The Georgia Green Party

Author: Rachel Miller

  • Georgia Is Choking on Chemicals; Greens Demand Pure, Sustainable Living

    By Rachel Gray, Cobb Greens & Friends

    Georgia Greens March Against Unethical, Anti-Science Experiments on Food Supply, Ecosystems and Public Health

    It is no longer enough for nature enthusiasts, activities and scientists to be environmentally friendly. Our Green-focused families, sustainable communities and grassroots movements must be eco-conscious, reconstructing both U.S. agriculture and global trade policies. Georgia Greens, in cooperation with the March for Science on Earth Day, implore scientists to demand their research and funding be dedicated to enacting policies to make much-needed progress for the public good. Publically-funded, government agencies must stop choosing to line the pockets of billionaires operating massive chemical companies, who always choose profit over people and planet.

    Despite decades of using toxic chemicals in food production, the promise of eradicating hunger by this irrational approach remains a sick joke. Instead, the Green Party stance makes it very clear: There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and environmental protection…An optimum size of the economy is reached which maximizes human welfare in a holistic sense.

    Deadly Chemicals Compound Risks

    In a 2013 survey, 71 percent of Americans expressed a concern over the number of toxins and pesticides in their food supply. Yet, more than 1 billion pounds of chemicals are used each year in the U.S. alone. “Worldwide, an estimated 7.7 billion pounds of pesticides are applied to crops each year, and that number is steadily increasing.”

    Scientific studies and laboratory research has found alarming amounts of the weed killer, glyphosate, in nearly every food product. Roundup — the world’s most widely used herbicide, coated on both GMO crops and conventional fields, as well as public parks and other landscaping spaces — is manufactured by Monsanto, which got its start in 1902 producing saccharin, later moving into synthetic rubber, PCBs, AstroTurf, Agent Orange and aspartame.

    Through industrialized food production, this insecticide is fed to our livestock and to our children, poisons farm workers, contaminates water supplies, degrades soil, pollutes air quality, kills wildlife and could cause antibiotic-resistant pandemics. These chemical compounds are found in common, every-day and even iconic processed foods from cereals and cookies to baby food and honey to fruit and farmed salmon.

    Many anti-chemical (pro plant-based/all-natural) activists have been pushing for the U.S. government to properly investigate if glyphosate is linked to the nation’s rising childhood cancer rates. And, as an endocrine disruptor, glyphosate has been tied to disrupting hormones, leading to reproductive problems like birth defects, infertility and neurological disease. And, this carcinogen kills good bacteria needed for proper gut health, leading to inflammation and diabetes.

    For 35 years, the EPA has known about the harmful, cancer-causing side effects of agrichemicals, often waiting to release this evidence until conflicting reports by the manufactures could refute, or at least dilute, the evidence. This long-anticipated evidence proves the U.S. government conspires to push for the use of more chemically-intensive, corporate-dominated, industrialized, toxic, wasteful farming methods  rammed through our nation’s precious land resources by Monsanto, Bayer, DuPont and Dow Chemical.

    The collusion is most evident by presidential administrations and their cronies purposefully causing our regulatory system to fail in protecting the American people. The trail of toxic policy from the White House started with former Monsanto executive Donald Rumsfeld, who held prominent, high-ranking positions in the Ford, Regan and Bush Jr. administrations. The influence continued with Obama’s quick appointments of other top Monsanto executives to the USDA, FDA and other agri-business agencies, and their successful influence is evident in Obama’s support of the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership and his signing of the Dark Act, which “blocks the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from ever implementing mandatory GE food labeling, and allows food companies to continue to make misleading ‘natural’ claims for foods that contain GE ingredients.”

    Genetic Splicing of Plants Loses Ground

    In March of 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization, said the herbicide glyphosate is ‘probably carcinogenic to humans.’ This year, the UN Human Rights council released the ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food,’ which accuses global pesticide conglomerates of systematic denial of harms, aggressive, unethical marketing tactics, and heavy lobbying of governments that has obstructed reforms and paralyzed global pesticide restrictions, which have catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole, including an estimated 200,000 deaths a year from acute poisoning.

    In February, DuPont and Chemours Co. agreed to pay about $671 million in cash to settle more than 3,500 lawsuits related to the leak around a West Virginia manufacturing plant of a toxic chemical used to make Teflon (perfluorooctanoic acid, known as PFOA or C-8, used to make the nonstick coating on pots and pans, which has been linked to cancer and other diseases.) And last month, the state of California began requiring Monsanto to label their weed killer, in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.

    But industrial chemicals pesticides are just some of the lucrative pillages of industrialized farming. Genetically modified/engineered organisms (seeds) are ‘crafted’ to contain bacterium that produce toxins to kill weeds and pests, or are manufactured to be so resilient as to remain alive while continuously sprayed with killer chemicals to deter insects — possibly collapsing entire colonies of bees and other pollinators. GMOs has the known effect of causing weed and pest strains to genetically mutate for greater resistance, which allows multinational agri-businesses to pump out more chemicals and more engineered seeds to combat the problems these false ‘scientific solutions’ are creating.

    The modified plants are ‘made’ tougher as well, with each cycle reducing the amount of nutrients absorbed by the plants, making the food supply less nutritious and limited on yield. All while profits soar on this type of intellectual, patent-friendly, property. There is no doubt that , sustainable economy and much more benefit to independent, local, family farmers.

    Small-scale, organic (non-chemical/natural fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides), GMO-free farming is the only way to feed the world. Studies have shown the consumption of an organic diet significantly reduces pesticide exposure in adults. The good news is that organic farmland in the U.S. hit a record 4.1 million acres in 2016, an 11% increase in two years, with alfalfa/hay the leading crop. The bad news is Georgia only accounted for 7,832 acres, being far outpaced by North Carolina (21,688), Indiana (40,380) and most plains and western states, which average more than 100,000 acres each.

    Georgia Greens Encourage Growth from the Grassroots

    Being part of the Green Party community means being part of an international movement to combat this global toxic epidemic, from India to most of the European Union. Instead of flooding the Caribbean, Africa and other developing regions with subsidized GMO rice and corn, it is time for some real ecological economics. A true Green food system in America must be promoted through the Economic Justice & Sustainability platform of the U.S. Green Party – which respects the human right to safe food and the liberty to grow, consume and trade natural food.

    “Green economic policy places value not just on material wealth, but on the things which truly make life worth living — our health, our relationships, our communities, our environment, and building peace and justice throughout our nation and the world…Production is best for people and planet when democratically owned and operated by those who do the work and those most affected by production decisions (co-operatives). This model of worker and community empowerment will ensure that decisions that greatly affect our lives are made in the interests of our communities, not at the whim of centralized power structures of state administrators or of capitalist CEOs and distant boards of directors.”

    Georgia Greens support strong local economies and regional trade from self-sufficient production, without corporate control and unwanted, unwarranted intervention. This includes true-cost pricing (like a carbon tax), eliminating waste with composting and closed-loop durable goods, as well as minimally producing and clearly identifying toxic chemicals. Greens must demand chemical producers adhere to independent testing, with transparent oversight. Greens must protect ‘traditional’ farmers’ rights and seed storage. Greens must insist our governmental regulators hold manufactures financially and criminally liable for the harm these chemicals inflict on communities and wildlife. And, Greens must immediately implement processes to ensure the public’s right to know what is in our food from raw to processed forms.

     Turn Your Green Passion into Action

    1.      Purchase or even make chemical-free household products like cleaners and detergents.

    2.       Tell Trump to regulate GMOs. (The administration is accepting public comments right now.) And,sign this petition, to demand the immediate investigation of Monsanto, and hold the EPA accountable.

    3.       March for Science in Atlanta, inSavannah or inAthens on Earth Day, April 22. And, prepare toMarch Against Monsanto in May!

     

    And stay tuned for a future article, Go Green, Grow Hemp & Get High, where we fight back against the petroleum-based plastics industry, and demand hemp finally be implemented as the superior industrial, medicinal and recreational plant that it is!

    Democrats and Republicans alike are in the pocket of chemical companies, of Big Ag, Buig Pharma and the rest.  Only the Green Party fights for the right to a clean and healthy environment.  Help us make that happen by joining the Georgia Green Party at our minimum dues level of only $10 per month.

  • A Green Revolution to End Corporate Welfare & Raise Wages in Georgia

    By Rachel Gray, Cobb Greens & Friends

    It might shock some Georgians to learn that they live, work and pay taxes in a country where the top 1% of our national citizenry owns almost 40% of the country’s wealth. Unlike these multinational, multibillion-dollar corporations and their millionaire CEOs, Americans are tirelessly working, sometimes at more than one job, yet too many can barely raise their heads above the poverty line. The cost of living continues to rise, while the median hourly wage of U.S. workers advanced only 5 percent higher in 2013 than in 1975. Essentially, Americans in the lower half of the income scale have not seen an increase in income for 40 years.

    Meanwhile, .01% — composed of an elite circle of enormously wealth families — possesses $6 trillion dollars. Specifically, the Walton family, who rakes in billions of dollars in profits from WalMart. This retailer has the immoral credit of having the biggest customer base paying in food stamps, while also being the biggest employer of people who rely on food stamps. That is the definition of corporate welfare in America; rich profit-sucking stock holders forcing the working class to rely on social programs like food stamps, subsidized housing and Medicare. A corporate subsidy bill that runs taxpayers a cost of $153 billion from the state to federal level each year.

    This kind of successful, legal wealth grab victimizes average taxpayers. It also relies on extremely harsh, low wages for American workers who cook our food, care for our loved ones, clean up our messes, watch over our young children, transport and stock our never-ending list of daily supplies and in many other ways grind the gears of our service economy, as we slug further each day into an entrenched, corporatized, consuming society.

    According to a recent article in Common Dreams, “These multi-millionaires effectively shifted nearly $4 trillion in wealth away from the rest of the nation to themselves in 2016…That’s over $17,000 in housing and savings per lower-to-middle-class household lost to the super-rich.” This funneling is mostly done through tax breaks to the top 1%, all while our hospitals, schools and roads fall into disrepair, and the average middle-class family falls further into bottomless debit.

    GOP Wages War On Poor; Democrats Play The Victim Role 
    This week, President Trump pitched his horrific budget proposal, drastically cutting $6.2 billion in safety-net, assistance programs from departments like Housing and Urban Development, as well as eliminating the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. The White House budget proposal also decimates job training, heating subsidies, community development grants, financial support for homebuyers, Meals on Wheels and Head Start, with the harshest targets being small town, rural America, the exact areas candidate Trump boasted he would protect. The GOP is hoping the 4.5 million low-income households will be too lazy to do anything about this moral crime, and the Democratic Party is relying on their base being too helpless to do anything but ask for mercy, and then declare it a victory with the cuts are slightly rolled back.

    The GOP plan would place the burden of these programs (dating back to the 70s and 80s under Johnson, Nixon and Ford) to state governments, despite the horrible record of municipalities on ensuring affordable housing in some of the nation’s largest, most diverse cities. Still, local progressive initiatives might be the only way to actually achieve progress in this area. For instance, voters in Los Angeles, where Green candidate Kenneth Mejia is running for U.S. Congress, approved a $1.2 billion bond measure to house the homeless.

    If the federal government actually ensured a living wage, along with fully funding education from pre-K through college, and increased Social Security benefits, then American citizens would be less reliant on food stamps, housing credits and other ‘welfare’ programs. The lack of foresight and understanding by the GOP is actually perpetuating this cycle of ‘handouts,’ which the Democratic establishment also seems completely content with maintaining, as it makes their supporters more and more reliant on this ‘charity,’ while doing little to actually build a prosperous middle class.

    Georgia Greens Demand Wealth Equality
    Trickle-down economics doesn’t work. That debunked theory seems to be something the average American knows today. When wealth only flows to the top, the elite have no incentive to loosen their grasp on trillions of dollars. These dollars, when placed in the hands of working Americans, could cycle through the system, creating a robust economy that benefits everyone. Real solutions can only be discussed in new ways by the Green Party. Progressive economists don’t merely want this captured money (held at ransom) to trickle down; the true goal is for America’s wealth to flow down and all around, especially at the local level. The Democrat establishment, tied to Wall Street and large charitable foundations, are content with trickle down. The status quo allows them to be glorified for taking pity on the poor. The Green Party recognizes pity isn’t what is needed, as desperately as dignity, respect and opportunity.

    “Green economic policy places value not just on material wealth, but on the things which truly make life worth living — our health, our relationships, our communities, our environment, and building peace and justice throughout our nation and the world…We support using the tax system to bring more equality to our nation. Rising income inequality makes us all poorer in myriad ways. More equal societies are happier, healthier, safer and greener.” – U.S. Green Party Economic Justice & Sustainability

    • The Green Party calls for an economic system based on a combination of private businesses, decentralized democratic cooperatives, publicly owned enterprises and alternative economic structures.
    • All people have a right to food, housing, medical care, jobs that pay a living wage, education and support in times of hardship. The Green Party calls for restoration of a federally funded entitlement program to support children, families, the unemployed, elderly and disabled. This program should be funded through the existing welfare budget; reductions in military spending and corporate subsidies; and a fair, progressive income tax.
    • The Green Party calls for a graduated supplemental income, or negative income tax, that would maintain all individual adult incomes above the poverty level, regardless of employment or marital status. And, the Green Party opposes the privatization of Social Security.

    The accumulation of individual wealth in the U.S. has reached grossly unbalanced proportions. ‘Luxury development’ has pushed Atlanta to the breaking point, prioritizing multimillion-dollar stadiums over affordable housing. This kind of economic depression and oppression must be stopped, and replaced with a system designed to work for everyone. It’s clear the American people cannot rely on rich Wall Street executives and establishment politicians in Washington to regulate their profit making. The Green Party and its members must push with all of our strength to aggressively restore a fair distribution of income, starting with our demand that the federal minimum wage be raised to $15 immediately.

    Georgia Greens on the Scene!

    On Sunday, February 26, the organizing team from Cobb Green & Friends attended a town hall in Smyrna held by Democrat State Representative Stacey Evans, who represents much of the Cumberland and Marietta area. When asked about the plight of America’s working class, Rep. Evans reminded the room of more than 50 people that Georgia’s minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is far below the federal standard.

    Rep. Evans quickly cast the blame of this systemic poverty issue on Republican lawmakers in Georgia, who she stated placed road blocks to keep cities and counties from enacting laws to protect workers from oppressive practices like surprise scheduling of retail and service workers. Evans told the group she has voted against those laws. However, the only amount of leadership Evans offered on this issue at the meeting was to advise Georgia Greens and fellow grassroots activists to apply organic pressure as consumers on businesses to pay higher wages.

    Last month, the Cobb Greens & Friends leadership also attended a tele-town hall of Republican U.S. Congressman Tom Graves of Georgia’s 14th district, covering the northwest corner of the state, including Paulding County. Rep. Graves told the more than 8,000 callers he wanted to reduce the size of government, and rework the tax code to drastically decrease collections at the federal level.

    However, a poll conducted by the Congressman’s staff live on the call revealed that less than half of the callers would prioritize their need for a lower tax rate, with 16% saying they would favor keeping their current rate, and 38% seeking only a simplified tax filing process. “Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem,” was the mantra Rep. Graves repeated a couple of times, as he vowed to abolish the IRS and install a fair tax, which he said would end corporate welfare with a more direct, upfront tax policy with less loopholes.

    During the call, the Congressman alluded that the town hall discussion had addressed jobs in America. Unfortunately, those limited references were mainly around rallying cries to build a Mexico-border wall and evict immigrant workers, with a heart-wrenching 51% of callers responding to a live poll that a wall on the southern border should be built ‘no matter the cost.’

    Neither Democrats nor Republicans stand for raising wages and guaranteeing the right to organize unions.  That’s why we need a Green Party in Georgia.  Consider joining the Georgia Green Party at our minimum dues level of onoy $10 per month.

  • Georgia Greens Ask Tough Questions at Capitol

    Members of the Georgia Green Party, from Savannah to Atlanta, gathered at the Capitol Building, alongside Common Cause Georgia as part of Citizen’s Lobby Day. People from all walks of life joined together for one common purpose — to fix the broken, rigged election system in Georgia. These concerned citizens, and almost exclusively first-time lobbyists, agreed the biggest obstacle to election integrity in this state is gerrymandering. 

    “It was an awesome experience, waiting for the Senators to arrive amid a chaotic, cacophony of high level decision-makers and their constituents,” reports Christi Oates of the Chatham Greens. “I really felt the power of the face-to-face, eye-to-eye connection, and I could tell they were a bit taken aback by the well-informed questions I posed. It was very empowering.”

    After every census, the party in power (Democrat or Republican) uses techniques known as ‘stacking, cracking and packing’ to ensure lopsided, oddly fabricated districts have no more than 30% of constituents who support the opposing party, allowing for an easy, incumbent victory.

    In the 2016 general election:

    • 81% of incumbents for the Georgia General Assembly ran unopposed

    • 82% of open seats in Georgia only had one name on the ballot

    • 5 US Representatives ran unopposed

    After identifying the threats our democracy is facing from establishment politicians and their unethical stronghold on our ‘districts,’ the group dedicated their focus to the Reapportionment Committee and the redistricting, anti-gerrymandering legislation, Senate Resolutions 6 & 7, proposed by Senator Elena Parent, District 42. These resolutions propose to establish an independent, bipartisan, Citizens Redistricting Commission, as well as provide a list of five specific, anti-gerrymandering practices to be adhered to when developing the maps.

    “There’s nothing wrong with the current system,” said Senator Ben Watson, Chair of the Reapportionment Committee, on Citizen’s Lobby Day. Watson added that he did not intend to allow a vote on the proposed resolutions. And despite a packed room at the hearing and dozens of calls and letters from his constituents, a vote was not granted. The resolutions will be up for additional hearings during the next legislative session.

    Georgia Greens Demand Paper Ballots
    The Green Party has more in its crosshairs than just gerrymandering when it comes to election reform. John Fortuin, a Georgia Green Party member esteemed for his days lobbying against the electronic voting machines in the early 2000s,    warned there are more than 20 documented vulnerabilities permitting hacks of Georgia’s electronic voting machines. Efforts to develop fixes to these vulnerabilities have been blocked at every level, he added.

    It is critical Green Party leaders and members fight for mandates on paper ballots as the only legal ballot in the state, and eliminate hackable/error-prone electronic records. Currently, SB59: Georgia State Senate Bill on Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Voting Systems would require a verifiable paper trail for recounts in Georgia’s elections. Without Republican authors or co-sponsors, SB59 is unlikely to receive a hearing, and further analysis of the bill is required. Georgia Greens and our allies must persuade Republicans who believe in the Constitution to introduce paper ballot legislation.

    Sara Henderson, new policy director of Common Cause Georgia, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization working to ensure the highest level of election integrity, who attended Citizen’s Lobby Day, said she is driven by the clear need for better governance, and grassroots pressure is exactly what is needed. The Georgia Green Party looks forward to forming these much-needed alliances to affect change at the ballot box for Georgia’s citizens.

    “I am proud to be part of this collective voice of activists, uniting across all dividing lines, both within and without the Green Party,” said Oates. “And, according to a gold-dome insider who will remain anonymous, the establishment around here is scared. They see what is happening in the streets.” Watch Christi Oates of Savannah asks Senator Matt Brass about gerrymandering.

    Georgia Greens Take Action
    On February 26, Cobb Greens & Friends attended the in-person town hall of Georgia State Rep. Stacey Evans (D), representing House District 42 for the cities of Smyrna and Marietta. When asked about the many bills circling the Georgia State House attempting to restore election integrity, Rep. Evans said she is in favor of all the democratic measures.

    Evans said she supports an independent commission, and admitted that when Democrats were in the majority at the capitol, her own party was guilty of gerrymandering. Evans added, that if Democrats were to gain the majority in Georgia’s state house again, she commits to supporting this same legislation on restructuring the redistricting process.

    As the onslaught of attacks from establishment, political corporatists continue to mount, the 99% must unite to fix the broken, rigged election system. Without fair, democratic elections, the life and death issues fought for by the Georgia Green Party can not be won. If election integrity is also your top priority, please TURN YOUR PASSION INTO ACTION.

    Senator Ben Watson, Chair of the Reapportionment Committee

    (404) 656-7880 / (912) 527-5100
    ben.watson@senate.ga.gov

    As a member of the Georgia Green Party, I demand that Georgia legislators fix our broken, rigged election system in this state. I firmly support SB59, as well as Senate Resolutions 6 & 7, and their attempts to stop gerrymandering by creating an independent commission on redistricting, as well as ensuring a paper trail to audit our elections. I am very disappointed no votes or actions were taken this year to address these constitutional issues. The Georgia Green Party demands this issues be a priority during next year’s legislative session. It is time to stand up for American democracy and the rights of Georgia’s citizens!

  • You Can’t Drink Oil; Georgia Greens Thirsty for Clean Energy

    By Rachel Gray, Cobb Greens & Friends

    Different administration, same poison. That’s the overwhelming feeling many environmental activists and Green Party progressives are facing as they once again hit the streets to fight against a president’s pro-business (at any cost) policy that places the planet and her people in peril. On January 29, those streets included downtown Atlanta, when hundreds of concerned citizens — including the boisterous Cobb Greens & Friends — made their voices heard in the Peaceful Walk To Protect Our Environment, spurring the online movement#ATLAgainstPipelines. 

    There is truly one reason and one reason only that America has not moved beyond the fuel fossil era: big oil buys politicians, who then ignore science and vilify efforts to place human health and environmental preservation first. The success of big oil is most apparent in the appointments of T-Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil, as Secretary of State and former Texas Governor, ‘Department of what,’ Rick Perry as head of the Energy Department.

    In February, President Donald Trump resurrected what activists had hoped was a permanent death of both the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines by signing orders to expand energy infrastructure, including sweeping directives to resurrect American-made steel and loosen the process for approving and regulating future dirty energy projects.

    The day after trumpeting that his administration would be cozy with big oil, a pipeline rupture spilled 138,600 gallons of diesel fuel in northern Iowa. But this spill shouldn’t come as a shock, when more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled across more than 1,000 pipeline leaks between 2010 and 2015, with 200 more significant spills in 2016. And, on January 30, 600,000 gallons of oil spewed out of Enbridge’s Seaway Pipeline in Blue Ridge, Texas, the second spill since the pipeline opened for business in mid-2016.

    And, it’s not just oil pipelines Americans are fighting against. The battle to end fracking and stop natural gas pipeline construction has landed right in Georgia’s back door. If completed, the Sabal Trail will include approximately 515 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline (86 miles in Alabama, 162 miles in Georgia, 268 miles in Florida). The pipeline will be capable of transporting 1 billion cubic feet per day or more of natural gas, traipsing through nine counties in Georgia: Stewart, Webster, Lee, Dougherty, Mitchell, Colquitt, Lowndes and Brooks counties.

    On February 26, Cobb Greens & Friends attended the in-person town hall of Georgia State Rep. Stacey Evans (D), representing House District 42 for the cities of Smyrna and Marietta. When asked about the Sabal Trail, and the use of imminent domain by a self-interested private corporation, Rep. Evans said she had limited knowledge about the project, and inaccurately stated the imminent domain is only used for public government projects. Other concerned residents, out of the more than 50 attendees, expressed their concerns about the corrupt encroachment of imminent domain, as well as fracking, in the state of Georgia with the representative and her staff. The Georgia Green Party will remain outspoken when it comes to environmental protection, public health and citizen rights.

    The real impact on Georgia homeowners was recently covered by Alive 11, when a Bartow County family farmer expressed his sorrow over the condemnation of his land via eminent domain by Oklahoma-based Transco corporation. This gaseous project would embed 112 miles of natural gas pipeline from Murray to Coweta counties. This ‘heavy-handed’ authority jeopardizing 50 land owners is not a public state or federal project, and at least one Georgia resident claims he has yet to be compensated, and his requests for preservation of heirlooms disregarded.

    An International Natural Disaster
    Throughout Central America and South America, thousands of barrels worth of black crude have contaminated the Amazon, putting one of the most vital jungle river systems in the world at risk. Those affected the most are indigenous people in Peru, Ecuador Venezuela, whose daily lives are placed in peril with water sources and food supplies off limits for months or more. Even if lawsuits are filed and waged in courts for years, there is still little to no justice forced upon international corporations like Exxon, Shell and BP, who activists and reporters on the ground accuse of exploiting local children to help with clean up efforts without any protection, violating human rights and human decency.

    Why should citizens in the Americas face hardship when across the pond sustainable energy is reshaping and strengthening communities? Also in January, the Irish Parliament passed historic legislation to divest their national treasury from coal, oil and gas investments. Meanwhile, The Netherlands is investing in vast solar parks and electric trains that run 100% on wind energy.

    Industrious, pro-industry Germany is challenging itself to not only became self-sustaining, but also lead the way in energy storage pioneering. This energy transition revolution, called energiewende, also includes the drastic phasing out of nuclear energy production in the European country. The successful political and social effort has been led by Germany’s Green Party since its founding in 1980, based on one of the progressive party’s central tenants that sustainable, renewable energy is the only way to keep a country intact and healthy.

    The solutions exist, now it takes the political will to enact them in America. The United States has fallen behind, and it will take a Green movement to become a leader again. Presidential candidate Jill Stein, along with her running mate and Georgia resident Ajamu Baraka, made their stance against dirty energy very clear on the campaign trail by leaving their marks in graffiti on Dakota Access’ machinery. As a national party, our stance is clear on Standing Rock. And, from the East Coast to the Gulf Coast, Green Party members say NO FRACKING WAY to drilling. For years, some of the toughest fights have been waged by Green Floridians, and the Georgia Green Party will continue to support these efforts by our neighbors as we unite against the Sabal Trail.

    Planet Protectors
    Despite concerns over contamination from leaks into the water supply, the eventual emission from burning the fossil fuel and the destruction of sacred native lands, the DAPL permits were first granted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in July, under the watch (or voluntary blindness) of Obama. For months, natives, activists and veterans put life and limb on the line to stop the black snake, and their hard work amounted to a delay. A delay many progressives feel Obama created, so he could be ushered out of office with his supposed environmental stewardship intact, all while leaving a clear path for Trump to continue the destruction.

    Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, it was the Green Party that told the truth: The constant drip of cheap fossil fuels has come to an end. That regulations are not enough, and it is time to dispel the pipe dream that coal and natural gas extraction and burning is, or ever will be, ‘clean energy.’ Dr. Stein even showed a balance is possible between protecting the planet and building a great economy to be proud of with The Green New Deal.

    Greens want to stop runaway climate change, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 40% by 2020 and 95% by 2050, over 1990 levels, through measures such as a carbon tax that interjects the environmental costs of fossil fuels into the ‘free’ market to eliminating subsidies for corporations pumping out fossil fuels and nuclear power to providing consumers market incentives and investment opportunities in Green sources.

    With 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world’s energy. Even at a basic level, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other native protectors are already supporting a Green initiative that encourages the formation and operation of cooperatives, land trusts, co-housing and other forms of communal and public interest management of land and resources.

    The Green Party demands this country invest in public transportation systems, in a way that has not been accomplished by either the Democrats or Republicans, while also improving energy efficiency in homes, businesses, public spaces and government buildings. This retrofitting with solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectricity and geothermal technologies is a locally focused solution to a global epidemic that will create millions of jobs.

    TURN YOUR PASSION INTO ACTION

    Great news! Rachel Gray, organizer for Cobb Greens & Friends, made our party’s opposition to Sabal Trail very clear on the pages of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Now is the time for you to be heard!

    Sample call script:

    Brian Fahrenthold
    Local or State Governmental Affairs
    Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC
    1.888.215.6683
    bcfahrenthold@spectraenergy.com

    My name is _________. I am calling on behalf the Georgia Green Party, to make it clear that our membership wants Sabal to get the frack out of Georgia. President Trump has filled the swamp with black crude, poisonous gas and destructive coal ash.

    Sabal Trail is an egregious waste of government resources and tax dollars. Your dirty conglomerate is violating the rights of Georgia residents with the use of imminent domain to line the pockets of your private international benefactors.

    Green Party Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein showed a balance is possible between protecting the planet and building a great economy to be proud of with The Green New Deal. Local-sourced, co-op owned, clean, renewable energy is not only safest for the environment and our citizens, but the only economically viable solution.