September, 04 2015, 09:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
PMG, 323.337.9042
Henry Eshelman/Mark Rabinowitz/Sabrina Zeile
heshelman@platformgrp.com; mark@platformgrp.com sabrina@platformgrp.com
UN Foundation, 202.496.6386
tmusoke@unfoundation.org
Friends of the Earth U.S., 202.222.0730
edyson@foe.org
Internationally Renowned Artists Sing to Inspire Action on Climate Change: "Love Song to the Earth"
Features Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis, Sean Paul, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Angelique Kidjo, Kelsea Ballerini, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice, and Q’Orianka Kilcher
NEW YORK, NY
Internationally renowned artists have come together to record a song to support the UN Secretary-General's leadership on climate change and the United Nations' call for a meaningful, universal, global climate change agreement to be signed by governments in December.
Love Song to the Earth" features performances by Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis, Sean Paul, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Angelique Kidjo (a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador), Kelsea Ballerini, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice and Q'Orianka Kilcher.
Written by Toby Gad, Natasha Bedingfield, John Shanks and Sean Paul, and produced by Toby Gad and John Shanks, the song is available worldwide now, exclusively on iTunes and Apple Music via Connect. The artists, producers and directors of the Love Song project - as well as Apple - are donating their respective proceeds to Friends of the Earth U.S. and the United Nations Foundation.
On September 11, it will enjoy a wide release on all major music distribution and streaming services around the world.
In addition to the song's release, Executive Director Jerry Cope, has also produced and co-directed a "lyric video" premiering September 11, which will feature breathtaking film from around the world by award-winning cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg, and footage of some of the artists, along with scientists, celebrities and people all over the world holding signs reading: "Keep it Safe," "It's Our World" and "Love Song to the Earth." The "cast" of the lyric video includes scientist and explorer Sylvia Earle; environmentalist and author Bill McKibben; "Love Song" performers Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Angelique Kidjo, Kelsea Ballerini, and Q'Orianka Kilcher; keyboardist Chuck Leavell of the Allman Brothers Band and Rolling Stones and founder of the Mother Nature Network (MNN); "Love Song" director Jerry Cope and his family; comedian Lewis Black; writer/producer Toby Gad and his family; Lyn Lear; UN Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall; and concludes with members of the Batwa Tribe in Uganda.
In December 2015, the world's leaders will assemble in Paris for COP21 in an effort to sign a meaningful, universal global agreement on climate change. The song's producers hope that "Love Song to The Earth" will bring the issue to new audiences and inspire them to reach out to their leaders to demand climate action. The artists will be asking their fans to "Share the Love Song" and "Take Climate Action Now" by signing a petition that will be delivered to world's leaders at the beginning of the climate conference.
"The UN has called for 'all hands on deck' to address this global challenge. The support, engagement, and passion of the creative community are key to engaging new audiences in the call for a meaningful and universal climate change agreement. When UN member states gather in Paris this December, the voices of everyone, especially the entertainment industry, will help ensure the best outcome possible for a better future for all." said Aaron Sherinian, chief communications and marketing officer of the UN Foundation.
Love Song for the Earth will join The Climate Reality Project and Friends of the Earth U.S. as a partner for 24 Hours of Reality and Live Earth: The World is Watching, and will add the voices of artists and fans to the millions across the planet speaking up to demand a strong climate agreement in Paris.
Songwriter/producer Toby Gad explains, "When the UN asked me to write a song about climate change I felt honored and inspired. So, my friends and I wrote 'Love Song to The Earth', focusing on a positive message about how precious our only planet is. We went on to produce the all-star version of 'Love Song' for a September 2015 release. Jerry Cope, a dedicated activist and powerful visionary, was instrumental in pulling the strings together for the single and masterminding the videos. I hope this song will broaden the audience for this urgent message and give the politicians emotional support for meaningful climate agreement in Paris 2015."
"We wanted to write a song that is about how when you love something, you look after it," says Bedingfield. "Many people turn a blind eye arguing that everything is ok environmentally. The song reminds us that having ownership of our world means taking care of it. Many people in my generation have grown up with fear about the future, and while we know about the environmental issues, we're unsure if there is any hope. With this song we wanted to talk about the environment in a way that would help people feel empowered to do something rather than be paralyzed by fear."
Jerry Cope adds, "The earth's climate supports the rhythm of life and music touches our very souls. Toby Gad, John Shanks, Natasha Bedingfield and I began the Love Song project to raise voices and spirits to support the world's leaders this year as they negotiate a global climate agreement in Paris this December. It is critically important that we take the actions necessary to ensure a stable, safe climate system for all life on the planet. It is our Love Song to the Earth."
"Friends of the Earth is excited to be collaborating with Jerry Cope, Toby Gad, the UN Foundation and all the artiststo make 'Love Song to the Earth' a reality," stated Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S. "The climate crisis is near a global tipping point, we hope everyone who hears this anthem takes action to encourage our political leaders to keep our planet safe, by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and moving toward 100 percent renewable energy. The time for leadership and action is now; if our political leaders can not or will not lead, then a people's movement must."
Credits: "Love Song to The Earth"
Producers: John Shanks, Toby Gad
Executive Director: Jerry Cope
Written by: Toby Gad, John Shanks, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Paul
Performing Artists: Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis, Sean Paul, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Angelique Kidjo, Kelsea Ballerini, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice and Q'Orianka Kilcher.
Songwriter and producer Toby Gad has penned and produced hits for John Legend, Beyonce, Fergie, Demi Lovato and more. Natasha Bedingfield is the singer/ songwriter of "Pocketful of sunshine" and "Unwritten," among others. A Grammy(r)-winning producer and songwriter, John Shanks has worked with artists from Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow to Stevie Nicks and Kelly Clarkson.
About the UN Foundation:
The United Nations Foundation links the UN's work with others around the world, mobilizing the energy and expertise of business and non-governmental organizations to help the UN tackle issues including climate change, global health, peace and security, women's empowerment, poverty eradication, energy access, and U.S.-UN relations.
About Friends of the Earth U.S.:
Friends of the Earth U.S. fights to create a more healthy and just world. Our current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, ensuring the food we eat and products we use are safe and sustainable, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them. Friends of the Earth U.S. are engaging citizens on the top environmental issues of our time through Earth HQ (https://earthhq.foe.org). Friends of the Earth U.S. is a member of Friends of the Earth International, a global network representing more than two million activists in 76 countries.
About The Climate Reality Project:
The Climate Reality Project is one of the world's leading organizations dedicated to mobilizing action around climate change. With a global movement more than 5 million strong and a grassroots network of trained Climate Reality Leaders, we are spreading the truth of the climate crisis to communities everywhere and creating cultural momentum to solve it. Former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore is the Founder and Chairman of The Climate Reality Project. Learn more at www.climaterealityproject.org.
Take Action:
www.lovesongtotheearth.org
#SharetheLoveSong
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
"It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," explained one critic.
Apr 18, 2024
Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
In a 273-147 vote last week, House lawmakers passed RISAA, including an amendment critics say dramatically expands the government's unchecked surveillance authority by compelling a wide range of individuals and organizations—including businesses and the media—to cooperate in government spying operations.
This so-called "Make Everyone a Spy" clause would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to "immediately provide... all information, facilities, or assistance" the government deems necessary.
"This bill would basically allow the government to institute a spy draft," Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned Thursday. "It will lead to significant distrust between journalists and sources, not to mention everyone else."
"It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," he added. "Regardless of whether the end target of the surveillance is a foreigner, it's indisputable that the people the government can enlist to conduct the surveillance are Americans. And what's more, these civilians ordered to spy would be gagged and sworn to secrecy under the law."
In addition to the "Make Everyone a Spy" provision, civil libertarians have sounded the alarm over the House lawmakers' rejection of an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the legislation.
Critics accuse Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) of trying to rush a vote on RISAA while disingenuously claiming Section 702's powers will expire with the law on Friday. That's a misleading claim, as a national security court earlier this month approved the government's request to continue a disputed surveillance program even if Section 702 lapses.
"There is simply no defense of Majority Leader Schumer and Sen. Warner's duplicity," Sean Vitka, policy director at the progressive advocacy group Demand Progress, said in a statement. "House Intelligence Committee leaders poisoned this bill with one of the most repugnant surveillance expansions in history, and apparently the administration was too busy attacking commonsense privacy protections to notice. They know it, we know it, and now the American people know it."
"There can be no mistake: Sens. Schumer and Warner just helped hand the next president an unspeakably dangerous weapon that will be used against their own constituents," Vitka added. "And there is only one vote left to stop it."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
said earlier this week that the bill would dragoon the American people into becoming "an agent for Big Brother"—on Thursday argued that "this issue demands a debate about meaningful reforms, not a rushed vote to rubber-stamp more warrantless government surveillance powers."
In an attempt to tackle the warrantless surveillance issue, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Thursday proposed a RISAA amendment that would require the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing Americans' private communications.
However, the amendment contains exceptions to the warrant requirement in the event of unspecified emergencies and cyberattacks.
"If the government wants to spy on the private communications of Americans, they should be required to get approval from a judge—just as our Founders intended," Durbin said in a statement. "Congress has a responsibility to the American people to get this right."
The Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies vehemently oppose the Durbin-Cramer amendment. The White House called the measure "a reckless policy choice contrary to the key lessons of 9/11 and not grounded in any constitutional requirement or statute."
"The amendment outright bars the government from gaining access to lawfully collected information using terms associated with U.S. persons," the administration added. "Exceptions to that prohibition are narrow and unworkable. They are insufficient to protect our national security."
On Wednesday, the House also passed the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, which would prohibit the government from buying Americans' information from data brokers if it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain the data, which includes location and internet records. The Senate will now take up FANFSA.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'The Opposite of Leadership': US Vetoes Palestine's UN Membership
Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations said the resolution's failure "will not break our will, and it will not defeat our determination."
Apr 18, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday used the country's veto power at the United Nations Security Council to block Palestine's bid to become a full member of the U.N.
While 12 nations voted in favor of Palestinian membership and two abstained, the United States is one of five countries—along with China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom—who have veto authority at the Security Council.
Since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has said is a "plausibly" genocidal assault of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led October attack, the Biden administration has blocked three cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council. Under mounting global pressure, the U.S. finally abstained last month, allowing a cease-fire measure to pass.
In the lead-up to Thursday's vote, the Biden administration was pressuring other countries to oppose the Palestinian Authority's renewed membership effort so it could possibly avoid a veto, according to leaked cables obtained by The Intercept.
"Take a moment to ponder how isolated Biden has made the U.S.," said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, after the veto. "Biden lobbied Japan, South Korea, and Ecuador HARD to oppose the Palestine resolution so that the U.S. wouldn't have to veto. They refused. So Biden cast his fourth veto in seven months (!!) This is the opposite of leadership."
In addition to the nations Parsi highlighted, Algeria, China, France, Guyana, Malta, Mozambique, Russia, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia voted for giving Palestine full U.N. membership while Switzerland and the United Kingdom abstained.
After the vote, U.N. Newsreported on remarks from Riyad Mansour, a U.N. permanent observer for the state of Palestine:
"We came to the Security Council today as an important historic moment, regionally and internationally, so that we could salvage what can be saved. We place you before a historic responsibility to establish the foundations of a just and comprehensive peace in our region."
Council members were given the opportunity "to revive the hope that has been lost among our people" and to translate their commitment towards a two-state solution into firm action "that cannot be maneuvered or retracted," and the majority of council members "have risen to the level of this historic moment, and they have stood on the side of justice and freedom and hope, in line with the ethical and humanitarian and legal principles that must govern our world and in line with simple logic."
"The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will, and it will not defeat our determination," Mansour added. "We will not stop in our effort. The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real. Perhaps they see it as far away, but we see it as near, and we are the faithful."
Parsi said that "a Western-friendly senior Global South diplomat" told him of Biden's veto: "Whatever agonizing claim the U.S. had to lead a self-appointed free world has died a very loud public death on the Security Council horseshoe tonight. YOU CAN'T LEAD IF YOU CAN'T LISTEN."
Biden, a Democrat seeking reelection in November, has faced fierce criticism in the United States and around the world for U.S. complicity in Israel's war on Gaza—which Hamas, not the Palestinian Authority, has controlled for nearly two decades. In under seven months, Israeli forces have killed 33,970 Palestinians, injured another 76,770, displaced most of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million population, devastated civilian infrastructure, and severely limited the flow of lifesaving humanitarian assistance.
Israel—which already got $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid before October 7—continues to receive weapons support from the Biden administration, even as a growing chorus of critics, including some Democrats in Congress, argues that the arms transfers violate U.S. and international law.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Shameful': Columbia Greenlights Police Crackdown on Anti-War Encampment
Even after dozens of students were arrested, hundreds "rushed to take the place of their classmates" and continued the protest.
Apr 18, 2024
The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest," chanted hundreds of students as they marched around the area where organizers had set up a tent encampment early Wednesday morning.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
Pro-Palestinian students and alumni have demanded that Columbia divest from companies that profit from Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and cancel its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University.
In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
On Thursday, police and Columbia employees took down about 50 tents that had been up for more than a day and disposed of them in trash cans and alleyways—but The New York Times reported later that "demonstrators repitched a couple of tents, and ... recovered the main signage from the encampment as well," while hundreds of students were "still gathered and chanting on the south side of the grass."
The arrests came a day after Shafik testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce about antisemitism on campus.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the Barnard students who were suspended on Thursday for participating in the encampment protest, questioned Shafik about whether antisemitic protests have actually taken place at Columbia, prompting the president to say there have not.
"There has been a rise in targeting and harassment against anti-war protesters, because it's been pro-war and anti-war protesters is what it seems, like, correct?" asked Omar.
"Correct," replied Shafik.
On Thursday, Omar posted on social media two images of protesters at Columbia: one from the encampment this week, and one from 1968, when students protested the U.S. war in Vietnam.
New York City Council member Tiffany Cabán was among those who condemned the university's crackdown on the protests on Thursday.
"Suspending and arresting Columbia/Barnard student activists and disbanding student organizations—including Jewish students and organizations—doesn't combat antisemitism or increase safety," said Cabán. "All it does is punish and intimidate those who believe in human rights for Palestinians. Shameful."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular