RAN launches infographic about corporate tax dodgers

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Blog,Forests

Saturday, April 16th, 2011, 11:14 AM

Did you know: If the dirtiest dozen banks and oil and coal corporations payed the full corporate tax rate (35%), that would amount to $62 billion. More than enough to cover the proposed federal cuts of $38 billion.
The Rainforest Action Network just launched this great infographic about the “Dirtiest Dozen” corporate tax dodgers. Take a look here and make sure to spread the word. Tweet or facebook it: #INFOGRAPHIC: If top banks, oil and coal paid their fair share in taxes it would avoid need for budget cuts. Really. via@RAN

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RAN and the World Social Forum

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Blog,Food Policy & Politics,Forests

Monday, February 2nd, 2009, 9:56 PM

We wanted to post part of a letter from our colleague, Leila, Agribusiness Campaign Director at Rainforest Action Network. If you want to get in touch with Leila or learn more about the campaign visit RAN.
——
Good Evening All! I thought I’d share a little more details on our participation and plans at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Belem, Brazil beginning tomorrow. (Read RAN staffer Andrea’s blog here.)

For the first time ever, the World Social Forum is being held in the Amazon, and will gather the largest Indigenous delegation in the history of the forum. Levana and Andrea are representing RAN on the ground at the WSF and will be taking an active role within an international Amazon delegation, comprised of Indigenous allies/networks such as COIAB, COICA and international NGO allies such as Amazon Watch, Amazon Alliance, IFG (International Forum on Globalization, BIC (Bank Information Center) and many others. We’re very excited to be participating and co-coordinating one of the most visible actions at the forum—the “Human Banner.” (see below)

Our participation in the WSF is a great opportunity to launch the year by reconnecting with allies from all around the world, frontline communities impacted by soy, palm oil and agrofuels, as well as playing a crucial role in bringing attention to the Amazon, Indigenous rights, rainforest issues generally, and the importance of making forests a top priority in the upcoming climate negotiations.

Here’s what we’ll be doing on the ground:

Human banner:
Prior to the mass march of nearly 100,000 people that officially opens the WSF, we will be supporting our Indigenous allies in sounding the alarm in defense of the Amazon and its inhabitants. We are working with the Amazon delegation to organize at least 1,000 people or so to participate in a human banner near the Amazon River. We will be using human bodies to spell out “SOS Amazonia”, indicating the need to focus on protecting the Amazon, and its inhabitants, particularly given its fundamental significance in climate stabilization. This will be photographed by award-winning photojournalist, Lou Dematteis and videographed by Antoine Bonsorte, from a helicopter. Joining them in the helicopter and on the ground will be photographers and journalists from major media outlets/wires such as AP, AFP and Al Jazeera, as well as Brazilian media.

Other events and meetings at the World Social Forum:
The Amazon delegation is sponsoring several events and workshops at the World Social Forum. We’ll be actively participating and/or recruiting our allies to participate in the following events:

· Jan 28, “State of the Amazon”, panel and a media briefing where Andrea will serve as a spokesperson and talk about the Rainforest Agribusiness campaign and agribusiness impacts in the Amazon.

· Jan 29, Challenging IIRSA (Integration of South American Regional Infrastructure) Workshop, where Levana and Andrea will be leading a session on corporate campaign strategies to use in challenging national and regional “development” projects

· Jan 29, Indigenous Rights in Action Workshop focusing on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

· Jan 29, Brazilian Amazon Now and Forever focusing on the Amazon and Climate Change

· Jan 30, Action for the Amazon, a strategy session to prepare for the Amazon Forum taking place in Manaus, Brazil in July.

Andrea will be speaking at a couple of other workshops, including:
· REDVIDA panel on food, water and climate change

· The launch of a Global Women’s Network on Right to Livelihood which is seeking to link issues of agriculture, food sovereignty, seeds, climate change, land, water and forests to issues connected with livelihoods.

If you have any questions about our work at the WSF or after, please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks!

Leila

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Travel to the Amazon in January with Rainforest Action Network

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Blog,Forests

Thursday, November 13th, 2008, 2:08 PM

I wanted to share this note from my colleague Leila Salazar-Lopez from Rainforest Action Network:

I’m writing to extend the invitation to join Rainforest Action Network on a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the Brazilian Amazon and bear witness to the impacts of U.S. Agribusiness’ impacts on Indigenous and local communities and the Amazon rainforest. The delegation of RAN supporters and close allies will take place from January 16–28, 2009. The journey begins in the heart of the Amazon –Manaus-, travels through the soy plantations of Santarem, and ends where the Amazon meets the Atlantic Ocean –Belem. Space is limited, so please RSVP by November 15. See below for more detailed information on the journey or go to www.ran.org/amazon09.

As you know, RAN’s Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign is challenging one of the fastest growing threats to the Amazon: the rapid expansion of soy plantations by U.S. agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge and Cargill. The spread of soy plantations is fueling the destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, which is one of the planet’s most biologically and culturally diverse ecosystems.

We’ll travel by riverboat on the Amazon River from Manaus to Santarém; stay at a comfortable eco-lodge in the heart of the Amazon; commune with Indigenous and local leaders, allies, activists, soy workers and frontline communities; and witness the impacts of U.S. agribusiness in and around Santarém. We’ll go on exciting excursions and participate in informative presentations led by the Rainforest Agribusiness team and our allies. For those of you who have a little extra time, we encourage you to join RAN staff, our allies and 80,000 people from around the world at the World Social Forum –the alternative to the World Economic Forum- which will take place in Belém, Brazil, from Jan 27 to Feb 1, 2009. For more information, visit www.forumsocialmundial.org.br

Please join us for this once-in-a-lifetime experience to join RAN staff and committed activists on a journey to one of the most magical and threatened places on earth. Become a deeper part of the solution to the protect the Amazon and the Indigenous and local communities working to protect this global treasure.

If you have any questions about the trip please do not hesitate to contact me at Leila@ran.org or 415-659-0532. You can also contact Branden Barber, RAN’s Development Director, at branden@ran.org or 415-659-0539.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you can join us on what will be a journey of a lifetime.

For the forests and the future,
Leila Salazar-Lopez
Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign Director

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Visiting New Forest Farms

Topics:

Forests,Organic Food & Farming

Monday, July 28th, 2008, 9:25 PM

Mark Shepard of New Forest Farms

Rosehips

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Back in the Saddle

Topics:

Blog,Forests,Organic Food & Farming

Friday, July 11th, 2008, 8:53 AM

I returned to the U.S. with images of 18-course G8 Summit dinners swimming in my head and the food price crisis continuing seemingly unabated. [See my mother, Frances Moore Lappe, on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman breaking it down.]

I also returned to read my colleague, farmer Jim Goodman’s, powerful reporting on the floods that swept through his community. [Read his diary at Living La Vida Locavore from Daily Kos blogger Jill Richardson.]

Meanwhile, though mainstream papers like the Financial Times are calling for a moratorium on corn-based ethanol, our country’s headlong rush and multi-billion financing of this environmental and social blunder continues unabated. [I talk about this with some esteemed colleagues and media heroine Laura Flanders on Grit.tv. Check out the conversation on Grit.tv and let us know what you think!]

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Action Alert: Bunge, Brazil, and Protecting Small Farmers

Topics:

Food Policy & Politics,Forests

Friday, June 20th, 2008, 10:43 AM

from take a bite contributor Jeanne Hodesh

Last week, thousands of indigenous people and small farmers in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul peacefully blocked roads, railways and invaded dams to draw attention to the global food crisis and policies that favor agribusiness over small farms. Despite the non-violent nature of their actions, six of the participants protesting in front of a Bunge soy-crushing facility were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets, suffering severe injuries.

Rainforest Action Network is calling on us to take action and hold Bunge accountable for these actions.

You can click here for more information on how to take action, including joining the RAN action to fax Bunge CEO Alberto Weisser’s office, demanding that he take action to prevent attacks on peaceful demonstrators.

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Day One: The Pitfall of Forest Offsets?

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Blog,Forests

Thursday, June 19th, 2008, 2:45 PM

“First do no harm.” Those were the insightful four words of Hippocrates’ principle of medicine. But it’s not such a bad principle for any intervention we make in health or in the environment.

One of the most popular (or at least the most public) forms of climate change mitigation, pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, has been the big push for tree planting. Flying on Virgin Atlantic? Offset your travel with trees. Picking up an Enterprise Rental Car? Offset your emissions with some trees.

But get this: That tree planting might not be so neutral for Mother Earth.

As John Paull, a researcher from Australian National University, said in one of today’s sessions: Many of these forestry efforts use massive doses of chemicals to grow those saplings and maintain those forests.

If you think forest certification systems are the answer to the pesky problem of pesticides in forestry, both the Forest Stewardship Council and the Pan-european Forest Certification Council allow chemical use.

[Correction: In the original post, I said that the PEFC would also allow genetically modified trees, according to Paull. But in a General Assembly decision in 2007, the PEFC adopted rules that GMO material cannot be included in certified material. Our thanks to a helpful blog reader.]

Paull quotes the Forest Stewardship Council standards, which state in Standard 6.6a: “Strive to avoid the use of chemical pesticides.” But the Forest Stewardship Council also directs foresters to comply with local law. So while the chemical Simazine is banned under FSC standards, for instance, in Australia the country-wide exemption for the chemical overrides this ban.

Furthermore, forestry chemicals are typically aerially sprayed, making it that much harder to contain contamination making it that much more likely that chemicals spread into waterways and other places we don’t want them to go.

Many of the chemicals used in forestry are also used in combination with each, increasing their potential toxicity and the question-mark factor about their potential to cause harm.
So what chemicals are in use? Paull listed them off: During pre-planting and at the early growth stages, herbicides like Atrazine can be combined with as many as twenty-five others to increase their impact. Faunacides, like 1080, that target browsing animals are also common. (At this point, Paull displayed images of some of these warm and fuzzy guys: “Are we going to heal the planet by killing wallaby’s or possums?”) Then, there are the insecticides that target native insects and, finally, the fungicides that can be applied for up to fifteen years, or more.

Quoting Mencken, Paull said, “For every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it’s wrong.” In other words, our strategy of tree planting as a carbon offset might seem a simple answer, but when we’re turning to chemical forestry, it may not be the eco-solution we’re hunting for.

Paull’s solution was an organic forestry certification. But while we may be far from achieving such a certification system, we at least can pressure the forestry certifying bodies to toughen up their positions. As Paull said, “Carbon offsets using chemicals in our forestry is trading on a lie, and the lie is that we can heal the planet with pesticides.”

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Our Southern Forests Pay the High Price for Big Gulps

Topics:

Forests

Monday, May 5th, 2008, 9:34 AM

When we think about the environmental impact of our fast food habit, we tend to think about rainforest destruction in far-off places: the loss of the Amazon, palm oil plantations in Indonesia.

Well, it turns out we don’t have to look too far. Forests in the southern parts of the United States are also being decimated to service our fast food addiction. Clearcut forests in our country’s south are supplying 60 percent of the nation’s paper demands and 15 percent of global demand, according to a recent study.

And it’s the paper demands of our fast food chains – think napkins, cups, wrappers – that have been among the biggest drivers of this loss. Thanks in large part to Big Gulps, Big Macs, Whoppers, and Chalupas, nearly half of the forested acres in the south have been decimated in the past several hundred years, from 356 million acres to 182 million acres today.

A new campaign by the Dogwood Alliance NoFreeRefills.org is targeting fast food chains to demand they reduce their impact on the environment.

We can do our part, too. Here are some tips for ways we can help decrease demand on our precious forests:
1. Use a travel mug or stainless steel water bottle rather than using disposable cups
2. Bringing your own bags to the grocery store or farmers market. You’ll save trees and carbon.
3. When you eat out, bring your own containers to carry leftovers home in. To-go-ware makes a nice stainless steel product.

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