Community-&Amp;-Nature-Rights

ACTION ALERT Direct Action Spokane Initiative Banning Coal and Oil Trains Through Spokane Background: On Friday, June 10th, Gunnar Holmquist, M.D. filed an initiative with the Spokane City Clerk which seeks to ban the transportation of crude oil and coal through the City of Spokane, because of climate change and the threat to public safety. The initiative would do several things – (1) recognize a right of all Spokane residents to a healthy climate and public safety; (2) ban the transportation of crude oil and coal as a violation of those rights; and (3) suspend the arrest of those using nonviolent direct action who attempt to enforce the law if either the City refuses to enforce, or the courts overturn the initiative. ...

The great musician Lauren Hill once said, “Fantasy is what people want but reality is what they need.” And the reality is that the climate movement is failing. See this graph? That’s a measure of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere from 2005 to mid-2015. The trend is up. That means we’re losing. Until that trend is heading steeply in the other direction, we’re in trouble. ...

Note: Thomas Linzey, the director of CELDF, is a great friend of Deep Green Resistance. CELDF’s work is a revolutionary lawmaking model that puts the power in the hands of the people, and represents a direct threat to corporate oligarchy. We highly recommend you check out this workshop if you can. Communities across the country and Washington trying to stop a wide range of threats—such as oil trains, GMOs, fracking, factory farming, and water privatization – all run into the same problem: they don’t have the legal authority to say “NO” to what is harming them. ...