Historic Trial Lets Activists Who Blocked Oil Train Cite Climate Change Threat in Their Defense

Five climate justice activists went on trial in Washington state on Monday for tying themselves to a 25-foot tripod structure to block a mile-long oil train. The protesters, members of the activist group Rising Tide Seattle, demanded a halt of shipments of fossil fuels through the Northwest following a string of derailments in the U.S. and Canada. In an unprecedented move, the presiding judge will allow the defendants to argue their actions were necessary because of the threat of climate change. We speak with Abby Brockway, one of the members of the Delta 5, and Tim DeChristopher, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, who spent 21 months in federal custody for posing as a bidder in 2008 to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land in his home state of Utah.

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