#NoDAPL

3 graphs, a photo from space, and a mission

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Last year I wrote a great post about what’s really at stake with climate change, and why I was starting 198 methods to push the fight in the US. It’s still great, and you should go read it if you haven’t already. I sent it out as a fundraiser on GivingTuesday, and got some positive feedback. This year, I didn’t want to send a Giving Tuesday email for two basic reasons: #GivingTuesday is kind of a scam. No shade to my brothers and sisters in the non-profit world;  They need your help, so if you found time and a little extra cash to donate to them, I hope you did so. But the whole thing was invented by professional fundraisers as a corollary to BlackFriday – an orgy of overconsumption and a key example of what we’re trying to change about American politics and society. It’s also deeply connected to and dependent on Facebook’s donation platform, which is a scam to get non-profits with strapped budgets to give them billions in advertising revenue while green-washing the reputations of some of …

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Update from Louisiana: Rise together to stop the pipelines

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Things are getting dangerous for our brothers and sisters in Louisiana fighting the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. Earlier this week Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the company behind the Bayou Bridge (BBP) and Dakota Access Pipelines (DAPL), leap frogged ahead of their scheduled pipeline construction to begin cutting trees near a group of water protector tree sits. Along with an armed police export, they’ve continued to cut all the remaining trees around the tree-sits. It’s unnecessary and illegal, but more importantly it puts the safety of these brave water protectors at risk – because even a tree cut near their fragile, elevated encampments can come down wrong and smash guide wires and other safety equipment. As L’eau Est La Vie Camp said on their facebook page: We are heart broken by this reckless destruction of the basin, but we continue to occupy the tree sits and will continue to resist. L’eau Est La Vie and leaders on the ground are calling for aid, and there are two specific actions you can take to help us #RiseTogether this week: Keep your eyes on Louisiana …

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US Bank broke its promise – Defund Pipelines

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If you’re one of the nearly 200,000 people who signed a petition calling on the biggest Wall Street Banks to stop financing the Dakota Access Pipeline, and all fossil fuel infrastructure, you need to see this. US Bank, which had promised to stop funding DAPL and similar pipeline projects, just made millions of dollars guaranteeing a massive credit deal with Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the company behind DAPL, the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, and dozens of other dirty pipelines across America. Will you sign this petition to US Bank CEO Andrew Cecere to keep his promise to end financial support to oil and gas pipelines with our allies at Climate Truth? If you sign today, they and activists in US Bank’s home town of Minneapolis, MN, will deliver it this week. Last April, a ton of us praised US Bank when they agreed to demands from Indigenous and climate activists (like us) to stop financing major oil and gas pipelines like DAPL. We warned at the time that US Bank was hedging its bets and hadn’t promised to Divest, yet. But in the …

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Good riddance to 2017 – I like our chances next month

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It’s the last few days of 2017. And good riddance, I say, because we’ve got big plans for January 2018. It’s been a busy and mostly brutal year as the Trump team attacks one of our communities after the other. We end the year much as we began it – worried about deportations, awash in climate chaos, resolute in our desire to show up when and where we can to speak out and shut down fossil fuel projects and the political patsies that approve them. But in the face of all that, there is also hope: Major new divestments from big banks (and even the WORLD bank), opportunities to challenge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s new leadership, and convergences and gatherings that will consolidate the strength of our movement to shut things down and renew your spirit to open new ideas up. Rebellions are built on hope, and two stories are giving me hope this week: A recent article in Reuters details how Canadian Tar Sands, the dirtiest oil on earth, are having a tough time getting to export …

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Two pipelines a week

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Last week the Army Corps of Engineers gave preliminary approval to the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP). A few days earlier, the Virginia Water Control Board (VaWCB) voted 4-3 to approve the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), but required a final review of several environmental studies. That second one is actually considered a partial victory, since the week before the VaWCB had voted to approve the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) — another, shorter, fracked gas pipeline — with no such condition. This not to mention the FCC ripping apart #NetNeutrality and the Republican Congress poised to ram through a tax bill that will steal our healthcare, deport our neighbors and drop a depth charge on the middle class from a luxury yacht. So, yeah, the last week wasn’t great. But here’s the thing, in moments of crisis this climate justice movement rises to the occasion in ways that never fail to startle and inspire me. So, short version – Can you chip in to support what we’re doing? Even $1.98 helps a lot, and there’s a ton of other (including non-monetary) stuff …

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198 methods to [do what exactly?]

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Last week I told you about why I think it’s important to start 198 methods as another non-profit, environmental advocacy group (Missed it? Click here for the refresher, 5 charts and 2 maps). This week, I’m all about how we win. I lay out some specific examples, strategies, and ideas below. But the TL;DR is this: It costs about $100 a week to keep all this going, and we want to scale UP the project in 2018. So I’m looking for about 50 people to donate $1.98 a week for the next 6 months. Can you help​?

Big news – Basic economics killed a pipeline

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TransCanada, the same company behind Keystone XL, just pulled the plug on its disastrous $15.7 billion Energy East Pipeline in Canada. This is a huge win for all the climate activists, Indigenous leaders and nations, and Canadians of all sorts who fought for years to stop this pipeline — just as we in the US have been fighting to stop #KXL and the Dakota Access Pipeline (#DAPL). Ultimately, it wasn’t a rally, protest, or petition that slayed the great black snake known as Energy East — it was basic economics. That’s important for two reasons: One, it puts added pressure on TransCanada and their partners to deliver on KXl, DAPL and other projects — one down, many to go and the stakes just got higher. Two, it indicates that we can stop these projects by speaking their language — and money talks. Sign here to stand with Mazaska Talks* and other allies in telling the big banks: stop financing climate disasters and respect Indigenous rights! It’s important to understand that big pipelines and other fossil fuel projects are funded almost entirely by the big …

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Stop Energy Transfer Partners This Weekend

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You probably remember Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) as the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. But DAPL isn’t the end of their mischief. Wherever they build, ETP violates indigenous sovereignty and human rights, steals land, poisons air and water, and trashes the climate. That’s why we’re teaming up with a big coalition of frontline communities and allies to take action across the country on September 8th & 9th, 2017 to #StopETP. By taking coordinated action targeting ETP, we will launch a big movement that can disrupt their business until the company withdraws their unnecessary and damaging pipeline projects, stops violating human rights, and stops polluting the air, water, and climate. Can you sign up to host or attend a #StopETP rally near you? Activists and community groups organizing all kinds of actions, at all kinds of locations, including: ETP pipeline projects, both proposed and existing; Other existing ETP/Sunoco facilities, including those owned and operated by subsidiaries; Financiers of ETP projects, like Wells Fargo, Chase Bank and more – in coordination with the #DeFundDAPL and #MazaskaTalks movements; At ETP’s main corporate offices …

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Every Branch, Every bank

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Our #NoDAPL movement is celebrating the fact that a federal judge ordered the US Army Corp of Engineers to re-do its environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline. But the judge didn’t shut down the pipeline (yet) and we still need to take action to stop DAPL, and all pipelines proposed in North America. More than 150,000 people, representing more than $4.3 billion dollars in assets, have signed on to demand an end to the dig, dump, burn capitalism embodied by these pipelines.1 And now,indigenous leaders are asking for your help to deliver the message to “every bank, every branch” this summer.2 Will you sign up here to host a #DeFundPipelines delivery event in Columbia? It’s been months since President Trump’s reckless executive orders to ram through DAPL and other pipelines. Since then we’ve learned that the company behind DAPL, Energy Transfer Partners used money from bankers and pension funds to hire military contractor TigerSwan to spy on encampments and coordinate brutal responses that included pepper spray, rubber bullets and blasting water protectors with water cannons in freezing weather.3 By the time …

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Check out what you did to DeFundDAPL

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** Update** I was writing you a message about what we did to De-Fund the Dakota Access Pipeline (# DeFundDAPL) is working. And then Trump’s Army Corps of Engineers announced that they were ignoring the law, tribal sovereignty, US treaties, and common decency to ram through the Dakota access pipeline. In response, I’m encouraging everyone to join the massive “last stand” day of action happening today. Dozens of events are already planned around the county – Find yours and show up today. And then stay tuned for more info on how we can stop this pipeline. Here’s what I was going to say: Last week we announced that over 700,000 people, representing over $2.3 billion (with a B), were ready to move their money out of the 17 banks funding the Dakota Access pipeline. Boy, did we get their attention. In the las week, Danish bank DNB has agreed to stop financing DAPL unless they re-route or cancel the pipeline in accordance with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s wishes. Citibank, Wells Fargo, ING and more have all agreed to meet with indigenous …

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