Public Opinion on Climate Just Tipped - Protests & Arrests

I mentioned this a while back that the civil disobedience had begun - and even those who would've ignored it before are now commenting. Republican lawmakers who understand that the majority of Americans believe this is a problem that needs to be addressed are finally paying attention to that, instead of letting the vocal minority dictate conversation. Whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not, the ball's rolling and will start leading to policy changes. It would be best if voices from all viewpoints chimed in to help guide that policy in the most effective direction.

http://www.grist.org/climate-change/201 ... ust-tipped
Public opinion on climate just tipped
by Auden Schendler
24 Aug 2011

This week, though, sure feels like the tipping point on public opinion on climate, and so I'm going to stick a fork in it right here, folks. Climate opinion just tipped. Why do I say that? In the last week:

Australia, with huge coal reserves -- but rapidly passing the Arctic as ground zero for climate impacts with epic fires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, and dust storms -- passed a carbon credit law , with a tax coming up next.

Canada rolled out regulations that will likely phase out coal by mid-century.

Michael Mann's "hockey stick" research was once and for all vindicated .

Prominent Republicans like Jon Hunstman and Chris Christie agree that climate science is real, and there's even pressure within the GOP to not become the anti-science party. In fact, when Rick Perry denied climate science, he wasn't just censured by some Republicans, he was instantly and vigorously debunked by the Washington Post .

The press is finally doing its job by calling deniers like Rick Perry out on their climate claims.

Last and most important, prominent intellectuals, scholars, and youth (the people who always make up revolutions and are regularly jailed in less freedom-friendly countries) were arrested and imprisoned for peaceful protest in our nation's capital, and kept overnight on the eve of the national dedication of a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011 ... -tar-sands
What's All the Fuss About the Keystone XL Pipeline?
—By Kate Sheppard
| Wed Aug. 24, 2011

Hundreds of activists have arrived in Washington, DC, to protest the proposed Keystone XL project, a 1,661-mile pipeline that would carry oil from Canada's tar sands to refineries in Texas. If TransCanada gets the green light from the Obama administration, the pipeline would carry as much as 900,000 barrels of oil every day—oil with a carbon output 20 percent higher than conventional oil supplies.

Since the action began on Saturday, 212 people have been arrested outside of the White House. The majority have been processed and released, though some of the higher-profile activists were kept from Saturday through Monday morning, a move they believe was made to deter further protests. Writer and activist Bill McKibben (also a Mother Jones contributor), lawyer and environmental leader Gus Speth, and LGBT-rights activist Lt. Dan Choi were among those kept in jail.

The protesters have arrived outside the White House each morning, with a group of volunteers agreeing to sit in until they are arrested each day. Organizers estimate that between 50 and 100 people will be arrested every day, with the biggest day of action planned for Saturday, August 27. Spokesman Jamie Henn, of the group 350.org, said that 2,000 people have signed up to participate. They plan to continue the protest through Labor Day.

Because many of you may be wondering what the heck is going on with the protests, we've compiled this backgrounder.

see article for more!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... xl-climate
What tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline mean for climate change
Environmentalist Bill McKibben was among 100 people arrested at the weekend for protesting against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. But why are climate campaigners so concerned?
Dana Nuccitelli
Tuesday 23 August 2011
[youtube:2yqob032][/youtube:2yqob032]
Tar Sands Action: Come Join Us!

A short film capturing first day of 2-weeks of sit-ins at the White House to stop the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline.

More info: [url=http://tarsandsaction.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://tarsandsaction.org[/url]

Bill McKibben is leading what may be the largest green civil disobedience campaign in a generation, against the proposed construction of the 1,600-mile long Keystone XL pipeline.
On 15 June 2011, the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Panel approved a bill to expedite a decision on the pipeline, possibly trying to rush it through before adequate environmental impact assessments are completed.

The project must be approved by President Obama in order to proceed, and the aim of the protest is to convince the president to reject the project.

http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/stop- ... hite-house
Stop the Tar Sands Campaign Update -- More than 150 Arrested at the White House
08/22/11, 12:05pm

There are three ways that you can stand in solidarity from wherever you are:

1. Sign the petition to President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline -- we’ve already rocketed past our initial goal of 35,000 signatures and are hoping to add as many names as possible before we deliver it to White House officials on September 3rd.

2. Send in a solidarity message or photo to the people taking action at the White House.

3. Take part in Moving Planet -- a worldwide climate rally on September 24 -- and move beyond all fossil fuels in the loudest, most beautiful way possible.

http://www.truth-out.org/over-160-arres ... 1314113987
Over 160 Arrested in Ongoing Civil Disobedience Against Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline
Tuesday 23 August 2011
by: Amy Goodman

An estimated 2,000 people have signed up to hold sit-ins and commit other acts of civil disobedience outside the White House everyday for the next two weeks — 162 have already been arrested since Saturday. Also joining the protest are indigenous First Nations communities in Canada and landowners along the Keystone XL pipeline’s planned route. An editorial in Sunday’s New York Times joined in calling on the State Department to reject the pipeline, noting that the extraction of petroleum from the tar sands creates far more greenhouse emissions than conventional production.

As the Obama administration remains undecided whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, we speak with Bill McKibben who joins us from Washington, D.C., where he was released Monday after spending two nights in jail. He is part of Tar Sands Action, a group of environmentalists, indigenous communities, labor unions and scientific experts, calling for action to stop the project. “This is the first real civil disobedience of this scale for the environmental movement in ages,” McKibben says.

see link for video interview

Nobody that matters wrote: Pretty damn egotistical of those protesters to think that we (humans) really have more than a tiny effect on climate... It's gonna change, with or without us, and there's nothing we can do to stop it.

If you accidentally pour hot water on yourself, and it starts to burn do you keep pouring hot water in that spot, or do you stop and put cool water on it? You're still gonna be burned but it'll be a lot less damage than if you kept pouring hot water.

I don't accept just giving up - yes, we can do something about it. There are effects that are already part of the system now that we will not be able to change, that's true, but to continue to pour hot water on the problem, so to speak, rather than starting the cool water to mitigate some of the effects is beyond stupid.

You are absolutely correct on your 1st and 3rd statements, but I have to disagree with your 2nd statement chickaree - the effect here in the US will be just as dramatic and ugly. The southwest is already starting to suffer drier conditions and is projected to have a drought that will make the Dust Bowl look like a hiccup in terms of intensity and duration, the mountains will struggle with even less snowpack and year-round water supply - and the west depends on much of that for crops. Much of the east coast will face rising sea levels - if we're truly looking at an 11 degree F rise by the end of this century, which is what's projected if no change in business as usual is done in the next 20-40 years, no area will be untouched. Moving to Canada will become a popular thing to do - they will begin to have the temperate climate for growing crops.