ACTION ALERT

Join Peaceful Uprising and a team of Survivaballs in kicking off our boycott of Snowbird Resort.  Pass out fliers, help support the Survivaballs and pull some stunts on the slopes.

Friday January 8, 2010

10:30am

Meet at the Little Cottonwood Canyon Park and Ride Lot
 

Dress warmly, we will be out for 3-4 hours. Bring your skis/snowboards if you want to participate in the stunts. We will be hiking up the hill, not riding the lift, so plan accordingly.  Email jessi.a.carrier@gmail.com for more information.

WHY BOYCOTT SNOWBIRD?

Snowbird owner Dick Bass is threatening the future of the ski industry by investing in the largest proposed coal strip mine in Alaska, the Chuitna mine.  The mine would destroy salmon fisheries, pollute streams, and decimate forests while significantly contributing to climate change. Beyond being environmentally barbaric, investing in a coal mine is a glaring contradiction for someone who owns a ski resort, and who claims to value environmental sustainability.

We don't want this mine to succeed, and putting pressure on Bass is the way we can make a difference.  We have chosen to boycott Snowbird resort until Bass agrees to disinvest in the mine.  We are encouraging skiers and snowboarders to patronize other resorts, and for Snowbird season pass holders to commit to not buying passes in the future. 
 

Hello Peaceful Uprisers!  It is good to be stateside again.

You may know that I went to Copenhagen to attend/participate in/keep an eye on the UNFCCC 15th Council of the Parties -- or COP15 --  climate summit. It was one of the most intense, whirlwind experiences of my life, and I was there for over 20 days, so I won't even try to relate ALL of the things I did there in one post, but upon request, I will share some of the highlights, and hopefully provide some inspiration for your own activism.

As far as the political why and how of the failure of COP15 -- well, that is a really long story that will be included in next month's issue. In a nutshell, COP15 failed because of 3 main reasons: 1) There aren't enough people "taking it to the streets" (particularly in the USA) and making it clear that survival is non-negotiable. This country never changes without a mass movement of citizens DEMANDING it, and the clean energy shift will be no exception. This apathy is partly due to the so-called "big green" groups like NRDC and WWF that are not telling the truth about how they are falling short of what is needed to create a survival future.  2) There is a lack of leadership, ownership, and foresight on this planet (consider the main debate: on one hand, we have the annihilation of 1000's of species, entire SOCIETIES of people, and an uninhabitable planet for our children. On the other, we might have to pay 15 or 20 dollars more a month on our utilities. And its a nail-biter? Our priorities are wacked! And 3) Corporations and their profit equations own our political leaders and many of our minds. See, healthy planetary change is not as profitable as the status-quo, and politicians vote along donor lines more so than public opinion polls. Of the People and By the People has been hijacked by special interests.

Ah, that brings up a good story about corporate influence. Coca Cola was the main sponsor of "Hopenhagen", which was the unscrupulous PR campaign commissioned by the UN to turn the main square of the city of Copenhagen into a concert space, media hub, and  all-around feel-good marketing opportunity venue.  Billboards lined the square with soft messages of hope (as in, we hope that our leaders will do what is needed, instead of making them do what is needed  [an admission of helplessness]), and all over town, Coca-Cola had saturated public space with "A Bottle of Hope" posters.

I spent most of my time with The Yes Men and their small crew, putting together elaborate shenanigans and being ready to participate should shenanigans find us. One day, I arrived at HQ (an art gallery downtown that we were using as a workshop) where people were talking about what we could do to expose Coke for their hypocrisy (Coke is the kind of corporation that executes labor organizers and destroys villages and uses more water that you could ever imagine, to name just a few things). So we hatched a plan, clapped our hands together, kicked it into overdrive, and 4 hours later we had written and sent out a press release to the major outlets covering "Hopenhagen", compiled a list of talking points about Coke's greatest crimes, and thrown together a fake commercial that was intended to project onto the gigantic globe in the middle of the square. Off to the corporate festival we went. Here's what we did:

Mike (the Yes Man) and Laurel (a Yes Woman) took on the persona's of Coke executives who were so fed up with their company's outright lies that they were calling the media to announce that they had written and taken a pledge to never drink Coke again. With the cameras rolling, group after group of Hopenhagen-goers took the pledge (I went first of course, acting like a passer-by). While outside, on a globe the size of a medium-sized house, an old Coca-Cola commercial came on, with the fuzzy polar bears (do you remember them?) interlaced with footage of real polar bears drowning. In that special cursive font that Coke uses, instead of saying "Always Coca Cola" it read, "Never Coca Cola".

That was just one afternoon/evening.  Things were happening every day!  The point of that story is that a group like Peaceful Uprising and The Yes Men don't wait around and wait for permission from a board of directors before we act. And when we act, we move to expose the truth creatively, nonviolently, and powerfully.

I'll give you another example of how creative, intelligent protest can make a difference. Early in the trip, I managed to get a badge for access to the "Fresh Air Center", which was a cavernous cafe in downtown Copenhagen that had been transformed into THE off-site media hub for journalists to use. A live feed was constantly streaming into the room from the plenary at the Bella Center (where the COP15 was actually being held), and computers lined all the walls. One evening, we heard that the assistant Secretary-General of the UN (second in command) was coming by to take a few questions and see the place. So we arranged to do an absurdist fashion show for him after he was done talking. As soon as he finished, we threw on some Survivaballs (funny inflatable, round suits that are meant to represent an option for the very wealthy to stay safe from climate change) and cat walked around the cafe. We were interrupted (planned) by the Climate Debt Agents (who were all over the place in Copenhagen, wearing bright red suits and sunglasses to symbolically collect the money owed to developing nations who are being affected the most by the pollution put out by developed nations) who took the stage and made their case. Apparently, the assistant Secretary General was so moved by this that he canceled his plans to meet Ban Ki-Moon (the Secretary-General himself) at the Bella Center so he could write about it in his personal blog.

One more story for this issue...this is my personal favorite.

As part of a super-elaborate hoax, (more on that next time) we rebuilt the press briefing room (watch first video) of the Bella Center in the basement of our workshop. My primary mission for going to Copenhagen was to provide some sort of contrast, some sort of message of hope that wasn't this baloney about crossing our fingers. I knew that COP15 would fall short, but what would a good deal even look like? I was afraid that the majority of people would have no idea in their minds about what success in Copenhagen would entail, thus having no constructive place to direct their anger and disappointment. So, after the Great Canada Hoax was finished, we opened up the set for people to come down and record videos of themselves making announcements from "The Bella Center." Since we were so close to the Fresh Air Center, I ran back and forth bringing leaders of the global climate movement and anyone who was interested into the basement to record a statement. I helped create the "Good COP" website, which looks exactly like the real COP15 website, but ours just has videos. We had Jessy Tolkan, fresh out af a meeting with Al Gore, Bill McKibben came, Daryl Hannah, and even George Monbiot from The Nation to name a few. It was a blast, I'm telling you. If you watch nothing else, see Mike's introduction and the announcement by Jessy Tolkan (leader of the Energy Action Coalition.) Jessy had zero time to prepare, and I still get goosebumps when I think of her video. It is on the top of the column of videos on the left, in the middle of the three.

That's it for this issue, my friends. I hope you don't mind if I share some more stories in a couple of weeks. It's my hope that you take away from my experience an enthusiasm for repairing the world creatively, and by taking chances, and putting yourself in the middle of the action. I would live to answer any questions you might have. Feel free to email me at peacefuluprising@gmail.com. Type "Attn. Ashley" in the subject line.

If you want in on the wealth of projects like these that we are currently working on, make sure you are on our Action Team! 

Here's to 2010 -- the year we stopped asking for a livable future and started demanding it.

(And had a hell of a good time doing it.)


Ashley Anderson

The next time you head for the ski slopes, make sure you pass by Snowbird resort. Dick Bass, Snowbird owner and outspoken advocate for environmental sustainability, is investing in Alaska’s largest proposed coal strip mine. Destined to destroy the local salmon fishery and contribute to quickly advancing climate catastrophe, the coal mine is environmentally barbaric and a glaring hypocrisy for Bass. Peaceful Uprising is leading a campaign to boycott Snowbird, putting pressure on Bass to disinvest in the Chuitna Coal Mine.

Take this quote from Snowbird’s website,

Since its inception, Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort has been committed to environmental stewardship. Snowbird’s environmental achievements range from improving wildlife habitat and water quality to resort-wide recycling programs and a groundbreaking effort to clean up heavy metals contaminating the American Fork River.

While Snowbirds environmentally responsible behavior is commendable and clearly makes a positive impact, but when juxtaposed with Bass’s dirty investments becomes more like deliberate greenwashing. Recycling at snowbird neither mitigates nor justifies destroying Alaska’s wilderness for coal production, which is the single most contributor to climate change. If we continue to burn coal, there will be no need for ski resorts like Snowbird, let alone programs to change all the lightbulbs Snowbird’s bathrooms.

The Sierra Club has expressed their opposition to the coal mine, and has launched a local campaign against Bass. Yet, they refuse to target Snowbird, support a boycott, or do much of anything. Peaceful Uprising knows we have to send Dick a much stronger message, and to do that we need to hit him where it hurts.

Don’t ski at Snowbird until Bass agrees to disinvest in the Chuitna coal mine, and urge others to do the same. If you are a season passholder, do not buy a season pass until Bass disinvests. You can sign a pledge at our website dontskicoalbird.com, and send a message to Bass personally. Pick up some Coalbird stickers, and plaster them around town and at local resorts. Join us in March 2010 for a massive Snowbird boycott and day of direct action. Stay tuned for more opportunities to take action as the season continues.