Twilight Earth Founder, Adam Shake, is Taking Part in the DC Coal Plant Protest, May Serve Jail Time

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. – Bill McKibben, Capitol Climate Action Network activist

How far are you willing to go to stand up for your beliefs? The answer is not the same for every one, nor should it be.

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.

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.

So I ask myself, “Is trying to live a sustainable lifestyle enough? It may make up for my personal carbon footprint, but what of the other billions of people who are not making the choices that would result in a better world?”

So I ask myself, “What more can I do? I can try to share the news of what is happening, the ideas that I have and the philosophies of green living with my readers in the hopes that even a small percentage of them will find the way, as I did, through experience with nature and knowledge. But is even this enough?”

So I ask myself, Can I do even more? Can I prove to myself and to my readers that I am living a life of integrity? Can I stand up for what I believe, in the face of adversity? I realize that if I don’t stand up for something, then I stand for nothing at all.”

“I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants.” – Al Gore

What do you stand for?

If you would like to join me, please let me know.

Adam

Related posts:

1. Victory! Twilight Earth and Thousands of Others Stood Up to Say NO COAL, and Won!
2. Coal CEO Says “Greeniacs Are Taking Over The World”, Calls Them Communists
3. Capitol Climate Action Protesters Shut Down the Capitol Coal Plant