This week will see the biggest ever act of civil disobedience in the name of climate change, as thousands of people descend on a Washington DC power station. ‘Power Shift‘ will see 10,00o young people occupy the coal-burning plant that provides electricity to the congressional buildings.
While bold and technically illegal, this is no anarchist action. Seventy different groups have joined efforts to bring the crowds together, from environmental protestors to faith groups or public health campaigners. The protest will cross the boundary of the power station, and arrests may well follow, but organisers are intent on leading a peaceful protest. They have requested that participants wear ‘sunday best’ as a gesture of their good intentions.
Among those participants are NASA’s James Hansen, and the American sages Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben, who wrote a much-reprinted open letter inviting people to participate:
“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.”
Part of this ‘evil’ is not coal per se, but the potential for injustice that lies behind it:
“As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming,” write Berry and McKibben, “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.”
It will be a testing time for Obama’s new administration and their policy on coal. The world will be watching carefully, it may turn out to be one of those key moments in the climate change movement.
But what do you think? Is there a time to break the law to expose an evil? And has that time come with climate change?
The Earthbound Report 