Learn More at the Mobilization for Climate Justice Website! http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/ Saturday August 15th, 2009 Richmond BART (16th St & MacDonald Avenue) 11:30am Festival/Rally, followed by 1pm March on Chevron oil refinery Followed by a nonviolent civil disobedience protest at the refinery Organized by the Mobilization for Climate Justice – West Phone/email: 510 550 2836, mcjbay@gmail.com Website: http://actforclimatejustice.org/west Join us to protest * Chevron’s polluting oil refinery in Richmond * Chevron and oil industry expansions - killing people and planet for profit * Chevron and Big Oil standing in the way of solutions to climate change Join us to support * A cap on the expansion of crude oil * Local communities in their struggle against Chevron * Environmental justice, public health, and worker safety * Climate solutions that embrace community alternatives and green jobs We will gather near the Richmond BART station for a festival/rally at 11:30am on August 15th, with live music, performance, and food. At 1pm, we will begin marching towards the Chevron oil refinery, where there will be the opportunity to participate in non-violent civil disobedience against the refinery. This action marks the launch of the Mobilization for Climate Justice whose goal is to empower community-based activists and networks to lead a global movement in confronting the root causes of climate change at home, while defining self-determination pathways for a new energy economy. In the greater Bay Area, the Mobilization for Climate Justice West is organizing a series of demonstrations and educational events to generate “street heat” around climate justice in the lead-up to the international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December. Why Chevron? Chevron is the largest corporation in California and the fifth largest corporation in the world. Its Richmond refinery, one of the oldest in the country, is the largest industrial polluter in the San Francisco Bay Area, releasing nearly 100,000 pounds of toxic waste a year, including known human carcinogens and asthma-causing pollutants. The refinery is now, and has been, listed as in "high priority violation" of air compliance standards, among other violations, by the EPA every year since at least 2006. In Richmond, 17,000 people live within three miles of the refinery, and Richmond’s childhood asthma rates are higher state and national averages. Chevron is trying to expand this refinery to process heavier crude oil. Refining heavier and dirtier crude will result in more air pollution and disease in the local community. Heavy crude production also contributes 2 to 3 times more climate pollution than conventional oil. Chevron’s oil extraction activities are decimating communities and ecosystems around the world, including Indigenous Peoples communities in Canada, Nigeria, Ecuador, Burma, Chad, Angola and Alaska. What is climate justice? Climate justice is the understanding that the urgent action needed to prevent climate change must be based on community-led solutions and the well-being of local communities, indigenous peoples, and the global poor – as opposed to corporate-led schemes such as clean coal, nuclear, industrial biofuels and carbon trading. The goals of the climate justice movement are to: * Build awareness of the complete spectrum of human and ecological impacts associated with the polluting energy industries responsible for the climate crisis. * Build public opposition to false, corporate and market-based solutions as well as to the corporate domination of climate policy arenas. * Prompt urgent grassroots, community-based action to stop the largest corporate climate polluters and start a just transition towards clean, safe and equitable energy futures. * Strengthen and bring together the voices of Indigenous and frontline communities and workers, so that all solutions to the climate crisis are rooted in the public interest. What You Can Do * Join the Mobilization for Climate Justice West! * Help us organize events leading up to August 15 and on to Copenhagen! * Come out on August 15! Bring you friends, colleagues, and family! * Learn more by visiting our Website: http://actforclimatejustice.org/west Mobilization for Climate Justice West is a collaborative effort of: * Art in Action * Asian-Pacific Environmental Network * Bay Localize * Communities for a Better Environment * Direct Action to Stop the War * Earth First! * Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative * Forest Ethics * Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives * Global Exchange * Global Justice and Ecology Project * Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice * Greenpeace * Headrush * International Forum on Globalization * Justice in Nigeria Now! * Movement Generation * Rainforest Action Network * Richmond Progressive Alliance * Ruckus Society * Rising Tide North America * West County Toxics Coalition * 350.org