It’s time to get loud.Dear friends,
Last week, a jury in Utah found Tim DeChristopher guilty for standing up to the oil and gas companies in an effort to protect our health and our climate.
If the federal government thinks that it’s intimidating people into silence with this kind of prosecution, think again. This is precisely the sort of event that reminds us why we need creative, nonviolent protests and mass mobilizations.
Over the last six months, we’ve witnessed big changes in the world that call out for creative, nonviolent protest, including:
- The wild and extreme weather and flooding that marked the end of the warmest year on record
- The complete collapse of efforts on Capitol Hill to do anything about climate change
- The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which grants corporations unfettered influence over our elections
We’ve also seen a historic outpouring of people power to combat environmental crises, reclaim our democracy, and disrupt corporate influence. From the exhilarating outbreak of the freedom movement across North Africa and the Mideast to the amazing stand for democracy and workers’ rights in Wisconsin, we are seeing the strength and effectiveness that average people can have when we stand together.
There have also been inspiring examples of civil disobedience across the United States to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the climate that we depend on. On Feb. 17, Greenpeace activists scaled a coal plant in Bridgeport, Conn., as part of an escalating campaign against the dirtiest coal plants across the country. Just five days before, one of our great environmental sages, Wendell Berry, joined a sit-in at the Kentucky governor’s office to protest mountaintop-removal coal mining.
Taken together, all of this confirms our belief that we need to keep escalating the struggle for climate justice.
It is not one event but a wave of actions that trigger social change. Paul Revere was not the only rider to warn of the British advance, and many people refused to move to the back of the bus before Rosa Parks. Actions like DeChristopher’s create ripples that spread far and wide.
In a recent interview, DeChristopher issued a challenge to all of us to seize the power we already have to make a difference:
We think we have no power when in fact we have more than enough power. Right now, we have a big enough movement to win this battle; we just need to start acting like it. That’s the message that the climate movement really needs to internalize. On an individual level, it means making the commitment that we’re going to be powerful and effective agents of change; on the movement level, it’s about making the decision that we’re really going to win this battle.
We worry that we may have waited too long to get this battle going in earnest; the science is dark, and the politics are tough. But we know, from watching our inspiring colleagues around the world who are facing great dangers head-on, that the best time to act is now. Over the coming weeks, each of our organizations, working together and individually, will be pursuing a variety of strategies to try and spark more mass, direct action.
Tim DeChristopher took a brave and lonely stand; it’s time to make sure that in the future bravery comes in bigger quantities.
Bill McKibben, 350.org
Phil Radford, Greenpeace USA
Becky Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network
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Also check out:
- Exclusive video interview: DeChristopher on his trial and civil disobedience
- Bill McKibben on why DeChristopher is a hero, not a criminal
- A call for direct action in the climate movement: We need your ideas
