Cascadia Rising Tide is active in Eugene, Portland and Olympia, with contacts in British Columbia, California and elsewhere in the west. Our focuses include grassroots education and organizing resistance to Liquefied Natural Gas, regional highway expansions and forest destruction. We also work with local movements against giant hydro-electric dams and the sustainability movement.

Please contact us at anytime at cascadia-AT-risingtidenorthamerica-DOT-org and join our email list for updates!

Hi Cascadians!

Portland Rising Tide meets the first Sunday of each month at 7pm at Red and Black Cafe (400 SE 12th avenue at Oak).

With ever more chaotic weather patterns, greenhouse gas levels nearing an irreversible tipping points, and local and national democrat’s climate and energy policies sending mixed signals at best, we’re looking to seriously ramp up climate justice organizing in Portland this year: we’re going to need you to do it!

We look forward to seeing you all there we build up for a year of actions around Portland and the pacific northwest against dirty energy and bogus climate solutions, and for a more just sustainable planet!

email portland-|at|-RisingTideNorthAmerica-|dot|-org

This September activists from 21 countries came together in Copenhagen to plan for direct action during the 2009 UN Climate talks that will be held in that city. This is the call to action that came out of that meeting. Activists in North America are beginning to organize for what will be a historic day. More coming soon!

click here for translations in several languages

A Call to Climate Action:

We stand at a crossroads. The facts are clear. Global climate change,
caused by human activities, is happening, threatening the lives and
livelihoods of billions of people and the existence of millions of
species. Social movements, environmental groups, and scientists from
all over the world are calling for urgent and radical action on climate
change.

On the 30th of November, 2009 the governments of the world will come to
Copenhagen for the fifteenth UN Climate Conference (COP-15). This will
be the biggest summit on climate change ever to have taken place. Yet,
previous meetings have produced nothing more than business as usual.

There are alternatives to the current course that is emphasizing false
solutions such as market-based approaches and agrofuels. If we put
humanity before profit and solidarity above competition we can live
amazing lives without destroying our planet. We need to leave fossil
fuels in the ground. Instead we must invest in community-controlled
renewable energy. We must stop over-production for over-consumption. All
should have equal access to the global commons through community control
and peoples’ sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water. And of
course we must acknowledge the historical responsibility of the global
elite and rich Global North for causing this crisis. Equity between
North and South is essential.

Climate change is already impacting people, particularly women,
indigenous and forest-dependent peoples, small farmers, marginalized
communities and impoverished neighbourhoods who are also calling for
action on climate- and social justice. This call was taken up by
activists and organizations from 21 countries that came together in
Copenhagen over the weekend of 13-14 September, 2008 to begin
discussions for a mobilization in Copenhagen during the UN’s 2009
climate conference.

The 30th of November, 2009 is also the tenth anniversary of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) shutdown in Seattle, which shows the power of
globally coordinated social movements.

We call on all peoples around the planet to mobilize and take action
against the root causes of climate change and the key agents
responsible, both in Copenhagen and around the world. This mobilization
begins now, until the COP-15 summit, and beyond. The mobilizations in
Copenhagen and around the world are still in the planning stages. We
have time to collectively decide what these mobilizations will look
like, and to begin to visualize what our future can be. Get involved!

We encourage everyone to start mobilizing today in your own
neighbourhoods and communities. It is time to take the power back. The
power is in our hands. Hope is not just a feeling, it is also about
taking action.

To get involved in this ongoing and open process, sign up to this email

list: climateaction@klimax2009.org

US Contact: infoclimate09-NA@riseup.net

Rising Tide North America firmly believes in the use of non-violent direct action as an necessary tool for challenge injustice and the grip climate killing corporations hold on our survival as a species.

RTNA’s groups often use direct action tactics — from critical mass bike rides, to office occupations and coal plant blockades — and provides training, support, and action ideas to community groups and organizations around North America. We see such actions as part of the rich tradition of civil disobedience for social justice around North America and the world.

Throughout 2008 RTNA is developing a number of printed resources providing ideas for protest targets that people around North America can find in their communities. Additionally, we will be providing literature with action planning advice.

We are also connecting with communities across North America who would like to expand their use of direct action, providing training and on-the-ground support.

If you’d like to help in our training efforts or would like support in organizing direct actions in your community, please contact action-[AT]-RisingTideNorthAmerica-[DOT]-org

Introducing!

Rising Tide’s 2009 “Menu of Educational Offerings”

This is a 20-page booklet is a smorgasbord of tantalizing workshops and trainings that you can order for your school/organization/conference/etc today.

Includes renowned entrées such as:

*Direct Action Strategy and Planning*

*False Solutions to Climate Change*

*Making the Links of Climate Justice*

*Meeting Facilitation: Consensus Decisions*

*Rising Tide North America: an introduction*

along with 30 unique workshops and 40 hands-on trainings

Download the booklet here, figure out what you’d like, and contact us at:

education {AT} risingtidenorthamerica {DOT} org

~ * ~

With the increasing awareness and hype about climate chaos in the past 2 years, people are trying to cash in. Rising Tide North America has initiated a new campaign against some of the “False Solutions” to climate change currently on the market.

The false solutions we are working to expose include carbon trading, offsets, and sequestration schemes and “alternative” fuels like nuclear power, “clean” coal, agrofuels (like ethanol), and liquefied natural gas that aren’t really any better than our current energy sources.

Our need to believe that something can save us from climate change, our fear of change and the unknown make these purely technological and market-based solutions extremely seductive. Yet upon closer examination they are dangerous detours on the road to a just climate future, and take us farther away from addressing the root causes of climate change.

To address these root causes, Rising Tide believes we must look honestly at how terribly tangled up we are in systems of social and environmental devastation, rather than buy into the scams of disaster profiteers. For us this means making our communities more just and sustainable, dismantling the many systems of oppression within our society that separate us from each other and the earth, challenging the power of corporations and governments tied to the expansion of the fossil fuel empire, and keeping coal, oil and natural gas in the ground.

In the coming months check back here for more resources on these topics, as well as for news about and ideas for taking ACTION against false solutions and for climate justice.

Contact falsesolutions[-at-]risingtidenorthamerica[-dot-]org if you want to join us!

Rising Tide North America is planning a massive day of action on April 1st calling for a halt to the burning of fossil fuels. Check out the call-to-action for all the details.

Start planning your action now for Fossil Fuels Day. We’ve got outreach materials and action ideas for you.

If you are interested in doing an action in your town or just getting the word out please contact fossilfools@hushmail.com. And check the international action page: www.fossilfoolsday.org too!

http://www.fern.org/
http://www.wrm.org.uy/
http://www.sinkswatch.org/
Wild Earth Guardians

This summer Rising Tide North America in collaboration with other organizations hosted a number of regional Convergences for Climate Action to create a space of collective empowerment to resist the fossil fuel empire and fight for climate justice.

The action took place in conjunction with Climate Camps in Quebec, the UK, Germany, Australia and elsewhere around the world. Check out www.climateconvergence.org for more info or read on!