Announcements

The Biketour - the project for everyone interested in do-it-yourself (”diy”) environmentalism, culture, nature, community life and the art of travelling without engines - the exact opposite of an all-inclusive flight to the beach!

Moving all our stuff by sheer pedal power, we create an eco-mobile community building up strong connections between participants coming from different cultures and groups, as well as between ourselves and our hosts.

7th of July 2009 we will start cycling from Macedonia to Croatia, crossing Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We plan to start our tour on the Belgrade-Skopje train(!), and we will reach the MuM festival in Croatia, 28th of August.

In ihrer jüngsten Onlinekampagne (www.bundjugend.de/protest) fordert die Jugend im Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUNDjugend) Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel auf, Verantwortung bei den UN-Klimaverhandlungen in Bonn (Juni) und Kopenhagen (Dezember) zu übernehmen und sich für folgende Forderungen stark zu machen:

The great mother goddess is manifest as the planet earth.  Her parts are the natural components that form the earth.  The oceans, rivers, forests, mountains, deserts, sky, and all resources such as coal, oil, and metals are aspects of her.  It is a fact that to take action in the spirit of environmental ecodefense is to perform devotional service.  One may consider it to be a spiritual duty to defend the earth.

Global warming has melted away glaciers.  In India, the Gangotri glacier is a source for the Ganges River, which is intimately intertwined with spiritual traditions dating back to the time of the Rishis, composers of the Vedas.  Ecodefense is recognized on the subcontinent as spiritual work.  Writers Vandana Shiva and Arundhati Roy offer many examples.

Good people, please understand that climate change is a natural cyclical pattern of a living breathing Earth. The planet warms and cools according to her own cycles, and currently she is coming into her water cycle. We indigenous peoples know this, have always known this, and are not afraid of her movements.

As you may know, Global Justice Ecology Project's newest initiative is New Voices on Climate Change, the goal of which is to broaden the climate debate by amplifying the voices of peoples around the world who are already being impacted by climate change.

Action Guidelines

We will be gathering at 1:00pm on March 2nd, at the Spirit of Justice Park in Washington DC (C St SW & Capitol St SE). It is near the Capitol South Metro, and there will be greeters available to direct people. From there, we will march just a few blocks to the power plant.

Art Not Oil stands for 'creativity, climate justice and an end to oil industry sponsorship of the arts'.

Our 2009 online gallery - our sixth - is up and running, so
if you have something to submit, please send us a small-ish photo,
description or recording*.

We'll let you know pretty soon whether it'll be going in. Unfortunately we
aren't able to pay you, but the copyright remains absolutely yours.

Please also send any web or other info you'd like to have displayed
beneath your piece.

The Shell's Wild Lie exhibition will continue online and on tour through
2009, so send work you think might be appropriate for that. And anything
for a long-threatened BP gallery, since BP must be feeling left out at all

The government offers a grant of 50% for charities, schools, and the public sector to install renewable energy.  However, only half of the money has been allocated and the government has announced it will close all applications in June 2009.

Shockingly, the projects must go through 'Framework Suppliers' to be eligible for the grants, and the government selected British Gas and E.ON to supply the grants!  Why has E.ON, which is building new coal power plants, been given the contracts for supplying renewables to charities?  And British Gas, that great bastion of rising gas bills, how can they be trusted to effectively install renewable technologies that will lower their profits in the long term?