News update by Ryan Maue
Update: The jails were emptied Monday morning. Also, Daryl Hannah has announced that she is heading to the White House oil-sands protest.
Update: New York Times editorial page comes out for against the Tar Sands Pipeline. However, their language sounds half hearted, and they seem to be checking a box knowing that inevitably the pipeline will go forward regardless of it’s carbon footprint, or something.
The Tar Sands protest organized by Bill McKibben has hit an unexpected snag: the US Park police have cracked down on the protesters. Instead of a simple “traffic ticket” type of arrest and release with a few hours in jail, many climate activists were stunned to learn that their “civil disobedience” may keep them behind bars for at least 48-hours until arraignment [Link to Grist.com lament].
Meanwhile, President Obama is managing the end of Gaddafi in Libya from his beautiful luxury vacation spot in Martha’s Vineyard. With Janet Napolitano always talking about the threats from domestic extremism typically orchestrated by environmental or “green” groups, one has to wonder if the US Parks police in the Capitol are sending a warning message by locking up the protestors for a good spell.
When Obama approves the pipeline and slaps these “true believers” in the face again, will they desert him for another candidate in the upcoming election? Nah.
More pictures of the “protest” including McKibben hauled away in handcuffs here at the Puffington Host. Please try and refrain from mocking these people as hippies or 70s retreads.
Also, has anyone heard if this upstart climate scientist (apparently the only academic currently employed as a professor “descending” on Washington) will still come — and will he risk being arrested?
Climate scientist willing to face arrest at tar sands pipeline protest
Climate scientist Jason Box says oil sands are a moral issue that he feels compelled to address at Keystone XL pipeline protests — UK Guardian
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The Problem, PaulH, is that these “dosile” protesters get the message through that “The West is an Evil, planet destroying system”, and “your parents are to blame”. Which leads to some mal-adjusted lunatic translating that into “lets wreck the joint”.
I just wish Bam would let us all in on the secret technology that allows his twin Darth Vader buses (and the accompanying 40-vehicle entourage trailing them) to run on leprechaun sweat and pixie dust instead of evil, evil oil. Then we wouldn’t need derricks or pipelines or cracking columns, and we could all dance naked around the non-carbon-emitting bonfire drinking cruelty-free wheatgrass juice and singing kumbaya.
I’m glad you all enjoy one another. I am very concerned about Global Warming and wish you were too. We all live on this planet together. The people in the photo look like regular Americans to me. The difference between them and you is that they have figured out that tar sands oil piped into the U.S. will increase the risk of environmental damage in the event of pipe rupture and burning this dirty fuel will increase carbon in the atmosphere to a point of no return. Alternatives create jobs and need our support.
“Maria says:
August 21, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Are you all completely mad? Or perhaps none of you have children? Otherwise, why would you be suggesting that these people should not be protesting? They are trying to prevent uncontrolled climate change from going forward by suggesting that continuing to develop ways to burn fossil fuels is insane. Get a grip, read NASA Chief Scientist James Hansen’s book ‘Storms of my grandchildren,’ and be informed before you talk this rubbish.”
ROFLMAO! But you forgot the /sarc tag
Chris,
I see that we’re facing a major educational challenge with you…
These people are so deluded there is simply no hope in trying to educate them. Spending the weekend in jail won’t help. Fining them the cost of policing them won’t help,
@ur momisugly Chris says:
August 21, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Chris are you perhaps related to Maria? Or maybe you are Maria? Read my comments to her. They also pertain to you.
Quite sad to see the nasty comments from the bigots here. So we agree that man-made climate change is a myth. Why does that mean that land stripping (which will includes “eminent domain” stripping of privately-owned land) should be blindly supported? Sure, some fuel sources are okay, but some are not. Do we want oil wells and oil spills in national parks? I don’t think so. Anthony, I am disappointed that you posted this and seem to want people to make obnoxious bigoted comments about these earnest people They may have the wrong end of the stick, but demeaning them is not the correct way to respond. And I thought that free-speech, the right to protest without violence and the right not to be jailed arbitrarily were core values of the enlightened educated peoples of the world. Apparently not.
Maria
So what? I have to drive back and forth to work, to softball tournaments, the movie theater, etc. In other words, to live my life. It takes oil to do this. I don’t want to be a hunter gatherer (for survival, although I enjoy the hell out of driving my 4×4 out to my favorite spot, unloading my 4 wheeler and driving it to my tree stand and sitting there watching nature walk by, until my target appears).
1) Curiousgeorge is correct. 2) Canada is the largest exporter of energy to the U.S. 3) The largest investors in Canada’s oil sands are U.S. based energy companies. 4) North America is laced with many thousands of miles ( or kilometers ) of oil and gas pipelines that operate with safety and efficiency records that would be the envy of any airline. 5) China will be more than happy to import any and all oil that Canada can provide. 6) These protesters are funny!
Chris;
alternates create subsidized jobs at the cost of 2-4 self-financed private sector jobs each.
Why is this a good idea?
P.S. alternates provide trivial amounts of power, and almost no “base load” or dispatchable power that matches demand on demand. At nosebleed prices (plus LOTS of real estate, which it devastates).
Why is this a good idea?
Thank goodness Jim Jones is dead. Judging by the looks on their faces, if he were to walk by with a pitcher of Kool-Aid, everyone of them would have taken a drink.
Moira, that was really unfair. Now I’ve started humming Sound of Music songs.
mike g,
Yep. Green Kool Aid.
Chris says:
The people in the photo look like regular Americans to me.
But do they look like thousands of regular Americans.
The point is kind of moot because the Puffho admits they’re climate activists, so they’re not regular Americans like you and me.
Ultimately, these protesters against Canadian oil would prefer that we buy our oil from some of the most wretched regimes in history like, Sudan, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. Complete fools, all of them.
Heart. Cockles. Warm.
Oh, yes, and sorry, Ryan, but major mockage. 😀
Actually this is a pretty lame protest. They didn’t even chain themselves together.
“We don’t need your sympathy, we need your company” (quoting Mr. McKibben).
“And bail money.”
**Snork**
Besides that, these people are running a con game. Ostensibly they protest a pipeline from Canada, but their true agenda is to stop the oil fracking process from eventually being used in Utah and Colorado.
Hidden agendas don’t speak well of people pretending to care about the future.
These look like a nice bunch of respectable citizens. And they certainly have a right to their opinions and to peaceful protest. Gloating over seeing people like these locked up is distasteful. This debate will eventually be won only when most of these people have been persuaded to change their minds.
CO2HOG™ says:
August 21, 2011 at 4:26 pm
Haha…
================
Drat. That was the first thing that came to my mind…
@Surfer Dave. Over 20% of US oil comes from Canada. Almost half of Canadian oil is from oil sands. So go ahead and stop using Canadian oil. And if these people believe in their cause, 48 hrs won’t slow them down. By the way they aren’t protesters, they are activists. That is why they were stunned to find out that protesting is more than a parking ticket. And people who blog sarcastic comments aren’t automatically bigots. They are merely exercising their right to free speech.
I wonder how many of them flew or drove to Washington? Hell, even if they hitchhiked, they could be accused of supporting the internal combustion engine. 😉
They also now have celebrities Margot Kidder and Mark Ruffalo praising their actions, yet none of these armchair activists appear to be willing to let themselves be arrested.
Why is it that when in politics, when a politician promises actions and then waffles or doesn’t act, the politician is chastised, yet in matters like this,not having any evidence or actions to back up your words seems to be the norm?
Last I checked, when I’m supporting a point or opinion, I’m more then happy to show the information backing my claim. These guys aren’t.
Doubftul the jail food is organic… they’ll probably sue!
It does seem odd to arrest protesters for 48 hrs especially on the first day of a 15 day protest.
From the link to Grist.com…
…after arresting the first day’s 70 people, they decided to hold most of them, all those not from within a 25-mile radius of Washington, D.C., in jail until a Monday afternoon arraignment. This works out to 48 or more hours in jail before being released.
=======================================
This to me seems like an attempt at crowd control for the following days, especially for those out-of-town activists who may think twice. Organizations can pay parking tickets but can’t sub-in for a 2-day prison term.