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[The following was co-written by Naomi Klein, author of the #1 international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, Terry Tempest Williams, world renowned wildlife author, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of The End Of Nature, and Dr. James Hansen, author of Storms of my Grandchildren, and who is regarded as the world's leading climatologist. All recognize the trial of Tim DeChristopher to be a turning point in the climate movement. Included are links to resources for travel to Utah].
Dear Friends,
The epic fight to ward off global warming and transform the energy system that is at the core of our planet's economy takes many forms: huge global days of action, giant international conferences like the one that just failed in Copenhagen, small gestures in the homes of countless people.
But there are a few signal moments, and one comes next month, when the federal government puts Tim DeChristopher on trial in Salt Lake City. Tim--"Bidder 70"--pulled off one of the most creative protests against our runaway energy policy in years: he bid for the oil and gas leases on several parcels of federal land even though he had no money to pay for them, thus upending the auction. The government calls that "violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act" and thinks he should spend ten years in jail for the crime; we call it a noble act, a profound gesture made on behalf of all of us and of the future.
Tim's action drew national attention to the fact that the Bush Administration spent its dying days in office handing out a last round of favors to the oil and gas industry. After investigating irregularities in the auction, the Obama Administration took many of the leases off the table, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar criticizing the process as "a headlong rush." And yet that same Administration is choosing to prosecute the young man who blew the whistle on this corrupt process.
We cannot let this stand. When Tim disrupted the auction, he did so in the fine tradition of non-violent civil disobedience that changed so many unjust laws in this country's past. Tim's upcoming trial is an occasion to raise the alarm once more about the peril our planet faces. The situation is still fluid--the trial date has just been set, and local supporters are making plans for how to mark the three-day proceedings. But they are asking people around the country to flood into Salt Lake City in mid-March. If you come, there will be ample opportunity for both legal protest and civil disobedience. For example:
- Outside the courthouse, there will be a mock trial, with experts like NASA's Jim Hansen providing the facts that should be heard inside the chambers. We don't want Tim on trial--we want global warming on the stand.
- Demonstrators will be using the time-honored tactics of civil disobedience to make their voices heard outside the courthouse in an effort to prevent "business as usual"--it's business as usual that's wrecking the earth.
- There will be evening concerts and gatherings, including a "mini-summit" to share ideas on how the climate movement should proceed in the years ahead. This is a people's movement that draws power from around the globe; for a few days its headquarters will be Salt Lake City.
You can get the most up-to-date news at climatetrial.com, including schedules for non-violence training, and information about legal representation. If you're coming, bring not only your passion but also your creativity--we need lots of art and music to help make the point that we won't sit idly by while the government tries to scare the environmental movement into meek cooperation. This kind of trial is nothing but intimidation--and the best answers to intimidation are joy and resolve. That's what we'll need in Utah.
We know it's short notice. Some of us won't be able to make it to Utah because we have other commitments or are limiting travel, and if you're in the same situation, climatetrial.com will also have details of solidarity actions in other parts of the country. If you can contribute money to help make the week's events possible, click here. But more than your money we need your body, your brains, and your heart. In a landscape of little water, where redrock canyons rise upward like praying hands, we can offer our solidarity to the wild: wild lands and wild hearts. Tim DeChristopher deserves and needs our physical and spiritual support in the name of a just and vibrant community.
Thank you for standing with us,
Naomi Klein,
Bill McKibben
Terry Tempest Williams
Dr. James Hansen
- Posted in
29 Comments so far
Show AllWho says James Hansen is the world's greatest climatologist? The nuke industry he supports!
Sure, "world's greatest climatologist" is puffery (maybe!), but he has a superb mind with *excellent* politics. I'll just point out that Lovelock is another first-rate scientist who says nukes are needed. As does non-scientist Monbiot and any number of other people. All of them have impeccable credentials.
Read Hansen's book, if you haven't. If you can come away from that experience without a serious case of the cauld grues, I'll be very surprised.
For nuke fans:
A global library of information and links about nuclear power, nuclear weapons,
nuclear waste contamination, and citizen action for sustainable energy and
human survival. Exploring paths beyond the global culture of violence.
One of the most significant nuclear issues is that while human beings
are fallible and prone to making occasional mistakes, nuclear materials
are utterly unforgiving and never forget. Once leaked, spilled or burned,
their residues will cause illnesses and deaths for tens of thousands (and
in the case of Depleted Uranium, billions) of years. This is not the kind
of legacy we want to leave for our children and all their descendants.
Dennis Rivers, Editor, nonukes.org consortium of peace and ecology groups
~~~ R E S O U R C E S (Last updated 10/29/09) ~~~
Nukey-poo: Toxic Radioactive Waste at Fernald, Ohio (Oct. 2009)
When nuclear power advocates claim that nuclear energy is cheap,
they do so because they exclude the costs of both the beginning and
the end of the process: both uranium mining/smelting and toxic
waste guarding (there is no safe way to "dispose" of it). The linked
news story is about nuclear waste from 50 years ago. We will only
have to take intensive care of it for another 249,950 years! What a bargain!
Geothermal Success Stories (Oct/Nov 2008):
The Philippines generate 28% of their electricity from geothermal field
Utilities putting new energy into geothermal sources (L.A. Times)
Geothermal Energy -- Clean Power From the Earth's Heat
A 43-page report from the U.S. Geological Survey (2003)
Solar energy takes off in Calif. -- New York Times Article 2/1/08
Bottom Line = WE REALLY DON'T NEED
DANGEROUS & EXPENSIVE NUCLEAR POWER.
10 Strikes Against Nuclear Power (Why Nukes Are Not a Climate Solution
Ten Strikes Against Nuclear Power
Three pages tell the whole story. -- From Coop America.
Nuclear Weapons and the University of California
by David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Union of Concerned Scientists -- Resource page on nuclear weapons
position paper and excellent library of technical articles
more at:
http://www.nonukes.org/
Many rational people unfortunately do support nuclear nrg. Except for making it so damn difficult and expensive to build more, that is the wrong fight. If we can reduce the damand on the grid then the need for nukes just might die again for awhile.
Since Tim DeChristopher is merely a disobedient citizen, and neither a Blackwater/Xe mercenary, bankster, nor member of any other protected and immunized class, he must be harshly prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!
· Yr Obd't Servant
gnken
Face it everyone! This is a "No win situation" with Climate Change anymore. The Odds are stacked against any real facts. Corporations are bigger then we are. See how they hacked emails and distroyed the Conference in Copenhagen. The Federal BLM, is going to send Tim DeChristopher so far up the river he'll be dieing of thurst, and no protesting or show of support will change that. Citizens don't have the money to fight Corporations.
We have to start taking the money out of their hands. That's what they're really afraid of, of course. They are powerful, but they are the minority.
Tim De Christopher will go down in history just as Klein, McKibben,Williams and Hansen - as litmus measure of an awakening giant - humanity in general.
Stand with the man, the planet, and the arising consciousness that grasps the rudder, trims the sails and sets a new tack.
I could see Tim banned from any future auction but beyond that - prosecution for this 'disobedience' reveals the system for what it is - a floundering morass of ineffectuality that has to hammer anything that is not itself. Don't let their cages rattling distract you.
Thank you for your courage and creativity Tim. Let us know when the book comes out. I'm sure it will be a bestseller - particularly overseas.
What a TEAM!!!
We could ask people to flood Salt Lake City with phone calls and letters.
Remember, flying to Salt Lake consumes enormous amounts of fossil fuels- the very consumption we are working to reduce in our public policies.
Salt Lake City is a main rail stop for Amtrak and Greyhound, so one needn't fly to get there. And it's not the City that's undertaken this prosecution; it's the federal government. Oneway Amtrak coach from Sacramento to SLC is only $67 and the scenery on that route is outstanding. From New York, it's more expensive, $193, and the scenery going through the dilapidated areas of the East Coast and Rust Belt is very instructive.
In Bill's last article he asserted that Obama was the "best president in his lifetime" why not get Bill to consult with the chief coal industry advocate and insider on his next White HOuse visit to the oval office and get Obama to pardon Tim and thus validating his heroic stand against the status quo? This way Bill can stop speaking outside both sides of his mouth.
I hope liberals like the ones posting here use renewable energy for their computers!
I do. And we just had this discussion last week, where it was determined that the benefits of the internet outweigh its carbon emissions. So, once again, the Troll known as theowl is late to the party.
Oh, and for the record, I'm no liberal--I'm a Radical Leftist Progressive and proud of it.
Hey theowl - I am a liberal and I work for a renewable wind and solar energy company in Califoria. I'm doing my part. What are you doing for your contribution?
mcsandberg -
The high rollers and insiders who shouldered their way to the trough for one last, giant slurp of crony capitalist profits on public lands' oil and gas leases in the waning days of the Bush/Cheney administration were not harmed nor damaged nor defrauded in any way. It is a preposterous assumption that the successful bidders were "entitled" to interest, or deserved a positive return on their speculative investments, in the first place.
Nothing was lost. Nothing was destroyed. Eventually, the bidders simply got their money back and were made whole, once it was determined that the whole bidding process was a fire sale sweetheart deal from jump street. Those who wound up breaking even were merely denied unjust enrichment.
What from Ayn Rand's philosophy, or from "Atlas Shrugged", gives you the apparent notion that rich folks somehow stand beyond the reach of the proverbial invisible hand of the marketplace? Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you wind up right back where you started.
The only way there were hypothetical "millions of dollars lost" is if you assume there exists some preordained, God-given right for the top bidder at a fairly conducted auction to always, always prosper. Ayn Rand would disagree.
Bill from Saginaw
Wha?
What happened to mcsandberg's post?
Bill from Saginaw
The Troll mcsandberg on the Progressive website's article comments about why we need single payer equated single payer with slavery. I'm not kidding; you can see for yourself:
http://www.progressive.org/node/134230/1258#comment-1258
I dug one level down to find out a bit more about what Tim did. No facts there just the kind of innuendo (paraphrase "he's being tried for trying to help the environment" with no context for that) that the right uses and that we profess to abhor.
Please give us facts like just what he did and what happened, or joining up to protest it just makes me an unthinking tool of propaganda, however righteous the cause. And I do know that climate change is very very impt.
It's what we're for, not what we're against that means change.
"imaginal110"
You might try going to Democracynow.org and searching under Tim DeChristopher. Amy Goodman interviewed him.
"imaginal110"
Sorry, I tried to do what I suggested to you and there is one step more,
At democracynow.org click on "past shows" first, then search.
thanks bba (really can't call you birdbrain in good faith :-))and I can do that. But it's not just about an oddball question from moi.
My point is really that I and we shouldn't have to do all that in a news story. If the leading journalists of our time say it's impt, then good, but show us the facts if you want my heart and soul involvement. Make sense?
I guess in this instance Obama has chosen to look backward and not forward.
Bill from Saginaw
You ask what happened to mcsandberg's post-
the owl swooped down and stole it...
Interesting, the number of comments saying give it up there's no hope; quite different from those made when this story was first posted here, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/06-4
That one Troll chose to erase his post while others let theirs stand is an indicator. I think it's fair to accuse the "Justice Department" of Terrorism: railroading a person into prison on trumped-up charges, and very much like the Pakistani woman's trial.
One way for people to do something, even if they can't go to Utah, is to create their own marches in their own samll towns. I'm going to try this. I know that our Monday protests will already do so... But we are small during this winter time. I went tonight, but there were only 6 of us. I missed the last three weeks, because of either work or an family emergency. But I would like to actually March around our town. I will have to hand out articles on this story again so that more people will understand what it is about, becausse I know that most people will not know...
even though I did hand out articles on it when it was posted a few times here on CD.
RE: Others Folks Fighting to Save the Biosphere also Need Your Support.
I personally know 26 college age people ( some in college some not) who were arrested trying to stop clear-cutting the climate (deforestry practices perpetrated by the state of Oregon in the Elliott State Forests) in July 2009.
I have posted facts about these 26 on Common Dreams. (Amy Goodman interviewed some folks during the event in July 7-10 2009.)
They are facing large fines and the state is talking of making them pay restitution to the tune of $100,000 for the 100 or so State Police, National Guard, and other personnel to bust up their road blockade.
If you want to help these folks you can contact Civil Liberties Defense Center in Eugene Oregon.
If some of these folks feel support they may think about doing something like that again otherwise civil resistance is becoming a practice only for the wealthy.
The Yankee atomic plant in Vermont is leaking radioactive particles into the groundwater. Toxins from agricultural runoff is killing the oceans. Toxins in food are creating diseases. Species are going extinct at an alarming rate not from global warming but from a toxic and poisonous environment. The list of dire threats from industrial pollution goes on and on.
Global warming threats, though possibly real, are a distraction from the more immediate problems, and the Corporate Industry of Toxins encourages the distraction. It's a very clever and insidious diversion, and is now being turned into a marketing tool.
If you go there, instead of flying, consider taking the scenic Amtrak California Zephyr to Salt Lake City. Support alternate, lower-carbon forms of transportation.
This article speaks to truth to the powers which shouldn't be--right on.
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