Charlotte Teach-In: “We can no longer afford to stand still like we’re not a part of this planet.”

Last night, Saint Matthew’s Catholic Church in Charlotte graciously hosted a panel discussion on “Communities and Coal.” We were lucky to hear from panelists from communities impacted by coal in Appalachia and the Pacific Northwest, as well as from experts on the health consequences of climate change and the growing impacts of coal on communities [...]

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Extreme Investments: 2013 Coal Finance Report Card

Today, RAN, Sierra Club, and BankTrack launched our 2013 Coal Finance Report Card. This year’s report, entitled “Extreme Investments: U.S. Banks and the Coal Industry” evaluates the largest U.S. banks in terms of their financing of companies engaged in coal extraction, transport, and combustion. As our title indicates, coal has become an extreme investment. Long [...]

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Cargill Dead Set On Plantation Expansion; Orphaned Orangutan Calls on CEO Gregory Page in Wayzata, MN.

Meet Uttuh. She’s an orphaned Sumatran Orangutan who lost her forest home when it was destroyed for palm oil. Today she reached out to Cargill CEO Gregory Page at his headquarters in Wayzata, Minnesota for help. She’s got nowhere to go and hardly a limb to stand on. Uttuh’s treetop protest is just the latest [...]

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Dear Exxon, We’re Sick of Your Spin Machine. With No Love, America.

Is anyone else paying attention to the tweets that Exxon-Mobil have posted following the aftermath of the Mayflower, Arkansas oil spill? Frustratingly—and not surprisingly—Exxon has issued a hollow apology “for the inconvenience” to the town of Mayflower for spilling over 80,000 gallons of oil that cascaded through the streets of this small town last Friday: [...]

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Divestistas: From Opposition to Resistance

I had the great privilege of representing Rainforest Action Network at the student-led Power Up! Divest Fossil Fuels Convergence. Hosted by Swarthmore Mountain Justice, students from around the country gathered for conversations about movement culture and strategy. I was thrilled to find myself amidst a dynamic and emergent group that asked all the right questions: [...]

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“It’s Easier to Mine Coal Without People Around.”

RAN’s latest Coal Risk Update highlights the potential human rights impacts of a planned mountaintop removal mine in Blair, West Virginia. Blair Mountain is a national treasure: The mountain is the site of arguably the most important post-Civil War battlefield in the US. Currently, Arch Coal plans to build a mine that would destroy the [...]

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From the Local To the Global: Why We Must Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

“Now that we have seen what the Tar Sands in Alberta looks like, this is not about the pipeline going through our farm. This is about Alberta, about the world. ” This week tens of thousands of people have arrived in Washington D.C. to defend the climate and demonstrate their opposition to the Keystone XL [...]

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Tell Banks to Stop Financing the Destruction of Blair Mountain

A Guest Blog by Brandon Nida, Organizer—Blair Mountain Heritage Alliance Many people have not heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain, let alone a place called Adkins Fork in Logan County, West Virginia. But in 1921, the Adkins Fork area was the scene of an intense battle between miners attempting to organize and a private army [...]

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Students Urge Bank of America Chairman to “Walk the Talk” on Sustainability

On Saturday, December 15, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville will award Bank of America chairman Charles Holliday an honorary doctorate, citing his leadership in business sustainability. A graduate of UTK, Mr. Holliday has made a career as a corporate advocate for sustainable business; in 2002, he co-authored a book titled “Walking the Talk” which detailed [...]

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Grassy Narrows Celebrates 10 Years of Historic Blockade

On December 2, 2002 the Indigenous youth of the Grassy Narrows First Nation lay down in the path of industrial logging machines—blocking access to their tribal homeland in Northern Ontario, Canada. The action, led by women and youth, sparked the longest standing Indigenous logging blockade in North America. Since 2004, RAN has worked closely with [...]

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