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tim dechristopher
Calling for 'Unprecedented and Urgent Action' to Solve Climate Crisis, Four Organizers Shut Off Valves at Enbridge Lines 3 and 4
"This is some serious climate leadership."
Feb 03, 2019
Condemning "the imminent and irreversible damage being done to the climate" by fossil fuel extraction, four Catholic Workers took non-violent action to help stem the climate crisis on Monday in northern Minnesota, shutting off valves at Enbridge Energy Lines 3 and 4.
Allyson Polman, Brenna Cussen Anglada, Michele Naar Obed, and Daniel Yildirim were identified as the Four Necessity Valve Turners who shut off the valves. They took the action to protest the pipelines which cut through Native American reservations and jeopardize fresh water resources in the region, as well as perpetuating an energy economy reliant on fossil fuels.
"The group acts in solidarity with the most vulnerable worldwide who suffer the greatest impact from climate change," said the group in a press statement. "The Four Necessity Valve Turners believe it is time to take personal responsibility for preventing the dangerous expansion of the oil industry, because governments and regulators have failed to do so."
"This act is step towards reparations for the damage that colonization has done both to the indigenous peoples of this continent and the land," said Cussen Anglada.
The group shared a video on Facebook of the action. The demonstrators shut off the valves at about 10 minutes into the video:
The group displayed a sign reading, "The time is now for unprecedented and urgent action," at the site where they shut off the valves.
\u201cRT @4necessity: Here's the banner that #4Necessity #ValveTurners have installed on the Enbridge valve site in Minnesota. THE TIME IS NOW FOR UNPRECEDENTED AND URGENT ACTION. #ActOnClimate\u201d— Marla Marcum (@Marla Marcum) 1549310049
The Four Necessity Valve Turners took the action despite recent reports that police in Minnesota are planning to target anti-pipeline organizers, preparing for a militarized standoff like the one that took place at Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota in 2016.
"The extraction of the tar sands oil flowing through these pipes represents an ongoing atrocity against the boreal forests of Canada," said Yildirim. "I refuse to stand by in silence as this river of death flows through the Great Lakes region."
"The Four Necessity Valve Turners believe it is time to take personal responsibility for preventing the dangerous expansion of the oil industry, because governments and regulators have failed to do so." --Four Necessity Valve TurnersThe group released a statement of intent on Twitter after they shut off the valves.
"Our species stands at death's door due to the outmoded and violent myth that some people are more important than others, and that we can live without the intricate and miraculous web of life that surrounds us," they wrote. "Even as we approach total devastation, this myth still rages, and nowhere is it more apparent than in our own backyard."
The police arrived on the scene shortly after the group shut down the valves, and took the valve turners into custody. On Twitter, the group asked for donations for their bail fund while numerous supporters expressed gratitude for their direct action.
\u201cWoah - this is some serious climate leadership. I find it personally inspiring that folks are putting their bodies on the line this way. Thank you.\u201d— Janet Redman (@Janet Redman) 1549314738
\u201cShout out the Catholic Workers in northern Minnesota who completely shut down Enbridge's Line 3 + 4 pipelines this morning by simply turning their valves off \ud83d\udd27\ud83e\udd19 \n\nFollow @4necessity for updates and video from the action\u201d— Midwest People's History (@Midwest People's History) 1549315616
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Judge Drops Charges Against 13 Who Argued Pipeline Civil Disobedience Action Was "Necessary" to Save Planet
"We are part of the movement that's standing up and saying, 'We won't let this go by on our watch.'"
Mar 28, 2018
Climate activists are cheering after a district judge in Boston on Tuesday ruled that 13 fossil fuel pipeline protesters were not responsible for any infraction because of the necessity of their actions.
Bill McKibben, who was slated to be an expert witness in their case, tweeted a celebratory "Good golly!' in response to the ruling, adding, "This may be a first in America. "
\u201cGood golly! A few minutes ago a Boston judge acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience. This may be a first in America. Details to follow, and go to @ClimateDisobey for some live video\u201d— Bill McKibben (@Bill McKibben) 1522178526
The charges the defendants faced stemmed from actions they took in 2016 to block Spectra Energy's fracked gas West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline. While they had spent a year and a half preparing a climate necessity defense to present to a jury trail, prosecutors prevented that from happening last week when they reduced the criminal charges to civil infractions. "By reducing the charges," the Climate Disobedience Center argues, "the prosecutor has avoided what could have been a groundbreaking legal case."
Judge Mary Ann Driscoll, did, however, allow each of the defendants to explain to the court why they were motivated to take part in their actions to stop the Massachusetts pipeline. After that, according to a lawyer for the defendants, she said they were not responsible by reason of necessity.
\u201cOur team is gathering at the West Roxbury District courthouse! The #climatetrial we hoped for has been canceled, but our fight goes on! Read more & follow along at https://t.co/IqNIBqAlbx\u201d— Climate Disobedience Center (@Climate Disobedience Center) 1522154645
\u201cWe were in West Roxbury Court today for #climatetrial. The criminal charges were reduced to civil infractions, then after testimony the activists were all found not responsible by reason of necessity.\u201d— Nat'lLawyersGuildMA (@Nat'lLawyersGuildMA) 1522204449
Speaking on the steps outside the courthouse following the verdict, defendant and noted climate activist Tim DeChristopher said they "asked the judge to recognize that that evidence was out there--that's it clear across our society the severity of climate change, the degree to which the government response has been a failure, and the degree to which regular folks like us have a necessity to act to prevent this harm."
"Hopefully, next time around we'll be able to do that with a jury, and we'll keep fighting," he said.
Defendant Callista Womick spoke outside the courthouse as well, saying that "it's hubristic to think we can keep poisoning the planet and keep living on it." As such, she said she took part in the protest because she saw it as "part of my duty to my fellow human beings and fellow life forms."
According to defendant Karenna Gore, director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary (and daughter of former Vice President Al Gore), what happened in the courtroom was "really important," though she noted "the irony" of being found not responsible for the infractions because "we are making ourselves responsible."
"We are part of the movement that's standing up and saying, 'We won't let this go by on our watch. We won't act like nothing's wrong,'" she said. "We're going to be speaking up in new ways," she added.
"We're going to be demanding that the people who are in elected office, and also the corporations who are putting their costs, the cost of their doing business, for their own profits... on the public, they're putting that cost on future generations. And we are taking responsibility to say 'no' to that."
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Just in Time for Trump, Jury Says Defense of Planet Is No Crime
'With our political leadership failing us, we need more courageous activists like Ken to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and set an example of how normal people can effect change.'
Feb 02, 2017
Offering some hope that "reality" will prevail in a political climate seemingly bent on climate destruction, a Washington state jury on Wednesday failed to convict activist Ken Ward on two felony counts stemming from an act of civil disobedience against the fossil fuel industry.
The Climate Disobedience Center, which Ward co-founded, declared the mistrial "a resounding recognition of the threat of climate change," noting that one or more jurors refused to convict Ward on charges of sabotage and burglary for breaking into and shutting down a Kinder Morgan pipeline near Anacortes, Washington last year. Alternately, they were persuaded by his argument that he had acted out of necessity, in defense of the planet.
According to the center,
Ward's defense consisted exclusively of his motivation to confront the threat of climate change, and the defense did not contest a single piece of evidence brought by the prosecution. Several exhibits demonstrating climate science and impacts and the role of civil disobedience in societal change were permitted as evidence. Ward himself was the only witness called by the defense. The jury deliberated while looking at charts demonstrating the dramatic increase of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and the impacts of sea-level rise to Skagit County.
"This trial was about climate change," said Emily Johnston, who also took part in the October 2016 coordinated action that shut down tar sands pipelines along the U.S.-Canada border. "The prosecution presented only information about what Ken did on October 11, and Ken and the defense presented only information about climate change, so the only decision that the jury was making was which story mattered more. And the story of the climate crisis won."
Activist Leonard Higgins, who faces trial for shutting off Spectra Energy's Express tar sands pipeline in Montana as part of the same action, said he's "excited to see that the jury recognized the integrity, honor, and patriotism of Ken Ward, and recognized that what he did was done for all of us."
Ward was the first of the "valve turners" to appear in court and the trial was said to have "far-reaching implications for the widening pipeline protest movement and the intensifying crackdown against it," particularly in light of the fierce mobilizations expected after U.S. President Donald Trump's recent executive orders advancing the controversial Keystone XL (KXL) and Dakota Access (DAPL) pipelines.
As Ward himself explained after the decision, "In five hours, the jury was unable to decide that with all of the evidence against me, including the video of me closing the valve, that this was a crime. I didn't contest a single piece of the evidence, only presented my story and evidence of catastrophic climate change. This is a tremendous outcome."
As it stands, there will be a conference next week to determine if a new trial will be scheduled. But as Steve Kent with the Climate Disobedience Center explained to Common Dreams, the fact of the mistrial gives "an indication that one or more jurors accepted the argument that the actions were taken to prevent climate harm, and so weren't culpable. That's important legally and will have ramifications."
Wednesday's mistrial was celebrated widely across the climate movement.
\u201cAnother way to describe this: the jury refused to convict. Will surely happen more & more. Reality has a way of winning. #ClimateTrial\u201d— Emily Johnston (@Emily Johnston) 1485985282
\u201cWhoa!!!! Hung jury in Ken Ward's #climatetrial in WA state. Mistrial! This is a big moment (and huge, if temporary, sigh of relief from me)\u201d— Bill McKibben (@Bill McKibben) 1485985881
Not only does this ruling bode well for the future "valve turner" trials, but it also could impact other activists who plan to confront the Trump administration with increasingly direct civil disobedience.
"The failure of the prosecution's case shows that public opinion is shifting about the need for direct action to solve the climate crisis," said Kelsey Skaggs, an attorney with the Climate Defense Project, which provided legal support to Ward alongside the Civil Liberties Defense Center. "With our political leadership failing us, we need more courageous activists like Ken to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and set an example of how normal people can effect change."
Watch Ward's testimony below:
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