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| Action in Washington, DC: Stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
This isn't an everyday request. I'd like you to consider doing something really big: joining me and nearly 2,000 people, and risking arrest to stop President Obama from making a really big mistake. The President must decide before the end of the year if he will approve or deny the Keystone XL pipeline, which would speed the rapid consumption of environmentally catastrophic Canadian tar sands oil, essentially spelling "game over" for our hope of returning earth to a stable climate.1 It's up to President Obama. He does not have to negotiate with Congress or industry. As his State Department reviews the permit, the decision — which could have a devastating impact on the livability of our nation, and our world — is entirely in his hands. We've lost too many climate fights already. We need a massive, historic show of pressure to make sure we don't lose this one. The President just granted approval for offshore oil drilling in the Arctic and recently opened vast new areas to coal mining. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton previously said she was "inclined" to approve this pipeline. But now it's up to President Obama to defuse the largest carbon bomb on the continent. To raise massive pressure on the President, there will be a historic daily sit-in in front of the White House every day from August 20th to September 3rd. Nearly 2,000 people — over 100 a day — have already signed up for a day to risk arrest in peaceful protest. I'll be there. And so will other CREDO staffers and CREDO Action members, many of us who are traveling across the country to take a stand. Can you be there for one of the days, too? This action is being organized by leading climate activists including Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein and climate scientist James Hansen. The CEOs and directors of nearly 30 leading environmental organizations, including CREDO's Michael Kieschnick and Laura Scher, are urging people to participate.2 While arrests are a potential outcome from this action — being arrested is not the goal: Our intent is to send a message that these issues are so urgent and serious that we will escalate our pressure and commitment to make sure that the Keystone XL Pipeline is not approved. If that involves risking arrest, we are prepared and willing to take that risk and deal with the consequences. We believe that the risks of inaction are far greater than the risks of taking action. Sit-ins and civil disobedience were at the heart of the civil rights movement, and helped end South African apartheid. Today, in this summer of record-breaking extreme weather, corporate polluters have more power than ever to block sustainable energy sources and keep us locked in our destructive dependence on fossil fuels. Oil refining giants like the Koch brothers want to build this pipeline to build their fortune, shipping the tar sands oil from Texas to be burned across the globe. But President Obama does not have to negotiate with them, or the global warming deniers in congress who do their bidding. It is President Obama's decision alone — but it's up to us to make sure that he feels so much pressure that he can't possibly approve this pipeline to disaster. Please read the invitation from the organizers below this message and join me, other CREDO staff, CREDO Action members and nearly 2000 Americans in taking a stand against dirty oil, to powerfully urge our president to do the same. Thank you for fighting for an oil-free future. Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets 1. "Keystone XL Pipeline," Friends of the Earth 2. "A Letter from the Nation's Leading Environmental Organizations," Peaceful Uprising Please read the invitation letter below from the tar sands action organizers for more information. If you would like to sign up to join the action, click here to sign up. Dear Friends, This will be a slightly longer letter than common for the internet age — it's serious stuff. The short version is we want you to consider doing something hard: coming to Washington in the hottest and stickiest weeks of the summer and engaging in civil disobedience that will quite possibly get you arrested. The full version goes like this: As you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and we've seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth. And as you also know, our democracy is increasingly controlled by special interests interested only in their short-term profit. These two trends collide this summer in Washington, where the State Department and the White House have to decide whether to grant a certificate of 'national interest' to some of the biggest fossil fuel players on earth. These corporations want to build the so-called 'Keystone XL Pipeline' from Canada's tar sands to Texas refineries. To call this project a horror is serious understatement. The tar sands have wrecked huge parts of Alberta, disrupting ways of life in indigenous communities — First Nations communities in Canada, and tribes along the pipeline route in the U.S. have demanded the destruction cease. The pipeline crosses crucial areas like the Ogallala Aquifer where a spill would be disastrous — and though the pipeline companies insist they are using 'state of the art' technologies that should leak only once every 7 years, the precursor pipeline and its pumping stations have leaked a dozen times in the past year. These local impacts alone would be cause enough to block such a plan. But the Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous. As the climatologist Jim Hansen (one of the signatories to this letter) explained, if we have any chance of getting back to a stable climate "the principal requirement is that coal emissions must be phased out by 2030 and unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, must be left in the ground." In other words, he added, "if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over." The Keystone pipeline is an essential part of the game. "Unless we get increased market access, like with Keystone XL, we're going to be stuck," said Ralph Glass, an economist and vice-president at AJM Petroleum Consultants in Calgary, told a Canadian newspaper last week. Given all that, you'd suspect that there's no way the Obama administration would ever permit this pipeline. But in the last few months the administration has signed pieces of paper opening much of Alaska to oil drilling, and permitting coal-mining on federal land in Wyoming that will produce as much CO2 as 300 powerplants operating at full bore. And Secretary of State Clinton has already said she's 'inclined' to recommend the pipeline go forward. Partly it's because of the political commotion over high gas prices, though more tar sands oil would do nothing to change that picture. But it's also because of intense pressure from industry. The US Chamber of Commerce — a bigger funder of political campaigns than the RNC and DNC combined — has demanded that the administration "move quickly to approve the Keystone XL pipeline," which is not so surprising — they've also told the U.S. EPA that if the planet warms that will be okay because humans can 'adapt their physiology' to cope. The Koch Brothers, needless to say, are also backing the plan, and may reap huge profits from it. So we're pretty sure that without serious pressure the Keystone Pipeline will get its permit from Washington. A wonderful coalition of environmental groups has built a strong campaign across the continent — from Cree and Dene indigenous leaders to Nebraska farmers, they've spoken out strongly against the destruction of their land. We need to join them, and to say even if our own homes won't be crossed by this pipeline, our joint home — the earth — will be wrecked by the carbon that pours down it. And we need to say something else, too: it's time to stop letting corporate power make the most important decisions our planet faces. We don't have the money to compete with those corporations, but we do have our bodies, and beginning in mid August many of us will use them. We will, each day, march on the White House, risking arrest with our trespass. We will do it in dignified fashion, demonstrating that in this case we are the conservatives, and that our foes — who would change the composition of the atmosphere are dangerous radicals. Come dressed as if for a business meeting — this is, in fact, serious business. And another sartorial tip — if you wore an Obama button during the 2008 campaign, why not wear it again? We very much still want to believe in the promise of that young Senator who told us that with his election the 'rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal.' We don't understand what combination of bureaucratic obstinacy and insider dealing has derailed those efforts, but we remember his request that his supporters continue on after the election to pressure his government for change. We'll do what we can. And one more thing: we don't just want college kids to be the participants in this fight. They've led the way so far on climate change — 10,000 came to DC for the Powershift gathering earlier this spring. They've marched this month in West Virginia to protest mountaintop removal; a young man named Tim DeChristopher faces sentencing this summer in Utah for his creative protest. Now it's time for people who've spent their lives pouring carbon into the atmosphere to step up too, just as many of us did in earlier battles for civil rights or for peace. Most of us signing this letter are veterans of this work, and we think it's past time for elders to behave like elders. One thing we don't want is a smash up: if you can't control your passions, this action is not for you. This won't be a one-shot day of action. We plan for it to continue for several weeks, till the administration understands we won't go away. Not all of us can actually get arrested — half the signatories to this letter live in Canada, and might well find our entry into the U.S. barred. But we will be making plans for sympathy demonstrations outside Canadian consulates in the U.S., and U.S. consulates in Canada — the decision-makers need to know they're being watched. Twenty years of patiently explaining the climate crisis to our leaders hasn't worked. Maybe moral witness will help. You have to start somewhere, and we choose here and now. As plans solidify in the next few weeks we'll be in touch with you to arrange nonviolence training; our colleagues at a variety of environmental and democracy campaigns will be coordinating the actual arrangements. We know we're asking a lot. You should think long and hard on it, and pray if you're the praying type. But to us, it's as much privilege as burden to get to join this fight in the most serious possible way. We hope you'll join us. Maude Barlow — Chair, Council of Canadians Wendell Berry — Author and Farmer Tom Goldtooth — Director, Indigenous Environmental Network Danny Glover — Actor James Hansen — Climate Scientist Wes Jackson — Agronomist, President of the Land Insitute Naomi Klein — Author and Journalist Bill McKibben — Writer and Environmentalist George Poitras — Mikisew Cree Indigenous First Nation Gus Speth — Environmental Lawyer and Activist David Suzuki — Scientist, Environmentalist and Broadcaster Joseph B. Uehlein — Labor organizer and environmentalist |
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