The Wednesday, April 19, 2017 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), shares news about Earth week and climate march events, a water protector workshop and fossil fuels forum, Idaho oil and gas legislation, north Idaho megaloads, and another train-vehicle collision. We also report on oil train route defects, a Spokane ballot initiative restricting oil and coal train cargo, a tar sands pipeline valve turner film, and a Montana-led lawsuit against the recent Keystone XL pipeline permit. Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm PDT, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide fossil fuel resistance and community opposition to extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.
Category Archives: Events
WIRT Outreach at Earth Week Events
Regional, grassroots, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allied activists are excited to participate in several education and outreach events this week. During four days of “tabling,” WIRT interactive displays will feature a poster with photos, protest signs, printed materials, and possibly slide shows of WIRT actions and programs, all demonstrating the Northwest fossil fuels causes of climate change and diverse, frontline community-organized solutions and resistance. We will distribute group brochures and event flyers about WIRT campaigns challenging the corporate and government sources of coal and oil trains and terminals, tar sands mining and refining megaloads, and oil and gas production and transportation in Idaho. Besides requesting involvement in upcoming WIRT and allied educational events and direct action trainings and demonstrations, we will likely also offer free, packaged, chocolate and/or fruit-flavored, bargain-priced Easter candy. If you can assist our efforts as a tabling volunteer and comrade recruiter at these informative and inspiring, community-building opportunities, please RSVP to WIRT in advance, via phone, email, or facebook or text message, or drop by the WIRT Sandpoint office or event booths.
April 19: Bike Fix and Sustainability Showcase
Wednesday 11 am to 2 pm, Idaho Commons Plaza, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
As part of Earth Fest 2017, the University of Idaho Sustainability Center welcomes students and everyone to visit and talk with local organizations, learn about sustainability, climate change, and Vandal cycling opportunities, and get a free bike tune-up from Moscow mechanics, to assist bike riding instead of vehicle driving.
April 21: Earth Week Fair
Friday 11 am to 2 pm, Terrell Mall, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
The Associated Students of Washington State University Environmental Sustainability Alliance cordially invites the campus community and public to join them in encouraging environmental awareness and stewardship, at their annual educational and fun event with a live band and many attendees. Event organizers are bringing together various sustainability-minded groups and individuals working on similar causes, to meet and network with interested, environmentally-concerned students and citizens, to share Earth-sustaining ideas, and to collectively make a difference for a livable world.
April 22 & 23: Earth Days & Night Spokane
Saturday 10 am to 11 pm, Sunday 10 am to 4 pm, Riverfront Park Pavilion, Spokane, Washington
Celebrating five years of honoring the sacredness of the planet and human existence and interconnections with it, this community festival is expanding into Spokane’s most iconic landmark, the Pavilion and nearby central meadow. Its tireless working group is extending the event again into Earth Night and adding second day. A diversity of sustainability-focused groups, artists, vendors, and businesses from various cultures will showcase their work, and the kid-friendly Procession of the Species Parade will walk through the gathering at 1:30 pm on Saturday. Other attractions include live concerts held on two stages beneath dome structures, with key musicians, dancers, and aerial performers, a beer garden featuring local brewers, and outside food and beverages.
Climate Justice Forum: Brian Wolcott on Radical Movie Night! & Indigenous Zapatistas, Sandpoint Megaloads, Proposed 129,000-Pound Trucks, Idaho Oil & Gas Industry Reforms & Cancelled Lease Auction 4-12-17
The Wednesday, April 12, 2017 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by regional climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features a conversation with Sandpoint, Idaho native Brian Wolcott of RADAR and Olympia Stand, about Thursday’s Radical Movie Night! and his visit with indigenous Zapatistas in southern Mexico. We also share updates on WIRT sixth anniversary celebrations, two Sandpoint megaloads, proposed 129,000-pound trucks on regional highways, another cancelled state oil and gas lease auction, and recent Idaho oil and gas industry reforms achieved by diverse interests. Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm PDT, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide fossil fuel resistance and community opposition to extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.
Radical Movie Night! Screens Noam Chomsky & NoDAPL Struggle
Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and RADAR present Radical Movie Night!, a bi-monthly, documentary series intended to inspire, challenge, and educate participants toward democracy. From 6 pm to 8 pm on Thursday, April 13, the co-hosts present full-length and short films for a double feature with free admission, at Evans Brothers Coffee Roasters, 524 Church Street in Sandpoint, Idaho.
In the April 2015 biography Requiem for the American Dream: Noam Chomsky and the Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power, interviews over four years with the most quoted intellectual and author alive provide penetrating insights into the defining characteristic and legacy of our time – a half-century of deliberate, historically unprecedented inequality favoring the most wealthy at the expense of the majority. Noam Chomsky’s profoundly personal and thought provoking discourses and reflections on his life of activism and political participation offer potent reminders and hope that power ultimately belongs to the governed.
Through the first episode of Trouble – the March 2017, short video Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NODAPL Struggle – grassroots, independent, media collective sub.Media looks beyond the mainstream narratives about the Standing Rock indigenous and allied resistance encampment, to understand its overlooked dynamics, including serious disagreements over tactics to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
Please join RADAR and WIRT for these screenings and discussions of radical films and videos produced to aid current, worldwide, social and environmental struggles and promote just, sustainable, shared solutions. These events and ongoing, regional, climate activism rely on donations from viewers and supporters. Visit the WIRT website and facebook pages for further, online, information resources, and call 208-610-5354 with your questions about this documentary series.
Climate Justice Forum: Sixth Annual Celebrations of WIRT, 129,000-Pound Trucks, Dakota Access Pipeline Flow & Sabotage, Keystone XL Pipeline Approval, Shell Oil Leaves Tar Sands, Idaho’s Changing Climate Hearing Excerpts 3-29-17
The Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by regional climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news about two Sixth Annual Celebrations of WIRT, an Idaho Transportation Department application to run 129,000-pound trucks on regional roadways, Dakota Access pipeline oil flow and sabotage, Trump administration approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, Shell Oil sale of its Alberta tar sands holdings, and recorded excerpts of the March 15 Idaho’s Changing Climate hearing. Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm PDT, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide fossil fuel resistance and community opposition to extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.
Sixth Annual Celebrations of Wild Idaho Rising Tide in Moscow & Sandpoint
March 31 & April 7 Anniversary Concerts Benefit Climate Activist Collective
Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is celebrating its March 31, sixth anniversary as a regional, climate activist collective confronting the root causes and perpetrators of climate change through direct actions and locally organized solutions. We invite and welcome every one of all ages to share this milestone at two Sixth Annual Celebrations of Wild Idaho Rising Tide. These benefit concerts provided by five bands and solo musicians accompany potluck dinner and desert in Moscow, snacks in Sandpoint, beer and wine for purchase, dozens of raffle items donated by community members and businesses, and a background slide show of WIRT accomplishments. Come and enjoy our yearly fund and action raising parties offering radical revelry for participants supporting relentless, volunteer WIRT activism among and in solidarity with frontline communities of fossil fuel resistance and an international, grassroots network of activists.
WIRT’s amazing members, friends, and allies eagerly anticipate lively musical and social gatherings between 7 pm and 12 midnight on Friday, March 31, in the 1912 Center Great Room at 412 East Third Street in Moscow, Idaho, and on Friday, April 7, in the Little Panida Theater, 300 North First Avenue (across the street from the WIRT office) in Sandpoint, Idaho. Suggested, admission donations of $5 or more at the doors to these otherwise free, open, public events assist the dedicated work of WIRT and allies to banish new and expanded fossil fuel infrastructure from the Northwest. Please join dirty energy resisters for a well-deserved, reinvigorating, wild evening full of shared camaraderie, spirited conversation, exuberant dancing, good food and drink, and live music of multiple genres, played by these talented, visiting, and resident songwriters and performers from Moscow, Sandpoint, and Spokane: Continue reading
Climate Justice Forum: North Idaho Train Derailments, Idaho Legislators’ Climate Change Hearing, District 9 Oil & Gas Bill & Comment Repression 3-22-17
The Wednesday, March 22, 2017 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by regional climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features news about north Idaho train derailments on a Moyie Springs landslide and washed-out Ponderay tracks, a public, informational hearing on climate change held by Idaho legislators, and Idaho gasland District 9 initiated oil and gas legislation hearings and citizen comment repression. Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm PDT, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide fossil fuel resistance and community opposition to extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.
Climate Justice Forum: Valve Turners House Parties, Idaho District 9 Oil & Gas Legislation, ITD Highway 95 Expansion Plans, Lawsuits on BNSF Coal Pollution & Union Pacific Gorge Tracks 3-15-17
The Wednesday, March 15, 2017 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by regional climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features news about the Valve Turners House Parties in Moscow and Sandpoint and upcoming, state-wide events, Idaho District 9 oil and gas legislation, Idaho Transportation Department plans for Highway 95 expansion south of Moscow, and lawsuits on BNSF coal train pollution of Washington waterways and Union Pacific track additions in the Columbia River Gorge. Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm PDT, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide fossil fuel resistance and community opposition to extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.
Climate Justice Forum: Idaho Oil and Gas Legislation, Coal Train Pollution Lawsuit Settlement, Tesoro-Savage Oil Terminal Lease Extension 3-8-17
The Wednesday, March 8, 2017 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by regional climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features news about Idaho oil and gas regulation legislation, a lawsuit settlement on Northwest coal train pollution, and Port of Vancouver extension of the Tesoro-Savage oil-by-rail terminal lease. Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm PST, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide fossil fuel resistance and community opposition to extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.
Valve Turners House Parties in Moscow & Sandpoint
Inspired by the “valve turners’” bold and decisive actions that shut down pipelines flowing from Canada to the primary tar sands market, America consumers, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is hosting public house parties in Moscow and Sandpoint, to support these blockaders’ legal defense funds and to elevate conversations about rising to the challenges of this critical, historic moment [1]. In this era of a federal fossil fuel administration, building stronger communities of climate dissidents preparing for the next wave of direct actions is more crucial than ever. So please join us at 6 pm on Thursday, March 9, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, and/or at 12 noon on Saturday, March 11, in the upstairs room of Eichardt’s Pub at 212 Cedar Street in Sandpoint. We welcome all participant ages and concerns at this Shut It Down – Climate Direct Action fundraiser requesting $10 suggested donations with free admission.
On October 11, 2016, five brave climate activists closed the emergency shut-off valves of five major pipelines carrying Canadian tar sands oil into Washington, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. In solidarity with Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, and other Lakota nations and allied water protectors at resistance camps invaded by police, their nonviolent civil disobedience together stopped 15 percent of a day’s U.S. crude oil imports. Now these activists and four accompanying documentarians are facing multiple felony and misdemeanor charges with maximum, potential, prison sentences ranging from 10 to 81 years. Beyond some pro bono legal help, the group has had to hire several lawyers and needs to raise $50,000 to cover legal, trial, and travel expenses, as they tell their stories about urgent climate action.
Before setting out to cut chains and locks and block pipeline valves across the country, the tar sands valve turners – Annette, Emily, Ken, Leonard, and Michael – and their support crew – Ben, Reed, Sam, and Steve – were not specially trained activists. They are just ordinary people with the strength of their convictions and the courage to act on them. But their example, along with similar skills and practices, show how people rightfully concerned about climate catastrophe can stand up and take serious action in a time of denial and a world of “alternative facts.” With the fossil fuel industry now not only controlling governments at every level in the U.S., but also holding positions of power within them, we all need to support folks already taking big legal risks and to move ourselves to that next step, by truthfully, assertively acting to halt the fossil fuel sources of climate cataclysm and our collective crimes against future generations.
During the last weekend in February, Shut It Down – Climate Direct Action and allies organized the first, experimental round of house parties, meeting with friends to raise funds to help the valve turners in Bellevue, Washington, Brooklyn, New York, Burlington, Vermont, Hanover, New Hampshire, and Houston, Texas. Please gather with us at these fun events, held by dozens of groups across the country, introducing you and your friends, family, and colleagues to powerful climate direct action, and sharing the work of Shut It Down and WIRT. We will provide valve turner videos and information about how to stage and live stream adventurous and effective actions. For further event and co-host information, see ShutItDown.Today and WildIdahoRisingTide.org and contact us with your questions. Continue reading


