Environment & Forest Defense News

On September 23, over a thousand young people and their teachers left their classrooms to join the environmental justice protest in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza, part of the worldwide "Fridays for Future" movement. As part of an uptick in Bay Area climate actions, JP Morgan Chase's "Corporate Challenge" foot race in San Francisco was disrupted by Extinction Rebellion street theater to highlight the bank's role as the world largest fossil fuel funder.

On September 10, more than 400 people gathered in front of the Santa Clara County Government Building in San Jose to stand with members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. They called on the County to deny permits for a proposed mining project that threatens the tribe’s most sacred site. The proposed sand and gravel mine in the county would significantly damage the sacred Native American site and historic artifacts.

On July 29, UC Berkeley's plan to tear down People's Park and construct a 12-story building in its place was approved by the courts. After midnight on August 3, police moved in to push folks out of the park, making way for bulldozers and other equipment. As a growing crowd of protesters fought to save the park, police withdrew and new fencing was torn down. Protesters then began to rebuild, using logs and barriers left behind as baracades to prevent further construction.

On September 17, protesters hung a giant banner from Wells Fargo's headquarters building on San Franciso's Montgomery Street that accused the bank of funding climate destruction. Evoking the draft card burnings of the Viet Nam war era, a protester cut up her Well Fargo ATM card. With wildfires raging throughout California and weather "events" increasing in ferocity worldwide, environmentalist groups like Xtinction Bay Area are demanding that big banks stop funding of fossil fuel development.

Responding to legal pressure from the Center for Biological Diversity, the federal government finalized a new rule on July 30 expanding critical habitat protection along the West Coast for critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales. The population of Southern Residents stands at just 74 orcas. The National Marine Fisheries Service designated 15,910 square miles of new critical habitat, expanding current protections in Washington’s Salish Sea south along the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California to Point Sur.

Line 3 is a tar sands oil pipeline that violates the treaty rights of Minnesota tribes. On July 16, five activists were cited at a demonstration at the federal building in San Francisco that was organized to draw attention to President Biden's inaction on the issue. The Line 3 pipeline is a project of Canadian fossil fuel company Enbridge, to increase their exports of tar sands oil. Climate and Indigenous rights activists in the Bay Area again stood up to stop the construction of Line 3 in solidarity with a National Day of Action on August 13.

Alan Clements has been on a quest for freedom that’s taken him to Myanmar, Yugoslavia, Australia, Bali, and even to Santa Cruz. He’s been a Buddhist monk, a performer, and an investigative journalist in areas of war and extreme conflict. Clements’ books, stage performances, and World Dharma meditation retreats have always grappled with the challenge of living open-hearted and authentic in a world of suffering and violence. His latest book — Extinction X-Rated — is part autobiography and partly a “dark satire about good and evil.”

Oil produced in California is among the most climate-damaging on the planet and is getting worse, according to a new report released by the Center for Biological Diversity. 'Killer Crude: How California Produces Some of the Dirtiest, Most Dangerous Oil in the World' finds that California oil emits more carbon dioxide per barrel than the rest of the global supply refined in the state. It’s now even more climate-heating than Canadian tar sands oil refined in California. The report comes as record heat and drought bake the West.