April 23 Charlotte, NC Today activists with Asheville Rising Tide, Rainforest Action Network, and Croatan Earth First! hit the streets of Charlotte, NC to protest Bank of America’s annual shareholders meeting. Bank of America has seen an escalating level of protest in the past year for its funding of the coal industry. Bank of America has provided billions of dollars in loans to companies including Massey Energy, Arch Coal, and Alpha Natural Resources which are responsible for the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining in southern Appalachia. In addition Bank of America is funding a number of new coal plants including Duke Energy’s Cliffside power plant in Western North Carolina. Continue Reading »

At 6:30 this morning, North Carolina residents locked themselves to bulldozers to stop the construction of Duke Energy’s massive Cliffside coal-fired power plant being built 50 miles west of Charlotte, NC. “In the face of catastrophic climate change, building a new coal plant is tantamount to signing a death sentence for our generation,” said local farmer Matt Wallace, while locked to a bulldozer. The concerned citizens also roped off the construction site with “Global Warming Crime Scene” tape and held banners that read “Coal Fuels Climate Change” and “Social Change, not Climate Change.”

We’re actively looking for donations to get people out of jail!

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The North Carolina Student Climate Coalition is hosting a Fossil Fools
Dayrally at Freedom Park (1900 East Blvd.) in Charlotte, North
Carolina on
Saturday April 5th at 11:00am to 1:30pm*.Join students, politicians, grassroots organizations, people of faith and
climate change experts in a demonstration to stop Duke Energy’s expansion of
the Cliffside coal-fired power plant in Rutherford County! The proposed
plant will emit 5.5 million tons of CO2 annually and will cost ratepayers
$2.4 billion dollars. The air quality permit lacks a hard cap on mercury and
is a threat to public heath. With 45% of children in Western North Carolina
diagnosed with asthma, burning more coal and emitting more pollution, even
with new technologies, is a practice of the past. We need Duke Energy–the
third highest contributor to global climate change in the country–to invest
in the future. Through energy efficiency and renewable energy, we can
responsibly take on the climate crisis that our planet faces and also meet
the population’s energy needs. Continue Reading »

This summer, join people from throughout the southeast and beyond for the second annual Southeast Convergence for Climate Action. After the resounding success of last year’s convergence we are excited to continue the struggle for climate justice in the southeast with an engaging week of workshops, strategizing, and direct action! This year’s convergence will be hosted in Virginia where communities are fighting uranium mining, nuclear power, mountaintop removal coal mining, and new (as well as old) coal plants. Once again we will unite to fight the coal industry’s stranglehold on our region while rejecting the deadly nuke industry’s attempt to position themselves as the solution to the climate crisis.The convergence is a place to strengthen our movement, network with new allies, and take action against dirty energy while working to build a sustainable world. Workshops will include: community organizing, direct action 101, debunking false solutions to climate change, blockades, sustainable living systems, media, disaster response, fighting nukes and coal, and much more. The convergence will culminate in an empowering action to show that the southeast is serious about tackling climate change.

For more information check out: www.climateconvergence.org
Email: risingtide@mountainrebel.net

Nov. 15 Charlotte, NC In what appears to be a recurring phenomenon in North Carolina, angry polar bears have once again descended on a notorious climate criminal to disrupt their business. On Nov. 15th members of Asheville Rising Tide and local college students descended on Duke Energy headquarters in Charlotte, NC with signs reading “Coal fuels climate change” and “Got Mercury?” to demand they cancel their plans for the 800mw Cliffside coal plant.

Despite police and security guards already on the scene two students dressed as polar bears locked the main entrance to the headquarters shut with a bike lock. Unfortunately a police officer managed to intervene before the pair were able to lock themselves to the door. Once the cop managed to wrestle the locks from the polar bears, the two proceeded to plan B and commenced in a sit-in in front of the doors. Eventually more police arrived and the students were arrested, but the lock remained, blocking the return of hundreds of Duke employees from their lunch break. Continue Reading »

On Monday, August 13, a total of 6 nonviolent activists were arrested at the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action and at the direct action following it (see Southeast Convergence for Climate Action shuts down Bank of America, police use electric shock on defenseless protestors). We spent $4,000 to bail them out. Several people lent us the money, but we need to get donations to pay them back, as well as to pay further legal fees and, eventually, to fund further direct actions.

You can make checks payable to Rising Tide North America, and make sure to write “southeast convergence action” in the memo field. Mail checks to: Rising Tide North America, PO Box 16851, Asheville, NC 28816

**For Immediate Release**

CONTACTS:
Randall Pfleger, 828-242-1094
Mary Olson, 828-301-8818
August 8 and after, 303-929-9713
seconvergencemedia@gmail.com

Southeast “Convergence for Climate Action” to combine low-impact living with high-impact civil disobedience

What: The Southeast Convergence for Climate Action will be a week of trainings, workshops, and strategy sessions focused on building a no-compromise movement against the fossil fuel industry and “false solutions” to climate change like nuclear energy, “clean coal,” and carbon trading. The convergence will culminate in a massive day of direct action against fossil fuels and for climate justice.

When: August 8-14 (The 13th is reserved for direct actions and other protests.) Media are welcome to attend the convergence on Friday the 10th for site tours and interviews.

Where: On private land near Asheville, North Carolina. Directions available on request.

Why: Climate Chaos is here. In the face of rising sea levels, melting ice caps, government inaction, and corporations profiteering from market-based “solutions” that don’t work, regular people must act. The Convergence aims to promote a just, rapid transition away from fossil fuels; support the efforts of communities that are fighting dirty energy developments in their backyards - including new coal and new nuclear power plants; encourage non-violent civil disobedience as a means for challenging dirty energy and empowering the movement to stop climate change, and increase networking and strategizing amongst the diverse social justice and environmental movements fighting climate change, its false solutions and the energy industry.

Who: The Southeast Convergence is being organized by Southern Energy Network, Rising Tide, the Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS), and Energy Justice Summer. See our website for a list of co-sponsors.

Background: With mountain top removal coal mining ravaging the mountains and communities of Appalachia, a host of new dirty coal plants proposed for the region, and the nuclear industry attempting to re-establish itself as a “solution” to climate change, the Southeast is rapidly becoming a national sacrifice zone for cheap electricity. To counter this onslaught of dirty energy projects, the Southeast convergence will bring together a wide variety of people to share skills in community organizing, direct action, indigenous support work, sustainable living skills, grassroots disaster relief, and much more.

The Southeast Convergence for Climate Action is taking place in conjunction with a West Coast convergence targeting liquefied natural gas and a Camp for Climate Action at London’s Heathrow Airport. Each convergence location has been strategically chosen to support existing local organizing efforts against the fossil fuel industry.

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Today dozens of cyclists paid a surprise visit to Bank of America to protest their financial backing of coal companies as a part of the International Day of Action Against Climate Change and G8 (read the worldwide roundup of actions here). After tying up downtown traffic, the 30-strong bike ride descended on the downtown Asheville headquarters of Bank of America. Once there, a number of people dumped coal in front of the main entrance, while another person spontaneously sacrificed their bike lock and locked the front doors shut.

With police still not in sight, the bike ride continued on to another Bank of America branch, where participants plastered the bank in stickers, handed out flyers to customers, and held banners reading, “Stop Banking on Climate Change” and “Climate Chaos: Brought to you by Bank of America.”

The protest was held in solidarity with the massive anti-G8 protests in Germany, where leaders of the 8 richest countries continue to drag their feet on making any meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The bike ride was organized by Asheville Rising Tide, a group dedicated to confronting the root causes of climate change.

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Friday June 8th is the International Day of Action Against Climate Change and the G8 (www.risingtidenorhamerica.org for more info). To celebrate this day of resistance Asheville Rising Tide will be hosting a Critical Mass against Climate Criminals. After riding through town we will pay a visit to a climate criminal. Bring a bike, noismakers and flags.

Meet @ 4:30 pm, Aston Park (Corner of Hilliard@ South French Broad)

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Check out this link to a commercial funded by CIBO, the Council of Independent Business Owners in Asheville…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO5ex4NWnls

Google Earth Highlights Destruction
By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews
March 12, 2007, 12:48 PM
[original article]

While Google Earth has primarily been touted for its uncanny ability to take users on a tour of the world’s most beautiful sights right from their desktop, a new feature added Monday highlights the immense destruction human beings leave in their wake.

Environmental advocacy group Appalachian Voices has joined to Google to deliver a special interactive layer for Google Earth that tells the stories of over 470 mountains that have been destroyed from coal mining, and its impact on nearby ecosystems. Separately, the World Wildlife Fund has added the ability to visit its 150 project sites using Google Earth.

INSTRUCTIONS on How to See Mountain Memorial in Google Earth’s “Featured Content” Menu
Once you have Google Earth open on your computer, open the “featured content” folder in the “layers” menu at the bottom left portion of your screen. The first item inside the “featured content” menu is called “Global Awareness.” Open that folder and you will see a folder called “Appalachian Mountaintop Removal” with a little blue and white flag icon net to it. Check the box next to this folder to turn on the layer and then double-click the icon to be taken to the memorial. Clicking on “User’s Guide” will help you make the most of your visit to the National Memorial for the Mountains.

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- Double-sided factsheet about Woodfin power plant and climate chaos: Woodfin Power Plant - Climate flyer

- Quarter sheet flyer for Valentine’s Day call-in to the Buncombe County Commission on the Woodfin plant February 14th (includes commissioners’ contact info): No Love for Fossil Fuels

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