OK, we all love top 10 lists, right? Obama’s decision to shut down the permitting process for the Keystone XL oil pipeline was a good one… I’m sorry, a great one! Here are 10 top reasons why: 10. The pipeline has received extremely little actual government oversight. “[T]he Department of State allowed a contractor with
Editor’s Note: yes, I just posted a victory story on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, following Obama’s announcement rejecting it. However, as Bill McKibben of 350.org points out below (and we could all expect), some in Congress thing they can force the pipeline down America’s neck still. Here’s more from Bill, and some key action
Here’s an email Bill McKibben sent to US 350.org supporters who have been working on Keystone XL last night: Just in case you thought there was anything subtle about the Keystone battle, you need to hear what the president of the American Petroleum Institute — the oil industry’s #1 front group — said yesterday:
2011 was a big year for the environment, in some good ways and some bad ways. Here’s a quick run-down of the top 10 stories of the year, in my opinion: 1. Tremendously high levels of carbon emissions continue to warm Earth. Despite efforts to switch to clean energy, increase energy efficiency, and use more
Dear friends, What comes next? That’s the question facing people all across the country — people in the climate movement, people in the Occupy movement, and all of us here at 350.org. Fired up by the momentous victory over the Keystone XL oil pipeline, we know one thing for sure: this movement has momentum, and we
The White House, and the U.S., and the world, saw the largest Keystone XL Tar Sands pipeline protest to date yesterday. Over 10,000 people (over 12,000 by some estimates) came out in opposition to the pipeline. The protesters were largely Obama supporters and came out decked in Obama gear to show him that they
NRDC Trustee Robert Redford’s moving new video, recently released to the New York Times, is a strong critique which quietly tears apart the sales pitch for the unnecessary and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline.
Highlights of Redford’s video are a repetition of all honest voices questioning the integrity of this issue and asking our government for accountability in regards to the tar sands. It is timely that we demand foresight with business, especially oil, and shine a light on the sheer lack of ethics and legitimacy in this process.
In many cultures — for example, in our American Indian cultures — a circle is used to heal the community, to connect the community. Also, in many American Indian cultures, nature is the healer. This is not particular to Cherokee or Lakota, as we will see on November 6 when Bill McKibben and others hope to use such a healing circle to remind Obama of his promise: “We must be the generation that ends the tyranny of oil.”
Dear friends —
When we started our campaign to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, we knew the odds were long.
We knew that oil companies had a stranglehold on the political process, that the other side had more lobbyists and money than we could ever dream of. We knew that most analysts and pundits considered the approval of the pipeline to be a foregone conclusion. In short, we knew that we might well lose this fight — and we knew that we had to fight it anyway.
Everything is connected: the things we do, the things others do, affect people’s lives. The aura of our material planet is a body of energy that is part of us and extends around us from the inside out. This connectivity is showing up willfully in our streets. Bill Mikkiben points out: “We cannot solve the carbon problem until we solve the power problem.” He also acknowledges the good timing of now-linking movements of activism. The time of putting positive energy into a collective force is in action now as a space to heal these gaping wounds in culture and environment unfolds.
By Bill McKibben
Dear Friends,
The last two weeks have been spectacular.
In Washington DC, phase one of the tar sands campaign has just come to an end, and 1,252 North Americans have been arrested in a massive civil disobedience campaign. This historic groundswell was focused on stopping the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline — but it also sent a larger message that people everywhere are willing to take bold action to move our planet beyond fossil fuels.
Some tip green activism news of the past few days for you:
Check out these top tar sands activism stories, followed by the most recent email from 350.org on this topic and more activism news:
Tar Sands activism and arrests continue at the White House, and activists around the world are now joining in from a distance in solidarity. Check out this note and call-to-action from 350.org that I received yesterday (and then more activism stories of the past day or so below that):
Climate change and tar sands activism continued at the White House today, with actress and activist Daryl Hannah (also covered by Think Progress), Greenpeace USA executive director Phil Radford, and more getting arrested.
Another big environmental activism story of the day was a letter from Tim DeChristopher from prison.
The stream of activists willing to get arrested in front of the White House to try to block the development of the Tar Sands XL pipeline in the U.S. continues to flow strong. Today, over 140 activists were arrested, including top NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen.
Some top activism news of the past few days:
Here are some top activism stories of the past day or so. Check ’em out
Here’s a full repost from Climate Progress by leading climate activist Mike Tidwell, who I had the pleasure of meeting a few years ago when I lived in Virginia. It’s on how activists overwhelmed the authority figures trying to squash their efforts at justice. Enjoy. Following the repost are other top activism stories of the day.
Other than the terrific piece new Planetsave writer and activist Kate Follot just wrote, here are some top activism stories of the past few days. They cover topics related to transportation, the tar sands, climate change, animals, nature, food, and more. Check them out:
Ending only September the 3rd, a group is planned to protest every day for two weeks, and more than 2100 people have signed up. Already, an estimated 222 people have been arrested, 65 on Saturday, 45 on Sunday, 52 on Monday and 60 on Tuesday, including Canadian actors Margot Kidder (best known as Lois Lane in four of the original Superman movies) and Tantoo Cardinal (indigenous actor best known for her roles in Legends of the Fall, Dances with Wolves, and Smoke Signals).
The opposition to the Tar Sands XL pipeline just heated up a notch. Leading environmentalist & founder of 350.org just got arrested, as well as about 70 other folks. Here’s more from the 350.org Facebook page:
I received an email from 350.org the other day with a link to a great Bill McKibben article in the Washington Post. Worth a read. Here’s the intro:
Leading up to and since Tim DeChristopher’s sentencing, there’s been a lot of talk around the internet regarding the direct action that’s needed, and not needed, today. Everyone who cares about the environment seems to be getting into it. DeChristopher has now spent over one week of his two years in prison now, and people are trying to find a way to make his sacrifice worth it, to take his message to a louder megaphone, to bring about the change he (and all of us) have been striving for quite unsuccessfully…
Friends of a fellow Important Media writer, 3 ballet dancers, made a statement this week by interrupting BP’s 3rd Summer Screen in Trafalgar Square, London. The ballet dancers danced a short piece based on Swan Lake, “with the classic tale used as analogy for BP’s controversial investment in the Canadian tar sands,” the UK Tar Sands Network reports.
11 veteran U.S. and Canadian scientists and environmentalists (Maude Barlow, Wendell Berry, Tom Goldtooth, Danny Glover, James Hansen, Wes Jackson, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, George Poitras, David Suzuki, and Gus Speth) have jointly called for non-violent disobedience in front of our grand White House this summer to try to stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
