We're going to war at noon eastern today--non-violent war, but a powerful, unified fight against the heart of right-wing power, the fossil fuel industry. We're out to collect half a million emails in 24 hours telling the Senate: back up the president and keep this pipeline dead. It's going to be the most concentrated burst of environmental activism this millennium--and it needs you. If you're ready to go, here's the link
You'll recall that President Obama denied Transcanada its pipeline permit a month ago, after the GOP forced him into an absurd 60-day review of a project that every prominent climate scientist has said is folly. That was brave--it came in the face of a threat from the American Petroleum Institute to exact 'huge political consequences.' It's the high-water mark of the president's relationship with environmentalists.
But this is the zombie project that always lurches back to life, thanks to the life-giving power of fossil fuel money. The oil harem in the House has already decided to attach it to the transportation bill, and there are some observers who think the Senate might follow suit--one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has already broken with the president to back the bill.
So the entire environmental community is locking arms today. I mean, the whole thing--from the corporate friendly Environmental Defense Fund to the corporate unfriendly Rainforest Action Network. I mean, the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation and Green For All and everyone else who's ever tried to save a whale, clean a lake, build a park, find a solar job. But not just them--the rest of the progressive world is joining in too, from the Labor Network for Sustainability to MoveOn, from Credo to Democracy for America, from Public Citizen to the Change.Org. There are faith groups and businesses--a whole list can be found here.
They're all emailing their lists, in hopes that their members will email on to the Senate. And the message is simple: This project stinks. Tapping the tarsands heavily will mean, in James Hansen's words, 'game over for the climate.' The precursor pipeline leaked 12 times in its first year. The oil is for export--and the refineries will get billions in federal subsidies for converting to process this filthy crude. The only study not carried out by Transcanada showed it would kill as many jobs as it would create--at best, 3,000 two-year jobs.
Or, if you lean more to politics than to physics and chemistry: don't screw the president. He's done a brave thing. Get his back. Again, here's the link. And please--spread the word. You guys know how to do this better than I do.
We've spent our bodies in this fight--I spent three days in jail, along with 1253 other people in the biggest civil disobedience action in 30 years. We've spent our energy--we surrounded the White House 5 deep, shoulder to shoulder, with wonderful activists. Today we spend every pixel and keystroke we can beg. Thank you in advance.
p.s.--I'll either update this diary, if it's on the rec list, or write some new ones from time to time to let people know how the effort is going.
9:55 AM PT: First hour report: so many people responded at 350.org/kxl that we...crashed the server. But only for two minutes. A problem worth having. Meanwhile, OWS has gone out to their main list. We've seen NRDC, MoveOn, and many many others putting out big mailings already. 500,000 is a lot--but we're trying, dammit!
10:36 AM PT: 1 hour in, and we went past the 100k email mark. People are amazing
12:43 PM PT: We're closing in on 300k emails. John Cusack, Al Gore, Kyra Sedgwick hjave weighed in. But so have 299,997 non-celebrities. I think we may bust right past half a million. thanks so much to all who are helping
2:15 PM PT: Bernie Sanders weighs in, reminding everyone to write their senators about this! And we're going past 350k messages to the senate as i speak
7:29 PM PT: I missed a few hours here, because I was taping Colbert for tonight. (Survived dignity more or less intact, and am breathing much easier now). Here's the thing: while I was waiting to go on we passed the 500k mark--at 6 hours and 54 minutes. So we're going to keep going. And tomorrow we're going to try and generate some phone calls too. And right now I'm going to sleep, full of thanks for all of you who joined in. Unity is a wonderful thing
Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 6:45 AM PT: Okay, we're coming into the morning with 672,000 messages. We'll be delivering boxes full of jump drives to Senate offices this afternoon. But in the meantime, we're going to be asking people to call offices as well. If you know your Senator's number, go to work; if not, check at 350.org for a list. And everyone should call Harry Reid at 202-224-3542. The message is: this is the issue for environmentalists, the one thing that's brought folks out into the streets and energized the green base