaloads and Idaho oil and gas extraction.  From eastern Oregon to western Montana, we staged region-wide informational programs like the Gasland 2 Idaho Roadshow, direct action trainings involving the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, and effective protests from Sun Valley to Sandpoint, Idaho, promoting locally organized confrontations of the root causes of the climate crisis.

Over the last month, Rising Tide chapters and core WIRT activists have blockaded Shell’s Arctic drilling equipment in Bellingham and Seattle and fracking sites in Texas.  For the summer and fall of 2015, we are already planning our largest endeavors yet, listening canvasses and assertive actions along Spokane and Washington rail corridors and on Lake Pend Oreille at Sandpoint, as we #FloodTheSystem of capitalistic, colonial perpetrators of oppression and climate change.

Flood the System

Each month, CREDO asks its members and customers to choose which groups will receive part of their revenue, contributing millions of dollars to a wide range of nonprofits.  As either a CREDO Action member (join by simply signing a petition) or CREDO mobile phone/credit card customer of the progressive communications company, you can provide crucial financial assistance for WIRT and Rising Tide activists.

With every vote for RTNA on CREDO Action’s ballot before the June 30 deadline, WIRT and our colleagues receive a larger percentage of this month’s CREDO funds.  So please share this request with your friends, families, neighbors, and co-workers and vote for Rising Tide at Credo Donations!  In sincere solidarity and appreciation for your activism and support…

WIRT Gathering Tonight, June & July Events

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As a reminder, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists are gathering at 7 pm tonight (Thursday, June 4) for our regular strategizing and planning convergence, the First Thursday Moscow Monthly Meeting and Potluck, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho.  Over the next few days, we are also updating our Events Calendar on the WIRT website with June and July WIRT and allied events.  Please note that, due to modified state agency schedules, the State Oil and Gas Lease Auction Protest at the Idaho Department of Lands in Boise has been postponed from Wednesday, June 10, until Wednesday, July 1 (when we really need your protest participation!).  A lone WIRT protester confronted the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with every question she could muster, at its oil and gas lease auction on Thursday, May 28, in Boise, personally witnessing (rigged?) auction discrepancies and learning that allies had filed appeals of which no one is aware.  Burdened recently with other distracting work, WIRT will produce a protest report soon.  With a few WIRT activists, please consider attending the Oil and Gas Forum in Emmett, Idaho, at 6:30 pm next Tuesday evening, July 9.  Thanks!

Climate Justice Forum: Chiara D’Angelo 6-1-15

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The Monday, June 1, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) discusses recent and upcoming oil and gas resistance events in Idaho, Texas gasland flooding, another bomb train wreck in Minnesota, and updates on Salish Sea protests of Shell’s Arctic oil drilling ventures.  We also air an interview with Chiara D’Angelo, the Bellingham Rising Tide activist who locked down with Matthew Fuller to the anchor chain of Shell’s Arctic Challenger in Bellingham during three late-May days.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide climate activism and community resistance to fossil fuel development projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.