[News] 'This Is My Act of Love': Climate Activists Shut Down All US-Canada Tar Sands Pipelines

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/11/my-act-love-climate-activists-shut-down-all-us-canada-tar-sands-pipelines 



  'This Is My Act of Love': Climate Activists Shut Down All US-Canada
  Tar Sands Pipelines

by Lauren McCauley - October 11, 2016

Five activists shut down all the tar sands pipelines crossing the 
Canada-U.S. border Tuesday morning, in a bold, coordinated show of 
climate resistance amid the ongoing fight against the Dakota Access 
pipeline <http://www.commondreams.org/tag/dakota-access-pipeline>.

The activists employed manual safety valves to shut down Enbridge's line 
4 and 67 in Leonard, Minnesota; TransCanada's Keystone pipeline in 
Walhalla, North Dakota; Spectra Energy's Express pipeline in Coal Banks 
Landing, Montana; and Kinder-Morgan's Trans-Mountain pipeline in 
Anacortes, Washington.

The activists, who planned the action to coincide with theInternational 
Days of Prayer and Action With Standing Rock 
<https://www.facebook.com/events/1491838244176656/?active_tab=highlights>, 
expressed 
<http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2016/10/11/avert-climate-catastrophe-activists-shut-down-5-pipelines-bringing-tar-sands-oil> 
feeling "duty bound to halt the extraction and combustion of fossil 
fuels...in the absence of any political leadership" to address the 
withering goal 
<http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/30/forget-paris-scientists-say-radical-change-only-way-stay-below-2-degrees>of 
keeping global temperature increase beneath the 2°C climate threshold.

"I have signed hundreds of petitions, testified at dozens of hearings, 
met with most of my political representatives at every level, to very 
little avail," said 64-year-old mother Annette Klapstein of Bainbridge 
Island, Washington, who was arrested 
<https://www.facebook.com/climatedirectaction/photos/a.1773788169537390.1073741828.1771128489803358/1773831782866362/?type=3>just 
before publication. "I have come to believe that our current economic 
and political system is a death sentence to life on earth, and that I 
must do everything in my power to replace these systems with 
cooperative, just, equitable and love-centered ways of living together. 
This is my act of love."

Fifty-nine-year-old Ken Ward of Corbette, Oregon, who was also arrested, 
said, "There is no plan of action, policy or strategy being advanced now 
by any political leader or environmental organization playing by the 
rules that does anything but acquiesce to ruin. Our only hope is to step 
outside polite conversation and put our bodies in the way. We must shut 
it down, starting with the most immediate threats—oil sands fuels and coal."

The action comes two days after a U.S. federal court of appeals lifted 
<http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/10/court-rejects-dakota-access-injunction-standing-rock-sioux-vow-not-end>an 
injunction on the Dakota Access project, to thedismay 
<http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/10/after-court-lifts-injunction-government-once-again-calls-voluntary-halt-dakota> 
of the Indigenous water protectors and their supporters across the U.S. 
and Canada.

"Because of the climate change emergency, because governments and 
corporations have for decades increased fossil fuel extraction and 
carbon emissions when instead we must dramatically reduce carbon 
emissions; I am committed to the moral necessity of participating in 
nonviolent direct action to protect life," added activist Leonard 
Higgins, 64, from Eugene, Oregon.

The activists are all members of the group Climate Direct Action, which 
is providing live updates <http://www.shutitdown.today/liveupdates> on 
the coordinated shut-downs on its website and Facebook page 
<https://www.facebook.com/climatedirectaction/>. Others shared 
statements in support, as well as images and videos of the actions on 
social media with the hashtag #shutitdown 
<https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23ShutItDown&src=typd>.

Tim DeChristopher's Climate Disobedience Action Fund is also supporting 
the action and has set up alegal fund 
<https://actionfund-climatedisobedience.nationbuilder.com/donate> for 
the activists' defense.

    Watch @wardken <https://twitter.com/wardken> cut chain locking Tar
    Sands pipeline shut off valve. Yes, Ken #SHUTITDOWN
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/SHUTITDOWN?src=hash>! Full video at
    https://t.co/ACSPQSSTmT pic.twitter.com/dVAxoGSSgU
    <https://t.co/dVAxoGSSgU>

    — Climate Social (@ClimateSocial) October 11, 2016
    <https://twitter.com/ClimateSocial/status/785869913760169984>

    BREAKING NEWS: All tar sands oil crossing the Canada/US Border shut
    down by 5 brave activists. https://t.co/ww0e6Cq03Y #ShutItDown
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutItDown?src=hash>
    pic.twitter.com/qLHBEDy7pK <https://t.co/qLHBEDy7pK>

    — Cascadia Climate (@cascadiaclimate) October 11, 2016
    <https://twitter.com/cascadiaclimate/status/785872443118264320>

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