How cool would this be? From Mark Hertsgaard via Alternet:
Fresh from winning the Nobel peace prize for his climate change evangelism, Al Gore is apparently considering an invitation from a prominent environmental group to engage in civil disobedience against the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Rainforest Action Network issued the invitation to the former U.S. vice president, according to RAN executive director Michael Brune. The San Francisco-based group has a twenty year history of protesting against destructive logging practices and other causes of climate change; it specializes in targeting corporations as much as governments.
The king of Eco-Geekery, my friend Brian (a.k.a. brianfit here at dailyKos), blogged "Good on Gore: going all Gandhi" a while back, telling us about Gore's comment "I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers, and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants,".
More from Hertsgaard:
If Gore did end up getting arrested during a protest against coal-fired power plant, it would make front page news throughout the world and put a spotlight on what some climate scientists and activists consider the single most important priority in the fight against climate change: halting the use of coal as the world's top source of electricity production.
And that's exactly right. I'm only a fledgling activist with Greenpeace (I've only done 5 actions with Greenpeace, two of them being coal actions - just call me Crane Girl), but even I know that the whole goal of doing actions is to bring attention to the issue, not to get arrested... and of course, since these actions are nonviolent civil disobedience, you're going to get arrested. It's a consequence. Not the goal.
And just like Greenpeace, Gore has been working with governments around the world to effect change, and get them to act to slow down climate change. But sometimes, urgent issues require putting exclamation points on the negotiations with governments, and that's exactly what creative direct action groups do.
So, I hope Gore goes for it. I'm trying to imagine being chained to something with him. "Hey, Mr. Vice President... er, President, want an energy bar?"
Thanks, Al, for all you're doing. You've been phenomenal.