In October, five environmental activists cut chains and closed emergency shutoff valves on five major pipelines bringing tar soils oil from Alberta, Canada, to the United States. The valve-turners were arrested and charged with felonies carrying potential penalties including decades in prison and tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
Closing the valves did not endanger anyone. But it did temporarily stop the flow of dirty oil. It also helped dramatize the struggle against climate change and the call for nonviolent, direct action.
The activists _ Annette Klapstein, Emily Johnston, Leonard Higgins, Michael Foster and Ken Ward _ knew the risk they ran. Yet they openly filmed and livestreamed their actions. (Journalists, filmmakers and supporters on hand were arrested and charged, too.)
In an open letter to President Barack Obama, the valve-turners called for an emergency national mobilization to shut down the tar sands pipelines, rapidly phase out coal and tar-sands oil extraction, transition to renewable energy sources, and remove atmospheric carbon dioxide through biological sequestration.
"If you take no action," they wrote, "you will have presided over the collapse of civilization."
With the administration of President Donald Trump now in place and moving to expedite fossil fuel projects, global average temperatures are continuing to escalate rapidly. Extreme drought and heat are slashing food and water supplies, driving millions of climate refugees from their homes in the Middle East and Africa, including countries from which Trump recently attempted to ban immigration.
"We are methodically, with full awareness, and in the presence of acceptable alternatives, destroying the conditions which allow the wild riot of diverse life on the planet and have made civilization possible," valve-turner Ken Ward wrote.
The valve-turners and their supporters, whom I know through my work as a climate change activist, will all plead not guilty at their trials.
Ward was the first to face trial. In January, before a jury in Skagit Superior Court in Washington state, he argued that after decades of unsuccessful efforts to stop global warming through polite, legal means, his action was necessary and justified.
The judge, Michael Rickert, disallowed Ward's "necessity defense," since, he said, "there's tremendous controversy over ... whether (climate change) even exists."
Ward still managed to get enough of his point across that on Feb. 1 his trial ended in a hung jury. He will be retried. Trials of the other valve-turners and their supporters will follow.
The valve-turners acted to rally the public and resist the assault on the biosphere. As Emily Johnston said, "My love for the beauties of this world is far greater than my love of an easy life. If others feel the same way, there's hope for us yet." As Ward's hung jury suggests, others do feel the same way.
My group is planning a march on the Federal Building in San Diego on Feb. 21 calling for a national mobilization to transition off fossil fuels and on to wind, water and sun energy at wartime speed.
The hour is late, but we're not alone, and the fight is on.
