Category Archives: Activism

Taking action against climate change

Power and organization

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Another huge group of more than 100 people put themselves on the line and got arrested in front of the White House today.

This whole action has ben remarkably well organized. The recruiters have brought people in from all over North America, day after day. The trainers have efficiently and effectively prepared them to participate in each day’s peaceful protest. The media people have done a great job of attracting attention from the mainstream press, and Bill McKibben has been a powerful spokesman, both in his own statements and in television and radio debates with pipeline supporters.

Because of the organization, this action has progressed in a smooth and effective way. Of course, it is the dedication and depth of feeling of the participants that has provided the essential motive force that has been directed by the organizers. There hasn’t been a civil disobedience action like this in the American environmental movement in a long time. The depth of support is evidence for how concerned people are about this pipeline, about the oil sands generally, and about climate change.

Another big day, and an appeal to the Canadian ambassador

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For the second day in a row, more than 100 people got arrested outside the White House protesting the Keystone XL pipeline.

A group of Canadians also delivered a letter to the Canadian ambassador to the United States, calling on him to stop promoting the oil sands.

That seems a distant prospect. Canada seems determined to dig up and burn as many fossil fuels as possible, no matter how unjust that may be or how much it will worsen climate change.

Hopefully Obama will block this pipeline and help keep that Canadian oil buried. In so doing, he would do a great service to Canada in the long term. Climate change is not in out national interest, and the transition to renewable energy can only e delayed by the expensive and harmful pursuit of the world’s dirtiest oil.

James Hansen arrested, taken to Anacostia jail

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In front of the White House today, NASA climatologist James Hansen got arrested along with 139 other people. They were calling upon President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada’s oil sands down to the refineries of the US Gulf Coast. In particular, he highlighted the fact that burning all that oil would contribute substantially to climate change, which will already occur to a dangerous extent because of human greenhouse gas emissions.

As has been the case for every day since September 21st, those arrested in front of the White House were taken to the Anacostia jail, which is the headquarters of the Park Police. Within a few hours of being arrested, all the protesters were released.

It is a bit dispiriting that a scientist of Hansen’s calibre feels the need to get arrested in protest. You would hope the American political system would be able to incorporate scientific knowledge in a more ordinary way, and that concerns like abrupt or runaway climate change would be incorporated into undertakings like the U.S. State Department’s environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Unfortunately, the American political system continues to ignore the seriousness of climate change and the policies that are necessary to reduce the risk of it becoming a catastrophe. Hopefully, this action will help to alert Barack Obama to what needs to be done, and he will take an important first step by blocking this pipeline.

One big difference between climate change and civil rights

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The Keystone XL protests in Washington have already been compared many times to the civil rights protests of Martin Luther King Jr. and others. While there are definitely strong points of similarity, it seems worth discussing one highly significant difference between the struggle for civil rights and the struggle against climate change. Whereas a large constituency of people stood to benefit immediately from a successful movement for civil rights, success in stopping human-induced climate change will only produce benefits in the long term. Indeed, most of the people who will benefit from our generation’s choice to move beyond fossil fuels will belong to generations that are not yet born.

This makes the struggle much harder. The sacrifices that must be made are in the here and now – more expensive energy, fewer wasteful practices and behaviours, etc. The benefits in terms of reducing sea level rise, extreme weather events, changes in precipitation, etc are all somewhat distant. There will always be people saying that economic growth today or jobs today are more important issues than the legacy we leave for future generations, in terms of the structure of our energy system or the amount of greenhouse gas pollution in the atmosphere.

Those who are making decisions today need to look beyond themselves and their own narrow immediate interests and recognize that we should not pass along a ruined world to our children and grandchildren. Living up to that moral obligation will require sacrifices and changes that will sometimes be difficult. At the same time, we have a unique opportunity to be the generation that initiates the historic transition from a global society dependent on dirty, unhealthy, and climate-altering fossil fuels to one based on renewable forms of energy that can be relied upon indefinitely.

‘Officer Hollywood’

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So far, the police outside the White House have been creating a ‘media pen’ for photographers and videographers during the Keystone XL protest. For those of us in the pen, the protest proceeds in much the same way each day: protesters assemble, warnings are given, and then arrests begin.

On every day except one, the officer reading the warnings has been the same man. He does his job well, and we photographers agree that he has strengths in presence and delivery. As such, we have been joking that he could have a promising career ahead of him in feature films and have given him the nickname ‘Officer Hollywood’.

Here is a close-up taken by Shadia. She also has one of him reading the warning. Josh has one of him talking with our police liason.

The officer in the middle here also has quite a winning smile and lighthearted posture.

All this may be reflective of the mind-addling consequences of spending hours every day standing unshaded in the August sun.

Why I am not planning to get arrested

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Bill McKibben, the man who organized the ongoing protest against the Keystone XL pipeline, was in the group of arrestees on the first day. They were the only group that has been held overnight so far, and were actually held for an entire weekend before having the charges against them dismissed in court on Monday.

As the person who raised the call for people to come to Washington, engage in non-violent civil disobedience, and risk arrest, it was probably fitting for McKibben himself to be arrested.

Since before I arrived here, I have been thinking about whether I should get arrested myself. I think it would have been an interesting, worthwhile, and powerful experience to express my opposition in that way. At the same time, there is a strategic case for participating as a volunteer rather than an arrestee. To a large extent, the purpose of this action is to draw attention to the Keystone XL pipeline, the arguments against it, and the reasons for opposing oil sands exploitation generally. By volunteering as a photographer and documenting the cycle of each group being trained, taking action, being arrested, and being released, I think I am helping to serve that purpose. Already, images from Tar Sands Action photographers have been used by a wide variety of news organizations.

I am also concerned that getting arrested might keep me from being able to enter the United States in the future. The fight for sensible climate change policies will be a long one, and it will surely involve other important actions in this country, as well as conferences, possible study at American schools, etc.

I hope the answer I gave on the radio, when asked why I was not planning to be arrested, will not excessively put off other Canadians who are considering it. So far, arrested Canadians have been treated just like Americans and released after a few hours and payment of a $100 fine. The charges against them have been very mild, and there is a good chance they will never have any further difficulties because of them.

Perhaps it is selfish of me not to express my opposition as powerfully as possible, or unfair of me to call upon others to take an action I am not taking myself. I applaud those who are choosing to engage in this act of civil disobedience and I hope that they will drive President Obama to think deeply about the ethics of this pipeline and reject it. For my own part, I genuinely believe that I can do more to encourage the emergence of a low- and eventually zero-carbon global society by doing all I can to maintain my ability to travel to the United States in the future. I also think that by volunteering to take photos and generally help out for the 15-day span of this event, I am making a meaningful contribution to its success.

As it is being employed here, civil disobedience is a tactic intended to serve the aim of avoiding dangerous climate change. It is not an action that has moral value in and of itself. I will continue to try and serve that cause using the skills and resources at my disposal. 

As always, I am happy to discuss my position with those who disagree. People who think I should get arrested still have ten days to convince me, as well as to travel to Washington and take a stand themselves. It would be great to have more people down here to participate in the civil disobedience, as well as to act as supporters and volunteers.