Friday, November 13th 2009  Noon
San Francisco, CA

From December 7 – 18, the United Nations will host the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen and the stakes could not be higher. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and this, the 15th Convention of the Parties (COP) is the defining moment in what the post-Kyoto climate regime will look like. A show-down is taking place between peoples’ movements on the front lines of devastation seeking climate justice, corporations seeking to water-down the negotiations to nothing, and governments acting somewhere inbetween. Your time to act is now. Learn how with speakers discussing the science of climate change and what’s at stake and on the table in Copenhagen, what the corporations want and are up to, the actions of the environmental and climate justice movements in the run-up-to and during the talks, and a local climate justice struggle in the Bay Area against our state’s largest corporation—Chevron.

Antonia Juhasz, Director, The Chevron Program, Global Exchange

Antonia Juhasz is a leading oil industry and corporate policy expert. She is the lead author and editor of “The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report,” and author of The Tyranny of Oil: the World’s Most Powerful Industry–And What We Must Do To Stop It (HarperCollins 2008) (paperback release December 8) and The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (HarperCollins 2006). She is a Fellow with Oil Change International, an Associate Fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies, and a Senior Policy Analyst with Foreign Policy in Focus. Her writing appears regularly in news outlets including New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post. A frequent media commentator, she was featured in the CNBC’s, “The Hunt for Black Gold,” and has appeared on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Hannity & Colmes, and Democracy Now!, among other shows. Juhasz is a life-long activist who has helped organize major protest mobilizations including those against the WTO in Seattle in 1999 and the invasion of Iraq in San Francisco in 2003. A former legislative assistant to two U.S. members of Congress, she holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University.

Greg Karras, Senior Scientist, Communities for a Better Environment

Mr. Karras has extensive environmental science and policy experience and expertise in the fields of industrial investigation, pollution prevention engineering, energy system planning and exposure assessment. In his 27 years with CBE he has led research in campaigns on water quality, air quality and food chain contamination; participated in pollution prevention audits of more than 100 industrial facilities, and authored or co-authored 20 major scientific publications including CBE reports and formal peer reviewed work. Mr. Karras co-chaired the primary technical work group for the San Francisco Electricity Resource Plan from 2002-2004, served on the Bay Area Air District’s technical work groups for refinery rules development from 2003-2005. He currently serves as an expert for CBE and other groups in a project involving comprehensive investigation of environmental impacts of and alternatives to refining heavier, more contaminated oil.

Ananda Lee Tan, US & Canada Coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

GAIA is an international network of community-based organizations organizing to replace incinerators and landfills with zero waste alternatives. Ananda is also a member of Rising Tide, an international network of climate change activists, and an organizer with the Mobilization for Climate Justice, a network that is coordinating mass direct action and public events across North America – in the lead up to the UN Climate talks in Copenhagen and beyond. Since 1986, Ananda has worked with both grassroots groups and International NGOs on anti-war, sustainable forestry, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and labor justice campaigns around the world. Today, his focus is on building a popular global movement to assist communities determine their pathways to climate and energy justice.

Payal Parekh, Climate Scientist, International Rivers Network

Ms. Parekh works to raise awareness that dams are emitters of the powerful greenhouse gas, methane; to stop international carbon offsetting schemes; and promote climate adaptation strategies that protect rivers and the communities dependent on them. Before joining International Rivers in 2008, her experience included working in solidarity with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a social movement in India fighting the damming of the
Narmada River, investigating the Indian government’s plans to interlink rivers, and providing technical environmental assistance to Indian NGOs and social movements. Most recently, she was a Marie Curie research fellow at the University of Bern in Switzerland conducting scientific research on carbon cycle – climate interactions. Ms. Parekh holds a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Nia Robinson, Executive Director, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative

At 26 years old, I made the transition from former Climate Justice Corps and Steering Committee member to director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative. This transition from young concerned citizen to the helm of EJCC speaks truth to the power behind what we at EJCC see as our core work which is to educate and activate a new generation of Climate Justice activists. I continue to move forward from union rallies and picket lines to Capitol Hill with a strong commitment and passion for organizing, as I did with both workers as an SEIU organizer and with community members working for environmental justice back home in Detroit, Michigan. The Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC) is a diverse coalition of U.S. environmental justice, religious, climate justice, policy and advocacy networks working for climate justice. EJCC’s mission is to educate and activate the people of North America towards the creation and implementation of just climate policies in both domestic and international contexts.

Location:
San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center
635 8th Street (at Brannan St.)
San Francisco, CA
94103

Contact:
San Francisco Regional Director
Zakiya@globalexchange.org