Greenpeace USA – 2017-06-05 00:56:27
Special to Environmentalists Against War
A Corporation Is Suing Greenpeace for $300 Million — What Happens if it Wins?
Annie Leonard / Greenpeace
The stakes have never been higher. Corporate polluters are becoming bolder. And today, reports suggest that Trump may take the disastrous step to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. But people power and a healthy planet can still triumph — we’ll never stop fighting back against those who are trying to stop us. Now or ever.
One corporation, Resolute Forest Products, is trying to intimidate Greenpeace into silence after it got caught red-handed. Our investigations showed that it is unsustainably hacking down ancient forests in Canada’s Boreal.
Instead of changing its ways, Resolute is trying to intimidate us into silence. The corporation is suing us for hundreds of millions of dollars. If we don’t fight this lawsuit and win, it will be the end of Greenpeace.
Lawsuits are long, expensive battles. We can only sustain our fight with your support. Greenpeace’s future is on the line — along with the rights to free speech, to advocate and protest. It’s not just Greenpeace who is a target, but the whole environmental movement and our ability to hold corporations accountable. Can you imagine a world in which we can no longer stand up and defend our forests, oceans, and climate?
If Resolute’s lawsuit for $300 million CAD is successful, that sinister vision will be reality. We won’t let Resolute silence us but between this legal battle and the nonstop environmental assault from Trump, our resources are stretched thin.
ACTION: We need you in this fight for the long haul.
Thanks so much,
Annie Leonard,
Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
Canada’s boreal forest is one of the last expanses of undisturbed natural forest, home to threatened species, and one of the world’s largest terrestrial stores of carbon. Resolute Forest Products, a giant logging company, is destroying intact areas of this magnificent forest and is trying to shut down environmental critics.
Now Resolute is using intimidation as a distraction from its destructive practices. Its lawsuit against Greenpeace could set a dangerous precedent in targeting advocacy and public participation when we need them the most. Courts need to stop these corporate tactics to silence criticism.
Our forests are the lungs of the planet. They are home to many Indigenous communities, as well as a refuge for threatened wildlife. And Greenpeace has campaigned for decades to encourage logging companies to adopt more sustainable practices — and many of them have!
But one logging company in Canada — Resolute Forest Products — refuses to change its destructive ways. In order to cover its tracks, it is trying to silence Greenpeace by way of multi-million dollar lawsuits.
But we won’t stop working and speaking out to protect forests! That’s why we’re calling on the publishing industry to help. Publishers like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette all fundamentally rely on freedom of speech. But these companies also buy millions of pounds of book paper from Resolute.
Add your name to ask book publishers to help call out Resolute’s assault on free speech and forests.
When Resolute Forest Products took the axe to some of Canada’s most magnificent forest areas — Greenpeace called them out. Now it wants to shut us down.
Resolute is suing Greenpeace for over $300 million to force us into silence.
This is one fight we won’t win alone. We need allies. We need support from the major publishing companies who are Resolute’s customers. That’s where you come in. Shine a light on Resolute’s unjust attacks. Sign our message to the publishing industry, including some of Resolute’s biggest paper customers, asking them to stand up for free speech!
The deadline for signatures is tomorrow, so we can take your message to Book Expo America — one of the largest publishing industry gatherings in the world. Your voice will help us convince publishers to stand up for free speech and forests. We have 301,768 signatures already.
Publishers like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette all source paper from Resolute. So, we’re asking them to call on Resolute to produce book paper without harming intact forests or threatened wildlife habitat, and to urge the logging corporation to stop attacking free speech.
The publishing industry depends on free speech, so it is well positioned to be allies in this fight. Please call on them to stand with us.
For forests and free speech,
Amy Moas, Ph.D.
Senior Forest Campaigner, Greenpeace USA
P.S. We cannot allow a destructive corporate giant to intimidate us. If Resolute Forest Products wins its lawsuit against Greenpeace, it will threaten our ability to advocate for forest protection anywhere in the world. We need all the help we can get now.
Ask the publishing industry to join us in the fight!
Authors around the World
Stand Up for Free Speech and Forests
Greenpeace
(May 31, 2017) — Authors, journalists, poets and playwrights know that every time the right words are put to paper, or typed to a screen, our planet gets a little better. Because, without the right to express ourselves freely, we cannot make that positive change.
More than 100 authors have pledged to defend free speech and those who peacefully protect the world’s forests. This pledge follows two multimillion dollar lawsuits filed by Resolute Forest Products, a Canadian company, to silence Greenpeace and Stand.earth’s exposure of its controversial logging in the boreal forest.
Here’s what some of the authors have to say:
Margaret Atwood
Canadian author of The Handmaid’s Tale, recently dramatised in the must-watch television show of the year. In the story, all but the most powerful women are forbidden to write and are denied access to books.
“The endings of The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and Brave New World are written. Ours is not. This is a chance to stand up for freedom of speech, the freedom to advocate for change, and the freedom to question authority, and to strengthen their protection under law. As a society, we need a positive outcome to this story.”
Stephen Fry
British actor, comedian, author of the memoir More Fool Me, and all-round lover of words, has made a career of speaking up.
“Speaking as a serial blasphemer, I take freedom of speech very seriously. It’s not just about the satisfaction you get from speaking your mind, it’s also about telling uncomfortable truths that need to be heard, and Greenpeace has been incredibly successful at exposing what the powers that be want to keep secret.
“But this case goes beyond Greenpeace to threaten every whistle-blower and watchdog with information that the rich and powerful want suppressed. I’m worried, and I think you should be too.”
Yann Martel
Author of Life of Pi which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. His work is praised for its imagination and originality, and captured hearts and minds everywhere with its magical-realism and deftly drawn characters.
“Ultimately we all benefit from free speech. If Resolute Forest Products manages to shut Greenpeace up with its heavy-handed legal tactics, we ALL lose. This is not just a question of preserving our environment but our civil society.”
Lev Grossman
Book critic and fantasy writer of The Magicians trilogy. He values words for their magic and power beyond all measure.
“I support Greenpeace in their urgent, important work defending the environment, and I support the right of everyone, everywhere to speak out in protest without fear of being bullied and silenced.”
Michelle Alexander
Author of the New York Times bestseller, The New Jim Crow, which has shaped the conversation on how our prison system contributes to systemic racism and legalized discrimination.
“The right to speak truth to power is the foundation of democracy and must be vigilantly protected and defended. Now more than ever.”
Lauren Groff
Her novel, Fates and Furies was Barack Obama’s favorite book of 2016.
“Greenpeace works hard to maintain a healthy balance in our planet’s ecosystems, from seas to mountain tops, for the benefit of future generations.”
Anthony Doerr
Author of All The Light We Cannot See, which won the Pulitzer Prize. His writing wins praise from both readers and critics for its perfectly crafted language and page-turning plot.
“We must never silence the voices who speak to protect our children’s future. The more we can remember how interconnected we all are—the more we can train ourselves to empathise with the kids in our neighbourhoods, beyond our borders, and in our futures—the better off we’ll be.”
Rebecca Solnit
Following her book, Men Explain Things to Me, ‘mansplaining’ became a cultural concept. While she didn’t invent the word, she gives a voice to women everywhere with her sharp essays and culturally relevant writing.
“There is no free society without free speech. When we say that, we mean free as in freedom, as in liberty. But lawsuits that make speaking up unaffordably expensive are one way to quash that liberty arising from the free exchange of words, ideas, beliefs, truths. I’m proud to stand with Annie Leonard and Greenpeace for the liberty of speaking up for the climate, the natural world, and all of us who depend on it.”
Naomi Klein
Author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo who sheds light on the problems with capitalism and the importance of protecting our planet. Her new book No Is Not Enough is out on June 13.
“We already have trade deals that allow corporations to sue governments when they deny pipelines, and a US president who has filled his cabinet with extremists who are hostile to the very idea that governments should protect people and the planet.
“We simply cannot afford a legal precedent where the most courageous NGOs are treated like organised crime. This upside down world must be put right. Resolute’s SLAPP suit against Greenpeace must be defeated.”
Learn more about all the authors who have signed the pledge.
Thank you for joining us in celebrating the right to freedom of expression and advocacy.
