Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben Call for Mass Civil Disobedience Against Coal

This is an open letter released today from Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben:

Dear Friends,

There are moments in a nation's--and a planet's--history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived, and we are writing to say that we hope some of you will join us in Washington D.C. on Monday March 2 in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill.

We will be there to make several points:

- Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA's James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level--below 350 parts per million co2--lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity.

- Even if climate change were not the urgent crisis that it is, we would still be burning our fossil fuels too fast, wasting too much energy and releasing too much poison into the air and water. We would still need to slow down, and to restore thrift to its old place as an economic virtue.

- Coal is filthy at its source. Much of the coal used in this country comes from West Virginia and Kentucky, where companies engage in "mountaintop removal" to get at the stuff; they leave behind a leveled wasteland, and impoverished human communities. No technology better exemplifies the out-of-control relationship between humans and the rest of creation.

- Coal smoke makes children sick. Asthma rates in urban areas near coal-fired power plants are high. Air pollution from burning coal is harmful to the health of grown-ups too, and to the health of everything that breathes, including forests.

The industry claim that there is something called "clean coal" is, put simply, a lie. But it's a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don't come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It's time to make clear that we can't safely run this planet on coal at all. So we feel the time has come to do more--we hear President Barack Obama's call for a movement for change that continues past election day, and we hear Nobel Laureate Al Gore's call for creative non-violence outside coal plants. As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming, our nation will be asking China, India, and others to limit their use of coal in the future to help save the planet's atmosphere. This is a hard thing to ask, because it's their cheapest fuel. Part of our witness in March will be to say that we're willing to make some sacrifices ourselves, even if it's only a trip to the jail.

With any luck, this will be the largest such protest yet, large enough that it may provide a real spark. If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant.

We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested. After that we have no certainty what will happen, but lawyers and such will be on hand. Our goal is not to shut the plant down for the day--it is but one of many, and anyway its operation for a day is not the point. The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it.

Needless to say, we're not handling the logistics of this day. All the credit goes to a variety of groups, especially EnergyAction (which is bringing thousands of young people to Washington that weekend), Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society, and Rainforest Action Network. A website at that latter organization is serving as a temporary organizing hub. If you go there, you will find a place to leave your name so that we'll know you want to join us.

Thank you,

Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben

P.S.--This is important: Please forward this letter to anyone and everyone you think might be interested.

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Comments

[David Lewis]

The technology hasn't been deployed full scale because the coal industry wants to stop it because it will cost them money.

Its worth civil disobedience to call for the coal industry to stop opposing the carbon tax or price on carbon that will simultaneously enable carbon capture on any coal plants that still prove to be economical as well as enabling more rapid development of renewables, but no, let's hammer away at the entire coal industry saying it has to be shut down, which puts you in the position of having to campaign against a pollution control technology by distorting what is known about it, instead of campaigning for implementing it.

It isn't just an American issue. Coal is what China and India are basing their development on. Many reputable scientific organizations call for the rapid deployment of carbon capture and the transfer of this technology to the developing world as a significant part of any strategy civilization could have of limiting the damage of climate change.

[David Lewis]

If you are actually interested in what James Hansen says here is a quote from an email he started circulating November 21 2008 entitled Tell Barack Obama the Truth:

“The only solution is to target a (large) portion of the fossil fuel reserves to be left in the ground or used in a way such that the CO2 can be captured and safely sequestered.”

which doesn't say we should stop using coal to generate electricity. It says if we are going to use it or any other fossil fuel, capture the CO2 and sequester it.

But no, you say this is not possible. It is in fact, "a lie". You cherry pick what you want to hear in what Hansen says, just as if you were climate deniers who do the same thing with truth they don't want to hear.

Try reading what the IPCC, MIT, UNDP, IAC etc have to say. That would be the IPCC Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage, the MIT The Future of Coal report, the UNDP Avoiding dangerous climate change: strategies for mitigation study, the IAC Lighting the Way study.

[JuniorNorman]

Here in New Hampster Bow Station Coal Burning Plant. 150 MILLION to install scrubbers turned into 280 MILLION+ The execs new they could replace it with 2 wood fired plants. But instead they gave themselves bonuses and kept the mercury polluter open!

LEGALIZE HEMP we could cut diesel truck carbon in half in 5 years!
And let farmers run their tractors on homegrown fuel.

[marlovian]

Guess you'll be parking your Prius as part of the protest? (Sorry, I'm just a victim of unintended alliteration.)

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

You want to engage in effective anti-coal activities? I mean really effective? Put in better storm windows. Put duct tape over the leaky back porch door and use the front door this winter. Get a 'smart' thermostat.
Chaining yourself to the generating plant is irrelevant if you left the lights and the TV on back home.
WE'RE the evil wicked power companies are burning all that coal for ,remember...?