12-27-19—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—JANE FONDA WILL BE JOINED BY LILY TOMLIN & MORE FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AT THE 12th “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 12th Successive Fire Drill Friday Civil Disobedience Action…JANE FONDA WILL BE JOINED BY LILY TOMLIN & CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTSFOR RALLY & CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AT THE STEPS OF THE U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING
This Week’s Focus is the Way Climate Change Damages Our Forests,the “Lungs of the World” that Produce 20% of the Planet’s Oxygen
Jane Fonda’s 12th “Fire Drill Friday” focuses on the way climate change damages the world’s forests, suppliers of 20% of Earth’s oxygen.
Forests help us flight the climate crisis. We have to fight to save our forests that are being cut down and burned to make way for cattle grazing, mono-culture planting of soy and palm oil trees, among other crops.
-Jane Fonda
This week’s civil disobedience will be at the steps of 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 the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building where many will commit civil disobedience and risk arrest.
Hana Heineken works at Rainforest Action Network to hold banks and investors accountable for their impacts on rainforests, the climate, and human rights. She has years of experience working on forest-risk supply chains and the financial sector, with expertise on the Japanese market.
Gaurav Madan is Senior Forests and Land Campaigner at Friends of the Earth US. He advocates for investors and financial institutions to stop financing climate chaos through deforestation, land grabbing, and human rights abuses. He works toward the recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities land rights. Gaurav is also a migrant justice organizer in Washington, DC with Sanctuary DMV.
Rolando Navarro is a Renewable Natural Resources engineer with a specialty in Forestry. Navarro has extensive experience in the Peruvian Amazon promoting the legal trade of forest products. He has more than 15 years of experience working with the government, the private sector, and environmental organizations managing natural resources, public policies, and indigenous community participation, through the responsible management of forests, forest restoration projects, and legal compliance auditing. Before joining CIEL, Navarro served as the Executive President of the Agency for the Supervision of Forest Resources and Wildlife in Peru. For his audacity in challenging the network of illegal timber mafias, Rolando and his family have been the target of threats and retaliation. In 2016, Rolando was dismissed from his position at OSINFOR and has since had to seek exile in the United States. Now, Rolando is continuing his work protecting Peru’s Amazonian forests from his new base in Washington, DC, as a fellow at CIEL.
Rolf Skar is a Senior Campaign Strategist for Greenpeace USA. As the organization’s former Forests Director, he has more than 20 years’ experience working on campaigns to protect forests, from tree-sits in old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest to the halls of the United Nations. He has contributed to award-winning campaigns to build solutions to deforestation in Indonesia, the Brazilian Amazon, the Congo Basin and the Canadian boreal forest.
Lily Tomlin is an American actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer.
“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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