Season 2 - Halt the Harm Podcast

09/12/18 • 1 min

Welcome to Halt the Harm Podcast, I'm your host Ryan Clover. The network is to support leaders who are taking action to protect themselves and their communities from the harms of oil and gas industry. The podcast is a way to learn more about the people in the network, how they got involved, what work they're doing.
If you have a story to share, please visit halttheharm.net/podcast or contact us at [email protected]
If you have questions about fracking, impacts, zoning, regulations, or organizations to connect with, visit frackingnextdoor.com

Previous Episode

09 - Karen Edelstein, Mapping the Movement

In this episode Karen Edelstein helps us understand how maps are used as a powerful tool in protecting our communities.
Maps gives us a big picture view of the land, industrial activity, and even the various people and organizations working to protect the environment. By comparing maps and data we can discover new trends, even possibilities for our work.

As mentioned in this episode:

FracTracker Alliance
FracTracker's Resource Page
Map of New York State bans and moratoria on high volume hydraulic fracturing
https://saneenergyproject.org/
http://www.youareherenymap.org/
HHN Episode 04 - Mike Younger, Backwoods Pipeline Surveys

Bio:

Karen Edelstein is the Eastern Program Coordinator for the FracTracker Alliance, a nonprofit organization that uses maps and other interactive media to communicate the risks of oil and gas development. As an environmental cartographer, she has worked for many conservation and government agencies over the past two decades.

She started working with Fractracker in 2010 before fracking was a common part of the public vocabulary. Throughout this time she's created dozens of maps that document environmental resources and industry behavior – maps on geology, water withdrawal, waste transportation, and even the movements of public opposition to fracking. These maps give us the ability to see the bigger picture of how the oil and gas industry operates, as well as our own efforts to organize to protect our health and environment.

Core Message:

Maps are powerful tools for organizing activism, and FracTracker is there to help groups mobilizing against oil and gas development, and FOR renewables.

Credits:

This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a powerful resource for anyone confronting the fracking industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net
The soundtrack Halt the Harm podcast is"One of These Days" by Eilen Jewell from her album Sea of Tears.
Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover-Owens in the studios of Eco-Defense Radio and WRFI.

Next Episode

10 - Walter Hang on strategy, focus, and doing the work to crush industry plans.

Walter Hang from Toxics Targeting has led unprecedented victories against oil and gas projects in upstate NY – and in this interview he explains his strategy of balancing the message with an incredibly focused demand. The trick, he says, is that there is no trick – there are no shortcuts to the hard work, training, and commitment we need to win. What’s remarkable is that even though it’s challenging, the principles are actually quite simple, but we need to avoid the mistake of pouring effort into campaign strategies that are ineffective. In this episode you’ll gain some insight into how Walter has achieved so many victories, and in his words “crushed” pipeline project and other infrastructure demands of the oil & gas industry.

As mentioned in this episode:

Toxics Targeting at www.toxicstargeting.com
Infrastructure Campaign Compilation
www.facebook.com/ToxicsTargeting
Despite FERC approval, groups in NY are still able to defeat the development of a massive regional storage hub for fracked gas.
The political argument “how can you support additional infrastructure for a dying industry?”...
great political argument, which is going to rally and build the movement... but it’s not the legal strategy.
When you identify the regulatory pressure points, identify exactly who you need to pressure on exactly which legal point. The ASK needs to be focused... The ask is different than the message which is how we organize a campaign.
Toxics targeting helps focus the activists legal strategies to be more effective. They help identify the points and focus the efforts like a battering ram to prevent infrastructure projects.

Bio: Walter Hang is the founder of Toxics Targeting, an consulting firm in Ithaca, NY that helps people understand toxic sites through New York State. He produces maps, reports, and publishes research with his team. You don’t need to be in New York State to be involved with Toxics Targeting campaigns, or to learn about their work – just contact [email protected] or go to the website www.toxicstargeting.com and look at the call to action in the bottom right of the page.

Core Message: The trick is that there is no trick... to beat the fossil fuel industry and the politicians that favor them we need to work hard, build our network, and have a focused strategy with extremely clear demands. No tool, app, or social platform replaces the value of going door to door, building a campaign around a single (strategically sound) demand.

Credits: This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a website and resource that connects you with leaders, activists, researchers, economists, legal experts, and funders to protect your community from oil & gas industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net The soundtrack Halt the Harm podcast is"One of These Days" by Eilen Jewell from her album Sea of Tears. Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover in the studios WRFI Watkins Glen, Ithaca