10-13-10 Perfect Storm

PERFECT STORM COMING
TO THE  HUDSON VALLEY

A major meeting, titled "The Perfect Storm: Environmental Crisis plus Endless Wars and Global Poverty," will take place Wednesday Oct. 27 in New Paltz at the Coykendall Science building auditorium on the SUNY campus.

Speaking at this free public meeting will be four SUNY professors, two students and four Mid-Hudson community activists. The will largely discuss climate change, but war and poverty will also be noted in two talks since together with the environmental crisis they "combine to create the perfect storm of impending global devastation," according to the organizers.

The 7-9:15 p.m. event is sponsored by the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter and the local group Peace and Social Progress Now (PSPN). The SUNY sponsor is the campus-community organization Environmental Task Force. Almost a dozen local groups are endorsing the meeting, including SUNY's Progressive Academic Network, New Paltz Students for Sustainable Agriculture, and Students for Fresh Water among others.

The speakers include Sociology Professors Brian Obach and Irwin Sperber, Education Professor  Kate McCoy, Geography Professor Salvatore Engel-DiMauro, and student activists Claire Papell and Nick DePalma.

The community activist speakers include Donna Goodman, a co-chair of PSPN who is also an elected statewide delegate from the New Paltz chapter of United University Professions; Ariana Basco, a recent SUNY graduate, member of the New Paltz town Police Commission, and a local environmental organizer; Ann Guenther an anti-fracking campaigner with Climate Action Coalition; and Jack A. Smith, editor of the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter and Calendar and the other co-chair of PSPN.

"The purpose of the meeting is two-fold," say the organizers, "First is to alert New Paltz students and regional residents to the extreme danger of climate change and environmental degradation, especially during an era of seemingly endless wars and growing global poverty. Second, we hope to encourage more people to take action against this developing Perfect Storm."

Volunteers will distribute the following statement promoting the meeting on campus and in surrounding villages and towns:

"Global warming will disfigure our world unless decisive emergency measures are taken now. The United States and other industrialized countries must substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, among other tasks, within a couple of decades. The longer it takes, the more devastating the destruction.

"Earth's entire ecological system is in crisis. But the principal countries with the power to prevent disaster are either not acting swiftly, or not at all. Water and food supplies are endangered. Glaciers are melting, as are the Arctic and Antarctic ice packs. Temperatures are rising. Coastal areas are in danger of flooding.

"Coinciding with this unfolding tragedy are the long wars being conducted by our own country, and Pentagon plans for more wars in future. America is spending a trillion dollars a year on the military and national security — funds needed to help develop a green economy and to end increasing global poverty. By 2050, 70% of world population will live in urban or rural slums. A billion people suffer chronic hunger now. And 15 million children starve to death each year, one every six seconds.

"Taken together this amounts to a perfect storm of impending global devastation. Learn about this crisis from experts and activists Oct. 27. Learn about what we can do as concerned people to stop this madness — for ourselves and future generations. There's still time, but we must act now to help save our environment and life on Mother Earth."


Campus map: http://www.newpaltz.edu/map/
Information and directions, (845) 255-5779, jacdon@earthlink.net.

11-26-09 West Point Protest

Protest Near West Point Tuesday Dec. 1
as Obama Announces a wider Afghan war

As President Obama announces his plans to escalate the Afghan war in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point Tuesday, Dec. 1, the Hudson Valley peace movement will be conducting a nearby protest against his decision to send additional American troops to the battlefield.

The antiwar action will start in the Main St. park in the town of Highland Falls in Orange County, which is adjacent to the grounds of the Military Academy. People will begin gathering at 5:30 p.m. for a rally at 6:30 p.m. featuring several speakers. After about a half hour, participants will join a quarter-mile candlelight march to the gates of West Point, then return to the park.

This demonstration is a rain or shine event. Bring candles or a flashlight. It is sponsored by Orange County Democratic Alliance, WESPAC, Peace Action of New York State, World Can’t Wait, Peace and Social Progress Now, and the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter.

The organizers are urging activists from throughout the region to take part in this important event. The world will be watching Obama's speech that evening and it is important to show that representatives of the majority of the American people who oppose the Afghan war are making their views known.

Contact the Activist Newsletter, jacdon@earthlink.net, for information about possible car pools from Ulster and Dutchess counties. For information about the rally contact Bennett Weiss at (845) 569-8662, benweiss@aol.com, and Nick Mottern (914) 806-6179, nickmottern@earthlink.net. For carpooling from Westchester County coordinated by WESPAC, (914) 449-6514.

Highland Falls is about 32 miles south of New Paltz and 16 miles south of Newburgh. Driving from the north, Rt. 9W is your best bet. There are two entrances to the town from 9W. The first one is where Rt. 218 cuts into Highland Falls and it will take you into Main St. in 1.1 miles. The second, about mile and a half further south on 9W connects directly with Main St. (Rt. 218) and you go north a mile or so. (If you are coming from Albany, its quicker to take the Thruway to exit 17 Newburgh, and switch to 9W south.)

AND DON'T FORGET:

There will be another demonstration against Washington's expansion of the Afghan War that will take place Saturday, Dec. 5, in New Paltz between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Main St. (Rt. 299) on the sidewalk in front of New Paltz Plaza shopping center (with Stop 'n' Shop). It is sponsored by Peace and Social Progress Now, the H.V. Activist Newsletter and New Paltz Women in Black. For information or for a group to enlist as a co-sponsor, contact jacdon@earthlink.net, (845) 255-5779.