Coal to action: Join us March 2 as we protest a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill
Posted by susanna on 12 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Coal, Washington, DC
This is a letter to colleagues from Bill McKibben, scholar in residence at Middlebury College, a director of Grist.org, and co-founder of 350.org, and Wendell Berry, farmer, critic, and prolific author.
—–
There are moments in a nation’s — and a planet’s — history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived, and we are writing to say that we hope some of you will join us in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 2, in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill.
We will be there to make several points:
* Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level — below 350 parts per million CO2 — lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity.
* Even if climate change were not the urgent crisis that it is, we would still be burning our fossil fuels too fast, wasting too much energy, and releasing too much poison into the air and water. We would still need to slow down, and to restore thrift to its old place as an economic virtue.
* Coal is filthy at its source. Much of the coal used in this country comes from West Virginia and Kentucky, where companies engage in “mountaintop removal” to get at the stuff; they leave behind a leveled wasteland and impoverished human communities. No technology better exemplifies the out-of-control relationship between humans and the rest of creation.
* Coal smoke makes children sick. Asthma rates in urban areas near coal-fired power plants are high. Air pollution from burning coal is harmful to the health of grown-ups too and to the health of everything that breathes, including forests.
The industry claim that there is something called “clean coal” is, put simply, a lie. But it’s a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don’t come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It’s time to make clear that we can’t safely run this planet on coal at all. So we feel the time has come to do more — we hear President-elect Barack Obama’s call for a movement for change that continues past election day, and we hear Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s call for creative non-violence outside coal plants. As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming, our nation will be asking China, India, and others to limit their use of coal in the future to help save the planet’s atmosphere. This is a hard thing to ask, because it’s their cheapest fuel. Part of our witness in March will be to say that we’re willing to make some sacrifices ourselves, even if it’s only a trip to the jail.
With any luck, this will be the largest such protest yet, large enough that it may provide a real spark. If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant.
We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested. After that we have no certainty what will happen, but lawyers and such will be on hand. Our goal is not to shut the plant down for the day — it is but one of many, and anyway its operation for a day is not the point. The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it.
Needless to say, we’re not handling the logistics of this day. All the credit goes to a variety of groups including Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society, the Rainforest Action Network, and CCAN. You can register and learn more about the action at our website.
From Grist
11 Comments »
on 16 Dec 2008 at 12:57 pm 1.CCAN Blog » MD + Public Transit = Love Forever said …
[...] the point of no return). But sometimes I want to focus on something a little more concrete, like shutting down coal plants – or supporting the creation of more public [...]
on 30 Dec 2008 at 4:32 pm 2.Fossilfreedom said …
I would like to suggest a far better and less confrontational media strategy (and thus more effective because you can not then be simply marginalized as a bunch of disruptive whakos by your vocal opposition (many of which are media editors). If you reall are merely whakos, then please, still consider carefully what I am saying, as I was in fact arrested in 1969, as we marched on the Pentagon to implant flower stems in the gun barrels of troops.
As a veteran of past civil disobedience campaigns I can tell you that bare civil disobedience disruptions are a very poor choice of tactic, and are strategically ineffective in isolation (even when unlike PETA, the protesters leave their clothing on)!
While you may argue: “What Else Can We Do?” No One listens to us!
The problem is that you want to get Congress to listen by stomping on Congresses’ collective foot! Oh yeah, they will be listening alright, but they will be so pissed off that the news cycle will become all about all the mad as a hornets nest congress lecturing the protesters about their bad tactics. So the public will not see your point of view much at all.
James Hansen, and Al Gore will be preaching to the choir at your rally which is OK, but unless that message gets the full news cycle rather than the rhetoric of the pissed of congress, the your media strategy will be render ineffective, just as in previous civil disobedience campaigns because the media will focus more on the disobedience than the real message. What is to be gained by muddling your own message by invading the congressional campus power plant boundaries. Sure, it is real handy, sitting right in downtown DC. But, that plant is just a pipsqueak little legacy power plant with serious obsolescence problems that is slated for extinction in any event.
A better story for the effective use of the news cycle would be as follows:
1) Have Al Gore in a speech announce another rally in a years time in early March 2010. Them put Congress on notice that at this years rally the American people have spoken!
The American peoples patience with congress, by gridlock, is wearing thin, and congress, by its inaction on the representation of the peoples wisdom is wearing out the congresses constitution welcome.
State in no uncertain terms that if that old coal fired powerhouse is still there on 1 March 2010, the next march will be comprised of hundreds thousands of people, including 100 or so with acetylene torches, who will march on the old plant not to merely trespass, but rather to dismantle it brick by brick, and cut up the steel into portable pieces which Americans will then return to their localities to recycle the steel; whilst the bricks will serve as a symbol of the peoples will to dismantle the artifacts of “Malindustrialization”
to recycle the bricks in the rebuilding of greener and sustainable America in the forthcoming, green and sustainable benindustrial revolution. Make it crystal clear to Congress, that the bricks of the Capitol itself are not immune from the people’s wrath should Congress have the audacity to presume it can ignore the symbolic planned 2010 dismantling Congresses flaky old coal plant.
2) Warn Congress, in no uncertain terms to take heed of the peoples will and do not force the American people to return to Washington, each year, in later years, to begin to dismantle the rest of the Congressional campus brick by brick, as people would much prefer Congress to begin to listen to the people not the special interest so that the fine American Capitol structures, purpose and process can be left intact to function as the Founding Mothers and Founding Fathers intended …to serve the will of the people.
3) Redirect the main thrust of this years march to a symbolic march from the east portal of the Capital (new visitors center completely swamped) to the old power plant. There have a speech for the media stating “We have decided not trespass, here, as “Congress so richly deserves”, but rater to issue the stern warnings to Congress here that the people will no longer “Tolerate” Congress (in 1-2 above), and then continue our march to the Alexandria offices of our real enemy:
American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
333 John Carlyle Street
Suite 530
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
703-684-6292
info@cleancoalusa.org
Keeping Americans informed on energy and environmental issues is an important job. ABEC is pleased to work with reporters, producers and editors to offer background information and interviews on an array of topics related to coal-based energy. If you are a member of the media and have questions about ABEC and our issue, please contact:
National Media
Steve Gates
Senior Communications Director
SGates@cleancoalusa.org
703-302-1223 (direct), (703) 684-7473 (national office)
Northeastern Region
Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia
Cathy Coffey
Northeast Region Communications Director
CCoffey@cleancoalusa.org
703-302-1221 (direct), (703) 684-7473 (national office)
Southern Region
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas
Leah Arnold
South Region Communications Director
LArnold@cleancoalusa.org
703-302-1222 (direct), (703) 684-7473 (national office)
Midwest Region
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin
Cullen West
Midwest Communications Director
CWest@cleancoalusa.org
703-302-1224 (direct), (703) 684-7473 (national office)
Western Region
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
Brad Jones
Western Region Communications Director
BJones@cleancoalusa.org
703-302-1226 (direct), (703) 684-7473 (national office)
(also hold smaller regional marches at the regional headquarters, and railroad headquarters that comprise the coalition to serve notice in the clean coal coalition that hiding behind a faceless coalition will not protect the individual railroad and mining interests from the ongoing and increasing wrath of the American people for the malicious, dangerous and false propaganda campaign RE the “Clean Coal” hoax; and the continuing threat to the health of Americans from the heavy metals, radium and carbon nano-particulates willingly caused, and inflicted upon humans by the Coal MalIndustrial Corporations.
4) Civil disobedience, via trespass or symbolic initialization dismantling of the office of the:
American Coalition For Clean Coal Electricity, 333 John Carlyle Street, Suite 530
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Or headquarters building if permitted, or encouraged by the organizers should occur at the clean coal coalition headquarters in Alexandria, not the congressional campus, an easy march from the Capitol Power plant.
Such a strategy would be far more effective than pissing off both Congress and the American people than trespassing at Congress, while focusing on the REAL source of the problem, and serving as a warning to Congress rather than an attack on Congress that the people’s patience with Congressional inaction is wearing thin.
5) Have everyone at all the marches everywhere (including baby’s and children, (who are particularly vulnerable to metals, radium and carbon nano-particulates) wear those little clear plastic nose tubes and carry portable oxygen concentrators (Like Emphysema Patient need to wear) (mock up props are OK).
This will drive home your point by providing a sympathetic rather than an outraged home viewing audience, making the demonstration FAR MORE effective and urgent. Also, the props create the perfect hook for TV camera crews and reporters to zoom in on, creating great footage for the current news cycle. In addition, the props will also create great archival “B roll Footage” that will be used over and over in future news stories about future marches, or whenever coal is discussed topically in any future news cycle.
The Props are a three-for! Great sympathy, great coverage, great archived!
6) Include big screen TV graphics of educational information to teach the assembled marchers exactly how a BenIndustrial Green Revolution REALLY CAN provide a better sustainable American future FOREVERMORE without any need for any petroleum or any need for mindless industrial growth based economics, as we transition from the Malindustrial age into the BenIndustrioal Green Revolution
I hope you will see the light and pull back the zoom lens to see the big picture and make the march way more than just another civil disobedience campaign, so that you can get the now awakened American publics full support.
I would also like to be considered as a speaker at the march, as I have been making biofuels, including BioDiesel and BioButanol BioGasoline made from algae. The same algae that “pollutes” rivers. lakes, estuaries and streams coils produce a direct replacement for petroleum, sustainably, throughout time. In fact petroleum originally came from algae not dinosaurs.
By simply realizing that “The Pollution IS the Solution” we can remove the anthropogenic phosphorus excess from are waterways and begin to replace toxic coal carcinogenic gasoline with pure clean carcinogen and toxin free hydrocarbon petroleum replacements that we can synthesize from algae in 3 weeks instead of the 300 million year wait for Mother Natuire to get around to making us more petroleum!
With Best Regards
Patrick Ward
FREE ENERGY
http://www.fossilfreedom.com
fossilfreedo@yahoo.com
fossilfreedom@yahoogrops.cpm
biogasoline@yhaoogroups.com
on 27 Jan 2009 at 9:00 pm 3.Jerry Raitzyk said …
hey Ted GLICK, this seems like the way to go. Lets talk about this. I am signed on for march 2nd.These are the actions that i support.
Jerry Raitzyk
on 29 Jan 2009 at 11:29 pm 4.wind4me said …
almost comical all the ”’clean coal””folks saying a better way would be to NOT do this march and bring attention to the puking polluting disgusting coal plants……..Lock and Load folks, its time to make some noise about the Coal Polluting plants that are killing our world…….
on 30 Jan 2009 at 11:56 pm 5.Rock-N-Roger said …
This is a GREAT idea! Given the scope and extent of what is at stake for our descendants, mostly from coal-caused global climate devastation, one can only ask: What took us so long?
Y’all come and join the fun at this critical climatic event!
on 03 Feb 2009 at 11:02 am 6.SuperDiesel said …
You guys have been smoking dope too long. All of these climate change models are based on that just models… models that can’t predict the weather at all. Its all voodoo.
If you really want to force things into law, then why not have a challenge – let the climate models try to predict the weather from 2013-2018. If they are able to even remotely predict weather patterns, then you might have some basis.
right now its just mental masturbation by a bunch of geeks who wanted government largesse.
This winter looks like the coldest in 25 years. Hum…that makes the odds of this Co2 being responsible even lower. Al “Mr. Internet” Gore had to reschedule his DC appearance because it was too cold! – can’t talk about warming when you are freezing your butt off.
I hope they put all dumbass protestors in jail…better yet call you enemy combatants and put in you in some dark hole forever.
Look at the science you dumb shits….its only a model that can’t predict anything
on 03 Feb 2009 at 12:47 pm 7.Bob Olson said …
There really is a problem of getting the media to highlight the message rather than just focusing on the disruption. Civil disobedience was so effective with the civil rights movement largely because the TV images highlighted the actual problem – discrimination against and abuse of people of color. To be as effective as possible, this action should have a single, clear theme, highlighted on banners and signs, in speeches and media contacts. It would be best if that theme suggested a positive vision, just as protests against segregation were animated by “a dream.” Perhaps something like “BEYOND COAL” that frames a dialogue about how there is no such thing as “clean coal” and how superior options of conservation, efficiency and renewables are the path to a sustainable future.
I believe that framing actions around “banning coal” should be avoided. Shutting down existing plants before adequate alternatives can come into place would cause enormous economic disruption and hardship. The focus should be on moving BEYOND COAL as rapidly yet responsibly as possible. This means that every effort needs to be made to reduce energy demand, provide energy services without the use of coal, prohibit terrible practices like mountain top removal, and remove coal completely from the long run energy picture. It doesn’t mean closing coal-fired power plants immediately, or blocking efforts to develop effective technology for carbon capture and storage. I know many will disagree, but I think we need to leave the door open to at least considering whether some new coal-fired power plants using carbon capture and storage may be needed as a transitional technology to allow a smooth transition to renewables. If this doesn’t prove necessary, all the better, but we shouldn’t try to take away that option.
on 16 Feb 2009 at 3:16 pm 8.Shut down a coal plant! | sustainability - art, design and social practice said …
[...] We think the time to act has arrived, and we hope you will join us in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 2, in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill.
on 01 Mar 2009 at 9:07 am 9.The Green Blog » Blog Archive » Baltimore Metro Area Green Networking Schedule — March ‘09 said …
[...] Join Bill McKibben, Mike Tidwell, Wendell Berry, and thousands more in this civil resistance demonstration at a coal-fired power plant next to Capitol Hill.
on 02 Mar 2009 at 1:32 pm 10.peacenik said …
Very interesting, but not nearly as fun. These are kids who want to have a great time poking their fingers in govt's eye. Rational discourse is not what they are looking for.
on 05 Mar 2010 at 6:47 am 11.Clislishokino said …
The action taken to national disaster is great but it’s a damn shame that so many citizens take advantage of the negative situations.
I mean everytime there is an earthquake, a flood, an oil spill – there’s always a group of heartless people who rip off tax payers.
This is in response to reading that 4 of Oprah Winfreys “angels” got busted ripping off the system. Shame on them!
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/19/crimesider/entry5251471.shtml