843 Tea Party activists have been arrested in a series of demonstrations in front of the White House protesting that President Bachman hasn't lived up to her promise to send climate scientists to prison. Sources report White House looking for compromise path to end demonstrations.
Tea Party members getting arrested in front of the White House run by their Tea Party-backed President? Based on the media's track record, this sort of event would get banner headlines. A series of events, with Tea Party members being arrested every day, would be banner headlined in every single newspaper, every single day, with panicked discussions on the Sunday talk shows, lights on late in the night in the White House ...
Yet, every day since 20 August, people who worked hard to help get President Obama elected have been in front of the White House facing police ready to arrest them. Reluctantly, yet joyfully, these people have been stepping forward in mass civil disobedience to have their voices heard about the risks of shale oil and the need for this nation to step away from seeking to feed its oil addiction from the environmental destructive Alberta tar sands mining and the catastrophic implications of its carbon emissions profile.
Yet, despite some media exceptions, can anyone say that this is dominating the national discussion?
Distressingly, too few Americans are even aware of these protests. [One exception, of course, being readers of and members of this community.] Darryl Hannah's arrest the other day opened the aperture a bit (although, as cmnh noted, even Hannah's arrest didn't make much of a Splash). After all, a beautiful movie star is a draw not just in the movie theater. Along with movie stars, arrestees have included religious leaders, Nobel Prize-winning scientists, grandmothers, college students, and hundreds of others. These arrests of people seeking to help foster decision-making that will improve America's chances to navigate the dangerous perfect storm of Peak Oil and Climate Change have had fitful, at best, attention from the national media.
Let us call out, for a moment, one outlet: National Public Radio. The other day, Talk of the Nation covered this with: Canadian Oil Pipeline Plan Meets Resistance. This session opened with
Every day, for the past couple of weeks, a small group of demonstrators has gathered outside the White House to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Over 700 arrestees outside the White House by then and, well, NPR has finally come around to doing its first on-air story. Imagine the uproar against this supposed 'lefty' media outlet if 7 Tea Party-ites arrested at the White House didn't receive coverage for over ten days. And, the Tar Sands Action efforts were commented on as 'a small group' ... Honestly, the substantive discussions of the Tar Sands and the pipeline of the Talk of the Nation story actually had merit with Neil Conan's guest, Canadian journalist Sean McCarthy consistently turning to truthful discussion from Conan's twisted questioning. For example,
CONAN: And it's clear that there's obviously enormous demand for this oil. As I understand it, it's not a question of whether it's going to be extracted and shipped, but rather where it's going to be shipped.
MCCARTHY: Well, that's what the producers and the proponents of the pipeline would largely like you to believe. There is a view, however, that if you don't build the pipelines, people aren't going to be able to get the oil out, and it will get shut in. And that's really the point that the environmental community is trying to push long-term. They would like to see it not get produced and not shipped anywhere, let alone to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
CONAN: And some that would say if it's not going to be shipped to the - if the Americans don't want it, we'll ship it to - we'll build a pipeline to Vancouver and send it to the Japanese and Chinese.
MCCARTHY: That's right. There are a couple proposals on the books right now that would ship large volumes to the West Coast for export to Asia. Those proposals face their own hurdles, their - a lot of opposition, especially among native communities and environmentalists who worry about tanker traffic along the islands of British Columbia.
Right now, the President faces a decision -- does he kowtow to Canadian financial interests waging a disinformation campaign to influence American policy toward a dirtier energy future that will, inevitably, undermine American security and prosperity? Or, will President Obama stand up to fossil foolish interests to help stem (and turn) the tides on Global Warming's rising seas ... as President-Elect Obama promised?
Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious.
There are those that assert that President Obama cannot act to stop the Keystone XL pipeline since it will expose him to attacks that his policies drive up gasoline prices at the pumps. Let us face facts, the interests making those arguments will make them no matter what is going on in the White House. As with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, they are not interested in good policy but simply in assuring that President Obama is a one-term president. Even though oil profits are atmospheric at this time, these are not sufficient profit rates and they see themselves as even richer with a Republican President. And, well, if they fail in getting that, they will leverage every moment for every extra cent of profit -- no matter the energy security, health, economic, or environmental implications. To understand this, how many Americans realize that domestic oil production has actually increased during President Obama's time in office and that drilling rates are higher than any time since record keeping began in 1987? Policies that promote draining America's oil reserves as fast as possible (DRILL, BABY, DRILL) don't seem to make much sense when the U.S. economy represents over 20 percent of global demand while domestic reserves are just a few percent of global reserves. Pumping our reserves faster simply means greater reliance on foreigners tomorrow. The American public supports clean energy investments -- especially the Americans who worked long and hard to get President Obama elected. When he rejects the fallacious concept that Keystone XL is in the national interest, President Obama should call for a redoubling of efforts to reduce our need for liquid fuels and to develop cleaner (and more sustainable) alternatives to existing fuels. Rather than fostering dirty Canadian fuel production that would be exported on the world market, this is a path that would improve the American economy, create jobs, and reduce our energy / economic / and climate challenges. This the American peole would support.
If a group of Tea Party members risked arrest to have their views heard, does anyone doubt that the American media outlets would bend over backwards to give them (more than) their time in the spotlight? Here are people calling, in peaceful civil disobedience, for the President to live up to the standards he set for himself and for the President to pursue policies in accord with scientific knowledge and the media spotlighting of these efforts is -- generously speaking -- flickering.
NOTE: Related discussions
If the Tea Party visited the White House, would America know? discussing the paucity of coverage of youth climate activists meeting in the White House this this past April along with
President Obama's meeting with these Powershift leaders.
A basic question to consider: Would you go to jail in the fight against Climate Disruption?