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Going to Jail for the Environment
President Obama can choose between a clean energy future and dirty tar sands oil
As you read this, two starkly different visions of Maryland's energy future are clashing on a sidewalk outside the White House.
One vision embraces the idea of developing clean-energy wind farms off the coast of Ocean City. Those wind farms could one day power millions of electric cars in our state at a price three times cheaper than gasoline — forever.
The other vision embraces a massive, 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada to Texas full of "tar sands oil," the dirtiest petroleum fuel. This proposed pipeline, if built, would steer our nation toward another generation of polluting automobile use.
We are longtime Maryland residents, and we're usually law-abiding citizens. Our resumes include Sunday school teaching, Little League baseball coaching, an Eagle Scout award, and leadership roles at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. But what's happening at the White House right now is so pivotal to the future of our state and our nation that we decided to take an unusual step: We got arrested. Peacefully, outside the White House lawn over the weekend, we sat down with dozens of other protesters until police led us away in handcuffs, while a crowd of spectators from Maryland, D.C. and beyond chanted, "Wind mills, not oil spills!"
This protest began Saturday and is scheduled to continue daily for two full weeks. Close to 1,000 Americans in total are expected to get arrested at the White House as we did, earning a ride to the police station and a "disorderly conduct" misdemeanor charge. Nebraska ranchers are coming to say "no" to tar sands and "yes" to Midwestern wind farms. Arizona students are coming to say "no" to tar sands and "yes" to utility-scale solar farms.
We picked President Barack Obama's house for this sit-in because the president, by himself, with no input from Congress, can decide the fate of the tar sands pipeline. By law, mega-corporation TransCanada needs a "presidential permit" before it can build the pipeline across our border. If the company gets the permit, an area the size of Florida will be utterly destroyed by mining for this oily, tar-like substance in Alberta Province. Then the pipeline journey will begin, with farms and park lands from Montana to Texas at serious risk of damage from pipeline spills.
Plus, full exploitation of Canada's carbon-intensive tar sands could put up to 400 gigatons of new carbon pollution into the atmosphere. That's enough to constitute "game over" status for efforts to prevent runaway climate change, according to America's top climate scientist, James Hansen ofNASA.
So we could court multilayered disaster with this tar sands pipeline — or, in places like Maryland, we could build offshore wind farms instead. Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed a bill which, if passed, would guarantee construction of a moderate-sized wind farm (about 100 turbines) 10 miles off the Maryland coast. This wind farm alone would create enough energy to run 500,000 electric cars at the astonishingly low price equivalent of less than $1.50 per gallon. The wind farm would also create about 2,500 new jobs for our economy. And it would save the state $4 billion in health costs, thanks to the dirty, polluting energy it would replace, according to health experts.
And this is just the start. A study by the Baltimore-based Abell Foundation found that Maryland has offshore wind potential equal to two-thirds of the state's current electricity demand. That's a lot of wind-powered electric cars down the road. And nearly every American state has some version of this clean-energy story, involving wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, and energy-efficiency gains.
But we'll never fully realize this potential tomorrow if we embrace dirty fuels like tar sands today. The $7 billion "Keystone XL" pipeline from Canada is an infrastructure shove off the cliff. If we build it, the oil will come.
Conversely, a "no" from Mr. Obama would have lasting positive effects. It would send unambiguous signals to Detroit and to American consumers everywhere that we've finally turned a corner on our dirty-energy addiction. And, frankly, it would go a long way in shoring up Mr. Obama's badly demoralized base of progressive voters. The president, once again, can be a hero. He can create change we can believe in.
Big Oil lobbyists, of course, are bombarding the president with demands he embrace the pipeline. That's why we got arrested and why 50 to 75 Americans will do the same daily until Sept. 3. It's a dose of people power as the president approaches his autumn decision.
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31 Comments so far
Show All" The President, once again, can be a hero . He can create change we can believe in". Have I missed something? When was this silver tongued, charlatan ever been a hero!
Paul Revere wrote:
"The President, once again, can be a hero . He can create change we can believe in". Have I missed something? When was this silver tongued, charlatan ever been a hero!
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Excerpt from “Going to Jail for the Environment” by by Mike Tidwell and Cindy Parker:
We are longtime Maryland residents, and we're usually law-abiding citizens. Our resumes include Sunday school teaching, Little League baseball coaching, an Eagle Scout award, and leadership roles at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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Excerpt from “Going to Jail for the Environment” by by Mike Tidwell and Cindy Parker:
Mike Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Dr. Cindy Parker is a member of Baltimore Physicians for Social Responsibility.
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My Reply:
Paul Revere,
Did you miss something?
Well, yes and no.
You are of course right. Barack Obama never actually was a hero except in the minds of some starry-eyed folks wearing rose colored glasses who were fooled by his silver tongue.
I agree that Mike Tidwell and Cindy Parker sound like they are still missing something too.
So what do you miss?
You may not like them, but these two law abiding (upper) middle working class people are basically saying to Barack Obama and all the rest of us that this is a no excuses put up or shut up moment for Obama regarding policy that is critically important to the economy and to life on this planet; and they are willing to break the law and spend time in jail to say that, because Barack Obama and practically no one else in government is listening to them.
There may only be 1,000 or 2,000 people arrested during these two weeks, but there are others who are there in front of the White House protesting against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and standing in solidarity with those who are arrested.
There are also huge numbers of other people across the nation, who despite and because of their dependence on an oil driven economy, who for one reason or another in these dismal economic times are not there protesting in Washington, D.C., who know that collective action including government action to counter global warming and catastrophic climate change is absolutely necessary, who despite their cynicism and despair about government which more and more clearly over that past few years too often isn’t simply unresponsive to their pleas but is actually blatantly aiding and abetting the pillage of the economy by wealthy elites who are responsible for causing their increased misery, are still looking for credible ways to join with others to chance the course of their country.
No, that is not revolutionary, but it is progress toward some kind of meaningful, positive change.
According to Dante's Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy, the inscription on the Gates of Hell proclaims:
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here”
The election of a hope inspiring and then hope crushing president like Barack Obama after our tour through Hell during the Bush – Cheney years without the guidance and comfort of the poet Virgil is everything that the wealthy ruling elite could possibly have hoped for.
But you have chosen to be Paul Revere’s namesake on Common Dreams.
Remember?
One if by land, two if by sea!
Please tell us. Where are you riding and why?
PUF: Interesting typo and/or Freudian slip:
" are still looking for credible ways to join with others to chance the course of their country."
For indeed, CHANCE, it is.
You want to put Paul on the spot, huh? You, who seem to have all the time in the world to endlessly rehash what others say, and then serve it back at them.
What are you doing, oh, "On his Ass forum Judge," that you so readily demand that others defend?
And Redballoon--If you think I have a problem with the use of the comma, you ought to give Puffin a remedial course! Run-on sentences are definitely up his literary alley.
Siouxrose,
Indeed, it is only a chance for change.
And yes, Freudian or otherwise, I slipped up.
If I were trying to get an article or book (like you) published I would spend more time on composition.
I know that you have said elsewhere that you set your AC at 80 or 84 degrees or something like that. Most people living in Florida, or anywhere else in the south where it is hot most of the year don't want to do that. But keeping the AC set high does save money and depending on the energy source for generating the electricity keeps the carbon footprint lower.
So, thanks for that, and for pointing out my typo and compositional deficiencies.
" You may not like them"( Cindy Parker and Mike Tidwell ). I have only the highest commendation for these two. They are the real heroes in my book. Thanks for your reply PuffinjThrush . Paul
He/she is a loudmouth blathering idiot Paul.
Well nice work folks, but I think you're spitting into the wind. The general public is utterly addicted to fossil fuels in general and automobiles in particular. 50 to 75 a day arrested for two weeks? In the United States on average about 85 people a day willingly give up their lives to the cult of the car, way more are maimed and nobody thinks this is a problem. If the XL pipeline doesn't go through this time around, just wait till the next oil shock: the public will howl and politicians will be tripping over each other to facilitate such a pipeline. Bring on the sands of death.
Until you get the general public on your side, protests like this will go nowhere.
FLAG: Your post UTTERLY neglects the fact that it was the oil companies, largely in cahoots with the automakers that elected to turn out countless vehicles, many of them ridiculously oversized, and equally fuel INEFFICIENT, when higher fuel efficiency was possible. Immediate profits were chosen over wiser practices. The public is, in many ways, the victim, not the perpetrator.
Many in this forum look for black or white, either-or solutions. Sometimes the best answer is that of gradual change.
If conservation were taught in ways that made it COOL TO CARE, then more people would scale back on their usage patterns.
If the MIC wasn't busy moving an arsenal of tanks and heavy equipment thousands of miles from "home," then a lot less oil would be used.
If the EPA, or a government agency tasked with enforcing better safety measures, made Big Oil muscle up to better safety practices, the frequency of oil spills might be lessened.
If people were taught that diets with emphasis on eating meat lead to massive releases of CO2 into the atmosphere, they might choose to scale back and alter their diets.
These measures could then provide more time for fitting the nation to greener venues of energy.
Naturally, this type of shift cannot happen at once. And it may never solve the problem entirely; but the fact of the matter is that very little is being done to teach conservation, scale back the military, or get Big Oil (or coal) to comply with wiser environmental rules and standards.
Instead of all or nothing, we should be working with what we have in a manner that helps to preserve what we've got.
America is probably the most wasteful society on the face of the earth. People are being TAUGHT (or conditioned) not to care, and leading the list foremost are:
1. Items like the Koch brothers, who use their big $ to finance a massive dis-information campaign relative to the dangers of global climate change
2. Churches that teach the End Times ethos: for if it's all coming to an end, anyway, why worry? Just use that fossil fuel, eat on up the food chain, and be happy till you're beamed up.
Flagboy barfed, “Until you get the general public on your side, protests like this will go nowhere.” Well duh, what do you think they’re trying to do? They even got the Baltimore Sun to cover the story. You should have said “Thank you Mike and Cindy!”
flagboy wrote:
Well nice work folks, but I think you're spitting into the wind. The general public is utterly addicted to fossil fuels in general and automobiles in particular. 50 to 75 a day arrested for two weeks? In the United States on average about 85 people a day willingly give up their lives to the cult of the car, way more are maimed and nobody thinks this is a problem. If the XL pipeline doesn't go through this time around, just wait till the next oil shock: the public will howl and politicians will be tripping over each other to facilitate such a pipeline. Bring on the sands of death.
Until you get the general public on your side, protests like this will go nowhere.
..
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Siouxrose (in response to flagboy) wrote:
FLAG: Your post UTTERLY neglects the fact that it was the oil companies, largely in cahoots with the automakers that elected to turn out countless vehicles, many of them ridiculously oversized, and equally fuel INEFFICIENT, when higher fuel efficiency was possible. Immediate profits were chosen over wiser practices. The public is, in many ways, the victim, not the perpetrator.
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Excerpt from "Corporate Average Fuel Economy", Wikipedia:
The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) are regulations in the United States, first enacted by US Congress in 1975,[1] and intended to improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks (trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles) sold in the US in the wake of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo.
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Excerpt from "Corporate Average Fuel Economy", Wikipedia:
SUVs and minivans created due to original mandate
CAFE standards signaled the end of the traditional long station wagon, but legendary former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca developed the idea of marketing the minivan as a station wagon alternative, while certifying it in the separate truck category to allow compliance with less-strict emissions standards. Eventually, this same idea led to the promotion of the SUV
Wikipedia URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Average_Fuel_Economy#SUVs_and_minivans_created_due_to_original_mandate
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My Reply:
flagboy,
As pointed out by Dave Gresham the protest and civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. against the Keystone XL tars sands pipeline is an effort to mobilize the public.
We the people need to establish genuine democracy in the United States.
But we should not wait for the advent of genuine democracy before we demand a credible government response to the dangers of global warming and catastrophic climate change, or an end to the policies that caused and perpetuate the Great Recession, or an end to the killing of people in U.S. wars zones around the world.
The CAFE standards came out of legislation enacted by Congress in 1975 as a result of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo during a time when the United States did not have a genuine democracy, but rather a relatively well functioning proto-democracy,
These days the proto-democracy is being dismantled by the ruling elites.
Governments need to act now to reduce the disasterous effects of global warming and catastrophic climate change. Somehow we the people need to get the government to act before the next oil shock.
Thanks Flagboy, but I need to point out an error your last sentence. I know you MEANT to write:
"Until you have protests like this, trying to get the general public on your side will go nowhere."
Ecocide laws apply
"And, frankly, it would go a long way in shoring up Mr. Obama's badly demoralized base of progressive voters. "
So, if I read this correctly, these two are willing to excuse this murdering a-hole for the thousands of deaths and the destruction he's responsible for, along with everything else he's done if he'll just say no to this measly* pipeline – and they'll vote for him?
*"measly" in the context that it does not compare with the carnage this president is and continues to be responsible for.
Hello to the Koch brothers (pipeline moguls) and their low-paid boiler-room bloggers, who seem to write an awful lot on certain Common Dreams forums.
cars are a big part of our ongoing planetary murder...
to argue for them, in any form, is extremely shortsighted...are cars a human right?
of course, all sight is becoming increasingly short, as we force, ever faster, the planet beyond natural functionality...
Fukushima, and all that...
but, Hey, have a hot particle! It's on me...
dubet wrote:
cars are a big part of our ongoing planetary murder...
to argue for them, in any form, is extremely shortsighted...
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My Reply:
I agree.
The "Keystone XL" pipeline is all about sending dirty diesel to Europe. It's not for U.S. use (or jobs) but it puts our mid west at risk.
Thanks for the posts, dubet and PuffinThrush.
I have been to other places, where there are far fewer cars per capita.
People get along. The society evolves in such a way that people have what they need.
It often is not a bad life.
US people are wedded to their cars because of the way the system has evolved. But they cannot see the externalities... the destruction of road-building and parking, the lung disease, the global warming, the militarism, the death. There is only the thrill of the feel of the accelerator as one pushes it, and feels the resulting surge down the road.
But as I say, there are places without a car culture. I've been to some. People seem happy. I know I am happier there. Why can't we be smarter, live with less, and enjoy one another more?
I stopped driving 4 years ago. I get behind the wheel maybe 4 times a year. As a former drive-a-holic I have to decide in the next month or so whether to renew my license - probably will - primarily as ID. Do I miss the influence of the car industry in my life? No. I highly recommend when possible the rebirth process in the weaning It is no longer a part of my identity. I do live in town and at times my heart aches for the woods; but I helped a friend nearby tear up her lawn to put in a bio-dynamic garden. It has been producing more than respectably and weeded less often than it should. Another friend has horses so I have opportunities to commune with the big guys when the heart is needy.
Why do the authors seem to say these two projects are mutually exclusive? While I personally want to see the diminishment of fossil fuels in our national energy mix I know it won't happen overnight. It'll happen gradually as people get fed up paying $3.50 or more for a gallon of gas in their SUV just to run the 10 miles round-trip to the grocery store.
The poorest people in America simply cannot afford to change their lifestyles overnight (move closer to transportation, replace a gas guzzler, buy all new energy efficiency appliances, swap out all incandescents for LED bulbs, etc). Those folks are the reason why this transition away from fossil fuels must happen over time.
Personally I think we should leave some in the ground for future needs, an extension of our strategic petroleum reserve. At the same time, our economy could use a little boost from a reduction in energy costs right now.
Oh, and F--- Obama. I voted for him. Fool me once, ...
And to think they'd impeach over a sexual indiscretion... but let THIS monster stand without a full public outcry!
Nancy Pelosi took the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney off the table. What can we expect now from the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate? Nothing, of course.
The full public outcry must come from us and should involve more than shouting!
Now that's funny. It reminds me of this
http://current.com/community/89850007_arsonists-torch-berlin-porsches-bmws-on-economic-woe.htm
Maybe they could work their way up the food chain.
robvann wrote:
Now that's funny. It reminds me of this
http://current.com/community/89850007_arsonists-torch-berlin-porsches-bmws-on-economic-woe.htm
Maybe they could work their way up the food chain.
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My Comment:
robvann,
The article you linked is dated February 27th. So, there was of course no mention of the riots in the UK.
People are pissed!
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Arsonists Torch Berlin Porsches, BMWs on Economic Woe
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- When Berlin resident Simone Klostermann returned from vacation and couldn’t find her Mercedes SLK, she thought it had been towed. Police told her the 35,000- euro ($45,000) car had been torched.
“They’d squirted something flammable into the car’s engine block in the gap between the windshield and the hood,” said Klostermann. “The engine was completely destroyed.”
The 34-year-old’s experience isn’t unique in the German capital. At least 29 vehicles were destroyed in arson attacks this year, most of them luxury cars, according to police. The number is already about 30 percent of the total for 2008. The latest to go up in flames was a Porsche, on Feb. 14, two days after a Mercedes was set alight in a public car park.
Article URL: http://current.com/community/89850007_arsonists-torch-berlin-porsches-bmws-on-economic-woe.htm
I have no idea what it is going to take to keep the Lemmings from going over the cliff. I do know that the rest of us are going over with them unless people wake up and demand that this is no longer business as usual. For the past four decades we have tested the powers that be on the environment and they have failed miserably. I hope this time Obama gets it..
robvann wrote:
I have no idea what it is going to take to keep the Lemmings from going over the cliff. I do know that the rest of us are going over with them unless people wake up and demand that this is no longer business as usual.
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My Reply:
Cap, Fee, and Rebate legislation, the sort of legislation supported by NASA climatologist James Hansen, that imposes a significantly high fee on fossil carbon at the point of importation or extraction raising the price of fossil carbon and then rebates the proceeds from the fee on a per capita basis to everyone in the country, along with denying the Keystone XL pipeline permit of course, would go a long way towards keeping "the Lemmings from going over the cliff".
Cap, Fee, and Rebate is a bottom up approach to the development and adoptation of green energy alternatives, energy conservation measures and "lifestyle" changes, which would cover the entire economy and put much more decision making power about what alternatives are developed and adopted in the hands of consumers than would the more risky, financial industry and large energy corporation oriented Cap, Auction and Trade approach.
What's more anything that channels money away from large corporations and the wealthy has the potental to stimulate an economy where the most important characteristcs are the massive disparities of income and wealth between rich and poor, a disappearing middle class, and large corporations sitting on $2 trillion dollars in cash.
* * * * *
robvann wrote:
For the past four decades we have tested the powers that be on the environment and they have failed miserably. I hope this time Obama gets it..
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My Reply:
It would be great if Barack Obama denied the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline permit. But I am not optimistic about Obama. All the evidence indicates Obama is working for the wrong people.
Puffin: The problem is the political will and a system which is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. We need examples like this one where political power is not part of the problem. http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/tbs/tp/climate/A4.htm
How sad that a thousand lives will be messed up in some way or the other from these arrests. And the Democratic and Republican Party politicians will continue to work together to destroy the environment world wide, ignoring the democratic and popular protest against the government-corporate machine that destroys our Planet.
The fact that tar sands are being mined is horrible enough. I'm afraid they will use all of it until it is gone. I am not only sorry that the tar sands are being mined but every drop of oil drilled has ony made this planet a more messed up place to live on in every way. I have made a rap song about climate change though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTX3FJDSFjo
President Obama will make his choice, perhaps the peaceful protesting at the White House will give him pause to reflect upon his campaign promises, perhaps not,,, we'll see.
The (tar sands) operation is as insane as splitting atoms to boil water and burning coal to boil water... We humans are killing our oceans by burning coal (acidification) and altering the water's PH. and we have caused the current global warming by burning fossil fuels and destroying forests, especially rain forests.
President Obama has the power to change it all, he can join the sensible, reaasonable citizens of our country and defy the oil, coal and nuker barons.
President Obama (can) insure we build many more solar power plants like (Nevada One) which supplies 14,000 homes with all of their electricity at a very affordable rate. Scientists have determined that type of solar power plant on 100 square miles could easily supply ALL of the electrical energy required for the (entire) United States... The solar plants do not all have to be in one location... There are thousands of square miles of remote, arid, desert land available in our southwestern states. Almost zero atmospheric, land and water pollution, no nuclear waste, no meltdowns to fear and stop killing our vitlal for all life oceans.
President Obama can appeal to the citizens once again, as he did during his presidential campaign and tell us he will do as he did with the (Tar Sands) and say, "I didn't allow it".... He (can), but will he have the common sense, honesty, courage and wisdom which is displayed by the many protestors? __ Will he realize just how important he actually is, that he now almost alone holds the key for the future of life on Earth.__ We''ll see.
It is not necessary to limit clean energy to just solar power plants, even though that is quite possible...To add to solar there is ample readily available geothermal energy, wind and tidal power... All are affordable and clean energy with zero cost for fuel. The cost per KwH for a geothermal plant for examle is $0.01.5 cents.
And of course we also have many hydro electric plants... We do not need coal, oil, gas or nuclear power plants and we do not need the Tar Sand oil.
Where does the praying Texas governor stand on the issue?