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dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/11/my-act-love-climate-activists-shut-down-all-us-canada-tar-sands-pipelines">http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/11/my-act-love-climate-activists-shut-down-all-us-canada-tar-sands-pipelines</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">'This Is My Act of Love': Climate
Activists Shut Down All US-Canada Tar Sands Pipelines</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by Lauren McCauley -
October 11, 2016<br>
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<p>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 <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/tag/dakota-access-pipeline">Dakota
Access pipeline</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The activists, who planned the action to coincide with
the<a
href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1491838244176656/?active_tab=highlights">
International Days of Prayer and Action With Standing
Rock</a>, <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2016/10/11/avert-climate-catastrophe-activists-shut-down-5-pipelines-bringing-tar-sands-oil">expressed</a>
feeling "duty bound to halt the extraction and
combustion of fossil fuels...in the absence of any
political leadership" to address the <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/30/forget-paris-scientists-say-radical-change-only-way-stay-below-2-degrees">withering
goal </a>of keeping global temperature increase
beneath the 2°C climate threshold.</p>
<p>"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 <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/climatedirectaction/photos/a.1773788169537390.1073741828.1771128489803358/1773831782866362/?type=3">arrested
</a>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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>The action comes two days after a U.S. federal court of
appeals <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/10/court-rejects-dakota-access-injunction-standing-rock-sioux-vow-not-end">lifted
</a>an injunction on the Dakota Access project, to the<a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/10/after-court-lifts-injunction-government-once-again-calls-voluntary-halt-dakota">
dismay</a> of the Indigenous water protectors and
their supporters across the U.S. and Canada.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>The activists are all members of the group Climate
Direct Action, which is providing <a
href="http://www.shutitdown.today/liveupdates">live
updates</a> on the coordinated shut-downs on its
website and <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/climatedirectaction/">Facebook
page</a>. Others shared statements in support, as well
as images and videos of the actions on social media with
the hashtag <a
href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23ShutItDown&src=typd">#shutitdown</a>.</p>
<p>Tim DeChristopher's Climate Disobedience Action Fund is
also supporting the action and has set up a<a
href="https://actionfund-climatedisobedience.nationbuilder.com/donate">
legal fund</a> for the activists' defense.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Watch <a
href="https://twitter.com/wardken">@wardken</a> cut
chain locking Tar Sands pipeline shut off valve. Yes,
Ken <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SHUTITDOWN?src=hash">#SHUTITDOWN</a>!
Full video at <a href="https://t.co/ACSPQSSTmT">https://t.co/ACSPQSSTmT</a>
<a href="https://t.co/dVAxoGSSgU">pic.twitter.com/dVAxoGSSgU</a></p>
<p>— Climate Social (@ClimateSocial) <a
href="https://twitter.com/ClimateSocial/status/785869913760169984">October
11, 2016</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">BREAKING NEWS: All tar sands oil
crossing the Canada/US Border shut down by 5 brave
activists. <a href="https://t.co/ww0e6Cq03Y">https://t.co/ww0e6Cq03Y</a>
<a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutItDown?src=hash">#ShutItDown</a>
<a href="https://t.co/qLHBEDy7pK">pic.twitter.com/qLHBEDy7pK</a></p>
<p>— Cascadia Climate (@cascadiaclimate) <a
href="https://twitter.com/cascadiaclimate/status/785872443118264320">October
11, 2016</a></p>
</blockquote>
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