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Street Roots • June 10-16, 2016
Local climate activists
PHOTO BY PFC. LEVI READ/COAST GUARD
Rail cars bum near the Columbia River Gorge after an oil train
derailment June 3 near Mosier, Ore.
plan their response
to oil train derailment
The impending ‘mass direct action’follows a global climate change campaign
led by 350.org. Its founder, Bill McKibben, is coming to Portland to speak.
PHOTO BY NANCIE BATTAGLIA
Bill McKibben is the founder of350.org, a global organization at the forefront of the climate movement. He’ll speak June 16 at the Arlene
Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland as part of of World Affairs Council of Oregon’s 2016 International Speaker Series.
BY EMILY GREEN
mammoth month for the climate change
movement
In early May, tens of thousands of climate
n the evening of June 6, more
activists
across six continents took part in
than a hundred climate activists
the most expansive global civil disobedience
met at the First Unitarian Church
action in history against the burning and
in downtown Portland to discuss
extraction
of fossil fuels in history. These
their response to the oil train derailment
in
actions followed April, the 12th consecutive
the Columbia River Gorge three days
month of record heat according to National
earlier, said 350PDX director Adriana Voss-
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Andreae.
For 12 hours, they shut down the United
“The call for a temporary moratorium on
Kingdom’s largest coal mine in Wales. In
oil trains is a call for a shred of decency for
Australia, more than a thousand protesters
the Mosier community, but it does nothing
blocked one of the world’s largest coal ports
to meet the magnitude of the problem,” she
with kayaks obstructing the harbor while
said. “If the government won’t stop the
others lay across rail crossings. In the U.S.,
bomb trains, then we must do so ourselves.
thousands marched through downtown Los
There will be a mass direct action in the
Angeles; hundreds protested at two oil
coming two weeks. We encourage all to
refineries in Washington; activists disrupted
join.”
an auction in Colorado where public lands
Details will be posted at 350.pdx.org or
were being sold for oil and natural gas
portlandrisingtide.org as they develop.
drilling; in Washington, D.C., they called on
The derailment and ensuing outrage in
the White House to stop offshore drilling;
Oregon comes on the heels of what was a
STAFF WRITER
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and in Chicago they gathered.at an oil
refinery and at the site of a 2014 oil spill at
Lake Michigan. They marched in Africa,
New Zealand, South America, Canada and
the Philippines, where 10,000 people
showed up for a march in Batangas City to
demand the closure of a coal plant
These coordinated events were all part of
a 12-day-long call to action under the banner
“Break Free” and targeted what organizers
say are the world’s most dangerous fossil
fuel projects.
Break Free was largely orchestrated by
350.org, a global organization at the
forefront of the climate movement with
roughly 40 other climate action
organizations from around the world joining
in.
Sitting on the board of 350.org is founder
and senior adviser Bill McKibben, and he’ll
be in Portland on Thursday, June 16, to give
See CLIMATE, page 5