1-10-20—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—JANE FONDA WILL BE JOINED BY JOAQUIN PHOENIX, MARTIN SHEEN, JUNE DIANE RAPHAEL, SUSAN SARANDON & MORE FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AT THE 14th “FIRE DRILL FRIDAY"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, December 27, 2019
CONTACT
Ira Arlook
c: 202-258-5437
e: ira@iraarlook.com
Location
Rally: Southeast lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building, across from the Library of Congress and near intersection of First St & Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC.
FIRE DRILL FRIDAYS CALL FOR FAST ACTION ON A GREEN NEW DEAL & AN END TO ALL NEW FOSSIL FUEL EXPLORATION/EXTRACTION & TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES TO OIL COMPANIES
Message
“Our House is on Fire”
We need Immediate Action for a Green New Deal--Clean Renewable Energy by 2030 & No New Exploration for and Extraction of Fossil Fuels.
On 14th & Final DC Fire Drill Friday Civil Disobedience Action…JANE FONDA WILL BE JOINED BY ACTORS JOAQUIN PHOENIX, MARTIN SHEEN, JUNE DIANE RAPHAEL, SUSAN SARANDON, MODEL AMBER VALLETTA, 350.ORG LEADER BILL MCKIBBEN,AUTHOR NAOMI KLEIN & CLIMATE ACTIVISTS FOR RALLY & CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AT U.S. CAPITOL
This Week’s Focus is on the Major Banks and Investorsthat Finance Fossil Fuel Exploration, Drilling, Refining & ExportPLUSAn Announcement of Plans for the Future of Fire Drill Fridays
Investments in the expansion of the fossil fuel industry and their suppliers which banks like J.P. Morgan Chase and asset management firms like BlackRock are heavily into, can only be described as 'suicide investments.' Their days are numbered
-Jane Fonda
This week’s civil disobedience will be near the U.S. Capitol Building.
Jane Fonda will be joined at every “Fire Drill Friday” through early January by celebrities, scientists, economists and people from impacted communities who will speak and some of whom will invite arrest.
Every Thursday night (7pm ET) she will moderate a live-streamed teach-in with the next day’s speakers who will discuss the specific climate change issue that is the focus of that week’s event.
Inspired by the growing movement of young climate strikers, Fonda decided to move to the nation’s capital for four months to take up their baton. The effort aims to spur action to avert what the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calls irreversible climate disaster if atmospheric CO2 warms the planet by another 1.5 to 2 degrees Centigrade in the next 11 years.
This week, Fire Drill Fridays speakers (see list below) begin at 11AM at the Southeast Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building. They and Jane Fonda will then join the people assembled and walk to an area near the U.S. Capitol Building where many will commit civil disobedience and risk arrest.
Rebecca Adamson is an American Cherokee businessperson and advocate. She is former director, former president, and founder of First Nations Development Institute and the founder of First Peoples Worldwide
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a Dënesųłiné woman (ts'ékui), member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and mother of two, coming from a family of Indigenous rights advocates fighting for the recognition, sovereignty and autonomy of their Indigenous lands and territory in what is now known as Treaty 8, Canada.
Omekongo Dibinga is the UPstander. He is a motivational speaker, diversity consultant, poet, and positive rapper. His work has appeared on radio and television from CNN to the BBC in over 150 countries. He is the host of the TV talk show "Real Talk," which looks at issues facing youth across the globe.
Tara Houska- (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is a tribal attorney, co-founder of the Giniw Collective, former Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. She spent six months on the frontlines fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and is currently engaged in the movement to defund fossil fuels and a years-long struggle against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline. She is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a non-profit committed to eradicating Native stereotyping. She has given a TED talk, a keynote at Harvard, received an “Awesome Women Award” from Melinda Gates, and was named an “Icon” on the cover of Outside Magazine’s 40th Anniversary edition. Tara has contributed to the Guardian, Huffington Post, Indian Country Today and been featured on CNN, National Geographic, MSNBC, CBS, Democracy Now, and BBC.
Annie Leonard is the Executive Director of Greenpeace USA an independent environmental organization which uses research, creative communication, non-violent direct action and people-power to advance environmental solutions. Prior to this role, she was the Founder of the Story of Stuff Project and author ofThe Story of Stuff. In December 2007, Annie released The Story of Stuff, a hit 20-minute web-film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the often hidden environmental and social costs of our consumer driven culture. The Story of Stuff has generated over 40 million views in more than 200 countries and territories since its launch, making it one of the most watched online environmental-themed films to date.
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages; he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement. The Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.” A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books,National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors . In 2014, biologists honored him by naming a new species of woodland gnat— Megophthalmidia mckibbeni--in his honor.
Joaquin Phoenix- is an actor and producer. He has received several accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for three Academy Awards.
June Diane Raphel is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. She starred in TV comedy programs like Burning Love and Grace and Frankie. Notable film work includes supporting roles in Year One and Unfinished Business, as well as her 2013 Sundance film Ass Backwards, which she co-wrote and starred in with her creative partner Casey Wilson. She also co-hosts the movie discussion podcast How Did This Get Made? alongside Jason Mantzoukas and her husband Paul Scheer.
Susan Sarandon is an American actress and activist. She has received an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards.
Martin Sheen- is an american actor and activist. He stars with Jane in Grace and Frankie making him the final starring member to attend a Fire Drill Fridays.
Tasina Sapa Win Smith is Itazipco, Mnicojou and Hunkpapa Lakota of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and a direct descendant of Chief Gall. She is a full-time Indian Law student, a mother to a beautiful 8 year-old boy, a former Lakota youth mentor, and a frontline environmental and social justice grassroots activist fighting against the Keystone XL pipeline, Dakota Access Pipeline, and uranium mining in her ancestral homelands for numerous years and continue to do so to this day.
Kat Taylor works in service of restoring social justice and environmental well-being. Kat is active in a variety of social enterprises, public benefit and philanthropic ventures on the West Coast. Currently, she serves as Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Beneficial State Bank, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) whose mission is to bring beneficial banking to low-income communities in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner.
Amber Valletta is an American fashion model and actress. She began her career as a fashion model, landing her first of sixteen American Vogue covers at the age of eighteen.
“Fire Drill Fridays” calls on all Americans to vote, speak and act in support of the demands listed below and aligned with those of the youth-led climate strikers strikewithus.org
VOTE: for the climate in every election up and down the ballot. Vote for candidates who are in favor of a Green New Deal and a bold and responsible transition from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy.
SPEAK: to candidates or elected officials. Tell them that climate can't wait. Call them, sign petitions and go to their town halls. Write letters to the editor of your local paper. Put your money where your mouth is: divest from fossil fuel companies and invest in a sustainable future.
ACT: Join an organization working for real climate solutions. March, protest and recruit your friends to join. Listen and show up for communities most impacted by climate change and, if you can, put your body on the line.
DEMANDS
A Green New Deal
· Transform our economy to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 and phase out all fossil fuel extraction through a just and equitable transition, creating millions of good jobs
· A halt to all leasing and permitting for fossil fuel extraction, processing and infrastructure projects immediately in order to avoid a lock-in of increased emissions as we work together for a responsible transition to clean, renewable energy.
Respect of Indigenous Land and Sovereignty
· Honor the treaties protecting Indigenous lands, waters, and sovereignty by the immediate halt of all construction, leasing and permitting for resource extraction, processing and infrastructure projects affecting or on Indigenous lands
· Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people
Environmental Justice
· A transition that invests in prosperity for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution
· Welcoming those displaced by the cumulative effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, violence, and lack of opportunity
Protection and Restoration of Biodiversity
· Protection and restoration of at least 30% of the world's lands and oceans including a halt to all deforestation by 2030
Implementation of Sustainable Agriculture
· Investment in farmers and regenerative agriculture and an end to subsidies for industrial agriculture.
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