NoWarNoWarming.org & ClimateEmergency.org – 2007-10-13 21:21:37
http://www.NoWarNoWarming.org
FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE, NOT WARS FOR OIL!
From October 21-23, 2007, join a global movement rising up against war and global warming by participating in a massive intervention in Washington DC or your own community. We need to take immediate action to:
• STOP the war in Iraq and future resource wars by ending our addiction to fossil fuels.
• SHIFT government funding to rebuild New Orleans and all communities suffering from racism and corporate greed.
• GO green and promote environmental justice with new jobs in a clean energy economy.
Entering Second Month of Climate Emergency Fast,
Ted Glick Has No Plans to End his Hunger Strike
TAKOMA PARK, MD (October 12, 2007) — Ted Glick, coordinator of the US Climate Emergency Council called today for the Congressional leadership of both parties in the House and Senate to get serious about the deepening and accelerating crisis of global warming. Glick issued a statement as he entered the second month and his 31st day without food.
“I stopped eating one month ago on the day Congress returned from its summer recess,” Glick began. “I and at least 1,200 others from every state in the United States took part on September 4th in a ‘Climate Emergency Fast,’ a call for the Congressional leadership to move rapidly to pass strong legislation on global warming.”
“It’s now one month later,” continued Glick, who has lost over 30 pounds since the fast began. “Over the course of September we saw the second Category 5 hurricane, Felix, form two weeks after Hurricane Dean, the season’s first Category 5 storm.”
A Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale is the most severe hurricane. As ocean temperatures rise due to global warming, studies have also shown a rise in the frequency of the most severe hurricanes. Never before in recorded history have two Category 5 hurricanes formed within two weeks of each other in the Atlantic.
Global warming impacts on the other side of the world are also accelerating rapidly. Recent scientific reports have revealed that close to a quarter of all the Arctic summer sea ice has disappeared compared to just two years ago. At this rate, summers in the Arctic will be ice-free as early as 2015.
“It is outrageous that nothing — nothing! — has been done, no legislation has been enacted by the 110th Congress, to address this situation. I will continue to fast and urge others who support me to bombard their legislators demanding that they pass a strong energy bill that includes a substantial increase in car mileage standards and a strong renewable energy requirement for utilities.
“We need rapid movement toward comprehensive global warming legislation that caps carbon emissions, moves to reduce them quickly, enacts a moratorium on any new coal plants and allocates $25 billion in fiscal year 2008 for conservation, efficiency and renewables. That $25 billion should come out of Bush’s obscene request for $190 billion for more war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
• Glick was arrested last Thursday in front of the State Department with 49 others protesting the Bush Administration’s sham climate summit that brought together the world’s major carbon emitters.
He is also helping to organize a No War, No Warming nonviolent civil disobedience action on Capitol Hill on the morning of Monday, October 22nd:
http://www.NoWarNoWarming.org
About No War, No Warming
No War, No Warming came together in February of 2007 when leaders from a number of anti-war and climate groups began to discuss how we could better link the interrelated issues of global warming and the war in Iraq, and how we could strengthen mutual support between the peace/justice movement and the climate crisis movement.
These discussions led to a public Call to Action for climate groups, and other groups, to support anti-war actions around the country in mid-March on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and for anti-war and other groups to support the April 14th Step It Up climate actions. 50 organizations have endorsed that call.
In mid-May we held our first face-to-face meeting in Washington, D.C. Representatives of 33 organizations attended. Following a full day’s discussion we agreed to organize a national “intervention” on Capitol Hill this Fall to demand an end to the war in Iraq and strong action on the climate crisis.
It was agreed that the urgency of these issues requires an escalation of our present activities, thus the intervention would involve nonviolent civil disobedience.
It was orginally decided that the actions would take place October 21-23. We’ve since changed that to Oct. 20-22 with the day of intervention to take place in D.C. on Monday, October 22. We are calling for local actions around the country during the same time period.
We are also supporting actions being organized in D.C. October 19-20 by the Mobilization for Global Justice during meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. We are supporting and working with the organizers of the national Power Shift conference in D.C., which is being organized by Energy Action and will bring together thousands of students from around the country on Nov. 2-5.
We have organized four working groups to advance the work towards the October 20-22 days of action–Organizing and Outreach, Action, Messaging and Resources/Funding. We welcome participation in these working groups. Several organizations have committed staff time and resources to this effort.
We look forward to this Fall when we will stand together for peace, justice and a clean energy revolution!
