This month past week I have not been able to write because I was networking with other climate organizations and attending a potluck for people who have signed the CREDO Pledge of Resistance. 76,000 some Americans have signed this Pledge saying that if the State Dept came out recommending that Obama approve the XL pipeline that they would commit civil disobedience to send a loud message to the President: "No on XL". The president has said repeatedly he won't approve it if it will contribute to climate change, and yet he approved the southern leg which last week started pumping it's evil and plentiful load to the Gulf Coast to be exported. We will risk an oil spill and we will incur the carbon in our atmosphere, but we will not get that oil. He could have said NO to this pipeline yet we waits for reports. It does not look promising. Today the State Dept came out with their second highly flawed environmental study within a year's time. They again claim that there will not be "significant" environmental impacts ALONG the pipeline. This is such a strange and narrow sense of the environment that joins us as inhabitants of this planet. They reluctantly admit because there is no way around it that it will effect GHG emissons. So it seems that in 90 days when the public comment period comment period ends that about 17,600 Americans will be getting arrested in cities all around this country!
I have also not been writing because last Sunday the 350Seattle chapter I helped to start (last May) held a demonstration on Sunday on the railroad tracks. We were symbolically blocking the oil trains that are being planned to travel through downtown Seattle - 24 a week! Because the pipelines were not working or approved yet the oil companies started shipping Bakken Shale on them about a year ago. In the last 9 months 6, yes 6, trains have exploded. In one case in the center of a small town in Canada killing 47 people! This shale which has been fracked, from deep within the earth's core, has unstable gases in it which have now been found to easily explode at over 73 degrees! These oil trains are suppose to go through a tunnel that travels beneath our downtown core and two blocks from our huge sports stadium which can hold 72,000 people! That is the stadium that you can see in the background of this photo:
That night the HUB (steering committee) of our 350 group met in my living room for a potluck and we told stories of civil disobedience to each other. We were planning a panel for later in Feb on civil disobedience to help people think about this...because between the XL pipeline and the exploding oil trains and the dirty coal trains also shipping through Seattle (2 went by during our hour long demonstration!) there are a lot of reasons to get arrested these days. There were a lot of things behind my Hat Honor post of last month where I asked people what they cared deeply enough about to be commit Holy Obedience.
On Wed we met again to plan the general 350 meeting we will have this coming Wed, and the meeting we will have with the newly elected Mayor to ask him to please stop the oil trains and coal trains coming through Seattle and to complete the job, started by our previous Mayor of divesting Seattle's funds from investments in fossil fuel.
Today all I thought I was going to do was go to Seattle's local rally against TPP - a national Day of Action. 350 Seattle has had a work group against the TransPacific Partnership since we started. While TPP is terrible for labor, for health, for internet neutrality, for intellectual property, democratic sovereignty and yes the environment in general....It is killer for climate change. If we don't stop TPP we might as well not fight all the things above. Why do I say this? Because under the Investor Rights chapter, released to Wikileaks because the whole thing has been negotiated in secret and not even released to Congress who will vote on whether to "fast track it", (meaning up or down vote no amendments on a trade agreement they cannot see), we see a huge corporate power grab taking place. Just like under NAFTA corporations can sue to a court made up of three judges (with higher standing than any countries own courts) and claim that their "investor rights" (the right to profit!) is being violated by laws (environmental, labor or privacy) of that country! So even if XL pipeline is not approved, if the TPP goes through, then Morgan Stanley can sue in this court and win the right to build the pipeline, and fracking companies can sue and on and on ....it is nightmare. So I went to a great demonstration today that brought together union people, environmentalists, children, retired people, people of color, health care workers, etc. If nothing else the fights for Climate Justice are uniting people who have fought their battle's separately for years.
I thought that demo and writing this blog was all I would do today. But then the State Dept came out today with its unfortunate ruling and kinda put a lot of stuff on my calendar for the next 100 days. It means we will have a big demonstration on Monday demanding Obama say No on XL. People all around the country will be demonstrating Monday. It also means I will be at an emergency meeting tomorrow to plan it. Sunday I will not get to go to my Meeting. I will be at the local Unitarian Church giving a talk on Climate Change scheduled long ago...and again at another church this Thurs.
I keep thinking that things will slow down after this thing or that. But that does not seem to be the case. But my nightly prayer for years has been that we as a people will make good choices about climate change and that God will make good use of me. Some people say they don't know what to do about climate change. That has not been my experience, I find that if you open yourself there are more than enough things to do about it.
Peace,
Lynn
