The Voice of Climate Change and Oil Addiction

By Rainforest Action Network

Anyone who still thinks that global warming is a theory hasn’t heard the voices from the Arctic, Iraq, New Orleans, Nigeria and the small island nations Micronesia and Tuvalu.
But you can. This fall, Voices from the Frontline of Oil and Global Warming will be touring the United States sharing personal stories of how the one-two punch of oil addiction and global warming is affecting communities across the globe and providing solutions and hope for the future.

If you are in New York City this Tuesday, please join us for the kickoff of the tour. And even if you’re not in NY, you can signup to host a speaker in your community. Speakers will include UN Ambassador Enele Sosene Sopoaga of Tuvalu, which is drowning because of rising sea levels, and Faith Gemmill of the Arctic, which is melting because of rising temperatures.

Here are the details for NYC. If you’re nearby, please join us.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2006, 7:00PM
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, New York, NY
$5 donation/no one turned away for lack of funds

Sponsored by Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, Oil Change International, Arctic Indigenous Alliance, and Society of Pohnpei.

FEATURED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Enele Sosene Sopoaga, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Mission of Tuvalu to the United Nations.

Ben Namakin is an environmental educator who grew up on the Pacific Islands of KiribatiMicronesia and where he witnessed first hand how increased erosion and rising sea levels from global warming threaten the survival of islands.

Faith Gemmill is a Pit River/ Wintu and Neets’aii Gwich’in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska. As the outreach coordinator for REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands), Gemmill works to stop the damage that the fossil fuel industry is doing to Alaska native sovereignty, human and ecological health and climate change.

Raed Jarrar is an Iraqi writer, architect, and human rights activist. When Jarrar was the Country Director of CIVIC Worldwide, the only door-to-door casualty survey after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, he saw firsthand the human cost of U.S. oil addiction.

Omoyele Sowore has spent the last 15 years working to promote human rights and democracy in Nigeria, and to stop the militarization and violence that multinational oil companies have brought to his country.