Acting Against Coal in the Northwest
From 350.org:
The climate movement just had an inspiring weekend - and later this month, we'll be carrying that inspiration with us to Montana. Here's what happened last Saturday:
In Washington, DC thousands of people marched together to call for an end to the dangerous oil and gas drilling technique known as hydrofracking - the largest action against fracking in the US, and the first time anti-fracking activists met as a national movement.
As they marched through DC, a big group of Texans and Oklahomans were meeting to train and prepare for the Tar Sands Blockade, a planned action to stop construction of the Southern Leg of the Keystone XL pipeline when it begins later this summer. (Click here if you'd like to join the blockade, which will start soon)
And then in West Virginia, 50 people walked on to America's largest mountaintop removal coal mine, and shut it down - just like that. The activists were risking not only arrest, but the backlash of the corrupt West Virginia government, which has let 20 of them languish in jail with bail set at a total of $500,000.
These are all sure signs of a growing, more powerful movement. As Bill McKibben explained in his Rolling Stone article, if we're going to beat the scary math of climate change, we will need an extra dose of courage and creativity. The climate math is grim, but this weekend was a bright spot. We might just be up to the challenge.
There's more to come soon, too.
In just a few weeks, our friends in Montana are preparing for a week of very civil disobedience to call for the Montana State Land Board to reject a permit for a city-sized coal mine in the Powder River Basin. The coal industry poisons everything and everyone it touches, from mine communities sickened by runoff, to rail lines that blow 5 pounds of toxic coal dust per mile, to everyone affected by smog, mercury and carbon when it's burned.
The Coal Export Action, which takes place from August 12th-20th in Helena, is trying to keep Montana coal in the ground where it can't hurt anyone. Montana is a trek for many of us, but it's a worthwhile journey -- few fights in North America are so important, when it comes to overall carbon footprint of the projects we're trying to fight. Can you be there in Helena to take a stand against King Coal's coal export plan?
Click here to join the Coal Export Action in Montana - coalexportaction.org/join/
This is on pace to be one of the hottest (if not THE hottest) summer in American history. Let's keep up our pace as well, and make this a summer the fossil fuel industry won't forget.
