Latest news with #climateactivism
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Climate Liberation Aotearoa protesters target Stockton Mine
First published on By Sharon Davis and Ellen Curnow* Protesters used the aerial ropeway cables as a zip line to access a coal bucket high off the ground. Photo: Supplied Climate activists have climbed into a coal bucket on the rope way at Stockton Mine again to protest Bathurst Resources Ltd's fast-track application to extend its mining operations across the Buller plateaux to Denniston. Yesterday afternoon, two Climate Liberation Aotearoa protesters clipped themselves to the ropeway cable and used it like a zipline to access a coal bucket in a remote area high off the ground. This follows a larger protest at Stockton and Denniston in April which ended with at least nine people charged with wilful trespass. Protester Rachel Andrews, from Palmerston North, was among those charged with trespass on 21 April. Speaking to The News from a coal bucket this morning she said they had a good supply of water and food and planned to disrupt the transport of coal from Stockton Mine for as long as possible. Their goal was to have Bathurst withdraw its fast-track application to mine 20 million tonnes of coal on the Denniston Plateau. While there are only two protesters in the coal bucket, she said they were supported by a huge group of people who were against the mine and the fast-track process. "There is huge opposition to this mine, even on the West Coast," she said. Andrews said there were several reasons she was personally motivated to participate. One was the legacy she would leave for future generations. She wanted to be able to tell her four grandchildren that she did everything she could to prevent a climate disaster. "We're in a climate emergency,,, people are dying from climate disasters. We can't afford to burn the coal already out of the ground, let alone mining more." Andrews was also unhappy with the "undemocratic process" under the Fast Track Bill. She said it placed the decision-making process in the hands of a few people who had shown that they didn't care about the environment and were proud to support more mines. Protest was the only way for the public to intervene in the fast-track process, she said. "There is no longer any way for members of the public to voice concerns about proposed projects like this coal mine on kiwi habitat. The New Zealand government has effectively forced communities to take actions like this if we want to be heard." Andrews spent part of the April protest in a "nest in one of pylons" and was trespassed from Stockton. She said a lot of thought had gone into planning an action like this. But any consequences would be worth it, to be able to say she had done everything she could to prevent a disaster for future generations. "I don't take the consequences lightly." Andrews said many organisations were committed to stopping fast-tracked mines and were in it for the long haul. "We will continue doing everything we can to oppose Bathurst Resources' proposed mine ... We will not stand idly by and accept this destruction," she said. The International Court of Justice recently said countries must address the "urgent and existential threat" of climate change by curbing emissions and yet New Zealand was encouraging more mines and more drilling for oil and gas. Andrews said the proposed mine on Denniston would generate at least 53 million tonnes of emissions, close to New Zealand's entire net emissions of 59 million tonnes. "We can't afford to keep destroying the planet," she said. Westport sergeant Georgie Were said police would be negotiating with the protesters to get them to come down. She said they were in a remote location which made communication difficult. The News tried unsuccessfully to contact Bathurst Resources Ltd for comment. During a recent panel discussion on how Buller could transition from coal, Bathurst chief executive Richard Tacon acknowledged the right to protest but said climbing into coal buckets was dangerous. The protesters could have accidentally flicked a lever, flipped the bucket and fallen to their deaths, he said. Locals took to Facebook today in support of the mine and local employment, with some suggesting starting the ropeway or enlisting the fire brigade to point a hose at the protesters to get them to come down. *This story originally appeared in the Westport News.
Fox News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Climate activists demand end to US Navy's 'Blue Angels' airshow in Seattle
Seattle climate activists are protesting an upcoming U.S. Navy Blue Angels airshow, claiming the jets pollute the environment, while a local woman filed a lawsuit on Monday claiming the military jets traumatized her ailing cat. The Blue Angels, the elite military aviation stunt team consisting of 140 active-duty Sailors and Marines, aims to "showcase the excitement, precision, and power of naval aviation" with their performances, now in their 79th year, the Blue Angels website says. The squadron has been performing at Seattle's Seafair festival since 1972. The Airshow Climate Action Coalition put up a billboard in Seattle this week declaring, "Say No to Blue Angels." The coalition, made up of members from local climate groups as well as the radical global climate group, Extinction Rebellion, is planning to march and hold a rally on August 2 in protest of the Blue Angels airshow that weekend. The billboard depicts people with hands over their ears and others raising their fists in protest of the jets, which they wrote cause "war trauma" and pollution. At the billboard's unveiling on Tuesday, protesters held signs reading "Demilitarize Seafair" and "No military airshows." The climate activists are calling for military fighter jets to be excluded from participating in the annual event and demanding military airshows be scrutinized for their "harmful waste of resources, pollution and carbon emissions." Aedan McCall, who designed the billboard, lived on Mercer Island for over 10 years before leaving because of the effects from the show. "The sheer amount of carbon emissions the Blue Angels create - 670 tons in one weekend - is immense and wasteful on top of being a big display of U.S. militarism, McCall told The Seattle Times. Community organizer Kimberly Larson crafted a petition calling for the end of the Blue Angels show, which has garnered over 5,000 signatures. The Blue Angels are also facing criticism from a Seattle woman who blames the noisy airshow for leading to the death of her sickly, elderly cat. Lauren Ann Lombardi filed a lawsuit against Blue Angels officers in federal court on Monday, claiming her "beloved family member was terrorized" by the Blue Angels' "state-sanctioned acoustic torture." The lawsuit claims the noise of the low-flying F/A-18 fighter jets spurred panic attacks in the cat, who was in critical condition due to her worsening congestive heart disease, and ultimately led to her euthanasia in August 2024. Lombardi accused the Blue Angels of unconstitutionally blocking her profanity-laced comments criticizing the U.S. Navy squadron on its Instagram page. She is seeking a court order to unblock her account and prohibit the Blue Angels from blocking any other accounts "on the basis of viewpoint." The Blue Angels did not return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Wells Fargo is complicit': seven arrested at climate protests outside bank's offices
Seven people were arrested as hundreds of climate and Indigenous rights activists participated in non-violent demonstrations at Wells Fargo's corporate offices in New York City and San Francisco on Wednesday, in what marks the launch of a summer of civil disobedience against billionaires and corporations accused of cowering to Donald Trump. In New York City, dozens of protesters stormed the lobby of the bank's corporate offices, disrupting employees by blocking the entrance and calling out what they describe as Wells Fargo's complicity in the climate crisis. Wells Fargo, currently ranked 33rd in the Fortune 500 list, became the first major bank to abandon its climate commitments – just weeks after the president signed a slew of executive orders to boost fossil fuels and derail climate action. The US bank is among the biggest financiers of planet-warming oil and gas companies, with $39bn in fossil fuel investments in 2024 – a 30% rise on the previous year, according to the most recent annual Banking on Climate Chaos report. 'As dozens of teenagers die in climate-driven floods in Texas and thousands die in heatwaves around the world, it's unconscionable that a bank like Wells Fargo would just completely walk away from its climate goals,' said Liv Senghor with Planet Over Profit, the non-profit group that led the New York protests. In San Francisco, seven people were arrested as activists blocked every entrance of the bank's global headquarters for several hours, with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribal nation locked themselves to a sleeping dragon tripod. The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River tribes spearheaded the 2016 and 2017 fight against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) – the opposed fossil fuel pipeline built through Lakota lands that Wells Fargo helped finance. 'DAPL was built through the Lakota Unceded Treaty Territory, without proper consent. That land holds our history, our spirit, and our ancestors. We're in a time where we should be protecting the Earth, not pushing more oil through it. We owe that to our people and the future generations,' said Trent Ouellettefrom Waste Wakpa Grassroots. Wednesday's protests were part of the Stop Billionaires Summer campaign – a series of planned civil disobedience to disrupt the tech billionaires and corporations backing the Trump administration's dismantling of democratic rights and climate action. It follows last year's summer of heat campaign targeting Citibank, another major fossil fuel funder. This year Wells Fargo is being specifically targeted by a coalition of non-profit organizations, who accuse the bank of capitulating to Trump and supporting the rise of planetary destruction, autocracy and land occupation – in the US and Palestinian territories. In San Francisco, about 150 activists also painted a giant community mural outside the bank's headquarters with the words 'Wells Fargo Funds Genocide', pointing to the bank's investment in companies that provide tech and/or AI to the state of Israel including Palantir – which also has contracts with Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). 'Today's actions are just the beginning of a response to Wells Fargo's enabling of the rise of authoritarianism,' said Leah Redwood with the Oil and Gas Action Network, who helped organize the San Francisco protest. 'Wells Fargo is complicit in so many injustices … the climate crisis or union busting or Trump's mass deportations or the atrocities in Gaza.' Last week, protesters across the US targeted Palantir, accusing the tech company of facilitating Trump's expanding surveillance, immigration crackdown and Israel's human rights violations across the occupied Palestinian territories. Wells Fargo is among the US's largest banks, worth almost $270bn, and with more than 4,000 branches across 39 US states and territories. It is also among the biggest financiers of fossil fuels since 2021 – the year that the International Energy Agency warned the world that there could be no more fossil fuel expansion – if there was any hope of avoiding total climate catastrophe. Since then, the bank's investments in fossil fuels have topped $143bn, according to Banking on Climate Chaos. In 2021, Wells Fargo's chief executive, Charles Scharf, described the climate crisis as 'one of the most urgent environmental and social issues of our time'. In February, Wells Fargo dropped two key commitments – the sector-specific 2030 financed and facilitated emissions reductions targets and its goal to achieve net zero emissions in its lending and underwriting by 2050. At the time, the bank said: 'When we set our financed emissions goal and targets, we said that achieving them was dependent on many factors outside our control,' adding that 'many of the conditions necessary to facilitate our clients' transitions have not occurred.' The announcement comes just months after Wells Fargo quit the world's biggest climate coalition for banks – the Net-Zero Banking Alliance – followed by the rest of its US banking peers. That exodus started one month after last year's election victory for Trump. According to a recent investigation by Rolling Stone, the Texas attorney general boasted about how his office 'bullied' Wells Fargo into abandoning the alliance and other climate pledges. In addition to dropping its climate pledges, the bank has also abandoned its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals – ending policies requiring diverse candidates for senior-level roles. A summer of non-violent disruption is planned for Wells Fargo including a national day of coordinated action on 15 August, in an effort, activists say, to pressure the bank to reinstate its climate targets, stop union busting, and end its financial ties with companies accused of destroying both people and the planet. Climate activists are also preparing to support unionization efforts at the bank, where workers have already voted to unionize at 28 branches. Wells Fargo currently faces more than 30 allegations of union-busting. Wells Fargo declined to comment on the protests or any of the allegations about its investments and policies.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Wells Fargo is complicit': seven arrested at climate protests at company's offices
Seven people were arrested as hundreds of climate and Indigenous rights activists participated in non-violent demonstrations at Wells Fargo's corporate offices in New York City and San Francisco on Wednesday, in what marks the launch of a summer of civil disobedience against billionaires and corporations accused of cowering to Donald Trump. In New York City, dozens of protesters stormed the lobby of the bank's corporate offices, disrupting employees by blocking the entrance and calling out what they describe as Wells Fargo's complicity in the climate crisis. Wells Fargo, currently ranked 33rd in the Fortune 500 list, became the first major bank to abandon its climate commitments – just weeks after the president signed a slew of executive orders to boost fossil fuels and derail climate action. The US bank is among the biggest financiers of planet-warming oil and gas companies, with $39bn in fossil fuel investments in 2024 – a 30% rise on the previous year, according to the most recent annual Banking on Climate Chaos report. 'As dozens of teenagers die in climate-driven floods in Texas and thousands die in heat waves around the world, it's unconscionable that a bank like Wells Fargo would just completely walk away from its climate goals,' said Liv Senghor with Planet Over Profit, the non-profit group that led the New York protests. In San Francisco, seven people were arrested as activists blocked every entrance of the bank's global headquarters for several hours, with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribal nation locked themselves to a sleeping dragon tripod. The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River tribes spearheaded the 2016 and 2017 fight against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) – the opposed fossil fuel pipeline built through Lakota lands that Wells Fargo helped finance. 'DAPL was built through the Lakota Unceded Treaty Territory, without proper consent. That land holds our history, our spirit, and our ancestors. We're in a time where we should be protecting the Earth, not pushing more oil through it. We owe that to our people and the future generations,' said Trent Ouellettefrom Waste Wakpa Grassroots. Wednesday's protests were part of the Stop Billionaires Summer campaign – a series of planned civil disobedience to disrupt the tech billionaires and corporations backing the Trump administration's dismantling of democratic rights and climate action. It follows last year's summer of heat campaign targeting Citibank, another major fossil fuel funder. This year Wells Fargo is being specifically targeted by a coalition of non-profit organizations, who accuse the bank of capitulating to Trump and supporting the rise of planetary destruction, autocracy and land occupation – in the US and Gaza. In San Francisco, around 150 activists also painted a giant community mural outside the bank's headquarters with the words 'Wells Fargo Funds Genocide', pointing to the bank's investment in companies that provide tech and/or AI to the state of Israel including Palantir – which also has contracts with Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). 'Today's actions are just the beginning of a response to Wells Fargo's enabling of the rise of authoritarianism,' said Leah Redwood with the Oil and Gas Action Network, who helped organize the San Francisco protest. 'Wells Fargo is complicit in so many injustices … the climate crisis or union busting or Trump's mass deportations or the atrocities in Gaza.' Last week, protesters across the US targeted Palantir, accusing the tech company of facilitating Trump's expanding surveillance, immigration crackdown and Israel's human rights violations across the occupied Palestinian territories. Wells Fargo is among the US's largest banks, worth almost $270bn, and with more than 4,000 branches across 39 US states and territories. It is also among the biggest financiers of fossil fuels since 2021 – the year that the International Energy Agency warned the world that there could be no more fossil fuel expansion – if there was any hope of avoiding total climate catastrophe. Since then, the bank's investments in fossil fuels have topped $143bn, according to Banking on Climate Chaos. In 2021, Wells Fargo's chief executive, Charles Scharf, described the climate crisis as 'one of the most urgent environmental and social issues of our time'. In February, Wells Fargo dropped two key commitments – the sector-specific 2030 financed and facilitated emissions reductions targets and its goal to achieve net zero emissions in its lending and underwriting by 2050. At the time, the bank said: 'When we set our financed emissions goal and targets, we said that achieving them was dependent on many factors outside our control,' adding that 'many of the conditions necessary to facilitate our clients' transitions have not occurred.' The announcement comes just months after Wells Fargo quit the world's biggest climate coalition for banks – the Net-Zero Banking Alliance – followed by the rest of its US banking peers. That exodus started one month after last year's election victory for Trump. According to a recent investigation by Rolling Stone, the Texas attorney general boasted about how his office 'bullied' Wells Fargo into abandoning the alliance and other climate pledges. In addition to dropping its climate pledges, the bank has also abandoned its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals – ending policies requiring diverse candidates for senior-level roles. A summer of non-violent disruption is planned for Wells Fargo including a national day of coordinated action on 15 August, in an effort, activists say, to pressure the bank to reinstate its climate targets, stop union busting, and end its financial ties with companies accused of destroying both people and the planet. Climate activists are also preparing to support unionization efforts at the bank, where workers have already voted to unionize at 28 branches. Wells Fargo currently faces more than 30 allegations of union-busting. Wells Fargo declined to comment on the protests or any of the allegations about its investments and policies.
Japan Times
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Tighter borders bar poor nations from summits — on poor nations
Sudanese climate activist Roaa should have been leading meetings with other youth advocates at a United Nations climate conference in Germany in June. Instead, the 24-year-old was at home, having wasted hundreds of dollars and nearly two months preparing for a visa that was denied in less than 48 hours. Many of her peers, mostly from the Global North, flew into the city of Bonn without a hitch. "I was the one who was leading the whole process, but I wasn't on the ground. I cried a lot, like literally every night," said Roaa, who asked that her surname and location not be published. "Knowing everyone is there (at Bonn), but you are not there maybe because of your nationality gives you a very bad feeling, like I'm less than those people," she said from her home in the Middle East after leaving Sudan in 2023 when civil war began. Stricter border and visa rules are increasingly limiting the participation of nationals from the Global South in high-level talks that tackle climate, global health, economic systems, conflicts and other pressing issues, policy researchers say. "We are the ones who are affected the most, but we are not in the room," said Roaa, a medical student. "Most of the conferences happen in Europe and in the U.S. They are talking on behalf of us." The rejections also have an economic cost. In 2024, Africans paid some 60 million euros ($70.10 million) for rejected Schengen visa applications, up from nearly 54 million euros in 2023, according to analysis by Britain-based research group LAGO Collective. Despite its lower volume of visa applications compared to other continents, Africa had some of the highest rejection rates from the European Commission, which issues Schengen visas for short visits to the European Union, the data showed. In recent years, far-right and populist parties have made gains in places like Italy, Sweden, Germany and the U.S., fueling anti-immigrant policies across Western countries, where most global conferences are held. Underrepresented Nations most vulnerable to climate impacts, from flooding to droughts and rising seas, are often among the poorest, the least polluting and underrepresented at global talks, according to U.N. climate body, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC, which hosts the Bonn summit and November's COP30 climate conference in Brazil, said it had no sway on visa processes, but had taken steps to diversify participation at its events by boosting the quota for Global South delegates. "The major international conferences are the places where big decisions are being made with respect to global commitments," said Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou, director of politics and governance at Britain-based think-tank ODI Global. If those who are expected to implement global policies "are not at the table," it compounds the inequalities they have been campaigning to change, said Nwajiaku-Dahou. Despite providing details of her job, university studies, financial accounts and letters of support to attend the UNFCCC summit, Roaa was told she did not submit sufficient evidence to prove she would return home from Germany. Roaa said she was denied the visa even after an appeal. The European Commission said in emailed comments that cases are assessed according to the "purpose of stay, sufficient means of subsistence, and the applicants' will to return to their country of residence." 'Unfair' Ugandan HIV/AIDS youth advocate Joseph Robert Linda said he secured around $4,000 from sponsors to pay for flights, visa and hotel fees to attend last year's International AIDS Conference in Munich, Germany, only for his visa to be rejected. Linda said he was told there were "reasonable doubts" about the authenticity of his documents and his intention to leave Germany, leading to his visa refusal. "That was not fair at all to me because they gave me feedback just three to four days before the conference, so there is no way I could appeal," the 28-year-old said in a phone call. Although the majority of global diseases occur in poorer countries, where around 80% of the world's population live, only 4% of health summits were held in these regions, according to a 2021 paper by Harvard Medical School researchers that reviewed more than 100 conferences spanning three decades. Between 1997 to 2019, just 39% of health conferences analyzed had attendees from developing countries, said the study published in BMJ Global Health journal. While Linda was able to attend the conference virtually, he said that option required stable and affordable internet, something not available to people in many parts of the world. He said conference organizers should work more closely with authorities to get visas approved so more people can have their voices heard. Geneva-based group International AIDS Society (IAS), which runs the International AIDS Conference, said it has been switching its host city since 2023 after many delegates were unable to attend the year prior in Canada due to visa issues. Large conferences have to prioritize finding safe and welcoming spaces for "the most marginalized among us," an IAS spokesperson said. Sudanese medical student Saida, who was refused a visa to attend a medical workshop in Italy this month, said it was ultimately up to Global South citizens to keep demanding change. "You have to speak up ... This is a pattern that we see happening and that's something that needs to be changed," said Saida, who also asked that her surname not be published.
