View allAll Photos Tagged GoFossilFree,
COAL KILLS (Light projection at the Manhattan Bridge by The People's Puppets of OWS) - Long Exposure Composition Tuesday #SMYNYC
#Activism, #ActOnClimate, #AllOurEnergy, #Art, #BeyondExtremeEnergy, #Brooklyn, #BXE, #Cayuga, #CoalKills, #ClimateChange, #climatejustice, #DirtyCoal, #FossilFree, #GoFossilFree, #newyork, #NYC, #Photography, #RenewableEnergy, #renewables, #SolarPower, #WindPower
Support the initiative, come to the event: www.facebook.com/events/1705085326387212/
© Erik Mc Gregor
Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Mark Dunlea from 350 NYC at From Paris to New York: A People's Agenda for Preventing Climate Change
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
From Paris to New York: A People's Agenda for Preventing Climate Change
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
A helicopter took aerial photographs of participants holding up scarves to create a red line around the Statue of Liberty
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
From Paris to New York: A People's Agenda for Preventing Climate Change
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Activists held up red scarves symbolizing red lines at the Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21 in Liberty Island
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Hillary Clinton arriving to The Dakota for a $2700 a plate fundraiser.
© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Hi 350.org!
Here is 1 of 5 photos from our exhibition Climate Change: stories for social justice now on view at Wash U. (Rachel, I have to write a paper ASAP, please 'reply all' with individual descriptions for the photos if possible.)
Description (1 sentence description of event and what is happening in the photo):
Photo credit: Caitlin Lee
Here are the texts from the panels (intro and about included) photographed if 350 or Rachel need them:
Climate Change: stories for social justice
The words ‘climate change’ elicit various reactions along a spectrum between apathetic dismissal and apocalyptic fear. Yet it is not often enough that thoughts of social justice arise in connection with environmental issues.
The fact is that climate change is not merely a matter of endangered species or disappearing habitats – it is an issue of human rights.
Rising temperatures are not all we must worry about. Excessive consumption of fossil fuels tampers with the natural processes of solar radiation, surface temperatures, hydrologic cycles, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. These disrupted systems in turn affect humankind’s ability to meet needs for food, water, air, and shelter. Some are losing their health. Some are losing their homes. Some are losing their lives.
We invite you to learn about some of the many communities for whom climate change is not an impending doomsday, but an immediate threat and everyday danger. These tales of struggle show persistence and hope analogous to the divestment campaigns currently spreading like wildfire across American campuses.
And so, in considering this glimpse at worldwide fights against climate change, where does the Washington University community stand? Will we continue to intentionally invest our endowment in fossil fuel industries that are the root of the problem? Or will we choose to aim our actions beyond reusing water bottles and changing light bulbs to make a change that will count at a global scale?
Divest from injustice. Divest from disaster. Divest from fossil fuels.
Tar Sands Extraction [Northern Alberta, Canada]
Matt Callahan, Katie Olson & Rachel Goldstein
Northern Alberta, Canada, is home to a large deposit of heavy crude oil. Until recently, the Canadian tar sands were considered economically unrecoverable due to difficulty of extraction and the intense refining process for heavy crude oil. However, since the development of new oil production technology, exploitation of the tar sands has been rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, accessing bitumen-heavy crude oil involves large-scale open pit mining. This extraction technique is extremely dirty: spills often lead to serious human health impacts, water contamination, and ecological degradation. The open-pit mining process wreaks havoc on the boreal forest ecosystem and the livelihoods of many First Nation tribes living in the area.
In response to this exploitation, an alliance of First Nations leaders has formed to fight back against tar sands development, and more recently, the Keystone XL Pipeline. Although federal agencies claim that development of the tar sands will provide economic benefits for First Nations tribes, many leaders feel that to exploit the tar sands is to destroy the very culture of so many native communities. As George Poitras of the Mikisew Cree First Nation explains, “If we don’t have land and we don’t have anywhere to carry out our traditional lifestyles, we lose who we are as a people. So, if there’s no land, then its equivalent in our estimation to genocide of a people.”
Coal Power Plant [Labadie, Missouri]
Georgia McCandlish, Anya Liao & Dan Cohn
Just 40 minutes southwest of St. Louis, the small town of Labadie thrums with a strong sense of community. Families have lived here for generations and warmly welcome newcomers to art shows, concerts and cook-off festivals. The summertime Labadie Picnic features rivertown musicians, while autumn’s Plow Day shows off antique farm equipment. Just about everyone gathers at the Labadie Market Deli to eat and socialize.
In 1970 Ameren Missouri opened an enormous coal-fired power plant on floodplain land of the Missouri River - just five minutes from downtown Labadie. Now, 200 train cars of coal rumble through town each day while smoke stacks cloud the sky. Burning coal for electricity leaves behind toxic ash, which Ameren dumps directly into an unlined disposal pond in the floodplains. Due to lack of infrastructure and oversight, this pond has leaked 328 million gallons of pollution into surrounding water and soil. High levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and chromium thus enter Labadie residents’ drinking water. Furthermore, this plant is the fourth highest carbon dioxide emitter in the country, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and rising global temperatures.
When a local women’s book club heard about Ameren’s 2009 plan to build a second coal ash landfill in the floodplain, they had had enough. They formed Labadie Environmental Organization, or LEO, and educated themselves and the rest of their community about the health hazards of coal ash. Their battle has led them from the Council of Commissioners of Franklin County, to the state capitol in Jefferson City, to Washington, D.C. Ameren’s electricity runs the city of St. Louis, and 85% of Missouri’s energy comes from coal. Our neighbors in Labadie have begun this battle and will not stop. LEO’s fight is our fight - we all have a stake in the use of coal, and we all have an opportunity to take action.
About the Project
Project Managers | Caitlin Lee, Sophi Veltrop
Designers | Jacob Beebe, Caitlin Lee, Jamie Niekamp
Artists | Kelsey Brod, Matt Callahan, Esther Hamburger, Andrew Kay, Caitlin Lee, Anya Liao, Georgia McCandlish, Michelle Nahmad, Katie Olson, Andrew Pandji, Carmi Salzberg, Maddie Wells, Nancy Yang, Nicole Yen
Authors | Kelsey Brod, Dan Cohn, Harris Engelmann, Steve Fuller, Rachel Goldstein, Trevor Leuzinger, Mara Nelson, Bree Swenson, Sophi Veltrop
Green Action’s Fossil Free Wash U Campaign Green Action is WUSTL’s environmental justice student group, which seeks to promote climate action from the local to global scale. The Fossil Free Wash U campaign promotes divestment as a means of committing Washington University to a sustainable portfolio and calls on our campus to take action that has a global impact. Divestment runs on the principle that it is morally wrong to profit from wrecking the climate, and involves pulling endowment investments out of fossil fuel industries.This process will not affect scholarships or financial aid, and many reports have indicated that divestment will not cause institutions to profit less than expected on their investments.
Material Monster is a material reuse and research initiative based in the Sam Fox School community. The group facilitates the free exchange of reusable materials for creative endeavors. In line with our philosophy of minimizing waste to reduce our project’s impact on the planet, we have recycled lumber from ThurtenE Carnival’s facades and borrowed sliding glass doors from Refab St. Louis.
Refab St. Louis promotes the collective and creative re-use of our built environment by deconstructing buildings otherwise slated for demolition, retraining community members for careers in green industry, and refabricating building materials.
We would also like to thank the Student Sustainability Fund and the Social Justice Center for their invaluable help in the creation of this installation.
To learn more, visit gofossilfree.org, or contact Material Monster and Fossil Free through their Facebook pages.
Hi 350.org!
Here is 1 of 5 photos from our exhibition Climate Change: stories for social justice now on view at Wash U. (Rachel, I have to write a paper ASAP, please 'reply all' with individual descriptions for the photos if possible.)
Description (1 sentence description of event and what is happening in the photo):
Photo credit: Caitlin Lee
Here are the texts from the panels (intro and about included) photographed if 350 or Rachel need them:
Climate Change: stories for social justice
The words ‘climate change’ elicit various reactions along a spectrum between apathetic dismissal and apocalyptic fear. Yet it is not often enough that thoughts of social justice arise in connection with environmental issues.
The fact is that climate change is not merely a matter of endangered species or disappearing habitats – it is an issue of human rights.
Rising temperatures are not all we must worry about. Excessive consumption of fossil fuels tampers with the natural processes of solar radiation, surface temperatures, hydrologic cycles, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. These disrupted systems in turn affect humankind’s ability to meet needs for food, water, air, and shelter. Some are losing their health. Some are losing their homes. Some are losing their lives.
We invite you to learn about some of the many communities for whom climate change is not an impending doomsday, but an immediate threat and everyday danger. These tales of struggle show persistence and hope analogous to the divestment campaigns currently spreading like wildfire across American campuses.
And so, in considering this glimpse at worldwide fights against climate change, where does the Washington University community stand? Will we continue to intentionally invest our endowment in fossil fuel industries that are the root of the problem? Or will we choose to aim our actions beyond reusing water bottles and changing light bulbs to make a change that will count at a global scale?
Divest from injustice. Divest from disaster. Divest from fossil fuels.
Tar Sands Extraction [Northern Alberta, Canada]
Matt Callahan, Katie Olson & Rachel Goldstein
Northern Alberta, Canada, is home to a large deposit of heavy crude oil. Until recently, the Canadian tar sands were considered economically unrecoverable due to difficulty of extraction and the intense refining process for heavy crude oil. However, since the development of new oil production technology, exploitation of the tar sands has been rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, accessing bitumen-heavy crude oil involves large-scale open pit mining. This extraction technique is extremely dirty: spills often lead to serious human health impacts, water contamination, and ecological degradation. The open-pit mining process wreaks havoc on the boreal forest ecosystem and the livelihoods of many First Nation tribes living in the area.
In response to this exploitation, an alliance of First Nations leaders has formed to fight back against tar sands development, and more recently, the Keystone XL Pipeline. Although federal agencies claim that development of the tar sands will provide economic benefits for First Nations tribes, many leaders feel that to exploit the tar sands is to destroy the very culture of so many native communities. As George Poitras of the Mikisew Cree First Nation explains, “If we don’t have land and we don’t have anywhere to carry out our traditional lifestyles, we lose who we are as a people. So, if there’s no land, then its equivalent in our estimation to genocide of a people.”
Coal Power Plant [Labadie, Missouri]
Georgia McCandlish, Anya Liao & Dan Cohn
Just 40 minutes southwest of St. Louis, the small town of Labadie thrums with a strong sense of community. Families have lived here for generations and warmly welcome newcomers to art shows, concerts and cook-off festivals. The summertime Labadie Picnic features rivertown musicians, while autumn’s Plow Day shows off antique farm equipment. Just about everyone gathers at the Labadie Market Deli to eat and socialize.
In 1970 Ameren Missouri opened an enormous coal-fired power plant on floodplain land of the Missouri River - just five minutes from downtown Labadie. Now, 200 train cars of coal rumble through town each day while smoke stacks cloud the sky. Burning coal for electricity leaves behind toxic ash, which Ameren dumps directly into an unlined disposal pond in the floodplains. Due to lack of infrastructure and oversight, this pond has leaked 328 million gallons of pollution into surrounding water and soil. High levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and chromium thus enter Labadie residents’ drinking water. Furthermore, this plant is the fourth highest carbon dioxide emitter in the country, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and rising global temperatures.
When a local women’s book club heard about Ameren’s 2009 plan to build a second coal ash landfill in the floodplain, they had had enough. They formed Labadie Environmental Organization, or LEO, and educated themselves and the rest of their community about the health hazards of coal ash. Their battle has led them from the Council of Commissioners of Franklin County, to the state capitol in Jefferson City, to Washington, D.C. Ameren’s electricity runs the city of St. Louis, and 85% of Missouri’s energy comes from coal. Our neighbors in Labadie have begun this battle and will not stop. LEO’s fight is our fight - we all have a stake in the use of coal, and we all have an opportunity to take action.
About the Project
Project Managers | Caitlin Lee, Sophi Veltrop
Designers | Jacob Beebe, Caitlin Lee, Jamie Niekamp
Artists | Kelsey Brod, Matt Callahan, Esther Hamburger, Andrew Kay, Caitlin Lee, Anya Liao, Georgia McCandlish, Michelle Nahmad, Katie Olson, Andrew Pandji, Carmi Salzberg, Maddie Wells, Nancy Yang, Nicole Yen
Authors | Kelsey Brod, Dan Cohn, Harris Engelmann, Steve Fuller, Rachel Goldstein, Trevor Leuzinger, Mara Nelson, Bree Swenson, Sophi Veltrop
Green Action’s Fossil Free Wash U Campaign Green Action is WUSTL’s environmental justice student group, which seeks to promote climate action from the local to global scale. The Fossil Free Wash U campaign promotes divestment as a means of committing Washington University to a sustainable portfolio and calls on our campus to take action that has a global impact. Divestment runs on the principle that it is morally wrong to profit from wrecking the climate, and involves pulling endowment investments out of fossil fuel industries.This process will not affect scholarships or financial aid, and many reports have indicated that divestment will not cause institutions to profit less than expected on their investments.
Material Monster is a material reuse and research initiative based in the Sam Fox School community. The group facilitates the free exchange of reusable materials for creative endeavors. In line with our philosophy of minimizing waste to reduce our project’s impact on the planet, we have recycled lumber from ThurtenE Carnival’s facades and borrowed sliding glass doors from Refab St. Louis.
Refab St. Louis promotes the collective and creative re-use of our built environment by deconstructing buildings otherwise slated for demolition, retraining community members for careers in green industry, and refabricating building materials.
We would also like to thank the Student Sustainability Fund and the Social Justice Center for their invaluable help in the creation of this installation.
To learn more, visit gofossilfree.org, or contact Material Monster and Fossil Free through their Facebook pages.
Hi 350.org!
Here is 1 of 5 photos from our exhibition Climate Change: stories for social justice now on view at Wash U. (Rachel, I have to write a paper ASAP, please 'reply all' with individual descriptions for the photos if possible.)
Description (1 sentence description of event and what is happening in the photo):
Photo credit: Caitlin Lee
Here are the texts from the panels (intro and about included) photographed if 350 or Rachel need them:
Climate Change: stories for social justice
The words ‘climate change’ elicit various reactions along a spectrum between apathetic dismissal and apocalyptic fear. Yet it is not often enough that thoughts of social justice arise in connection with environmental issues.
The fact is that climate change is not merely a matter of endangered species or disappearing habitats – it is an issue of human rights.
Rising temperatures are not all we must worry about. Excessive consumption of fossil fuels tampers with the natural processes of solar radiation, surface temperatures, hydrologic cycles, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. These disrupted systems in turn affect humankind’s ability to meet needs for food, water, air, and shelter. Some are losing their health. Some are losing their homes. Some are losing their lives.
We invite you to learn about some of the many communities for whom climate change is not an impending doomsday, but an immediate threat and everyday danger. These tales of struggle show persistence and hope analogous to the divestment campaigns currently spreading like wildfire across American campuses.
And so, in considering this glimpse at worldwide fights against climate change, where does the Washington University community stand? Will we continue to intentionally invest our endowment in fossil fuel industries that are the root of the problem? Or will we choose to aim our actions beyond reusing water bottles and changing light bulbs to make a change that will count at a global scale?
Divest from injustice. Divest from disaster. Divest from fossil fuels.
Tar Sands Extraction [Northern Alberta, Canada]
Matt Callahan, Katie Olson & Rachel Goldstein
Northern Alberta, Canada, is home to a large deposit of heavy crude oil. Until recently, the Canadian tar sands were considered economically unrecoverable due to difficulty of extraction and the intense refining process for heavy crude oil. However, since the development of new oil production technology, exploitation of the tar sands has been rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, accessing bitumen-heavy crude oil involves large-scale open pit mining. This extraction technique is extremely dirty: spills often lead to serious human health impacts, water contamination, and ecological degradation. The open-pit mining process wreaks havoc on the boreal forest ecosystem and the livelihoods of many First Nation tribes living in the area.
In response to this exploitation, an alliance of First Nations leaders has formed to fight back against tar sands development, and more recently, the Keystone XL Pipeline. Although federal agencies claim that development of the tar sands will provide economic benefits for First Nations tribes, many leaders feel that to exploit the tar sands is to destroy the very culture of so many native communities. As George Poitras of the Mikisew Cree First Nation explains, “If we don’t have land and we don’t have anywhere to carry out our traditional lifestyles, we lose who we are as a people. So, if there’s no land, then its equivalent in our estimation to genocide of a people.”
Coal Power Plant [Labadie, Missouri]
Georgia McCandlish, Anya Liao & Dan Cohn
Just 40 minutes southwest of St. Louis, the small town of Labadie thrums with a strong sense of community. Families have lived here for generations and warmly welcome newcomers to art shows, concerts and cook-off festivals. The summertime Labadie Picnic features rivertown musicians, while autumn’s Plow Day shows off antique farm equipment. Just about everyone gathers at the Labadie Market Deli to eat and socialize.
In 1970 Ameren Missouri opened an enormous coal-fired power plant on floodplain land of the Missouri River - just five minutes from downtown Labadie. Now, 200 train cars of coal rumble through town each day while smoke stacks cloud the sky. Burning coal for electricity leaves behind toxic ash, which Ameren dumps directly into an unlined disposal pond in the floodplains. Due to lack of infrastructure and oversight, this pond has leaked 328 million gallons of pollution into surrounding water and soil. High levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and chromium thus enter Labadie residents’ drinking water. Furthermore, this plant is the fourth highest carbon dioxide emitter in the country, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and rising global temperatures.
When a local women’s book club heard about Ameren’s 2009 plan to build a second coal ash landfill in the floodplain, they had had enough. They formed Labadie Environmental Organization, or LEO, and educated themselves and the rest of their community about the health hazards of coal ash. Their battle has led them from the Council of Commissioners of Franklin County, to the state capitol in Jefferson City, to Washington, D.C. Ameren’s electricity runs the city of St. Louis, and 85% of Missouri’s energy comes from coal. Our neighbors in Labadie have begun this battle and will not stop. LEO’s fight is our fight - we all have a stake in the use of coal, and we all have an opportunity to take action.
About the Project
Project Managers | Caitlin Lee, Sophi Veltrop
Designers | Jacob Beebe, Caitlin Lee, Jamie Niekamp
Artists | Kelsey Brod, Matt Callahan, Esther Hamburger, Andrew Kay, Caitlin Lee, Anya Liao, Georgia McCandlish, Michelle Nahmad, Katie Olson, Andrew Pandji, Carmi Salzberg, Maddie Wells, Nancy Yang, Nicole Yen
Authors | Kelsey Brod, Dan Cohn, Harris Engelmann, Steve Fuller, Rachel Goldstein, Trevor Leuzinger, Mara Nelson, Bree Swenson, Sophi Veltrop
Green Action’s Fossil Free Wash U Campaign Green Action is WUSTL’s environmental justice student group, which seeks to promote climate action from the local to global scale. The Fossil Free Wash U campaign promotes divestment as a means of committing Washington University to a sustainable portfolio and calls on our campus to take action that has a global impact. Divestment runs on the principle that it is morally wrong to profit from wrecking the climate, and involves pulling endowment investments out of fossil fuel industries.This process will not affect scholarships or financial aid, and many reports have indicated that divestment will not cause institutions to profit less than expected on their investments.
Material Monster is a material reuse and research initiative based in the Sam Fox School community. The group facilitates the free exchange of reusable materials for creative endeavors. In line with our philosophy of minimizing waste to reduce our project’s impact on the planet, we have recycled lumber from ThurtenE Carnival’s facades and borrowed sliding glass doors from Refab St. Louis.
Refab St. Louis promotes the collective and creative re-use of our built environment by deconstructing buildings otherwise slated for demolition, retraining community members for careers in green industry, and refabricating building materials.
We would also like to thank the Student Sustainability Fund and the Social Justice Center for their invaluable help in the creation of this installation.
To learn more, visit gofossilfree.org, or contact Material Monster and Fossil Free through their Facebook pages.
Hi 350.org!
Here is 1 of 5 photos from our exhibition Climate Change: stories for social justice now on view at Wash U. (Rachel, I have to write a paper ASAP, please 'reply all' with individual descriptions for the photos if possible.)
Description (1 sentence description of event and what is happening in the photo):
Photo credit: Caitlin Lee
Here are the texts from the panels (intro and about included) photographed if 350 or Rachel need them:
Climate Change: stories for social justice
The words ‘climate change’ elicit various reactions along a spectrum between apathetic dismissal and apocalyptic fear. Yet it is not often enough that thoughts of social justice arise in connection with environmental issues.
The fact is that climate change is not merely a matter of endangered species or disappearing habitats – it is an issue of human rights.
Rising temperatures are not all we must worry about. Excessive consumption of fossil fuels tampers with the natural processes of solar radiation, surface temperatures, hydrologic cycles, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. These disrupted systems in turn affect humankind’s ability to meet needs for food, water, air, and shelter. Some are losing their health. Some are losing their homes. Some are losing their lives.
We invite you to learn about some of the many communities for whom climate change is not an impending doomsday, but an immediate threat and everyday danger. These tales of struggle show persistence and hope analogous to the divestment campaigns currently spreading like wildfire across American campuses.
And so, in considering this glimpse at worldwide fights against climate change, where does the Washington University community stand? Will we continue to intentionally invest our endowment in fossil fuel industries that are the root of the problem? Or will we choose to aim our actions beyond reusing water bottles and changing light bulbs to make a change that will count at a global scale?
Divest from injustice. Divest from disaster. Divest from fossil fuels.
Tar Sands Extraction [Northern Alberta, Canada]
Matt Callahan, Katie Olson & Rachel Goldstein
Northern Alberta, Canada, is home to a large deposit of heavy crude oil. Until recently, the Canadian tar sands were considered economically unrecoverable due to difficulty of extraction and the intense refining process for heavy crude oil. However, since the development of new oil production technology, exploitation of the tar sands has been rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, accessing bitumen-heavy crude oil involves large-scale open pit mining. This extraction technique is extremely dirty: spills often lead to serious human health impacts, water contamination, and ecological degradation. The open-pit mining process wreaks havoc on the boreal forest ecosystem and the livelihoods of many First Nation tribes living in the area.
In response to this exploitation, an alliance of First Nations leaders has formed to fight back against tar sands development, and more recently, the Keystone XL Pipeline. Although federal agencies claim that development of the tar sands will provide economic benefits for First Nations tribes, many leaders feel that to exploit the tar sands is to destroy the very culture of so many native communities. As George Poitras of the Mikisew Cree First Nation explains, “If we don’t have land and we don’t have anywhere to carry out our traditional lifestyles, we lose who we are as a people. So, if there’s no land, then its equivalent in our estimation to genocide of a people.”
Coal Power Plant [Labadie, Missouri]
Georgia McCandlish, Anya Liao & Dan Cohn
Just 40 minutes southwest of St. Louis, the small town of Labadie thrums with a strong sense of community. Families have lived here for generations and warmly welcome newcomers to art shows, concerts and cook-off festivals. The summertime Labadie Picnic features rivertown musicians, while autumn’s Plow Day shows off antique farm equipment. Just about everyone gathers at the Labadie Market Deli to eat and socialize.
In 1970 Ameren Missouri opened an enormous coal-fired power plant on floodplain land of the Missouri River - just five minutes from downtown Labadie. Now, 200 train cars of coal rumble through town each day while smoke stacks cloud the sky. Burning coal for electricity leaves behind toxic ash, which Ameren dumps directly into an unlined disposal pond in the floodplains. Due to lack of infrastructure and oversight, this pond has leaked 328 million gallons of pollution into surrounding water and soil. High levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and chromium thus enter Labadie residents’ drinking water. Furthermore, this plant is the fourth highest carbon dioxide emitter in the country, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and rising global temperatures.
When a local women’s book club heard about Ameren’s 2009 plan to build a second coal ash landfill in the floodplain, they had had enough. They formed Labadie Environmental Organization, or LEO, and educated themselves and the rest of their community about the health hazards of coal ash. Their battle has led them from the Council of Commissioners of Franklin County, to the state capitol in Jefferson City, to Washington, D.C. Ameren’s electricity runs the city of St. Louis, and 85% of Missouri’s energy comes from coal. Our neighbors in Labadie have begun this battle and will not stop. LEO’s fight is our fight - we all have a stake in the use of coal, and we all have an opportunity to take action.
About the Project
Project Managers | Caitlin Lee, Sophi Veltrop
Designers | Jacob Beebe, Caitlin Lee, Jamie Niekamp
Artists | Kelsey Brod, Matt Callahan, Esther Hamburger, Andrew Kay, Caitlin Lee, Anya Liao, Georgia McCandlish, Michelle Nahmad, Katie Olson, Andrew Pandji, Carmi Salzberg, Maddie Wells, Nancy Yang, Nicole Yen
Authors | Kelsey Brod, Dan Cohn, Harris Engelmann, Steve Fuller, Rachel Goldstein, Trevor Leuzinger, Mara Nelson, Bree Swenson, Sophi Veltrop
Green Action’s Fossil Free Wash U Campaign Green Action is WUSTL’s environmental justice student group, which seeks to promote climate action from the local to global scale. The Fossil Free Wash U campaign promotes divestment as a means of committing Washington University to a sustainable portfolio and calls on our campus to take action that has a global impact. Divestment runs on the principle that it is morally wrong to profit from wrecking the climate, and involves pulling endowment investments out of fossil fuel industries.This process will not affect scholarships or financial aid, and many reports have indicated that divestment will not cause institutions to profit less than expected on their investments.
Material Monster is a material reuse and research initiative based in the Sam Fox School community. The group facilitates the free exchange of reusable materials for creative endeavors. In line with our philosophy of minimizing waste to reduce our project’s impact on the planet, we have recycled lumber from ThurtenE Carnival’s facades and borrowed sliding glass doors from Refab St. Louis.
Refab St. Louis promotes the collective and creative re-use of our built environment by deconstructing buildings otherwise slated for demolition, retraining community members for careers in green industry, and refabricating building materials.
We would also like to thank the Student Sustainability Fund and the Social Justice Center for their invaluable help in the creation of this installation.
To learn more, visit gofossilfree.org, or contact Material Monster and Fossil Free through their Facebook pages.
Hi 350.org!
Here is 1 of 5 photos from our exhibition Climate Change: stories for social justice now on view at Wash U. (Rachel, I have to write a paper ASAP, please 'reply all' with individual descriptions for the photos if possible.)
Description (1 sentence description of event and what is happening in the photo):
Photo credit: Caitlin Lee
Here are the texts from the panels (intro and about included) photographed if 350 or Rachel need them:
Climate Change: stories for social justice
The words ‘climate change’ elicit various reactions along a spectrum between apathetic dismissal and apocalyptic fear. Yet it is not often enough that thoughts of social justice arise in connection with environmental issues.
The fact is that climate change is not merely a matter of endangered species or disappearing habitats – it is an issue of human rights.
Rising temperatures are not all we must worry about. Excessive consumption of fossil fuels tampers with the natural processes of solar radiation, surface temperatures, hydrologic cycles, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. These disrupted systems in turn affect humankind’s ability to meet needs for food, water, air, and shelter. Some are losing their health. Some are losing their homes. Some are losing their lives.
We invite you to learn about some of the many communities for whom climate change is not an impending doomsday, but an immediate threat and everyday danger. These tales of struggle show persistence and hope analogous to the divestment campaigns currently spreading like wildfire across American campuses.
And so, in considering this glimpse at worldwide fights against climate change, where does the Washington University community stand? Will we continue to intentionally invest our endowment in fossil fuel industries that are the root of the problem? Or will we choose to aim our actions beyond reusing water bottles and changing light bulbs to make a change that will count at a global scale?
Divest from injustice. Divest from disaster. Divest from fossil fuels.
Tar Sands Extraction [Northern Alberta, Canada]
Matt Callahan, Katie Olson & Rachel Goldstein
Northern Alberta, Canada, is home to a large deposit of heavy crude oil. Until recently, the Canadian tar sands were considered economically unrecoverable due to difficulty of extraction and the intense refining process for heavy crude oil. However, since the development of new oil production technology, exploitation of the tar sands has been rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, accessing bitumen-heavy crude oil involves large-scale open pit mining. This extraction technique is extremely dirty: spills often lead to serious human health impacts, water contamination, and ecological degradation. The open-pit mining process wreaks havoc on the boreal forest ecosystem and the livelihoods of many First Nation tribes living in the area.
In response to this exploitation, an alliance of First Nations leaders has formed to fight back against tar sands development, and more recently, the Keystone XL Pipeline. Although federal agencies claim that development of the tar sands will provide economic benefits for First Nations tribes, many leaders feel that to exploit the tar sands is to destroy the very culture of so many native communities. As George Poitras of the Mikisew Cree First Nation explains, “If we don’t have land and we don’t have anywhere to carry out our traditional lifestyles, we lose who we are as a people. So, if there’s no land, then its equivalent in our estimation to genocide of a people.”
Coal Power Plant [Labadie, Missouri]
Georgia McCandlish, Anya Liao & Dan Cohn
Just 40 minutes southwest of St. Louis, the small town of Labadie thrums with a strong sense of community. Families have lived here for generations and warmly welcome newcomers to art shows, concerts and cook-off festivals. The summertime Labadie Picnic features rivertown musicians, while autumn’s Plow Day shows off antique farm equipment. Just about everyone gathers at the Labadie Market Deli to eat and socialize.
In 1970 Ameren Missouri opened an enormous coal-fired power plant on floodplain land of the Missouri River - just five minutes from downtown Labadie. Now, 200 train cars of coal rumble through town each day while smoke stacks cloud the sky. Burning coal for electricity leaves behind toxic ash, which Ameren dumps directly into an unlined disposal pond in the floodplains. Due to lack of infrastructure and oversight, this pond has leaked 328 million gallons of pollution into surrounding water and soil. High levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and chromium thus enter Labadie residents’ drinking water. Furthermore, this plant is the fourth highest carbon dioxide emitter in the country, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and rising global temperatures.
When a local women’s book club heard about Ameren’s 2009 plan to build a second coal ash landfill in the floodplain, they had had enough. They formed Labadie Environmental Organization, or LEO, and educated themselves and the rest of their community about the health hazards of coal ash. Their battle has led them from the Council of Commissioners of Franklin County, to the state capitol in Jefferson City, to Washington, D.C. Ameren’s electricity runs the city of St. Louis, and 85% of Missouri’s energy comes from coal. Our neighbors in Labadie have begun this battle and will not stop. LEO’s fight is our fight - we all have a stake in the use of coal, and we all have an opportunity to take action.
About the Project
Project Managers | Caitlin Lee, Sophi Veltrop
Designers | Jacob Beebe, Caitlin Lee, Jamie Niekamp
Artists | Kelsey Brod, Matt Callahan, Esther Hamburger, Andrew Kay, Caitlin Lee, Anya Liao, Georgia McCandlish, Michelle Nahmad, Katie Olson, Andrew Pandji, Carmi Salzberg, Maddie Wells, Nancy Yang, Nicole Yen
Authors | Kelsey Brod, Dan Cohn, Harris Engelmann, Steve Fuller, Rachel Goldstein, Trevor Leuzinger, Mara Nelson, Bree Swenson, Sophi Veltrop
Green Action’s Fossil Free Wash U Campaign Green Action is WUSTL’s environmental justice student group, which seeks to promote climate action from the local to global scale. The Fossil Free Wash U campaign promotes divestment as a means of committing Washington University to a sustainable portfolio and calls on our campus to take action that has a global impact. Divestment runs on the principle that it is morally wrong to profit from wrecking the climate, and involves pulling endowment investments out of fossil fuel industries.This process will not affect scholarships or financial aid, and many reports have indicated that divestment will not cause institutions to profit less than expected on their investments.
Material Monster is a material reuse and research initiative based in the Sam Fox School community. The group facilitates the free exchange of reusable materials for creative endeavors. In line with our philosophy of minimizing waste to reduce our project’s impact on the planet, we have recycled lumber from ThurtenE Carnival’s facades and borrowed sliding glass doors from Refab St. Louis.
Refab St. Louis promotes the collective and creative re-use of our built environment by deconstructing buildings otherwise slated for demolition, retraining community members for careers in green industry, and refabricating building materials.
We would also like to thank the Student Sustainability Fund and the Social Justice Center for their invaluable help in the creation of this installation.
To learn more, visit gofossilfree.org, or contact Material Monster and Fossil Free through their Facebook pages.
Local Orange County, NY residents - Oscar-nominated actor and activist, James Cromwell, Grandmother and actress Madeline Shaw, and Mother Pramilla Malick began their 7-day jail sentence in Orange County, N.Y. on July 14, 2017; for their action taken at the construction site of the Competitive Power Ventures Gas-Fired power plant in Wawayanda, NY. The three residents staged a blockade at the site on December 18, 2015 stating this project creates unacceptable health and safety risks to the public. (Photo by Erik McGregor)
Man impersonating Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson giving a press conference outside Exxon offices in NY at April Fuel's Day - Holding Exxon Accountable
© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
What's Scarier than Halloween? Climate Change! RALLY to DIVEST NYC!
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
What's Scarier than Halloween? Climate Change! RALLY to DIVEST NYC!
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES — Rise for Climate, Justice, and Integrity of Creation is a cross-sector march campaigning for the Philippines’ transition from coal to renewable energy. In the Philippines where climate justice tends to be a lesser priority, activists and volunteers remind: climate change affects everybody.
On September 8, 2018, tens of thousands of people joined over 830 actions in 91 countries under the banner of Rise for Climate to demonstrate the urgency of the climate crisis. Communities around the world shined a spotlight on the increasing impacts they are experiencing and demanded local action to keep fossil fuels in the ground. There were hundreds of creative events and actions that challenged fossil fuels and called for a swift and just transition to 100% renewable energy for all. Event organizers emphasized community-led solutions, starting in places most impacted by pollution and climate change.
Photo by Dennese Victoria | Survival Media Agency
Hillary Clinton arriving to The Dakota for a $2700 a plate fundraiser.
© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Activists holding a sign reading DON'T LET OUR ENERGY GO UP IN SMOKE outside the Midtown Hilton Hotel in New York
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Activist holding a sign reading THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT IS A COLLECTIVE GOOD outside the Midtown Hilton Hotel in New York
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Join the Clean Energy Revolution at From Paris to New York: A People's Agenda for Preventing Climate Change
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
picture: Jean De Pena - collectif à-vif(s)
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Chargé de Campagne / Campaigner @350.orghttp://gofossilfree.org/fr/
+33650861259skype: nicolas.haeringer
twitter: nicohaeringer
Menbers of the Stop Shopping Choir carrying a giant mylar inflatable cube reading CHAOS as part of the Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21 in Times Square
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Children wearing gas masks and holding a sign in opposition to the CPV Power Plant constrction
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
What's Scarier than Halloween? Climate Change! RALLY to DIVEST NYC!
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
What's Scarier than Halloween? Climate Change! RALLY to DIVEST NYC!
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Protesters worker liason speaking to the driver of the truck explaining the situation and the reason for the blockade.
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
State Troopers place under arrest 11 people attempting to stop the Spectra pipeline construction near Indian Point nuclear power plant this morning
#Activism, #ActOnClimate, #AIM, #AIMpipeline, #Astorino, #BeyondExtremeEnergy, #BXE, #CatskillMountainkeeper, #CFOW, #cleanenergy, #ClimateChange, #climatejustice, #Cuomo, #Disasterino, #Energy, #EnergyDemocracy, #energyefficiency, #FERC, #FossilFree, #Fracking, #Gastorino, #GoFossilFree, #KeepItIntheGround, #Methane, #newyork, #NoPipelines, #PeoplesClimate, #Photography, #RenewableEnergy, #renewables, #ResistAIM, #ResistAIMpipeline, #RobAstorino, #SaneEnergyProject, #SaneSolutions, #SAPE, #SEnRG, #SolarPower, #Solidarity, #StopAIMpipeline, #StopGasExports, #StopSpectra, #weareallconnected, #WeSayNo, #WindPower, #YOUAREHERE, © ERIK MCGREGOR, 917-225-8963, Erik Mc Gregor, erikrivas@hotmail.com
Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Creation of Fossil Free symbol — orange as a symbol of health, round as the Planet, orange as the danger without @GoFossilFree...the tree that would grow in Serbia if the climate changes form continental to tropic. #GlobalDivestmentDay
Photo: Filip Andrejevic
Orange County residents prevented a truck from entering the CPV Power Plant construction site
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
From Paris to New York: A People's Agenda for Preventing Climate Change
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
#Activism, #ActOnClimate, #AIM, #AIMpipeline, #Astorino, #BeyondExtremeEnergy, #BXE, #CatskillMountainkeeper, #CFOW, #cleanenergy, #ClimateChange, #climatejustice, #Cuomo, #Disasterino, #Energy, #EnergyDemocracy, #energyefficiency, #FERC, #FossilFree, #Fracking, #Gastorino, #GoFossilFree, #KeepItIntheGround, #Methane, #newyork, #NoPipelines, #PeoplesClimate, #Photography, #RenewableEnergy, #renewables, #ResistAIM, #ResistAIMpipeline, #RobAstorino, #SaneEnergyProject, #SaneSolutions, #SAPE, #SEnRG, #SolarPower, #Solidarity, #StopAIMpipeline, #StopGasExports, #StopSpectra, #weareallconnected, #WeSayNo, #WindPower, #YOUAREHERE, © ERIK MCGREGOR, 917-225-8963, Erik Mc Gregor, erikrivas@hotmail.com
Memberts of the New York Green Party participating on the Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21 in Liberty Island
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES — Protesters gather in Quezon City Memorial Circle for a cross-sector march campaigning for the Philippines’ transition from coal to renewable energy, among other issues. In the Philippines where climate justice tends to be a lesser priority, activists and volunteers remind: climate change affects everybody. “It affects everything that breathes,” says one volunteer from 350 Philippines.
On September 8, 2018, tens of thousands of people joined over 830 actions in 91 countries under the banner of Rise for Climate to demonstrate the urgency of the climate crisis. Communities around the world shined a spotlight on the increasing impacts they are experiencing and demanded local action to keep fossil fuels in the ground. There were hundreds of creative events and actions that challenged fossil fuels and called for a swift and just transition to 100% renewable energy for all. Event organizers emphasized community-led solutions, starting in places most impacted by pollution and climate change.
Photo by Dennese Victoria | Survival Media Agency
Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
What's Scarier than Halloween? Climate Change! RALLY to DIVEST NYC!
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Hundreds of participans volunteered their time for the Creative Red Lines for Climate Justice at the end of COP21 in Liberty Island
© Erik Mc Gregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
Baba Brinkman raps to Climate Chaos at April Fuel's Day - Holding Exxon Accountable
© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963