February, 11 2015, 01:15pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michelle Chan, Friends Of The Earth U.S., (510) 900-3141, mchan@foe.org
Cindy Carr, Sierra Club, (202) 495-3034, cindy.carr@sierraclub.org
Jane Garcia, Essential Media, (028) 280-9112, jane.garcia@essentialmedia.com.au
Cindy Carr, Sierra Club, (202) 495-3034, cindy.carr@sierraclub.org
Jane Garcia, Essential Media, (028) 280-9112, jane.garcia@essentialmedia.com.au
Coalition Tells U.S. Export-Import Bank: Don't Use U.S. Dollars to Finance Coal Project that Threatens the Great Barrier Reef
Today, a coalition of scientists, business owners, Australian elected officials, and civil society groups from the U.S. and Australia--including the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth U.S.--sent a letter to U.S. Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg calling on the Bank to reject any proposal to finance Adani's massive Carmichael coal mine and associated railways and export terminals in Australia.
WASHINGTON
Today, a coalition of scientists, business owners, Australian elected officials, and civil society groups from the U.S. and Australia--including the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth U.S.--sent a letter to U.S. Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg calling on the Bank to reject any proposal to finance Adani's massive Carmichael coal mine and associated railways and export terminals in Australia. If completed, coal from Australia's Galilee Basin will be mined and transported by rail to the coast, where it will be shipped overseas through ports expanded by dredging three million tonnes of seabed from the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef. Reports indicate that Ex-Im is considering financing the project with U.S. tax dollars, contradicting the spirit of President Obama's Climate Action Plan and recent climate progress both in the U.S. and abroad.
"The Great Barrier Reef is under considerable threat from a variety of stressors including climate change, crown of thorns sea stars, and runoff from land," said Dr. Selina Ward, a prominent Queensland Reef scientist at the University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences. "The Abbot Point port expansion would considerably exacerbate this pressure. This continuing industrialisation of the GBR coastline invites reef degradation, especially from the dredging of the ocean floor, the dumping of the dredge spoil and the enormous increase in carbon emissions from the proposed coal mines."
The recent January 31 election in the State of Queensland saw the biggest swing against a first term government in Australia since 1955. Many Queenslanders rejected the sitting government due to their support for the Galilee Basin coal mines and associated port facilities and their impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. The Greens achieved their highest ever Queensland election result, and Labor is now forming a government, after that party pledged to prevent any dredge spoil from being dumped in the World Heritage Area or nearby wetlands and to reverse the billions in tax breaks and tax dollar support the previous government promised Adani.
"Queenslanders clearly do not accept the government's destruction of the Reef," said Greens Senator Larissa Waters of Queensland. "The Queensland Government's plans to industrialise the Reef threaten to destroy one of the most precious places on earth, through dredging, shipping and climate change. We call on the U.S. Ex-Im Bank to reject any requests for financing of the Abbot Point expansion or associated rail and mine infrastructure. U.S. taxpayer dollars should not be subsidising the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef."
And while Ex-Im is considering backing the project, major financial institutions -- including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Credit Agricole, and JPMorgan Chase -- have publicly rejected the proposal not only for jeopardizing the Reef's World Heritage status, but because reports show the project is not financially viable.
On top of that, this decision by Ex-Im would come on the heels of significant U.S. climate leadership domestically and abroad. But progress -- including the U.S.-China emissions reduction deal, a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund, and recent climate and clean energy progress in the President's FY2016 budget -- would be undermined by Ex-Im financing the Carmichael project.
"Chairman Hochberg should refuse to provide financing to any project that would harm the precious Great Barrier Reef," said Friends of the Earth U.S. President Erich Pica. "To do otherwise would contradict President Obama's call to protect this special place for his daughters and grandchildren and his State of the Union address, at which he called climate change the biggest threat to future generations."
"The fact is that this disastrous project would damage a world treasure like the Great Barrier Reef while making our climate crisis even worse. The notion that Ex-Im would use American taxpayer dollars to support it is unconscionable," said John Coequyt, director of the Sierra Club's International Climate Program. "If the Export-Import bank puts a single U.S. dollar towards funding this project, it is literally financing the destruction of one of the great natural wonders of the world."
Signers of the letter include:
Kirsty Albion, Co-Director, Australian Youth Climate Coalition
Sue Arnold, Coordinator, Australians for Animals
Darren Kindleysides, Director, Australian Marine Conservation Society
Paul Oosting, Projects Chief of Staff, GetUp!
Blair Palese, CEO, 350 Australia
David Ritter, CEO, Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Ellen Roberts, Coordinator, Mackay Conservation Group
Wendy Tubman, Coordinator, North Queensland Conservation Council
Julien Vincent, Lead Campaigner, Market Forces
Cam Walker, National Liaison Office, Friends of the Earth Australia
Glenn Walker, Acting CEO, The Wilderness Society Australia
Lindsey Allen, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
May Boeve, Executive Director, 350.org
Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club
Leda Huta, Executive Director, Endangered Species Coalition
Alex Levinson, Executive Director of Pacific Environment
Erich Pica, President, Friends of the Earth -- U.S.
Kieran Suckling, Executive Director, Center for Biological Diversity
Kathryn Kelly, Documentary Director, The Inertia Trap
Keith Roberts, Business Owner, Whitsunday Catamarans, Sailing Whitsundays, and KDR Investments
Helen Sheehy, Manager, Southern Cross Sailing Adventures and
Australian Tall Ship Adventures, Airlie Beach
Ken Sharpe, Business Owner, Aqua Dive, Airlie Beach
Asher Telford, Business Owner, Tongarra, Airlie Beach
Steve Edmondson, Owner Operator, Sailaway, Port Douglas
Dirk Werner-Lutrop, Director, Diverson Dive and Travel, Cairns
John Edmondson, Director, Wavelength, Port Douglas
Heather Batrick, Owner Operator , Yongala Dive , Ayr
John and Linda Rumney, Owners, Eye to Eye Marine Encounters, Port Douglas
Heidi Taylor, Managing Director, Tangaroa Blue Foundation, Port Douglas
Sandra Williams, Treasurer, Whitsunday Residents Against Dumping, Airlie Beach
Deborah Brown, Owner, Airlie Beach Travel and Tours, Airlie Beach
Tony Brown, Owner, True Blue Sailing, Airlie Beach
Jan & Peter Claxton, Owner/operator, Ocean Safari Cape Tribulation, Cape Tribulation
Tony Fontes, Director, Order of Underwater Coral Heroes (OUCH), Airlie Beach
Professor Terry Hughes, Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
Daniel Kammen, Professor of Energy, Energy and Resources Group and Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Selina Ward, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland
Senator Christine Milne, Senator for Tasmania
Senator Scott Ludlam, Senator for Western Australia
Senator Janet Rice, Senator for Victoria
Senator Lee Rhiannon, Senator for New South Wales
Senator Rachel Siewert, Senator for Western Australia
Senator Larissa Waters, Senator for Queensland
Senator Penny Wright, Senator for South Australia
Senator Richard Di Natale, Senator for Victoria
Read the letter here.
The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 2.4 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
"It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," explained one critic.
Apr 18, 2024
Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
In a 273-147 vote last week, House lawmakers passed RISAA, including an amendment critics say dramatically expands the government's unchecked surveillance authority by compelling a wide range of individuals and organizations—including businesses and the media—to cooperate in government spying operations.
This so-called "Make Everyone a Spy" clause would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to "immediately provide... all information, facilities, or assistance" the government deems necessary.
"This bill would basically allow the government to institute a spy draft," Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned Thursday. "It will lead to significant distrust between journalists and sources, not to mention everyone else."
"It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," he added. "Regardless of whether the end target of the surveillance is a foreigner, it's indisputable that the people the government can enlist to conduct the surveillance are Americans. And what's more, these civilians ordered to spy would be gagged and sworn to secrecy under the law."
In addition to the "Make Everyone a Spy" provision, civil libertarians have sounded the alarm over the House lawmakers' rejection of an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the legislation.
Critics accuse Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) of trying to rush a vote on RISAA while disingenuously claiming Section 702's powers will expire with the law on Friday. That's a misleading claim, as a national security court earlier this month approved the government's request to continue a disputed surveillance program even if Section 702 lapses.
"There is simply no defense of Majority Leader Schumer and Sen. Warner's duplicity," Sean Vitka, policy director at the progressive advocacy group Demand Progress, said in a statement. "House Intelligence Committee leaders poisoned this bill with one of the most repugnant surveillance expansions in history, and apparently the administration was too busy attacking commonsense privacy protections to notice. They know it, we know it, and now the American people know it."
"There can be no mistake: Sens. Schumer and Warner just helped hand the next president an unspeakably dangerous weapon that will be used against their own constituents," Vitka added. "And there is only one vote left to stop it."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
said earlier this week that the bill would dragoon the American people into becoming "an agent for Big Brother"—on Thursday argued that "this issue demands a debate about meaningful reforms, not a rushed vote to rubber-stamp more warrantless government surveillance powers."
In an attempt to tackle the warrantless surveillance issue, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Thursday proposed a RISAA amendment that would require the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing Americans' private communications.
However, the amendment contains exceptions to the warrant requirement in the event of unspecified emergencies and cyberattacks.
"If the government wants to spy on the private communications of Americans, they should be required to get approval from a judge—just as our Founders intended," Durbin said in a statement. "Congress has a responsibility to the American people to get this right."
The Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies vehemently oppose the Durbin-Cramer amendment. The White House called the measure "a reckless policy choice contrary to the key lessons of 9/11 and not grounded in any constitutional requirement or statute."
"The amendment outright bars the government from gaining access to lawfully collected information using terms associated with U.S. persons," the administration added. "Exceptions to that prohibition are narrow and unworkable. They are insufficient to protect our national security."
On Wednesday, the House also passed the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, which would prohibit the government from buying Americans' information from data brokers if it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain the data, which includes location and internet records. The Senate will now take up FANFSA.
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'The Opposite of Leadership': US Vetoes Palestine's UN Membership
Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations said the resolution's failure "will not break our will, and it will not defeat our determination."
Apr 18, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday used the country's veto power at the United Nations Security Council to block Palestine's bid to become a full member of the U.N.
While 12 nations voted in favor of Palestinian membership and two abstained, the United States is one of five countries—along with China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom—who have veto authority at the Security Council.
Since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has said is a "plausibly" genocidal assault of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led October attack, the Biden administration has blocked three cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council. Under mounting global pressure, the U.S. finally abstained last month, allowing a cease-fire measure to pass.
In the lead-up to Thursday's vote, the Biden administration was pressuring other countries to oppose the Palestinian Authority's renewed membership effort so it could possibly avoid a veto, according to leaked cables obtained by The Intercept.
"Take a moment to ponder how isolated Biden has made the U.S.," said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, after the veto. "Biden lobbied Japan, South Korea, and Ecuador HARD to oppose the Palestine resolution so that the U.S. wouldn't have to veto. They refused. So Biden cast his fourth veto in seven months (!!) This is the opposite of leadership."
In addition to the nations Parsi highlighted, Algeria, China, France, Guyana, Malta, Mozambique, Russia, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia voted for giving Palestine full U.N. membership while Switzerland and the United Kingdom abstained.
After the vote, U.N. Newsreported on remarks from Riyad Mansour, a U.N. permanent observer for the state of Palestine:
"We came to the Security Council today as an important historic moment, regionally and internationally, so that we could salvage what can be saved. We place you before a historic responsibility to establish the foundations of a just and comprehensive peace in our region."
Council members were given the opportunity "to revive the hope that has been lost among our people" and to translate their commitment towards a two-state solution into firm action "that cannot be maneuvered or retracted," and the majority of council members "have risen to the level of this historic moment, and they have stood on the side of justice and freedom and hope, in line with the ethical and humanitarian and legal principles that must govern our world and in line with simple logic."
"The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will, and it will not defeat our determination," Mansour added. "We will not stop in our effort. The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real. Perhaps they see it as far away, but we see it as near, and we are the faithful."
Parsi said that "a Western-friendly senior Global South diplomat" told him of Biden's veto: "Whatever agonizing claim the U.S. had to lead a self-appointed free world has died a very loud public death on the Security Council horseshoe tonight. YOU CAN'T LEAD IF YOU CAN'T LISTEN."
Biden, a Democrat seeking reelection in November, has faced fierce criticism in the United States and around the world for U.S. complicity in Israel's war on Gaza—which Hamas, not the Palestinian Authority, has controlled for nearly two decades. In under seven months, Israeli forces have killed 33,970 Palestinians, injured another 76,770, displaced most of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million population, devastated civilian infrastructure, and severely limited the flow of lifesaving humanitarian assistance.
Israel—which already got $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid before October 7—continues to receive weapons support from the Biden administration, even as a growing chorus of critics, including some Democrats in Congress, argues that the arms transfers violate U.S. and international law.
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'Shameful': Columbia Greenlights Police Crackdown on Anti-War Encampment
Even after dozens of students were arrested, hundreds "rushed to take the place of their classmates" and continued the protest.
Apr 18, 2024
The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest," chanted hundreds of students as they marched around the area where organizers had set up a tent encampment early Wednesday morning.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
Pro-Palestinian students and alumni have demanded that Columbia divest from companies that profit from Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and cancel its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University.
In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
On Thursday, police and Columbia employees took down about 50 tents that had been up for more than a day and disposed of them in trash cans and alleyways—but The New York Times reported later that "demonstrators repitched a couple of tents, and ... recovered the main signage from the encampment as well," while hundreds of students were "still gathered and chanting on the south side of the grass."
The arrests came a day after Shafik testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce about antisemitism on campus.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the Barnard students who were suspended on Thursday for participating in the encampment protest, questioned Shafik about whether antisemitic protests have actually taken place at Columbia, prompting the president to say there have not.
"There has been a rise in targeting and harassment against anti-war protesters, because it's been pro-war and anti-war protesters is what it seems, like, correct?" asked Omar.
"Correct," replied Shafik.
On Thursday, Omar posted on social media two images of protesters at Columbia: one from the encampment this week, and one from 1968, when students protested the U.S. war in Vietnam.
New York City Council member Tiffany Cabán was among those who condemned the university's crackdown on the protests on Thursday.
"Suspending and arresting Columbia/Barnard student activists and disbanding student organizations—including Jewish students and organizations—doesn't combat antisemitism or increase safety," said Cabán. "All it does is punish and intimidate those who believe in human rights for Palestinians. Shameful."
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