Rainforest Action Network Index, 9/07/09

The end of mountaintop removal is this year.

Mountaintop removal, which provides approximately 7 percent of the nation's coal, is a devastating form of coal mining that involves clear-cutting forests, blowing the tops off of mountains, and then dumping the debris into streambeds. In the process, mountaintop removal poisons essential drinking water supplies and pollutes the air with coal and rock dust. People who live in the vicinity of the mining face increased risks of flooding, polluted water out of their taps, coal dust coating their homes and lungs and schools, daily explosions that rock their foundations.  They are losing their forests, their mountains, their peace of mind, and their homesteads and communities.

RAN believes that it is an abomination to destroy a mountain, much less a mountain range, in pursuit of a polluting source of energy -- especially now, at a time when alternatives are readily available and there is a new emphasis on building a green energy economy that can be designed to bring prosperity to low-income communities and sanity to our consumption patterns.  

It is time to end the American tragedy of mountaintop removal. RAN is working with activists and allies to demand that political leaders and powerful banks take action - this year!

 

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1. Send a Letter to RBC to "Cease and Desist" Financing the Tar Sands
RBC is the world's biggest funder of the tar sands. This industrial gigaproject is Canada's fastest-growing source of water pollution and global warming emissions. It's also violating the rights of Indigenous communities. (RAN tends to think that that's a bigger deal than a few stickers.)
This one is probably up on the board already as I see that I have signed it before I found this list.

 

2. Call Chase to Help End Mountaintop Removal
Chase is the biggest bank funding mountaintop removal coal mining, a tragic practice that devastates communities and stands in the way of America's clean energy future.
Requires a long distance phone call.

3. Take 5 minutes for clean energy in Canada
RBC finances more companies operating in the tar sands than any other bank. CEO Gord Nixon promised to "consider" a visit to see the impacts of the bank's financing first hand.
Requires a long distance phone call.

4. Ask Your Senators to Help End Mountaintop Removal
More than 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining operations and are being filled with mining waste. As to date, this practice is legal. To stop this devastation of the nation's waterways, Senators Cardin and Alexander have introduced the Appalachia Restoration Act - a simple piece of legislation that restores the original intent of the Clean Water Act to clarify that mountaintop removal mining waste can not be dumped into streams.
This one is already up on the board somewhere.

5. Demand that Ontario Respect Native Land Rights
In advance of the October 10th elections in Ontario, more than 250 human rights and environmental advocates and First Nation leaders descended on the Legislature today (September 21) to issue a challenge to all political parties to take immediate, concrete action to resolve longstanding Native land rights issues stemming from unrestrained logging and mining in the boreal forest.
Lend your voice by emailing the leaders of Ontario's political parties with a clear message: The world is watching. Protect Native land rights now!

6. Stand Up for Indigenous Rights
The UN General Assembly is about to vote on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
Unfortunately, opposition led by Canada, New Zealand and Australia, is threatening the survival of the Declaration. These countries are literally trying to convince other member countries, like Indonesia and Kenya, to reject their support of the resolution. If they don't support it, the Declaration won't pass.

7. We Don't Want Dirty Tar Sands Oil!
There is a massive, stealthy dirty oil project threatening the United States. It's called the Canadian tar sands. It is sneaking into the United States pipeline by pipeline, refinery by refinery, permit by permit. A major pipeline for this project is up for review very soon.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has the power to stop this project. You can send her the message below today. Please add your own comments to personalize your message.

8. Get Citi Out of Dirty Coal
As the world calls for immediate action to confront climate change, banks like Citi bank are only making nominal progress. Recently committing to investing $50 billion over 10 years, Citi remains the top financial arranger for the power and oil and natural-gas sectors in 2006, controlling 10 percent of the $272 billion power-lending market and 8.7 percent of the $310 billion oil and natural-gas lending market.

9. Send a Letter to Support Coal River Valley Tree Sitters 
letter to newspapers, gotta write your own, phone number required.

10. Tell BMO to bank your money on a clean energy future for Canada. 
Needs a tiny bit of editing if you are not a BMO customer ...
SUBJECT change to: Please don't use accounts to fund global warming.
and remove the first phrase of the letter.
Bank customers will be critical to winning this campaign.

11. Tell CIBC to bank your money on a clean energy future for Canada.
Needs a tiny bit of editing if you are not a BMO customer ...
SUBJECT change to: Please don't use accounts to fund global warming.
and remove the first phrase of the letter.
Bank customers will be critical to winning this campaign.

12. Tell Desjardins to keep banking your money on a clean energy future for Canada.
If you are not an account holder, removed the first phrase.

13. Tell RBC to bank your money on a clean energy future for Canada.
Needs a tiny bit of editing if you are not a BMO customer ...
SUBJECT change to: Please don't use accounts to fund global warming.
and remove the first phrase of the letter.
Bank customers will be critical to winning this campaign.

14. Tell Scotiabank to bank your money on a clean energy future for Canada.

OOPS ... 
Subject: Please don't use accounts to fund global warming.
was not delivered to:
 Rick_Waugh/WRMP/ScotiabankGroup@scotiabank.com
because:
No route found to domain WRMP from server BNSHUB01/H/SCOTIABANKGROUP.  Check Server, Connection and Domain documents in the Domino Directory.

15. Tell TD to bank your money on a clean energy future for Canada.
Needs a tiny bit of editing if you are not a BMO customer ...
SUBJECT change to: Please don't use accounts to fund global warming.
and remove the first phrase of the letter.
Bank customers will be critical to winning this campaign.

16. Tell Vancity to keep banking your money on a clean energy future for Canada.
If you are not an account holder, removed the first phrase.

17. Tell the EPA to Stop Mountaintop Removal
If you have been keeping up on ch.o on this issue, you probably already signed this one and I have posted in the comments this same list of actions (including one that is out of date and a duplicate booboo). 
 http://globalwarming.change.org/actions/view/tell_the_epa_to_stop_mountaintop_removal

18. Al Gore Belongs in Jail   {JOKE}
What could make a bigger statement than Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore following the grand tradition of Martin Luther King and Gandhi and using civil disobedience to help create a clean energy future?

19. Don't Let Agribusiness Destroy the Rainforest!
Deforestation accounts for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions.

20. Protect Rivers from Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining!
In 2002, the Bush administration rewrote clean water regulations allowing mining companies to dump debris from mountaintop removal mining directly into rivers and streams. This undermined the Clean Water Act, which had prevented mining companies from using waterways as waste disposal sites. To date more than 1,200 miles of rivers and streams have been buried and destroyed by debris from mountaintop removal coal mining.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey and Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut introduced a bill last spring that would reaffirm Clean Water Act protections prohibiting mining companies and other industries from dumping solid industrial wastes into the nation's waters. The bill has already picked up 60 sponsors, but it needs more!

21. Don't Let Big Coal Save Mountaintop Removal
Last week West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin flew to Washington to lobby the EPA to continue to allow and expand mountaintop removal mining.
Gov. Manchin seems to care more about the bank accounts of coal industry executives than the health and well being of his own constituents.
Tell him today that he needs to stop acting like a Big Coal industry lobbyist and start supporting the communities in his state that have suffered enough from mountaintop removal coal mining.

22. Don't Let Paper Companies Get a Tax Credit for Destroying the Planet!
The paper industry is using a loophole in climate change legislation to siphon off our tax dollars to destroy trees and the planet.

23. Help President Obama see the truth about mountaintop removal
Every week, mountaintop removal mining uses more explosive power than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
President Obama must see it for himself. Tell him that he needs to visit Appalachia and see the destruction with his own eyes.

24. Please Help Us Mrs. Nixon
video
RAN Executive Director Michael Brune has recorded a short video appealing directly to Janet Nixon, the wife of RBC CEO Gord Nixon, asking her to get her husband to stop funding tar sands expansion.

25. Ford, Make Us Clean Cars!
Can you believe that the Model-T got better miles per gallon of gas than Ford cars do today? It's true!
Needs a little bit of editing if you are an adult.

26. Roger Penske: We Want Action!
Roger Penske, the CEO of America's second largest network of automobile dealerships, had a big decision to make. He could join RAN and become a vocal advocate pushing the auto industry to help stop global warming, or he could keep on doing nothing in the face of catastrophic climate change.
He still hasn't made up his mind!

27. Tell Ford and GM to Say No to Ethanol!
More than ever, Ford and GM are touting ethanol and flex-fuel vehicles as a solution to our oil addiction and to global warming.
Why?
Because both companies use an "ethanol loophole" to avoid millions of dollars in fines for not meeting national fuel economy standards. In the meantime, we have no guarantees that flex-fuel vehicles are being powered by sustainably grown and refined fuel.

28. Tell Penske to Help Stop Global Warming!
Roger Penske, the CEO of America's second largest network of automobile dealerships, has a big decision to make this week. He's going to join RAN and become a vocal advocate pushing the auto industry to help stop global warming, or he's going to keep on doing nothing in the face of catastrophic climate change.
Tell him to make the right choice.

29. A Phone Call for Grassy Narrows
Grassy Narrows First Nation declared a moratorium to stop all industrial activity on their traditional territory.  This week, the community needs your help by increasing the pressure on the province of Ontario to stop the destruction of their territory.  
Requires a long distance phone call.

30. Tell Bank of America: Coal is Over! Fund the Future!
Bank of America is a leading funder of the coal industry. And coal is the single biggest cause of global warming.
It's time to send Bank of America a simple message: Stop funding coal, start funding renewable energy.

31. Tell Bank of the West: Don't finance a second Chernobyl!
21 years after the catastrophe of Chernobyl, the French bank BNP Paribas -- the owner of U.S.'s Bank of the West -- wants to finance the construction of two high-risk Russian nuclear reactors in an earthquake area in Northern Bulgaria, close to the Romanian border.
Needs the first phrase removed if you are not a US citizen.

32. Tell Wells Fargo to Stop Funding Mountaintop Removal
Wells Fargo and Co. is the largest US bank operating with no social and environmental safeguards to prevent destructive investments that harm communities and ecosystems around the world.  
Tell CEO Richard Kovacevich that Wells Fargo should stop supporting mountaintop removal and fund a sustainable and socially just future!
Needs some text added to make it a letter.

Here is what I added:

"This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
    - Chief Seattle

Wells Fargo should stop supporting mountaintop removal and fund a sustainable and socially just future!

33. You Own Citibank, One of the Leading Funders of Coal.
For new shareholders only.
On April 20, Citi hosted its annual shareholders meeting, but the company forgot to invite you and the rest of its newest owners.
So send a letter to Shareholder Relations today and tell them know that thousands of its newest owners want a real voice and don't want any more investment in dirty coal.


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One of the above is not good but I don't know which one:

The following message to gpoadmin@magma.ca was undeliverable.
The reason for the problem:
5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'No such user - psmtp'

Please let me know if you figure out which one this is so I can remove it and save people a little time.
Thnx,
(<~;)

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SPECIAL THANKS to BiLL Fowlie for another perfectly apropos picture find.
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