tagged w/ ran
-
WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. GRAPHIC FOOTAGE. Guy loses control of bike and gets ran over by another bus...unlucky day.WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. GRAPHIC FOOTAGE. Guy loses control of bike and... more
-
-
In honor of their continued support of the Tar Sands Project, Canada as awarded the Fossil Fool of the Day Award by the Sierra Club.
For more information on The Tar Sands, here is a video we did with Rain Forest Action Network after dropping a banner over Niagara Falls.
In honor of their continued support of the Tar Sands Project, Canada as awarded the... more
-
-
leahl
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
When I got wind that the Rain Forest Action Network (RAN) was planning to welcome the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper before his first official visit to the White House with a "warm welcome", my imagination took off. I wondered what RAN had up it's sleeve this time. You've got to love RAN, they've managed to walk that fine line of activism where their larger than life actions (aka activism) usually involve humor, make a memorable point, and rarely have the grandiose offensive air that many people have expressed about some of their activist counterparts. But the term "warm" welcome really got my imagination going and I started wondering, "geesh, are they going to go off the deep end and light something on fire to illustrate some point about global warming?"
Well, I was right about RAN going off the deep end (but that's all I was right about). They dropped a 70 foot banner over (nothing warm about it) Niagara Falls to illustrate the point that continuing to mine the tar sands was taking the world in one direction, while climate change activism is working toward the opposite direction.
Joshua Kahn Russel of RAN explains the reason behind the action in greater detail:
"During Harper’s first official trip to meet Obama in the U.S., the two leaders are expected to discuss climate change and energy policy ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit. Canada supplies 19% of U.S. oil imports, more than half of which now comes from the tar sands, making the region the largest single source of U.S. oil imports. The expansion of the tar sands will strip mine an area the size of Florida. Complete with skyrocketing rates of cancer (by 400%!) for First Nations communities living downstream, broken treaties, toxic belching lakes so large you can see them from outer space, churning up ancient boreal forest, destroyed air and water quality, the tar sands have been called the most destructive project on Earth."
Tomorrow’s visit to the U.S. by Prime Minister Harper is the latest attempt by Canadian Federal and Provincial officials to lock in subsidies for 22 new and expanded refinery projects and oil pipelines crisscrossing 28 states, which would transport and process the dirty tar sands oil. Many are concerned that Prime Minister Harper wants to protect the tar sands even though it is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada."
We caught up with Tar Sands Campaigner, Eriel Deranger a few hours after their 5 climbers had been arrested to explain what they hoped to accomplish:
Please tell us if there is a specific topic that you want to see covered.When I got wind that the Rain Forest Action Network (RAN) was planning to welcome the... more
-
-
leahl
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
You may remember Joshua Kahn Russell from when he took us from Oakland, CA to Washington DC in ACT UP! A video journey chronicling his experience as an activist organizing the capitol climate action (the largest claimte change protest organized to date).
Joshua is an organizer for the Rain Forest Action Network (RAN) and is working on the Freedom From Oil campaign. RAN states that, "The Freedom From Oil Campaign is breaking America’s oil addiction by working to halt the development of the Canadian Tar Sands, the dirtiest and most deadly attempt yet to profit from and prolong humanity’s crippling addiction to oil. In partnership with communities on the ground, we are pushing government and industry to instead invest in clean, sustainable energy to power the next generation’s economy. Learn more."
I've gotten a kick out of watching these videos, they capture the thrill of the moment, and Joshua's enthusiasm and zest for life is contagious.
Below you find the first three submissions of his journey. You can follow Joshua over the course of the next 7 days at Freedom From Oil Tour.
freedom from oil tour #1 - propagandhi, strike anywhere, & activism to stop dirty energy
Freedom From Oil tour diary #2 - trapdoors and Tar Sands
Freedom From Oil tour diary #3 - crossing to Canada!
You may remember Joshua Kahn Russell from when he took us from Oakland, CA to... more
-
-
leahl
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
As the post-V.D. doldrums start to take affect, worry not gentle reader. We've got new DVDs out today and the DVDo's and DVDont's for you.
DVDo's
-Black Dynamite is one of the funnier "we know we're kidding" exploitation films, but shockingly one of the most enjoyable in the recent years of faux-Grindhouses.
-Clint Eastwood: 35 Films in 35 Years at Warner Brothers is what you think it is. And has Every Which Way But Loose.
-Hunger is out on regular DVD and Blu-Ray for your Michael Fassbender needs.
-Ran is out on Blu-Ray.
-The Ladykillers is too.
DVDon'ts
-Law Abiding Citizen involves Gerard Butler proving he can do a new American accent depending on the genre of film.
-Coco Before Chanel is the perfect gift for chicks, man.
-Halo: Legends is what you should buy the person you don't like who likes video games. Except not on Blu-Ray.
-The Dirty Harry Collection on Blu-Ray is like really high quality AMC on Sunday afternoons.
As the post-V.D. doldrums start to take affect, worry not gentle reader.... more
-
-
RAN's 25th anniversary celebration and hiring of new executive director provides excellent opportunity to re-examine support for FSC and first time industrial logging of old forests two times the size of Texas.
Old forests including tropical rainforests are the ultimate expression of life, evolution and ecology. The term “old forests” is used to describe primary unlogged forests, regenerating late successional natural old-growth, and planted mixed-species forests regaining old-growth characteristics.
The forest protection movement, like many social justice movements before it, is at a crossroads. The slavery abolitionists had to choose between improving conditions for slaves or pursuing their freedom. American revolutionaries chose between greater autonomy under continued British colonialism or to fight for full freedom and liberty.
Similarly, the forest movement has to decide whether we want to work to fully protect and restore old carbon and species rich forests as a keystone response to achieve global ecological sustainability, or continue to log – in only a slightly better manner – 500 year old trees in 60 million year old ecosystems for disposable consumer products.
By definition, primary forests are destroyed.
Since 1993 best estimates are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has sanctioned the logging of sixty million hectares of primary and old-growth forests, and an equal amount is threatened in coming years. But no one really knows the full extent of the problem as FSC does not compile how many old forests it certifies for first time heavy industrial logging.
This means FSC and the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) -- an FSC founding member and ardent supporter -- are responsible for the past and threatened loss of about 460,000 square miles of primary and other old forests – an area the size of South Africa, or nearly two times the size of Texas.
FSC has not responded to numerous requests to gather more accurate figures, when directly questioned FSC board members say they do not know, and even RAN who is a member was not provided this information.
* Please follow link http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=ran_ancient_forest_logging for more info and to view and sign:) the official protest to Rebecca Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network ( Acting Executive Director).RAN's 25th anniversary celebration and hiring of new executive director provides... more
-
-
As the post-V.D. doldrums start to take affect, worry not gentle reader. We've got new DVDs out today and the DVDo's and DVDont's for you.
DVDo's
-Black Dynamite is one of the funnier "we know we're kidding" exploitation films, but shockingly one of the most enjoyable in the recent years of faux-Grindhouses.
-Clint Eastwood: 35 Films in 35 Years at Warner Brothers is what you think it is. And has Every Which Way But Loose.
-Hunger is out on regular DVD and Blu-Ray for your Michael Fassbender needs.
-Ran is out on Blu-Ray.
-The Ladykillers is too.
DVDon'ts
-Law Abiding Citizen involves Gerard Butler proving he can do a new American accent depending on the genre of film.
-Coco Before Chanel is the perfect gift for chicks, man.
-Halo: Legends is what you should buy the person you don't like who likes video games. Except not on Blu-Ray.
-The Dirty Harry Collection on Blu-Ray is like really high quality AMC on Sunday afternoons.
As the post-V.D. doldrums start to take affect, worry not gentle reader. We've... more
-
-
During rush-hour commute this morning, two Indigenous Canadian women – Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, and Heather Milton-Lightening – scaled flagpoles in front of the main entrance of Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC’s) headquarters in Toronto, dropping a banner reading “Please Help Us Mrs. Nixon.com” – appealing to the bank to pull its massive investments in Alberta tar sands projects. Supported by RAN, the Ruckus Society, and their Indigenous People’s Power Project, they were joined by dozens of Toronto RAN activists, swarming entrances to ensure every RBC employee heard our appeal Mrs. Janet Nixon, the wife of RBC CEO Gordon Nixon, to lend her strong and influential voice to those fighting to protect Canada’s clean water and respect Indigenous rights by pushing RBC to stop bankrolling the tar sandsDuring rush-hour commute this morning, two Indigenous Canadian women – Eriel... more
-
