Jerry Brown announces satellite launch as frontline communities protest oil drilling expansion

SAN FRANCISCO – In closing remarks at the Global Climate Action Summit on September 15, California Governor Jerry Brown announced before corporate, government and NGO leaders that the State of California is teaming up with San Francisco-based Earth imaging company Planet Labs (Planet) to develop and eventually launch a pollutant-tracking satellite.

“The satellite will track climate change-causing pollutants with unprecedented precision and help the world dramatically reduce these destructive emissions,” according to Brown.

“With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite,” said Governor Brown whose administration over the past seven years has overseen the approval of 21,000 new oil drilling permits in California, including 238 offshore wells in state waters under existing leases in Los Angeles County between 2012 and 2016. “This groundbreaking initiative will help governments, businesses and landowners pinpoint – and stop – destructive emissions with unprecedented precision, on a scale that’s never been done before."

Planet, founded by ex-NASA scientists in 2010, operates the world’s largest constellation of satellites in history. In the last two years, Planet has launched over 150 Earth-imaging satellites, manufactured in San Francisco, helping customers in agriculture, government, mapping, NGOs and in other markets to make better decision, according to the Governor’s Office.

Brown mentioned nothing about the fact that he controls four times as many offshore oil wells in state waters as Donald Trump controls in federal waters over 3 miles from shore. An online map at http://www.BrownvTrumpoilmap.org shows all the state offshore wells under Brown’s control vs the federal wells under Trump’s control, with geolocation data for each.

A group of grassroots indigenous and frontline youth weren’t impressed by Brown's grandstanding - and disrupted the summit by singing a song to Brown. They demanded no new oil and gas expansion and keeping fossil fuels in the ground, pointing out that is his “last chance to phase out fossil fuels and be a real climate leader that doesn’t promote false solutions.”

They sang, “Jerry Brown. It’s your last chance, keep it in the ground.” They also sang, “Climate champions don’t permit oil and gas, Jerry Brown, keep it in the ground, climate champions don’t poison communities.” They were quickly escorted out by Jerry Brown’s security detail.

Singer and musicians Dave Matthews, who was playing music at the time, responded, “They need to work on their harmonies, but it is a good message.”

Niria Alicia, an organizer for Green Action and the Run4Salmon, commented on the protest. “Today my sister Isabella Zizi and I were reminded that our power as young indigenous women of color are a threat to the colonial climate capitalist agendas our governments are pushing forward,” she stated “Jerry Brown sent a dozen of his biggest buffest tallest security who forcefully picked us up and removed us from the space with the intent of silencing our voices. Jerry Brown, this is your LAST CHANCE to do the right thing and be a true climate leader!”

”All of these oil and gas projects need water,” added Niria Alicia. “The intensive extraction of fossil fuel threatens our rivers and theatens the salmon and other fish that live in them. The same water is used to frack in the backyards of indigenous migrant farmworkers. We need to keep the water in our rivers and the oil in the ground, if we are to have the chance at a future.”

Isabelle Zizi of Idle No More SF Bay, who was one of the three women escorted out before the disruption by four others took place, said, “Before our disruption, we were singled out and physically escorted by big security guards ‘ having backpacks were not permitted into the summit.’ While we were leaving, we noticed other participants had backpacks the same size if not bigger than ours; that’s how we figured out we were targeted. “

“Little did they know, a group of youth who are with the Browns Last Chance coalition disrupted the event with a song as they detained us. Our demands were that indigenous leadership needs to be acknowledged and followed, no to carbon marketing, no fossil fuels, keep it in the ground, no REDD+. To Jerry Brown, you are not a real climate leader, this is your last chance to phase out of fossil fuels and be on the right side of history,” she stated.

“It was not okay for them to single out indigenous women out of everyone who was sitting in that space and put embarrassment and shame to our faces. It is not okay for these so called ‘climate leaders’ to profit off of our climate and Mother Earth’s sources. We should have not been the ones to be escorted out nor should our stories and truth be silenced any more,” Zizi said.

Regarding Brown’s call for launching a climate satellite, Zizi stated, “I felt it’s a joke to have this satellite to find out more statistics on climate change when during the Global Climate Action Summit, there were hundreds of people on the street who are on the front lines dealing with climate change on a daily basis. We have the truth. We have the statistics. I feel using the satellite is silencing those who are dealing with climate change on a daily basis.”

”The summit was an invitation only event. By not allowing the people from the front line communities to go inside, our only way to discuss our concerns was by protesting it on the outside,” Zizi concluded.

Two days before, hundreds of front line and indigenous communities blockaded the streets and entrances to Moscone Center after conducting a march from Jesse Square.

A large delegation of indigenous leaders from the Amazon, who are being driven off their land by carbon trading polices, attended the direct action, as well as participating in actions and forums starting with the Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice march of 30,000 people in San Francisco on September 8.

Chief Ninawa Huni Kui travelled from the Amazon Rainforest of Acre, Brazil to the Global Climate Action Summit to tell Jerry Brown: “No REDD.”

“Carbon trading is the same colonialism we’ve been fighting for centuries. They used to kill us with bullets; now they create laws and policies,” said Chief Ninawa in Portuguese.

REDD, according to the United Nations, stands for “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation.”

But members of the Global Alliance Against REDD, a project of the Indigenous Environmental Network, say what REDD really means is “Reaping profits from Evictions, land grabs, Deforestation and Destruction of biodiversity.”

“We are here for life and we want to save nature and expose the truth,” said Kaku Viteri, from the Pueblo Sarayaucu in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, before hundreds gathered at the protest outside the Moscone Center. “It is very important in this action today that we unite forces, create alliances and speak as one voice for life itself.”

To sign the Brown’s Last Chance letter, go to: brownslastchance.org/...

In contrast with indigenous and front line communities’ strong opposition to the cap-and-trade and REDD policies, Catherine Reheis Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create “marine protected areas” in Southern California, praised “market based programs” in a tweet.

"Opening Day at @gcas2018 begins with an international panel emphasizing that market-based programs are key to successful GHG reductions. We agree,” said Reheis-Boyd.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is not a household name in California, but it should be. It’s the trade association for the oil industry and the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying organization in the state. If you want to know the industries, organizations and people that control California, WSPA and Big Oil are right at the top of the list.

WSPA represents a who’s who of oil companies including oil giants Chevron, Exxon, Occidental Petroleum and many others. The companies that WSPA represents account for the bulk of petroleum exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, according to the WSPA website, http://www.wspa.org.

WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 6 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: (5) working in collaboration with media; and (6) contributing to non profit organizations. For more information, read my report: http://www.dailykos.com/...