High Country Rising Tide Announces No Coal Exports Action Camp In Wyoming Coal Fields; Aug. 2-10
High Country Rising Tide is happy to announce the convening of the “West By Northwest” No Coal Exports Action Camp taking place Aug. 2-10 in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.
Last year, at the behest of America’s largest coal companies, the federal government made a quiet announcement that it would release an additional 750 million tons of western coal for mining and export to Asia. Even though companies like Arch Coal and Peabody already profit obscenely from their federally-subsidized extraction of Wyoming coal, which accounts for 40% of domestic coal, their reckless greed has driven them to pursue these new developments in order to flood Asian economies with cheap, dirty coal.
The scale of this project and the health and environmental consequences it promises are nearly unimaginable. Not only would burning this coal cause 1.5 billion more tons of CO2 to be released into our atmosphere; this coal would be burned in densely populated Asian nations where health and environmental protections are “under construction.” In addition, the glut of cheap U.S. subsidized coal on the rapidly expanding Chinese economy guarantees a major setback to their burgeoning and innovative renewable energy programs, and locks them into a cycle of increasing energy costs and dependence upon their Western “colonies”. Simultaneously, in America, these same coal corporations have been pushing for the development of new rail lines and massive shipping terminals to ensure that plenty of domestic communities can experience the illness, noise, pollution, and delays of coal development before it makes its way abroad.
Given all the evidence, it’s almost as if, when NASA climate scientist James Hansen referred to the Canadian tar sands oil and its transportation through the Keystone XL pipeline as “game over” for the climate and our environment, the coal companies took that as a challenge. “We can do worse,” they said.
Well, we can do better.
This August, activists and concerned citizens from all over the continent will be convening West By Northwest, the first annual No Coal Exports Action Camp. In the heart of the coal fields, we’ll look over the chasm into the worlds largest strip mines, gather stories from the communities at the heart of the battle, and learn the skills of resistance. Students, ranchers and activists will take to the streets, or the mines, or the rails to take back the power to determine our own future.
To RSVP for West By Northwest, go to http://goo.gl/YKLIm or contact hcrisingtide@riseup.net for details
At the end of the West By Northwest camp, campers will travel to the Coal Export Action in Helena, Montana to participate in ten days of civil disobedience targeting the Montana Land Board pending decision to further open up the Powder River Basin for coal exports.
For more information about the coal export action visit http://www.coalexportaction.org/
GREY COAST ANARCHIST NEWS 