Center for Biological Diversity


Media Advisory, December 8, 2015

Contacts:   Patrick Sullivan, (415) 517-9364, psullivan@biologicaldiversity.org (Oakland)
Kassie Siegel, +1 951 961 7972, ksiegel@biologicaldiversity.org (Paris)
Darcey O’Callaghan, +1 202 309 1440, docallaghan@fwwatch.org (Paris)

Paris Protest to Challenge Gov. Jerry Brown: 'Climate Leaders Don't Frack'

Wednesday Rally Will Highlight California Governor's Support of Extreme Oil Extraction

LE BOURGET, France— On the final day of California Gov. Jerry Brown’s trip to the United Nations climate summit, frontline community members, climate experts and activists from California and around the world will rally against the governor’s (and other leaders’) support of fracking at a protest outside the Le Bourget conference site.

Carrying signs reading “Climate Leaders Don’t Frack,” protesters will gather for a rally Wednesday featuring speakers from the Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Californians Against Fracking and other conservation and social justice organizations.

What: Protest at U.N. climate summit against California Gov. Jerry Brown and other government leaders for their support of fracking and dangerous oil drilling.

Who: Frontline community members and activists with the Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch, Californians Against Fracking, and other conservation and social justice organizations.

When: Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 3 p.m.

Where: Outside the U.N. COP21 climate summit at the International Flag Pillars area at the Le Bourget conference site.

Background: Gov. Brown has portrayed himself as a climate leader in Paris, but he backs an expansion of fracking and other extreme extraction techniques in California, the United States’ third-largest oil-producing state. Much of the oil currently extracted in California is as carbon intensive as Canadian tar sands oil, one of the most climate-disrupting fuels on Earth.

Thousands of oil and gas wells have already been fracked in 15 counties across California, as well as in the state’s coastal waters. Oil companies have also drilled hundreds of contaminating wells near homes and schools in Los Angeles and other parts of the state, exposing black and Latino residents to disproportionate health and safety risks.

America’s top climate scientists have urged Gov. Brown to halt fracking in the state, and a growing number of California counties and cities are pursuing local bans on fracking and dangerous drilling.

Californians Against Fracking, a statewide coalition of more than 200 groups, is working to ban fracking and other extreme extraction, an immediate end to all oil and gas production near homes, schools, hospitals, and a rapid phase-out of all fossil fuel production in the state.

Wednesday’s protest urges all government leaders, exemplified by Gov. Brown, to halt fracking and dangerous drilling as an essential part of achieving full decarbonization and 100 percent renewable energy no later than 2050.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 900,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of the Earth's biodiversity.

Food & Water Watch champions healthy food and clean water for all. We stand up to corporations that put profits before people, and advocate for a democracy that improves people’s lives and protects our environment. 


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