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Fire Drill Fridays by V-Day Board Member Jane Fonda Launches in DC; Eve to Host Teach-In 31 October


10/12/2019

OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE

Actor, Activist & #VDay Board Member Jane Fonda is RISING! Fire Drill Friday Teach-Ins, actions and demonstrations every week. Don’t Miss Teach-In: Women - on Women and Climate with Jane and Eve Together with Frontline Activists

Inspired by Greta Thunberg and the groundswell of support she and other young climate activists have inspired across the world – as well as the visionary work of Naomi Klein, Reverend William Barber’s Moral Mondays and Randall Robinson’s anti-apartheid protests – actor/activist and V-Board member Jane Fonda is upending her life and moving to Washington, D.C. for 4 months to be at the epicenter of the fight for climate justice where she will hold "Fire Drill Fridays." Jane explains:

"Our climate is in crisis. Scientists are shouting an urgent warning: we have little more than a decade to take bold, ambitious action to transition our economy off of fossil fuels and onto clean, renewable energy. We need a Green New Deal to mobilize our government and every sector of the economy to tackle the overlapping crises of climate change, inequality, and structural racism at the scale and speed our communities require. We need and deserve a world beyond fossil fuels while creating millions of family-sustaining, union jobs, and prioritizing justice and equity for working people and communities of color on the frontlines of climate disaster and fossil fuel exploitation, so the clean energy transformation leaves nobody behind."

At yesterday’s first Fire Drill Friday demonstration over climate change, Jane was arrested as she was among those protesting in Washington, D.C. on the Capitol. The Hollywood Reporter reported, "The actress was protesting with the group Oil Change International over the climate crisis... 'I can no longer stand by and let our elected officials ignore — and even worse — empower — the industries that are destroying our planet for profit. We can not continue to stand for this.'"

Through mid-January, Jane will hold Thursday evening teach-ins (which can be viewed virtually on Facebook Live) with scientists, movement leaders, experts, activists, Indigenous leaders, community members and youth. On Fridays she will lead demonstrations at the US Capitol, each of which will have a different focus. At the demonstrations, Jane will invite activists, thinkers and leaders to speak to the crowd, some of whom will invite arrest.

Join Jane Fonda and Eve Ensler on 31 October to explain how Women and Climate are so intrinsically connected.

In this Thursday Teach-In on 31 October, our focus will be Women. Climate change is a women’s issue! And women are at the heart of climate solutions. While the climate crisis threatens everyone, it especially impacts vulnerable populations, including women and girls. In many places, extreme weather events increase the workload women have and adds enormous risk to their safety and security. Often, women and girls are the last to be rescued, and the last to be given crucial resources like food and water. They overwhelmingly face greater health and safety risks as water and sanitation systems become compromised as well. The good news is that promoting women’s rights, increasing women and girls’ education, advancing reproductive justice and centering women and girls in climate solutions works. Around the world, women and girls are leading climate solutions, from stopping deforestation and improving agricultural practices to leading Climate Strikes and running for office as the kind of real climate leaders the world needs.

Fire Drill Fridays is setting forth an urgent and bold set of demands:

A GREEN NEW DEAL

  • Transform our economy to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 and phase out all fossil fuel extraction through a just and equitable transition, creating millions of good jobs
  • A halt to all leasing and permitting for fossil fuel extraction, processing and infrastructure projects immediately in order to avoid a lock-in of increased emissions as we work together for a responsible transition to clean, renewable energy.

RESPECT OF INDIGENOUS LAND AND SOVEREIGNTY

  • Honor the treaties protecting Indigenous lands, waters, and sovereignty by the immediate halt of all construction, leasing and permitting for resource extraction, processing and infrastructure projects affecting or on Indigenous lands
  • Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

  • A transition that invests in prosperity for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution
  • Welcoming those displaced by the cumulative effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, violence, and lack of opportunity

PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF BIODIVERSITY

  • Protection and restoration of at least 30% of the world's lands and oceans including a halt to all deforestation by 2030
IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
  • Investment in farmers and regenerative agriculture and an end to subsidies for industrial agriculture.

#FireDrillFridays
#ClimateJustice
#OurHouseIsOnFire
#RiseInSolidarity
#1BillionRising
#UntilTheViolenceStops