Forward Widely - Spread The Word!
4pm, Daley Plaza - June 8th
Critical Mass for the International Day of Action against the Root Causes of Climate Change and Solidarity with the Struggle against the G8 in Germany!

Why should you be angry?

CLIMATE CHAOS

We all know the terrifying statistics: a million species extinct by 2050, 19 of the 20 hottest years on record since 1980, Greenland and Antarctica melting, droughts, floods, famines. The G8 have had over 30 years to address climate change and only succeeded in providing trillions in subsidies to the very industries that are destroying our planet and our future.

And while the G8 continues to line their pockets, island states disappear and hundreds of thousands die as a result of the freak weather conditions caused by their irrational and uncontrollable obsession with never ending economic growth. We have a ten-year window to act. As the megalomaniac G8 leaders meet in Germany, masked behind a barrier of fences and soldiers, intent on leading us further towards catastrophic and irreversible climate chaos, we must shout, scream and roar ˜no more". Now is the time to take direct action and shut them down, them and their climate criminal industry friends!

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

While climate chaos effects us all, those on the front line are those already devastated by the cruelty of global capitalism - the poor and disadvantaged. While the G8 looks to the markets to solve the problem by turning emissions into a product that can be bought and sold, they
purposely ignore the only effective solution - an end to the consumerist mass-market society.

Ironically consumerism is the way of life that the G8 is forcing poorer countries to adopt in order to have their poverty, debt and trade problems alleviated. Societies are manipulated into becoming precarious McCountries: from exporting cheap mass produced goods from sweatshops to feed western appetites, to providing playground paradises for the rich.

All this does is feed climate chaos and create further carbon emissions to be traded as 'credits' between the richest countries.

ANGRY YET?

So what are you going to do about it? Buy a wristband, go to a concert, sign a petition, go on an organized mass march?

Remember Jubilee 2000? Third world debt is worse than ever.

Remember Make Poverty History? It didn't.

Remember Stop the War? We haven't

The G8 leaders have carried on with their own agenda and fancy footwork. The only way that governments will listen to us is if we force them to - this is the only effective form of protest, which is why freedom to protest effectively is being eroded and outlawed. We are sleepwalking into a society where dissent will not be tolerated, and it's time to wake up!

Why June 8th?

The 8th of June International Day of Action Against Climate Change and the G8 has been called by the International Rising Tide Network. This is a call for autonomous, decentralized actions appropriate for your town, city, or local area.

We want to send a message to the protesters on the streets and in the jails of Germany that we stand in solidarity with them and their actions.

Why a Critical Mass?

Critical Mass demonstrations are not just about highlighting the problems facing cyclists, they are used effectively across the world as an effective way of protesting. The first one happened in San Francisco in 1992 and since then enthusiasts in many towns and cities worldwide have followed suit. It is difficult to describe CM as opinions differ widely but they seem to range from a simple celebration of cycling to an anti-authoritarian blockade of traffic, particularly cars, with many facets in between.

Cycling protests have already been happening as a part of the actions against the G8 summit, and the heavy handed response to them shows that the authorities feel they are effective and fear them.

The Chicago Route will explore the local roots of climate change. We are home to the first Climate Exchange--the world's first, and North America's only, greenhouse gas trading system. We are at the cutting edge of making profit from a dying planet

Few Chicagoans realize that the single biggest sources of pollution in Chicago are the two coal fired electric generating plants owned by Midwest Generation in Pilsen and Little Village.

The Fisk and Crawford plants spew more than 17,000 tons of deadly toxins into the air annually and take a huge health toll on residents of the Chicagoland area.

A Harvard School of Public Health study found that air pollution from the two coal-fired plants causes more than 40 deaths, 550 emergency room visits,and 2,800 asthma attacks annually.

Do not be fooled: The market will NOT save us. We will NOT let the people who have profited from the destruction of our planet make a profit off of "saving" it.

Funny Weather We're Having...

Bring a costume! Raincoats, Swimgear, Flippers, Sunhats, Parkas, Scuba Gear, Snorkels, Umbrellas, Animals (Think "Noah's Ark"), Greedy Politicians, or Your Favorite Greenhouse Gas!

Bring a Bicycle!

Bring Props!

Bring Friends!

See you in the streets!

~Chicago C.I.R.C.A. & Rising Tide North America
www.clownarmy.org
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org
www.risingtide.org.uk