Today Amy Goodman writes in The Guardian
The White House was rocked Tuesday, not only by the 5.9 Richter-scale earthquake, but by the protests mounting outside its gates. More than 2,100 people say they'll risk arrest there during the next two weeks. They oppose the Keystone XL pipeline project, designed to carry heavy crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the US Gulf Coast.
As protest intensifies to stop a major tar sands oil pipeline, the president must choose: a green energy future or Big Oil profit. We have known about global warming/climate change for over thirty years. But, for most of that time we have had political control by republicans who have been beholden to their corporate masters in the oil industry who even refused to acknowledge that climate change existed. Climate change solutions require a reduction in CO2e gases from existing levels to get us to a place where at the least the runaway warming is stopped.
NASA Climate Scientist, James Hansen talks about our planetary emergency:
Bill McKibben was among those already arrested. He is an environmentalist and author who founded the group 350.org, named after the estimated safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of 350ppm (parts per million; the planet is currently at 390ppm). In a call to action to join the protest, McKibben, along with others, including journalist Naomi Klein, actor Danny Glover and Nasa scientist James Hansen, wrote the Keystone pipeline is "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".
We have lost many opportunities to reverse the damage of massive release of greenhouse gas emissions by our culture of over consumption. Jimmy Carter tried to rid us of our oil addiction in 1977. The next big opportunity came when we had the opportunity to elect our first real environmentalist as President. Al Gore had authored "The Earth In Balance" in 1992 which increased consciousness regarding the Earth warming. I was very excited for the opportunity to elect Al Gore for this very reason. But, it was not to be and now we are at a fork where the line in the sand for the construction of the XL Tar Sands pipeline may be our last chance to influence for the future of our planet.
Asked why the White House protests are taking place while President Barack Obama is away on a family vacation on Martha's Vineyard, McKibben replied:
"We'll be here when he gets back, too. We're staying for two weeks, every day. This is the first real civil disobedience of this scale in the environmental movement in ages."
Just miles to the east of Martha's Vineyard, and almost exactly 170 years earlier, on Nantucket, Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave, abolitionist, journalist and publisher, gave one of his first major addresses, before the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass is famous for stating one of grassroots organising's central truths:
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
Bill McKibben spoke to our hopes:
"It takes more than earthquakes and hurricanes to worry us – we'll be out here through 3 September. Our hope is to send a Richter 8 tremor through the political system on the day Barack Obama says no to Big Oil and reminds us all why we were so happy when he got elected. The tar sands pipeline is his test."
Updated with this letter
Nations largest environmental organizations stand together to oppose tar sands oil pipeline
The text of their letter follows:
Dear President Obama:
Many of the organizations we head do not engage in civil disobedience; some do. Regardless, speaking as individuals, we want to let you know that there is not an inch of daylight between our policy position on the Keystone Pipeline and those of the very civil protesters being arrested daily outside the White House. This is a terrible project–many of the country’s leading climate scientists have explained why in their letter last month to you. It risks many of our national treasures to leaks and spills. And it reduces incentives to make the transition to job-creating clean fuels.
You have a clear shot to deny the permit, without any interference from Congress. It’s perhaps the biggest climate test you face between now and the election. If you block it, you will trigger a surge of enthusiasm from the green base that supported you so strongly in the last election. We expect nothing less.
Sincerely,
Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund
Michael Brune, Sierra Club
Frances Beinecke, Natural Resources Defense Council
Phil Radford, Greenpeace
Larry Schweiger, National Wildlife Federation
Erich Pica, Friends of the Earth
Rebecca Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network
May Boeve, 350.org
Gene Karpinski, League of Conservation Voters
Margie Alt, Environment America
2. To date, 275 people have been arrested at the White House protesting the Keystone XL pipeline.
Please sign a petition requesting President Obama to reject the XL Tar Sands Pipeline
Join the White House sit-in here