On a hot August morning last summer I sat down in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave, the White House at my back.
I turned to my left to see many men and women sitting or kneeling beside me. I turned to my right and saw still others, some with grey hair some just teenagers. Pivoting my head, I turned to see the people standing on the sidewalk behind me…a scientist from the DC area, a restaurant owner from Philadelphia, several students, and a chimney sweep from New York. There were 53 of us waiting to be arrested along with a couple dozen supporters who planned to get up and leave before the arrests were made.
An officer walked to the middle of the street, bullhorn in hand, to issue a warning that we would be arrested if we did not move. Just before he spoke, Amanda, a recent college grad from California who sat immediately to my right, turned to me and said " There's no better place we could be anywhere in the world right now than right here."
Over the course of 2 weeks in late August and early September, 1,253 people agreed with Amanda and were arrested at that site. Each of us, men and women, young and old from across the US felt the need to take a stand to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline.
For me the compelling factor…the reason I stepped up… is the need to stop and hopefully reverse climate change. "The earth is a house that is made for us all" (as Streetbeets sings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVbydpZDTSg), but currently 200 species go extinct -permanently disappearing from our
house each day -mostly due to global warming.
Global warming ,as I'm sure you know, is caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels as well as other industrial activities and land destruction.
Do you know what's happening in the tar sands under much of northern Alberta, Canada in an area the size of the country of England or the state of Florida?
Oil companies literally scrape away the living forests (among the most pristine natural areas in all the world) and scrape away the soils. Then they dig out the sand, taking about 2 tons of sand for every barrel of oil they produce. Next massive amounts of water drained from nearby rivers are used to wash the oily bitumen out of the sand- several gallons of water for every gallon of oil produced- leaving a toxic water-oil byproduct that kills fish, birds and indigenous people living in the area.
"If you simply hated the land and wanted to destroy it, you would be hard pressed to find a more vicious way of doing it" say the authors of Deep Green Resistance:Strategy to Save the Planet.
After the bitumen is washed from the sand, huge quantities of natural gas, much of it fracked in my home state of Pennsylvania, are used to cook it into a synthetic oil.The energy required means that oil produced from tar sands produces 5 times as much greenhouse gases as conventional oil.
That's why James Hansen, chief NASA climate scientist, warns that if the Keystone XL Pipeline is approved it's essentially 'game over for the climate'.
Now listen again to what Amanda said to me as we sat on Pennsylvania Avenue waiting to be arrested: " There's no better place we could be anywhere in the world right now than right here."
I believe she was correct on that day. But where would I need to be today for Amanda to say the same thing to me? Amanda's assertion has become my daily challenge.
Could it also become yours?
"Where's the 'no better place' you need to be right now? Where does the earth, (the water, soil and air) need you to be? Doing what? What do the creatures need you to be doing today?Tomorrow? How about our fellow humans and the next generation? What do they need from you?
Feminist poet and essayist, Adrienne Rich, wrote
try telling yourself
you are not accountable
to the life of your tribe
the breath of your planet
Isn't this all about love? Love for your neighbors of all species? Love and accountability, right?
Your love and sense of accountability may lead you to a different place than where my love and sense of accountability leads me. But it won't allow you to be passive.
One thing I know. These are not days for the timid. These are not the times for half measures. At the State of Our Earth 2012 Conference in Baltimore last month, Dr. Susan Shaw ,a marine toxicologist and Doctor of Public Health
warned us that "This is not a political issue. It's a survival issue! The next 10 years may be as important as the next 10,000 years!"
Yes! This is a time for bold love!
