It's time to bridge the divide between the peace and justice movement
and the climate action movement! For far too long, our groups have
been working on one or the other of these issues, but now is the time
to acknowledge the ways in which these issues are linked and the need
for people throughout the world to take action to end both war and
climate change!

 This coming Saturday, April 14th, peace and justice activists have an
opportunity to join with tens of thousands of people throughout the
United States who will be participating in Step It Up
(www.stepitup2007.org), an exciting national day of action against
climate change. The demand: Step it Up Congress! Cut carbon 80% by
2050. We believe it's time for the peace and justice movements to lend
their support to these efforts!

 Please join United for Peace and Justice, and many UFPJ member groups
including Peace Action, CODEPINK, Global Exchange, Climate Crisis
Coalition, and others by participating in local actions on April 14th
to say NO WAR, NO WARMING! Send the message "Fight Climate Change, Not
Wars for Oil."

 You can join one of the more than 1,300 protests planned throughout
the country on April 14th. And there is still time to organize a
protest in your community. One idea is to have an action at a local
gas station. What better location to send a message about war, oil and
the consequences of oil addiction than a gas station? And every
neighborhood has one!

 Here are some gas station action ideas:

Leaflet motorists and hold up signs (e.g., Fight Climate Change, Not
Wars for Oil; No War, No Warming; Congress: Step It Up - Cut Carbon
Emissions NOW; etc.);
Organize a time-limited die-in at the pumps;
Put up crosses or cardboard tombstones at a gas station, with the
names of people who died in the Iraq war;
March from a gas station to a nearby recruiting station or a nearby
Congressmember's office.

Click here for flyers and other resources to use in your actions:
http://stepitup2007.org/section.php?id=7

 Let's get the peace and justice movement involved in this great day of action!

 BACKGROUND
 Oil is the critical link between war and climate change.

 There would have been no invasion of Iraq if that country's main
export were broccoli. It was the U.S. addiction to oil that drove our
country into the Iraq war and will fuel future resource wars, unless
the U.S. ends its addiction. Additionally, the U.S. military is the
largest single consumer of petroleum in the country, so as the
military grows, so does our addiction to fossil fuels.

 Oil is also the main cause of climate change. Our addiction to
greenhouse-gas-emitting oil is melting the Arctic and Greenland before
our eyes, destroying Indigenous cultures and peoples. It is
disappearing small island nations as sea levels rise, and it's
creating extreme climate events and super storms like Hurricane
Katrina around the world. In fact, as the situation gets even worse,
as people run out of water and eco-systems wither, climate change is
an emerging global security threat that could make current wars pale
by comparison.

 Meanwhile, who suffers from war and climate change? In both cases, it
is the poorest people, people of color and people from the global
South, who suffer the most, and it is oil companies, Halliburton and
other corporate pillagers who reap the profits.

 To end future oil wars and stop the impending climate crisis, we need
to take dramatic steps to end the U.S. addiction to oil and other
fossil fuels. What if we shifted the billions of dollars being spent
every month on war and destruction in Iraq to investment in clean,
efficient, jobs-creating, and renewable energy sources? Let's make it
happen! U.S. out of Iraq and into Kyoto!

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