Today the concentration of CO2 in our planet's atmosphere is 390 ppm, say the organizers of 350.org, a group that called for an international action on October 24th. They helped organize more than 5,200 rallies in 181 countries, calling it the most widespread day of political action in history. In countries throughout the world activists called for a reduction of CO2 to a maximum of 350 ppm, and in Northern California residents in many of the state's diverse micro-climates took part in the big day.

In Santa Cruz, marchers carried placards through town to the clock tower where they held a mock trial of the automobile. In Humboldt County, demonstrators chose the ancient redwood forest in Richardson Grove as their site for protest because it is threatened by Caltrans’ proposal to widen highway 101. In San Francisco, folks spread a giant 350 banner across Justin Herman Plaza to call attention to this important number.

In Menlo Park, a San Francisco peninsula suburb, the Raging Grannies sang their message, saying the trick is getting leaders to craft policies that will get us to the number 350. In addition to lobbying politicians, the Grannies have joined a year-long project led by Menlo Park's Green Ribbon Committee to promote homeowner installation of "cool roofs" that, because they are white or other light colors, can help protect the earth's atmosphere.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Video | 350.org

Donna Bird, Writes:, "In New Zealand we seem to have become the dumping ground for U.S. chemicals and the experimental ground for the biotech products manufactured in the United States and we are paying the price. New Zealand is being turned into a parking lot. Our forests, waterways and our health are all being systematically destroyed by your patented products which are designed to kill things.

"We banned your nuclear ships but the thing is, it feels like you ‘nuked’ us anyway. The deaths and destruction are subtle. It will leave the infrastructure behind but the soil and water will not ensure safe habitation for who knows how long….if ever.

"Very recently we a had minor victory with the Taupo District Council banning 1080 aerial drops. This evil compound made in Alabama, enough to kill 20 million people every year, is shipped to NZ to kill opossums. Our death by poison rate is 3 times that of the road toll.

"Why is there such a need for the U.S to control everything? Why can’t you people be satisfied with what you have got? Why so greedy? Your products are destroying the world on a global scale and we’re supposed to like you? Can’t you people look at the big picture and think at least 6 generations ahead?" Read more

Tempers flare at dog-death meeting In New Zealand - Environmental Activist Thrown Out | The Criminal Cover-up Of Pam Marrone's Agraquest Operation | Injured Agraquest Biotech Worker David Bell Tells His Story | Pam Marrone & Agraquest You Will Not Get Away With Your Environmental/Healthcare Crimes | New Zealander Donna Bird Poisoned By Spraying "You guys in America have to stop that"

A coalition of organizations from up and down the west coast arrived in San Francisco on September 21st to deliver a message to U.S. lawmakers and polluting corporations. The protest rally started at the San Francisco office of Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that will be presenting a Climate and Energy Bill currently in Congress by the end of the week.

A letter was delivered to, and a delegation met briefly with Jennifer Tang, Senior Field Representative for Boxer, as activists below chanted, "set the cap, scrap the trade. CLIMATE JUSTICE" and unfurled a 35 foot parachute banner (painted by participants over the weekend) below Boxers office windows that read, "CLIMATE JUSTICE OR CLIMATE CHAOS."

The protest then moved to Chevron Oil Corporation’s downtown San Francisco "Energy Solutions" office (345 California St.). Participants occupied the front entryway as retired Richmond kindergarden teacher Michael Beers of the Richmond Progressive Alliance and Antonia Juhasz, author of the Tyranny of Oil spoke about Chevron role in driving climate pollution and using their billions in profit to lobby against real climate solutions. The group then took over the intersection outside of the building housing Chevron, occupying and briefly shutting down the busy financial district intersection with the giant parachute banner.

The action capped a weekend-long gathering, the West Coast Climate Justice Convergence, consisting of environmental and social justice organizations and activists and from Richmond, the Bay Area and the West Coast, including many from Rising Tide chapters. The gathering planned local climate solutions, and made plans for build grassroots political pressure and “street heat” in the lead up to the December 7-18, 2009 Copenhagen climate talks.

Read More 1 | 2

On August 15th, hundreds rallied at the Richmond BART and then marched to the Chevron oil refinery. The protesters called attention to Chevron’s polluting oil refinery in Richmond, to oil industry expansions - killing people and the planet for profit, and to Chevron and Big Oil standing in the way of solutions to climate change. At the end of the march there was a non-violent civil disobedience action against the refinery. A critical mass, "bike for climate justice" also meet at the Richmond BART and followed the main march to the Chevron refinery.
Read More | Photos: 1 | 2 | Video: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

On August 13th, in solidarity with the Mobilization for Climate Justice, Earth First!ers took to the waters of the Bay reclaimed the Red Rock Island by dropping a 50' banner, just SW of the Richmond Bridge, reading "HEY CHEVRON: NO JOBS ON A DEAD PLANET."
Photos | Report

This action marks the launch of the Mobilization for Climate Justice whose goal is to empower community-based activists and networks to lead a global movement in confronting the root causes of climate change at home, while defining self-determination pathways for a new energy economy. Read more

Why we protest Chevron

True Cost of Chevron: Shareholders Protest | October 27 Rally Against Chevron Actions In Nigera | Theater Action and Demonstration at Chevron World Headquarters in San Ramon | Nonviolent Direct Action At Chevron Headquarters

Kettleman City is a small town in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley. The city is next to the I-5 Interstate Highway and is the site of the largest toxic waste dump in the western United States. About 200 residents held a march and rally on Saturday, July 18th, to protest a cluster of birth defects that has recently been exposed.

Maricela Mares-Alatorre is a mother and has lived in Kettleman City for 31 years. She also helped organize the march. Mares-Alatorre said "in the past we have fought a lot of issues with our local toxic land fill, which is the largest in California. Currently they are in the process of an expansion, but what we are asking for is a moratorium on all of those permits until there is an investigation as to why there are so many children being born with cleft palate. We have had a cluster here — in a 14 month period from 2007 to 2008 five children have been born with cleft palate. We just found out this morning that there is another woman who is pregnant who will also have a child with cleft palate and we believe that until that is investigated and they know why it is happening that there shouldn't be any more permits issued."

Maura Alatorre is one of the mothers whose child was born with a cleft palate. Alatorre said she was at the rally because "it is in honor of the children that were born with these deformities and thanks to the attention that everybody is putting into this rally, there will be attention put to the problem in Kettleman City and that will help."

On Friday, July 17th, Kings County health officials said they were on a fast track to investigate the high incidence of birth defects in Kettleman City. The US Environmental Protection Agency also released a statement on Friday saying that it will be working with the county and the state to determine if the incidents are related to environmental factors.

Photos and Audio Report

Legislators and hundreds of Delta advocates held a rally at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday, July 7th, to oppose the peripheral canal -- what they call a budget-busting and environmentally destructive project that would approximate the Panama Canal in width and length.

"I'm not going to vote for a plan that builds a Panama Canal down the middle of the 15th Assembly District,” exclaimed Assemblymember Joan Buchanan to loud applause from a crowd of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Delta farmers, farmworkers, Indian Tribal members, environmentalists and community activists. “I will do all I can to make that the Delta is protected.”

As she spoke, Delta family farmers from North Delta CARES and others held up banners proclaiming “The Peripheral Canal=Panama Canal North,” along with signs saying, “Fewer Water Exports, Not Fewer Delta Fish” and “Give the Delta a Voice!”

Read More: 1 | 2

See Also Right Wing Rally for Water Declares It's "Fish vs. People"

There is a massive campaign underway to “turn on the pumps” and deliver additional water to corporate agribusiness in the western Central Valley. Agribusiness interests and their allies claim environmental and water activists care more about fish than people and are demanding more water, now!

Corporate agriculture’s campaign is being run by Burson-Marsteller (B-M), the astroturfing Public Relations firm that has been hired by the California Latino Water Coalition. MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow, in a March telecast, called B-M “the PR firm from hell” and said it had been hired to improve the “image” of AIG, the company that has received $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money. B-M has also represented the private security firm Blackwater, Union Carbide in the Bhopal India incident, and Babcock & Wilcox, manufacturers of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

Central Valley Congress members are calling for an exclusion from the Endangered Species Act of the delta smelt (a small fish that gets killed in the pumps), more dams, a peripheral canal (which critics say will be as large as the Panama Canal), and a bond initiative in 2010 that will result in taxpayers subsidizing water for large corporate farming operations.

Read more | Peripheral Canal: Panama Canal North? | People Before Water Barons: Stop the Peripheral Canal Water Bond! | Myths, Lies and Damn Lies about Impact of Drought on San Joaquin Valley Agribusiness | Salazar Announces Aid to Valley Agribusiness, Doesn’t Endorse Canal | Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Holds Town Hall in Fresno

Michael Steinberg writes, "On Saturday the third annual Bicycle Music Festival in San Francisco was kicked out of two sites in Golden Gate Park, and then threatened with expulsion in Dolores Park, before finally partying on pedal power late into the night on the SF waterfront."

"It’s a very simple proposition. People get together with their bicycles, musical instruments and other fun stuff. Some stationary bikes are connected to an electrical generator, and a handful of folks pedal away, thus producing enough juice to power amplification for bands to play. No fossil fuel is expended, no pollution created, and a good time is had by all on a sunny day in a city park. But that would be too simple, wouldn’t it? After all, the parks don’t belong to the people, but to the authorities who run them." Read more

Bicycile Music Festival

The demolition of the Bevatron, a.k.a. Building 51 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), is scheduled to begin in July. Demolition will include the removal of radioactive, hazardous, and non-hazardous waste totaling an estimated 4700 truckloads. Removal of waste will begin with 5 trucks a day, leading up to a planned 20 trucks a day by the end of July. Waste removal will take an estimated 3.5 years. According to the LBNL website (lbl.gov), 1000-1200 truckloads of the 4700 "may contain hazardous or radioactive material."

Activists and concerned citizens are leery of the possible public health repercussions of demolishing and transporting such a large amount of hazardous and radioactive material right down the middle of Berkeley via University Ave on its way to the freeway and disposal sites. Not to mention the fact that the City of Berkeley, since 1986, has prohibited all activity related to nuclear weapons and energy through the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act.

According to resident Pamela Sihvola, cited in a June 29th, 2006 SF Chronicle article, the Bevatron was "the very first nuclear lab established in the country" and "played a significant role in the development of nuclear weapons." This would not be the first time the City of Berkeley has reneged on the NFB Act. In February, the City allowed the library to grant a contract to 3M, a notorious nuclear-weapons-supporting company, for the maintenance of its checkout machines.

A press conference will take place on Tuesday, June 23rd at 6:30pm in front of Berkeley City Hall in order to draw attention to this further blatant disregard for city statute.

Daily Planet: Bevatron Demo Underway | SF Chronicle: Bevatron's future being debated | Daily Planet 3M Article

Previous Indybay Coverage: Bevatron Research Facility To Be Demolished | Berkeley Rally Against Bevatron Structure Pulverization

If approved by the state legislature, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan will close 220 of 279 State Parks and Beaches, including each and every State Park and Beach in Santa Cruz County.

The proposed Santa Cruz County State Park and Beach closures are Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Castle Rock State Park, Castro Adobe State Historic Park, Coast Dairies State Park, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Lighthouse Field State Beach, Manresa State Beach, Manresa Uplands State Park, Natural Bridges State Beach, New Brighton State Beach, Palm State Beach, Rio Del Mar State Beach, Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, Seabright State Beach, Seacliff State Beach, Sunset State Beach, The Forest of Nisene Marks, Twin Lakes State Beach and Wilder Ranch State Park.

A rally to save State Parks and Beaches took place on June 1st at Natural Bridges State Beach. On June 2nd, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks took a bus to Sacramento for the only public hearing on this proposal before the Legislative Budget Conference Committee. Read more

Rally at Natural Bridges to Save State Parks & Beaches

On Saturday, May 2nd, Crafts Not Carbon gathered at Embarcadero Center to provide a safe space that fosters creativity and realistic conversation about climate politics; the group is affiliated with Rising Tide Bay Area. The event was held at 2PM, near the farmer's market and lasted till 5:30PM. While the group met in San Francisco for this event, its future intentions are to reach all regions of the bay area, as well as use the forum for strategic occupation.

Crafts Not Carbon is open to all crafts. For example, at this last event people knitted, cut hair, sewed, and read. Crafts Not Carbon looks forward to all the different types of crafts, anything practical that encourages sustainable practices for everyday life, which will be an inspiration for society as a whole.

Crafts Not Carbon was created around the idea that practical and creative crafting expresses the potential for a more just and sustainable world. Through an accessible forum, Crafts Not Carbon promotes community-building, skill sharing and the imaginative reuse of all materials that will shape a realistic climate politic. Read more

Bank of America Targeted by Rising Tide, an Environmental Group