[Reader-list] Fwd: ZNet After Summer Of Solidarity Climate Actions, Push Begins For An Autumn Of Unity By Peter Rugh

Fri Oct 19 16:05:34 IST 2012

After Summer Of Solidarity Climate Actions, Push Begins For An Autumn Of
Unity

October 19, 2012 By *Peter Rugh*

Peter Rugh's ZSpace
Page<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWwqejxOUzTFczw65YAHq4GogSJ4eMmGvitlxnkiwuSPrID83kvQrc-2FxZQDiMkvfYiQ-3D-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BunJREJUy1-2FB0fvPVTeDtV-2FCZNeTNUA3x3Jm87-2FBks262HehU3cGZAZPXoHe7Diw4e-2FlWj8wWaSOdHEOJBW3DKZfYFWnnVJIUCOgsjq2UAhc-3D>/
ZSpace<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWwqejxOUzTFczw65YAHq4GrCDUxswLSep3PDl641KChV_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2Bw-2F79qhqE-2FBy6f4W38Pz4Fv0EEkNOpHngmTNP3NRO5t9nj2GSO8iWRgsmQzWvYl-2B2kpaMVTFmQ-2Biehl2NG7M8sj46UciehKudNfwglmw41QE-3D>

A hard rain was falling on Monday night as Occupy the Pipeline activists
spread out along New York’s Hudson River Park, in front of the site where
workers in orange day-glow vests have been laboring around the clock on the
New Jersey-New York Expansion Project. Known colloquially by the name of
its builder, Spectra Energy, the Spectra Pipeline will pump fuel
hydraulically-fracked from Pennsylvania’s gas fields into New York
City<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=QUitxPPMKPhJ85sgSMnjjvwiAJx7kueFeCqT-2F930sOS9njLNyjB1-2BpFeZCRw9SICrrTznk9fG4N-2Bag-2BLN1WdxxDX8NuqLTqt4UW7U0KXGZQcZlNwn8HokyPDP1zkRyAy_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2B0TT9OUbRPKYSXUxf-2FAa4BaV9IucPSZpuMGhD6WxRxDENI-2BXH9Bw8t4O7deE3D6mMWIlUp93VsI15oSUYavEB6UKN6aC9uuzHsM6vVZ6ssys-3D>.
The very real risk of explosion along the densely populated regions through
which the pipeline passes have made local residents want nothing to do with
the project, as evidenced by letters submitted to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission during the pipeline’s approval process, when only 22
of the 5,000 letters were in the project’s favor. Nor are even those
thousands of opponents alone; Monday’s action was part of a nationwide day
of actions against fossil fuel infrastructure.****

** **

The Spectra Pipeline is just one of a new breed of high pressure pipeline
being built around the country to expand the gas market to meet the
increasing output of U.S. shale production. According to a filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on October 18, 2011, Spectra Energy
entered into a $1.5 billion revolving credit agreement with the likes of
JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America and
Wells Fargo. Through what’s known as a syndicated loan, Wall Street infused
Spectra with capital and spread the financial risk around, while leaving
the risk of possible
explosion<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKW2ez6LGRbczj5cgLYluupE0swW2Ig3BSHWVBFLUQ5hgE23jx3TSNQAZgs9TZh3KID6C-2ByE5adhXGHZ-2BbDcjRdoClMYoSdifkC2-2BVvkIpcFNoVyzCg7XwXrz-2Bga2qhgI-2FG-2Bj-2Fq866TtvL8EtJA2jJZKY-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BO-2BNYBLYwpPtXMfUCABSm1E1Myz979f-2FneecfacXMZrYrlbr5bgIXO0OT3AihnwIDyO-2FPlURCf-2FakaqKtl78Fx2FjS4DE93x4BdFAwEX9vEA-3D>
for
local residents to bear.****

** **

On Monday, October 15, Occupy the Pipeline activists wrapped themselves in
yellow caution tape as they stood in front of the pipeline construction
site. They had black-and-white skeleton makeup on their faces
— representing, they said, the danger of fossil fuels turning humans into
fossils — which was bleeding down their chins because of the rain. The tape
woven around the bodies of those on the line served as a symbol of
interconnectivity. “We are all connected through a web of toxic pipelines,”
Occupy the Pipeline organizer Monica Hunken cried out through the people’s
microphone, “but we are also connected by a vision for safe and sustainable
world.”****

** **

Seeing their local fight against Spectra as a microcosm of a broader
battle, Occupy the Pipeline put out a
call<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWxc3hzlEaLjrbVCHxXw0e2ZwjmPsMrwf-2BTMDFud8jMOI13MmKycOjYUCoRVlXSgPjQ-3D-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BFPKqWXNv6A6LBKsnCoocueEuuXYP4EWc8TEBzNHPROOivmzsYPftfFdxyzDvW06ypFWKZRofpBA5IsDdF0tVgsU-2ByG0j58AiT-2FtwoRx9vFY-3D>
several
weeks earlier for those opposing America’s fossil fuel beef-up to join them
in a day of action on October 15. In Texas, activists who have been
carrying out direct actions against the Keystone XL didn’t need much
prodding. On #O15, as the date has been called, 50 people stood in the way
of the pipeline that NASA climate scientist James Hansen has told the *New
York Times*
<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWxYVCbYrJYf3po-2FHl1qf8jOxEY7B0Brn4AS0BK1KwJZ8b-2FbAraM6oeUmSQdd5ETZlCZbFL1hW-2BuJJEtH6LmPZIBoECFpD78bQ14FhOF4WVpA_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BvrrX-2Fy9UMQs3-2FR-2FQKoq7BAU7vf3ztcWAIDZMCnot-2BHfmiojSjBP6yx76cWQHskhf1F-2Bm738enWJNsmArkY3pLkcIiNettdsVoeZN4ACGeEo-3D>means
“game over” in the fight against climate change. The Keystone XL is
designed to bring heavy crude oil from a deforested region in Alberta,
Canada, to export markets along America’s Gulf Coast. After over 1,000
people were arrested sitting-in at the White House against the pipeline in
the summer of 2011, and thousands formed a ring around the White House last
November, President Barack Obama announced in January he was nixing
approval of the pipeline until after the 2012 election. Quietly, however,
his administration gave the go-ahead for construction of the XL’s southern
portion.****

** **

During a stump speech in Cushing, Oklahoma — a town known as the “Pipeline
Capital of the World” — Obama disputed claims that he was a softhearted
environmentalist. “We’ve built enough pipeline to encircle the earth and
then some,” he told the Cushing crowd. Writing at *Grist*, shortly after
Obama’s Department of the Interior issued four coal mining leases for the
Powder River Basin in 2011, Glenn Hurowitz summed
up<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWyuntSBdLfiPWyr5HmcUhctyzqogw9kkdShPKjNPkLFCpxI4o5ceOor4iJ76Dhc3v23e2L6DRlNxa1bPiAKhxYgBWxy1LuCzI6SpkwngIaOm_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2Bw-2B7ePj5StX9cDnHSqUXVckXww-2BInLsQoP-2FlBHuTezhdLjuk8WIidajAozKdxfoLoGcc-2Bo7IIDPu2M3zNozJR-2BKeJTj91gXk9y5GIl7h3xxA-3D>
the
president’s “all of the above” energy policy as “effectively using modest
wind and solar investme nts as cover for a broader embrace of dirty fuels.”
It’s a trick straight out of BP or Chevron’s playbook, writes Hurowitz, to
“tout modest environmental investments in multi-million dollar PR
campaigns, while putting the real money into fossil fuel development.” But
these days Obama does not appear to be playing down his enthusiasm for
coal, gas and oil.****

** **

While the United States under Obama’s leadership is deepening its reliance
on fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions have led the climate and the
human race along with it into what Mark Serreze, director of the National
Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC),
calls<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=FhYl27BKUCrLseHlsDw0MnZ4-2Bqc1ysknKHEbYRxffy7gUCwwViRWFbGUb3smgn7SCUKErWlIUsAE20y3BLIeIA-3D-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BuPYdUi9n1S633-2FV2z9y0N10-2B0Wk9iTE-2FphPB8OsRUteonmfuTkJb3C-2BuCrBXYS-2FP6Ch3C42nKDwcouGZmxfP-2B-2Fixv3wmOqWue7oAW3ix7zo-3D>
“uncharted
territory.” Data collected by Serreze and fellow researchers in September
shows that 1.32 million square miles of arctic ice cover withered away over
the summer, more than in any year previously on record. The team had
anticipated a record melt, but the scope of this year’s de-icing far
exceeded its expectations. “While we&rsq uo;ve long known that as the
planet warms up,” reported Serreze, “few of us were prepared for how
rapidly the changes would actually occur.”****

** **

Fortunately for those concerned about the impact of fossil fuels on the
biosphere, opposition to the escalating rate of ecological devastation has
entered “uncharted territory” as well. In what has been termed a “Summer of
Solidarity,” actions against ecological devastation took place in numerous
regions across the United States. As thousands marched in the first
national rally<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=QUitxPPMKPhJ85sgSMnjjvwiAJx7kueFeCqT-2F930sORVTlZHQy-2BR6qbVhkeaZwOtlsGgHLwsfwiBGSisA7zMPA4PHRcqhxoJc27jymQ6F5M-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BXRBUVdrQcXzfsdQ1I-2FXvNcLKxb7v0RlwGu0URBUvkUidTH1wpeeGpL9PiDJRHXaCkWuDHCvjDlbQgJqMU3qIUyC-2FTVKZAvueNJBKuaDoioU-3D>
against
fracking in Washington, D.C., 50 people walke d onto the country’s largest
mountaintop removal
site<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=QUitxPPMKPhJ85sgSMnjjvwiAJx7kueFeCqT-2F930sOQOH7twBO79l2C4DC7-2BGBN8P-2B0VXynCj09j8Qdnm3WlCv02EzIo8z2vY1nQ4Y2yNqTJsaaleNM26v-2FxRDRLc91mzhfuAUdjGaetGZQbV15Mz569EcCSVXtsJJcDBHwB-2Fs5PNEw7cXdT4HXf2paTBcjE_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BrUU3HyzcLDVgOMTCpbGVcEwohG8IaVVSnWUuYOeq7FwPDG86mcmq6X3FaKVV-2F2-2B0ueGH2Zkoiy-2BP3ggxE4JjiyvVdQJAuTa1wJGLIORJzY0-3D>
in
West Virginia and shut it down. Union workers locked
out<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=105kwoYhpdLsgTHIoMlCHDXL6n0pgVlphXnnu5A79QdjNNr-2BrrYuoFhPElsaNkvGQpAiyyyljXTDjxoMSCovHaelSEsI4au1S6AebsWoYfU-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BBiCFyvmUvSfWV-2Fm9Dr9jK8o5SoW8mlZEMLp5ANcmLeYn5brJ5sydg-2BXLZskxhwr0fJ0njasAWE6ocV-2Faf4FllVzm5VcfgmkjwUJ3e4W9Yis-3D>
of
the Pilgrim nuclear plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, picketed beside
environmentalists. In New York, Occupy the Pipeline challenged Spectra
through sit-ins and lockdowns, while Puerto Rican activists battled (and
halted<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=MZLSjzwUiTOgcAHbunvHPjGrC3mfe-2F-2BI9o-2B8iXjKczXc9e0UwksF26eKdwr3nTAdRNo3iOVnS6EkdN2W2RVr-2FWSJ-2FyUC6vfXrdKIEJ2VJPCuKPvkzm6-2BwOKUJB3iAxeFcEVAd-2FFfscFXTq62ynfQ3ENR4nJ7mKcWjfcoeXnky-2Fc-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BsQ1Z-2BtyZowfjwpthg3gWFs7wwNNSbuxwnBnyBmfbeEmAHST0Cuk2hYifovEKvlOZArOYPRW4dNEUewTsIB2I83gbU-2FBVDdQBe0S-2ByQcrfFQ-3D>)
a natural gas pipeline through a campaign in which both islanders and the
mainland diaspora took part. Actions in the United States were inspired by
bold and brazen acts of ecological defiance globally including the occupat
ion<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=kDrHaEU2oydp-2BZWUd3IMJvF4fLF2Tkrm8cloKwTYSXTuSAtNcYJxQzAZNkxjPftkZJt3FQYhTuxpQmugA6Sp9q1vHEIjBYx8Isp6iH3Pv9NwkbeL8pfaypLO3TWqMwH1fJZTkohuRya4-2BEoNMonufQ-3D-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2Bt5F-2FDMSdrzydHcuOKYKXumd5Kr2c3aR5Zo5NGpLlj93bTBqykhdqw0meJw3HETF3R4mqdc-2B-2FBEPLVskADsiMwXLi39MVlx6-2BUFD0K8-2FfVWg-3D>
of
the massive Bela Monte Dam in Brazil’s rainforest by indigenous tribes
amidst the Rio+20 climate conference and a weeklong
blockade<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=QUitxPPMKPhJ85sgSMnjjvwiAJx7kueFeCqT-2F930sOQ4jDv7aSTQ74qszE-2F-2BOw7H9pH6RpajYxJOilYQGHoj0bK6X06k6gndA2iNyBOYgZ9cuK7pm8aey3JufPfj8PsNYzGhCODDXk5eMmxYZ-2FmZTQ-3D-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BrGRbX-2BUJGY-2FrzrhPDSaD4GhaqL4pIpOs3SuaYfg2mXgjf-2BNtAjQEhe0rE3Tz56Oh6YQxRCPqVAeJE4dzQHCFdn1e-2Be7sp7clWR4ks-2BqmbvU-3D>
of
the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia. All the while in Texas,
lockdowns and tree-sits against the XL took off one after another.****

** **

In Massachusetts, where Spectra Energy is attempting to soup
up<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=0dhCBbXFox17kLaiv3f9VLZN-2FrS8-2BSHAQHYulEBI0AC2Trvd1ewrQpNNVeA-2B8u6VbVCP7Bgqrx2nJO-2BgBg-2BCq6Ai1gneQwcOxEuTrQvV3ZLv-2BOfz-2BmsDhNt-2FIPYKLt6IqaRxdM8Df3KMP4S6boBfylpfYjGE5bwzng5kPXaffyY-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2B0NfP7WqdVqIC2ZiFQoPuEiFBQ8gGLcoGW8KTNhdUfqMB-2BSuUQ5aYaTuYxbiV0e4Hcb-2BYCcbGWmLbTicAFWvFgddW9pa-2F-2FQkcahaJW1eESLg-3D>
the
Algonquin Gas Transmission line, activists with 350.org and the Better
Futures Project met the #O15 call with a tree-sit near Boston. They held
banners reading, “TransCanada, You Shall Not Win” and “In Unity With
@KXLBlockade & @occupy_pipeline”.****

** **

“We leave the Summer of Solidarity with friends still sitting in tree tops,
with the direct actions of thousands still reverberating,” Monica Hunken
told the soggy crowd back in New York, “and we enter the Autumn of Unity.”
As the effects of climate change become more acute Hunken expressed hope
that those resisting it will forge stronger ties with one another.****

** **

During Occupy Wall Street’s anniversary weekend in New York, I spoke to Sam
Rubin, an anti-fracking activist from Ohio who was in town to storm the
Stock Exchange. Then, last Sunday, Rubin and comrades blockaded a fracking
site<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=KOdAP3kWbBmLuMIR6KORiwt8pyJVCZPUVaCyvsZ4atYOXIb2X3l-2BWqGbsnCf9VoNQw9X4BhmDRR-2FYtZABMUa3w-3D-3D_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BmQXAz9xsCUzfF-2Fn3nxbQw18D26btg3ixSH-2BMe4xE0LdP1aWQUc8OWiCiGV6Pvt1d1klIj7wtTXB7mILAk2YBct6ZhNp7ToE4D8m5-2BDGKsKI-3D>
in
eastern Ohio, ahead of the #O15 day of action. While in New York last
month, Rubin told me that he hails from an area outside of Cleveland hit
hard by the recession, where U.S. Steel recently reopened a plant for the
first time in two years.****

** **

“For these guys to be coming back to work is a huge deal for them,” Rubin
said. “They are making steal for pipelines to build-up the fracking
infrastructure.” Rubin is part of an emerging breed of environmental
activists who see their ecological activism as part of a broader movement
for social change. As he and other activists draw on the solidarity
fermented over the summer, Rubin said it is import to see their ecological
struggles within the pervasive framework of global capitalism, “a system
based on growth and extraction for profit fundamentally dependent on human
exploitation.”****

** **

“Otherwise” added Rubin, “I’m just some guy in a bubble who only cares
about my little issue.”**  **
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*From:* Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance
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*URL:*
http://www.zcommunications.org/after-summer-of-solidarity-climate-actions-push-begins-for-an-autumn-of-unity-by-peter-rugh<http://email.zsustainers.org/wf/click?upn=xrLDuKs9E-2FW2gJyS-2BCwKWwqejxOUzTFczw65YAHq4GojkChZX1946AngHgkAaLe11laYKY4rIHpLCbOXPX9C09Cpz2F9jQjFPhdUgqB8mA0oayMCnqA9914e5ys8kxABZ0TvOsOe6Fsq-2B-2ByJdFBpuLN8AkP3-2FeorrZCkIcS0hRpLVPM-2BNV-2BBA4i6UAR4X6-2FS_C472wQDpPXtbuwM-2FriJXvzGUu9yrt5eZnENvDsBAqhUvHHsbBkwWC-2F5yhxcWvQt-2BYcNVzB7FyTQd26h0Wd8nt-2F-2FzqlL-2BbILV8RUOqXY5RLEasAnOsHY6D2M5lRXUqJE8safRYLGvOyX8udUEhCox1qVIno5JfnswdUDsPt7825I-3D>