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 →

Climate Justice Forum: Idaho Oil & Gas Forced Leasing Testimony & New Highway 95 Weather Hazards near Moscow, Jindalee Oregon Lithium Mine Approval & Impacts 12-24-25

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The Wednesday, December 24, 2025, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features citizen testimony at a packed Idaho Department of Lands public hearing, opposing a Snake River Oil and Gas application to force hundreds of Fruitland property owners to lease and allow nearby dangerous drilling of their privately-owned methane gas against their will.  We also share news, videos, and reflections on Jindalee lithium mining exploration, federal approval, and impacts on sage grouse and Lahontan cutthroat trout in southeast Oregon, and weather-caused accidents during the recent wind storm and other hazards on the new Highway 95 section south of Moscow.  Broadcast for thirteen 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 →

Comment by 12/24 Opposing Forced Idaho Gas Drilling!

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New Solar Year

Happy December Solstice, as the center of holiday traditions, first days of winter, and return of more daylight, to each and all of the amazing allies, friends, and supporters of Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), who continue to resist the root causes of climate change — fossil fuels, the oil and gas industry, and their local, state, and federal government facilitators [1]!  Although we have sent few written updates about our ongoing campaigns during 2025 — a tumultuous year of transitions as a regional, volunteer, climate activists collective — we have provided weekly news, videos, music, and reflections through the Climate Justice Forum radio program, broadcast on-air at 90.3 FM and online for almost 14 years, on progressive, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time [2].  We plan to share with you a description of our year of work soon, after the annual rush of funding requests from the non-profit industrial complex.  If you would like to generously sustain WIRT’s grassroots, frontline activism, please support us via our new address at this letter’s conclusion, which, along with core WIRT organizers and internet presence, we have protected from intrusions over this past year.

Idaho Oil & Gas Updates

Despite the upcoming holidays, we offer the enclosed, urgent call to action and appeal for your comments, issued this Monday by Citizens Allied for Integrity and Accountability (CAIA), whom we also encourage you to support [3].  On Wednesday, December 17, the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) held a daytime, evidentiary hearing and an evening, public hearing at Fruitland City Hall, to consider state permitting of a drilling integration application filed by Snake River Oil and Gas (SROG), which would “force pool” residents around the new well site to lease their sub-surface hydrocarbons cheaply and against their will.  Through several social media posts, CAIA president Shelley Brock alerted people to this issue that not only affects oil and gas ground zero Payette County, but also ultimately other Idaho communities, as fossil fuels extraction — and recent hydrogen exploration in Canyon County by a Colorado company — spreads across the already impacted Treasure Valley and beyond [4-7].

Southern Idaho holds only a fraction of the methane and oil exploited in larger fields in other states.  The expense and difficulty required to extract it has imposed more shortcuts in drilling and transporting operations, higher risks and lower royalties paid to landowners, and multiple hazards for the invaluable assets of natural environments, lands, waters, and air.  Over the last few decades, local officials have acted to both guard and betray their constituents imperiled by fossil fuels “development.”  For instance, Payette County commissioners recently proposed an ordinance that would extend setbacks between drill sites and homes, businesses, schools, etc. from 300 feet to 500 feet, although this change still requires public processes before codification into law, and no distance under one-half mile can adequately protect public health and private properties.  CAIA’s issue and legal expertise has secured better protections for force pooled property owners during the last few applications by SROG, who pursues increasingly more outrageous schemes to heist Idahoans’ resources.

Last Wednesday, December 17, Fruitland citizens and previously and currently affected property owners came together to voice strong opposition, through their public testimony against the latest SROG forced pooling attempt at both packed meetings.  The hearing officer listened intently and clearly showed interest in the concerns of participants, while Boise and nearby media outlets provided excellent coverage of these critically important hearings.  WIRT deeply appreciates the many Idahoans who rose to defend the health, safety, and constitutional rights of their families and neighbors, from this controversial integration process and its consequent, volatile drilling within a high-density residential, business, and traffic area close to the Payette River and sensitive wildlife habitat.  We will feature a recording of their hearing input on the Wednesday, December 24, Climate Justice Forum radio program broadcast and archived for two weeks on KRFP [2].  As cautiously optimistic CAIA prepares further legal documents on behalf of property owners and the state moves closer to a final order in coming weeks, WIRT joins these admired colleagues in urging you to read and act on the following CAIA alert as soon as possible.

CAIA Call to Action

“When Arkansas-based Snake River Oil and Gas filed an application early this winter to force hundreds of Fruitland property owners to allow the extraction of oil and gas they owned out from under their homes against their will, CAIA jumped into action to defend them.  Weeks of community outreach by our members, filings and conferences by our legal team, and communication with the press culminated in an Idaho Department of Lands contested hearing at Fruitland City Hall on December 17 [8].  Multiple media outlets showed up to hear compelling arguments by CAIA attorney James Piotrowski, on behalf of CAIA members included in this forced pooling application [9-11]. 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 →