Market Forces is a Friends of the Earth affiliate group, pushing for divestment of fossil fuel investments. 

The fray is heating up for Market Forces, as public and media pressure on fossil fuel corporations and their financial toadies continues to compound. This is in thanks to recent escapades in Annual General Meetings and divestment actions, leading to alarm from the coal lobby, and nation wide press. In response to our actions and the activities of divestment focussed groups, the coal lobby has launched a desperate counter-offensive to try and charm major investment and superannuation firms to the black beauty of coal, despite the industry's crippling financial losses over the last 12 months.

During 2014, MF is only going to continue to ramp up the pressure, with the upcoming Divestment (D!) Day, on the 3rd of May... mark it down in your diaries.

In other news, Market Forces is continuing to detail the emissions financed by major institutions. This builds on debt mapping work revealing that financial institutions have lent $82 billion over the last 5 years to fossil fuel companies, with the big four banks taking out places in the top 10, including #1 for ANZ, who alone has leant $6.53 billion. We're also planning to look into superannuation... so stay tuned!

www.marketforces.org.au/

Friends of the Earth defend the rights of people and the environment.  We do this by grass roots organising with people affected by threats in their communities:  rural farming communities fighting Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and coal mining, indigenous people opposed to the destruction of their traditional homelands for nuclear waste dumps or mines, urban communities concerned about pollution and new technologies (such as food irradiation and nanotechnologies),  and where voracious development and economic priorities are allowed to override the basic rights of communities to clean, safe environments and protected areas.  Our activities include on-the ground protests and civil disobedience, community organising and training, lobbying and research.  We also start alternative projects to demonstrate better ways of producing the goods and services that communities need, which are not socially and environmentally damaging.  In Brisbane we have been behind the now self-sufficient businesses Bicycle Revolution (who repair and renew old bikes and offer a bike workshop); Food Connect (out of our Community supported Agriculture Project, FC has now expanded to Sydney as a model); and Reverse Garbage (reclaiming clean industrial waste for reuse) who we live with at 20 Burke St, Woolloongabba.  We try to lobby for change while creating that change through practical initiatives based on sound evidence.

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Reef Walk's parade of colourful banners entered Gladstone streets. The 80 day journey ends with the 72 year old great grandmother arriving in Gladstone. The 1200km walk from Cairns has passed through every town along the Great Barrier Reef coast. 

“I started this journey more than a year ago, with planning and contacting other concerned people, tourist operators and fishermen all along the coast. The last few months have been some of the best days of my life. Every day I met wonderful people with passion to protect the Reef”, said June Norman. 

“One thing life has taught me is there is nothing more important than family, and this journey  (Reef Walk) has been one small thing I can do for my grand children. It's what every mother wants, a good future for their children, and I want my grand kids to enjoy the world and the Great Barrier Reef like I have”, says June.

The Great Barrier Reef is under threat from climate change and from Australia's coal export market and growing coal seam gas (CSG) industry. New major coal ports planned from Gladstone and the Fitzroy Delta, to Abbot Point near Mackay require millions of tonnes of sea bed dredging that is impacting turtles, dugong and dolphins.

“I just don't understand, why are we allowing international companies to come here and destroy this beautiful world heritage reef. The dredging in Gladstone should be a warning to us all, we will see dead dugong and turtles all along the Queensland coast if we don’t stop the new coal and gas ports.”

The cumulative impacts of LNG and coal projects to the reef have not been considered or quantified. The pace of industrialisation is so rapid that marine turtles could disappear before their life cycle is understood. Investigations are rapidly under way to protect Gladstone's Fitzroy Delta Subfin Dolphin before port development begins.

“All I ask is that Mr Newman and Mr Rudd stop for just one day and take a trip to the reef. Stop and feel its beauty. Perhaps then they might consider stopping this madness”,  

“The coal companies are packing up and leaving; they know where the money is and it is not in coal and gas any more. I don't know much about energy but I know the future is in wind and solar energy”. 

Reef Walk is a message that conveys the hopes of many Australians wanting big steps to be taken to protect the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is home to countless marine species and the work place of thousands of Queenslanders supporting the tourism sector.

“I just hope people really think about the election. Choose who you want to vote for. Don't just pick the same old party. Look them up, call them and ask them about their policy to protect the reef,” said June Norman.

June Norman is a 72 year old grandmother of 10 and a great grandmother of 8. June and Reef Walk 2013 are asking that steps are taken towards protecting the Great Barrier Reef.

Media liaison and radio interview booking:
Derec Davies, Friends of the Earth  0421 835 587
June Norman  0438 169 414
Web: www.reefwalk2013.com
Images available via Dropbox in request

‘Face to Face with Fukushima’ tour will see a delegation from Japan visit Australia on a speaking tour in March 2013 to coincide with the second anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Daiichi power plant in Fukushima, Japan.

The tour will include public meetings in Darwin, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney and meetings with Indigenous Australians who have uranium mine impacts on their lands.

The delegation will also share their experience and describe life in Japan since the 2011 Tsunami and Daiichi nuclear disaster, a disaster on par with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.

Last month, people from around the world commemorated the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian activist hanged by the military regime for drawing global attention to Shell's environmental devastation of the Niger Delta.

Friends of the Earth International's publication Memory, truth and justice for heroes, launched to coincide with Ken Saro-Wiwa day, is a collection of stories on the heroism of those people who have been killed and those whose rights had been violated in in their resistance against mining, oil and gas projects around the world.

You can read the report here.

Friends of the Earth International is inspired and energized by the current unfolding of world-historic, transformative events. From the popular uprisings in Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the indignados of Europe, from the encampments of the #occupy movement to the student movements in Latin America and the UK, people from all over the world are calling for economic and socio-political justice. Our history of campaigning against transnational corporations and environmentally destructive economic policies has clearly indicated that we must attain economic justice in order to save the planet.

We believe that the vast inequalities lived by the 99% today are the consequence of the globalized capitalist system which subsidizes dirty industry and invests in military expansion at the expense of securing healthy and just economies with strong social services.

This system has resulted in a legacy of ecological devastation that will be passed on to our children and to the many generations thereafter.

Friends of the Earth International’s key struggles for environmental justice take place at the local level. Whether we are defending the rights and livelihoods of people in Ogoniland, Palestine, Ireland or Honduras, we stand together in the struggle against economic injustice and corporate greed. To save our communities and our environment, we stand united in calling for a profound transformation of the current globalized political economic system.

Friends of the Earth International promotes the respect and enforcement of community rights as a means to resist corporate power and create social change. Our member groups around the world are working closely with local communities, demanding a just transition towards sustainable rural and urban societies, in contrast to the current profit-driven and internationalised economy. This report focuses on campaigns that have the defence and enforcement of community rights at the heart of their struggles.

Want to support our case against Xstrata? Start some interesting  conversations by buying a shirt or donate online.

Donate: https://www.foe.org.au/donate/product_info.php?products_id=85
Tshirts: We have loose and fitted styles available in a variety of sizes for $25 each.

The shirts are sweatshop free and locally printed and all proceeds go towards helping offset the costs of taking legal action!

Email: [email protected] to order a shirt!

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Thank you

The national movement against coal and coal seam gas mining, farmers and environmental groups around the country are backing a three-day event, including displays, workshops and direct action, at Tara on the western Darling Downs in Queensland.

UPDATE APRIL 3, 2011: It's been a big few days at the CSG blockade - congratulations to all involved!

"Police have left the site, telling protesters the dispute is now a civil matter"

Protesters claim win at pipeline blockade     UPDATE: March 30, 2011: It's been a huge week, with protesters forming a human barricade at the Tara Estate, south of Chinchilla, on Monday to stop the Queensland Gas Company (QGC) building a 16km pipeline to take coal seam gas from five wells already in the estate to the nearby Kenya gas processing plant.