Rally in Richmond this Saturday

Posted on August 11, 2009

Got a couple emails this morning about a big rally and action at the Chevron Oil Refinery in Richmond this saturday.  I’m going to try to make it out and, if you can, you should too.  here’s the call:

Tired of hearing about climate Change? Then do something.

August 15th Chevron oil refinery action

• CLEAN AIR FOR RICHMOND & THE BAY;
• STOP OIL REFINERY EXPANSIONS
• CORPORATIONS OUT OF COPENHAGEN CLIMATE TALKS!

Saturday, August 15th, 11:30am

Richmond BART,

16th St. & Macdonald Ave., Richmond, CA

FESTIVAL RALLY – 11:30am

MARCH ON CHEVRON OIL REFINERY – 1:00pm

followed by NONVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

In order to bring our climate back to the safe zone and avoid catastrophic consequences, we need to make massive emissions cuts now. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up — and push back the corporate and business lobbyists who use false solutions (clean coal and carbon trading) to keep polluting and profiting.Climate change is rooted in an unjust economic system controlled by corporations at the expense of people and planet. Climate justice means we need to address these root causes and create postive alternatives; localized, low-carbon communities and economies.

On August 15th stand with the environmental justice movement that has stopped Chevron’s refinery expansion in Richmond. Chevron already produces two million pounds of air pollution, water pollution, and greenhouse gases each year. The expansion would create much more greenhouse gas and toxic air pollution.

Join the growing alliance of groups and people creating “street heat” for climate justice in the lead up to the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Talks

Organize a climate justice affinity group with your friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow students, union, church or family and join us for Aug. 15 and beyond.

The call is being put out by the Mobilization for Climate Justice, West and the page for info on the action is http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/2009/08/august-15th-protest-chevrons-oil-refinery-expansion/ or just http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/ for their main website.

Hope to see ya’ll there!

Anarchitecture

Posted on February 24, 2009

Timber-frame trackhouses
endless carbon copy clones
little boxes on the hillside
and they all look just the same
built from the flesh of ancient forests
disposable homes built to rot
and be replaced in 50 years or less
forged from the bones of giants
who have sheltered us all for millenia.
i earned my name
sheltered by those branches
using my body to shelter them in return
and i would sooner rip my arms from their sockets
and use my bones to build
then make my home out of the broken limbs
of these, the oldest of our living relations
beings with neither fingers to write nor lungs to scream
but only quiet voices speaking always of peace
still, the masses cry – without wood, where will we live?
as though our frail bodies need for shelter
were justification enough for the massacre
i demand a new architecture
one forged from earth sand and straw
local, sustainable, organic
instead of drenched in toxic chemicals
and founded on the lie of immediate scarcity
coupled with the fallacy of infinite growth
an architecture that shelters and builds our communities
nurtures our spirits
and respects the earth that sustains us
spaces for humans to share to give, to meet and to mingle
without the jingle of coins
or the markets endless race to the bottom
a better way to build and to live
together.

on the ELF, the Green Scare, and so-called “eco-terrorism”

Posted on June 3, 2008

I just ran across an article that ran in Rolling Stone last year about ‘eco terrorism‘ and the ongoing campaign of terror by the feds that seeks to portray radicals who use property destruction as terrorists, and it pissed me off. a lot. now i’m normally not a particularly angry person – i realized as part of an anger management class i took some years back that anger is a choice and it’s not a choice that I make very often because it’s usually not particularly productive. Anger is a weapon. It feels good and it lends power and force, but it clouds the mind; and I realized a long time ago that my mind is one of the best things I’ve got going for me and I’m better off to avoid anything and everything that could cloud my judgment. Still, there are some situations where anger is the only honest response, and this is one of those times. Read more