Philippines: 10,000 march to #BreakFree from #coal in Batangas city

May 7, 2016/in Climate Heroes, News /by Chris Palmer

march Twenty seven coal power stations are planned for construction in the Philippines. As part of the global #BreakFree protests, around 10,000 Filipinos marched in Batangas City on May 4 demanding an end to coal and transition to renewable energy. The protest comes just five days before national elections.

People and civil society groups are demanding that the next Philippines administration cancel all proposed coal plants nationwide and hasten a transition to renewable energy, according to a Greenpeace statement.“We are facing a planetary emergency. Now more than ever, we need leaders who are pro-people and pro-environment, not pro-coal and pro-climate change,” said Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, who led the march to the Batangas Provincial Sports Complex.

The anti-coal march highlighted a national campaign called “Piglas Batangas! Piglas Pilipinas!” symbolized by the struggle against the proposed 600-megawatt coal plant of JG Summit Holdings in Barangay (Village) Pinamucan Ibaba, Batangas City. The opposition to the plan is led by the Lipa Archdiocesan Ministry on Environment, local fisherfolk, and other concerned citizens. Read more

Mass blockade of UK’s largest opencast coal mine ends without arrests

May 5, 2016/in Climate Heroes, News /by Chris Palmer

26727211272_143c6f2c7a_o After 12 hours, the mass occupation and blockade by Reclaim the Power of the UK’s largest opencast coal mine – Ffos-y-fran – has ended with no arrests.

Over 300 participated, making it the biggest ever mass action in a UK coal mine. The blockade also launches a fortnight of similar actions globally, all targeting major fossil fuel infrastructure in 13 countries worldwide.

The mass civil trespass by climate action network Reclaim the Power began at 5.30am this morning and halted work across the site. Activists donned red boilersuits and used creative props such as inflatable cubes, dragon puppets and metres-long red banners.

Hannah Smith, who was part of the action said:

“Today we shut down the UK’s largest coal mine because we must keep fossil fuels in the ground to stop catastrophic climate change. Read more

Upcoming Action Camps

April 12, 2016/in Announcements, Climate Heroes /by Guest Author

As warmth and sunshine return to the Northwest, many of us make plans to spend as much time as possible out in the wild. In the coming months, concerned Oregonians will have the chance to not only enjoy the natural world, but learn how to do their part in protecting it.

Action camps are live-in activism workshops, hosted in gorgeous wilderness locations across the region. Cascadia is home to a strong and storied environmental movement, and this spring and summer there are plenty of opportunities to learn directly from those on the front lines of the climate fight.

There are camps for total beginners searching for a pathway into activism, experienced campaigners looking to swap strategies and refine their skills, and all levels of expertise in between. They offer a unique opportunity to meet passionate activists from all over the Northwest, while learning how to organize, build coalitions, educate the public, and start making a direct impact on global climate change.

How the Epic Global Resistance to Fossil Fuels is Growing in 2016

April 6, 2016/in Climate Heroes, News /by Chris Palmer

People are holding governments to their word. Yesterday in France, Total was holding an oil summit about offshore drilling, but they were met by hundreds of activists who blockaded the event. While political leaders were agreeing in Paris that the planet needs to stop using fossil fuels, many people also made a pledge — they would use their bodies to prevent climate criminals from wrecking the planet further. Further offshore drilling and a safe planet are not compatible.

If we’re going to have a chance in preventing climate catastrophe, we have to stop extraction and keep fossil fuels in the ground. The movement has grown considerably in 2016 — with more people moving forward with determination.

Here are just a few more of the inspiring ways that people are stepping up to keep fossil fuels in the ground, across the globe. If you’re ready to join them in escalating the fight to defend our climate, click here to join a Break Free action near you. Read more

Reflections On A Killing

March 14, 2016/in Climate Heroes, News /by Chris Palmer

Berta-caceres Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, was a Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader of the Lenca people, and co-founder and coordinator of COPINH*. After years of threats against her life, she was assassinated in her home on March 3, 2016.

A lifelong defender of the environment and human rights, she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for “a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam [proposal]” at the Río Gualcarque.

In Memorandum: Gary Braasch

March 14, 2016/in Climate Heroes, News /by Chris Palmer

Portland-based Gary Braasch was a climate hero. Since 2000 his central focus has been his project World View of Global Warming, which documents the effects of rapid climate change. Gary died at work on March 7th, snorkeling with his camera on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, documenting the bleaching of the coral. Articles and tributes to him from around the world are on the web, but since some of us active in 350PDX were fortunate enough to know Gary we want to offer our own tributes here too.

“Active Hope” Workshop Reflections

February 11, 2016/in Climate Heroes, Editorial /by Chris Palmer

I am looking into the face of a woman who is going to protect the lives of my children, and I know she is going to do this, even though I don’t know her name and we’ve never spoken. I am watching as people around me assume our positions as ancestors-of-the-future, seeing our uncertainty that we are doing the right thing, our desire to be forgiven for our failure to do more come spilling out of our eyes and hands even before we speak. And as I listen to the glimpses of people’s lives that they reveal, I see better from outside of my own experience: see how life in our society sometimes takes away not just the ability but even the impulse to hope for a different world. By: Anais Tuepker

February 27 Event Kathleen Dean Moore and Rachelle McCabe

February 1, 2016/in Announcements, Climate Heroes /by Chris Palmer

350PDX presents Kathleen Dean Moore and Rachelle McCabe performing “In a Time of Extinctions, a Call to Life,” a program interweaving Moore’s evocative words with McCabe’s expressive piano interpretation of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Variations on a Theme of Corelli.” An empowering call to action in extraordinary times, the performance is:

Saturday, February 27th at 7 p.m.

at Central Lutheran Church, 1820 NE 21^st Ave, Portland, 97212. Tickets ($8-$20) are available at the door and online at this RSVP link. The performance is a benefit for 350PDX, the local branch of a diverse national grassroots movement to address the challenge of climate change.

A Warm Re-Welcoming To Maya Jarrad

January 12, 2016/in Announcements, Climate Heroes /by Guest Author

350PDX’s new Volunteer Coordinator is the amazing Maya Jarrad. For many of you, she probably needs no introduction, since she’s been volunteering with 350PDX in many ways for years. She spent a year revitalizing contact with the larger community through the monthly newsletter, emails, website, social media, and general meetings as the Communications Coordinator. She filled in for Adriana as the hub for the Portland People’s Climate March planning in 2014. Did you join us at the St. John’s Bridge during the ShellNo Blockade? She was a core organizer dealing with logistics and media for the kayaktivists and people on the land.

A Tribute to our Executive Director: Adriana Voss-Andreae

December 17, 2015/in Climate Heroes, Uncategorized /by Chris Palmer

In this season of gratitude, we’ve been thinking about how thankful we are for our incomparable Executive Director, Dr. Adriana Voss-Andreae.

350PDX started with little more than a list of names and email addresses collected at Bill McKibben’s Do the Math Tour event in Portland in November 2012. But it took Adriana to get 350PDX going by hosting a showing of a 350.org webinar in the spring of 2013 and bringing together most of what would be the initial leadership. For the next two years—until this past June when we were finally able to open an office—she shared her home with 350PDX, hosting multiple meetings nearly every week. With both an MD and a PhD in neuroscience, Adriana has many other options, but feeling driven by the urgency of the climate crisis, and recognizing the unprecedented opportunity our movement offers for addressing climate justice, she has devoted herself to this cause.