Author Archives: WIRT

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About WIRT

The WIRT collective is part of an international, grassroots network of groups and individuals who take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change and to promote local, community-based solutions to the climate crisis.

Earth’s Greatest Enemy Film & Director in Moscow & Spokane!

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Saturday, January 17, 3 pm, doors open at 2:30 pm

Magic Lantern Theatre and later Community Building, 25 and 35 West Main Avenue, Spokane, Washington

Sunday, January 18, 7 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 South Main Street, Moscow, Idaho

Documentary

Join dozens of regional peace, justice, and climate activist organizations for the Idaho and Washington state premiere screenings and discussions of Earth’s Greatest Enemy, the second feature film produced by director Abby Martin of The Empire Files [1-3].  This groundbreaking, anti-imperialist documentary exposes the environmental costs and minimal accountability of history’s biggest empire and the world’s largest polluter: the United States military that spews carbon, contaminates water, and scars landscapes around the planet.  Exempt from international climate agreements, the U.S. military stands as the single-greatest institutional consumer of fossil fuels and one of the most devastating forces to ecosystems worldwide.  Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and urgent stories from impacted communities, this film traces the links between war, empire, and ecological destruction, and reveals hidden truths rarely scrutinized in mainstream debates and reports.  Drawing on powerful testimonies from veterans, scientists, and frontline communities, Earth’s Greatest Enemy uncovers how military operations poison environments, accelerate global warming, and sacrifice the future for endless expansion.  From Alaska’s melting glaciers to contaminated, nationwide bases and toxic battlefields abroad, the documentary delivers a provocative and unflinching examination of the untouchable Pentagon and its outsized role in the climate crisis.

Discussions with Director

After both screenings, director Abby Martin will appear for question and answer sessions, challenging audiences to rethink the planetary consequences of a global empire and to change their perceptions of American militarism and environmentalism.  This independent journalist, filmmaker, and activist will participate in person in Spokane and via Zoom in Moscow.  Her passionate commitment to challenging mainstream media narratives, advocating for social justice, opposing imperialism, and holding the powerful to account has driven Abby’s multifaceted career.  Whether at the helms of Breaking the Set or The Empire Files, on the board of the Media Freedom Foundation, or co-creating hard-hitting documentaries such as Project Censored, the Movie; 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film; The Choice is Ours; and Gaza Fights for Freedom, she has defied the status quo in her pursuit of stories that the powerful do not want the public to learn.  Abby Martin and her co-director husband Mike Prysner have invested years of fundraising, research, and dogged investigation into the creation of their latest film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy. Continue reading →

14th Annual Celebration of Wild Idaho Rising Tide

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Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is celebrating its March 31 anniversary and fourteenth year as a regional, climate activists collective confronting the root causes and perpetrators of air pollution, water degradation, and resulting climate change, through direct actions and locally organized solutions, in solidarity with frontline communities and grassroots networks of fossil fuels resistance [1-6].  We welcome everyone of all ages to enjoy this milestone at two 14th Annual Celebrations of WIRT, held as benefit performances and public gatherings in Moscow and Sandpoint, Idaho, with provided pizza or pub snacks and beverages, a background slide show of WIRT and allied activism, and updates on six Northwest campaigns.  WIRT extends our hearty thanks to the remarkable core activists, board members, friends, and allies who have coordinated and shared the successes of ongoing citizen challenges of the corporate and government sources of climate chaos.

Please join WIRT activists on two spring evenings, for convergences full of lively music, spirited conversations, invigorating camaraderie, wholesome food and drink, and creative works offered by north Idaho and regional residents.  At each of these free events, we eagerly anticipate community members sharing their admired talents and knowledge and participating as volunteers and/or sponsors.  These yearly festivities not only strive to raise awareness and funds supporting relentless, earnest, WIRT climate activism, but also seek to further attract and involve cross-cultural and youth diversity in the climate justice movement in Idaho and the Northwest.  At both events, organizers will encourage input and “pass the hat” for donations covering event publicity and travel.

Saturday, April 19, 7 pm: Campaign Updates & Fiddlin’ Big Al

The Attic, 314 East Second Street (rear, second story), Moscow

During this year’s celebrations in both Moscow and Sandpoint, WIRT and allied group representatives plan to lead discussions about resistance campaigns and upcoming events, including Northwest tar sands mining and refining megaloads and Alberta tailing pond breaches, southwest Idaho oil and gas extraction and waste injection wells and plant emissions, Paradise Ridge highway construction through wetlands and rare native habitat, Idaho Panhandle fossil fuels and hazardous freight trains and railroad infrastructure and wrecks, Lake Pend Oreille-adjacent timber sales, and Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress methane pipeline expansion.  Fiddlin’ Big Al Chidester will play a variety of folk, blues, and country music as well as original compositions on guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and other instruments.

Saturday, April 26, 7 pm: Open Mic Talks & DanO on Piano

Eichardt’s Pub (upstairs), 212 Cedar Street, Sandpoint

With his keyboard stylings, ‘DanO’ Osborne will perform popular songs from the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond.  Hear again the top musical melodies of Elton John, the Beatles, the Monkees, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Billy Joel, and more, with a few television show theme songs and cowboy tunes for fun.  Listeners often find themselves singing along with these memorable, once familiar songs.  WIRT also invites poets, writers, musicians, creative peers, and allied groups to participate in an open community microphone and meal. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Thacker Pass SLAPP Suit Defendants, Pre-Trump Trainings, Railroad Talk & Wreck, GTN Xpress Anomalies & Start-Up Protests, Idaho Lake Bridge Studies 12-25-24

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The Wednesday, December 25, 2024, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu, Paul Cienfuegos, and Max Wilbert, all defenders of lands, waters, and indigenous cultures impacted by the Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada, who are facing a corporate SLAPP suit against their on-site prayer ceremonies and demonstrations.  We also share news, music, and reflections on a call for resistance gatherings on the weekend before Donald’s Trump inauguration, a soon-aired discussion among Railroad Workers United, trackside community protectors, and labor advocates, a BNSF Railway Columbia riverside derailment, GTN Xpress methane pipeline expansion anomalies, safety and transparency failures, and an inland Northwest week of pipeline start-up protests, and approved studies of Highway 95 Long Bridge replacement over Idaho’s largest lake.  Broadcast for twelve years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline opposition to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: GTN Xpress Methane Pipeline Expansion Hearing, Compressor Construction, FERC-Approved Start-Up, & Regional Protests, December Solstice 12-18-24

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The Wednesday, December 18, 2024, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features speakers at the February 2023 People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress, hosted by a Northwest coalition to gather testimony from community and tribal members threatened by the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress methane pipeline expansion.  We also share news, music, and reflections on Oregon and Washington compressor station construction updates, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of full GTN Xpress capacity pumping, ongoing, regional protests of its start-up at fracked gas pipeline and utility offices and other locations, and brighter evenings but darker mornings of the December Solstice briefest days of the solar year.  Broadcast for twelve years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline opposition to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

GTN Xpress Start-Up Week of Protests

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GTX Xpress Start-Up Week of Protests Flyer

In July 2024, Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) began larger replacement construction of its pipeline compressors in Starbuck, Walla Walla County, Washington, and Kent, Sherman County, Oregon, near Bend, for its GTN Xpress pipeline expansion moving increased methane volumes and pressures through its dangerously corroded (according to whistleblowing inspectors), 63-year pipeline across north Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon.  During the same month, it started pumping one third of its expansion capacity, 50 million of 150 million cubic feet of additional gas per day.  GTN finished Kent compressor “auxiliary facilities” and obtained Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permission to bring them online for existing GTN volumes on November 22.  On December 2, GTN requested FERC approval to start using the full capacity of the upgraded GTN Xpress pipeline on Wednesday, December 11.  FERC predictably granted entire GTN Xpress start-up on Thursday, December 12, as Starbuck compressor installation and site restoration neared completion.

Meanwhile, the fate of GTN Xpress remains unresolved by litigation in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in oil industry friendly Texas.  Among case opening briefs filed on October 28, GTN complains that its replacement facilities did not garner the usual FERC predetermination of “rolled-in rates” afforded similar projects.  These rates allow gas shippers to pass the costs of their expansions onto all regional utility customers, whether they receive the extra methane or not.  Stop GTN Xpress coalition member groups Columbia Riverkeeper and Rogue Climate assert that FERC violated federal laws by refusing to consider a “no action” alternative to GTN Xpress, by segmenting its administrative review, and by failing to disclose the safety risks of pipeline expansion.  And state attorneys general of Washington and Oregon argue that FERC excluded compressor upgrade expenses from GTN Xpress costs and relied on unexplained public benefits and GTN agreements with utilities to falsely predict future gas demand, causing consumers to bear pipeline expansion costs for several decades.

Despite GTN discovering pipeline anomalies in November, which reduced flows in north Idaho, GTN Xpress started pushing extra methane this week.  Fracked gas infrastructure expansions like GTN Xpress jeopardize the health, safety, and lands of not only concerned Northwest communities, but also the people and places around source gas wells and pipelines in western Canada.  All these facilities inflict public and environmental harms, pollute shared global air and water, worsen climate change, risk explosive ruptures and fires, and force energy users into decades of fossil fuels dependence.  Clean, renewable energy offers less expensive and hazardous options that create sustainable jobs and a healthier future.

In response to reckless GTN Xpress approval and start-up, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and appreciated allies Extinction Rebellion (XR) Palouse, Spokane Veterans for Peace Chapter 35, and visiting climate activists invite you to join in rejecting Northwest fossil fuels expansions, by participating in a week of protests at GTN’s parent company, TC Energy, the two gas utilities receiving GTN Xpress methane, and other locations in five inland Northwest cities along and beyond the pipeline route: Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: GTN Xpress Hearing, Completion, & Protests, Nuclear Waste Train, Collaborative Lakeside Logging, Sandpoint Long Bridge Expansion, Global North Violence 12-11-24

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The Wednesday, December 11, 2024, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features speakers at the February 2023 People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress, hosted by a Northwest coalition to gather testimony from community and tribal members threatened by the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress methane pipeline expansion.  We also share news, music, and reflections on a submarine nuclear waste train moving from the Salish Sea to eastern Idaho on BNSF and Union Pacific tracks, Oregon and Washington compressor station construction, impending start, and upcoming, regional protests of the completed GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline, another collaborative deforestation project on mountainous Lake Pend Oreille slopes, an Idaho Transportation Board resolution initiating Sandpoint Long Bridge replacement and expansion, and ongoing economic, social, and environmental violence inflicted by wealthy countries on the Global South.  Broadcast for twelve years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline opposition to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Allie Rosenbluth on COP 29 Corporate Capture, GTN Xpress Completion & Unsafe Pipeline, Non-Profit Industrial Complex, Wet’suwet’en Film, MAGA Resistance 12-4-24

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The Wednesday, December 4, 2024, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features climate organizer Allie Rosenbluth of Oil Change International, discussing the large fossil fuel lobbyist delegation and limitations on messages from the Palestine genocide resistance and other movements at United Nations COP climate talks held recently in petro-states.  We also share news, music, and reflections on unsafe, corroded pipelines and weak federal rules revealed by whistleblowing inspectors, Oregon and Washington compressor station construction and impending start of the expanded GTN Xpress methane gas pipeline, the legally channeled and destructive riches of the non-profit industrial complex, a documentary about Wet’suwet’en First Nation opposition to Coastal GasLink pipeline installation in their unceded territory, and suggestions for a successful revolution against an upcoming authoritarian U.S. regime.  Broadcast for twelve years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline opposition to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: GTN Xpress Construction & Protests, Zenith Permit Delay, Amazon Nuclear at Hanford, Lithium Mine SLAPP Suit, Trump-Revived Keystone XL, Nonprofit Bill 11-27-24

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The Wednesday, November 27, 2024, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news, music, and reflections on Thanksgiving from an indigenous perspective, upcoming, regional protests, Oregon and Washington compressor station construction, and partial start of the expanded GTN Xpress methane pipeline, an Oregon agency inspection of the Zenith Energy oil train terminal and delay of the public input process for an air pollution permit, an Amazon proposal to build small modular nuclear reactors at Hanford, statements by activists sued by a northern Nevada lithium mining company for protesting, a Trump administration plan to revive installation of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, a Republican Congressional bill that would revoke nonprofit status from climate groups and political opponents, and suggestions for successful resistance to an incoming authoritarian presidency.  Broadcast for twelve years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Kate Murphy on Zenith Train Terminal, COP29 Indigenous Delegation, GTN Xpress Pipeline Anomalies, Compressor Approval, & Upcoming Protests 11-20-24

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The Wednesday, November 20, 2024, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Columbia Riverkeeper organizer Kate Murphy talking about the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality unannounced, on-site inspection and surprise decision, in response to public input, to delay the comment period and hearings for a draft air contaminant discharge permit required by deceptive Zenith Energy, to expand its dangerous fossil fuel train terminal in northwest Portland.  We also share news, music, and reflections on an indigenous Wisdom Keepers delegation to the United Nations COP29 climate talks, Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline anomalies and its request and federal approval to place an expanded Oregon compressor station into service for existing operations and looming, increased GTN Xpress volumes, and upcoming, regional protests of this Northwest methane invasion.  Broadcast for twelve years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Post-Election COP29, Armistice Day Demands, Idaho & Washington Initiatives, GTN Xpress Construction, EPA Methane Rule, SCOTUS Power Plant Decision 11-13-24

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The Wednesday, November 13, 2024, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features a report on the United Nations COP29 climate talks and global leader uncertainty, due to potential national policy changes following reelection of President Donald Trump.  We also share news, music, and reflections on the Armistice Day demands of veterans for worldwide peace and Gaza ceasefire, an outvoted Idaho electoral reform ballot initiative, a passed Washington “natural” gas measure that faces climate advocate legal challenges, Oregon and Washington compressor station construction for the GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion, a finalized federal agency rule that reduces wasteful methane emissions and improves oil and gas sector innovations, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision that curtails coal and gas power plant pollution.  Broadcast for twelve years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline opposition to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →