It's crazy to think how the summer is almost over – and crazier still to think how this movement is on the edge of making history.
This Saturday begins a two week wave of peaceful sit-ins at the White House gates, with over 2,000 courageous people coming from across the US & Canada, to let President Obama know that our future is more important than oil profits. Specifically, these folks will be calling for the President to block the fossil fuel industry from snaking a 2,000-plus mile pipeline across the heart of America all the way from northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico, in order to find an escape route for Canada's Tar Sands oil deposits (aka "North America's biggest carbon bomb").
As the Guardian recently put it: this will be “the largest act of civil disobedience for the climate in US history.” And if you're less into the Guardian and say, more into Variety, Hollywood stars like Danny Glover, John Cusack, Sophia Bush, and Mark Ruffalo, are leaning in too. It seems fair to say this is about to get big.
While 350.org isn't organizing this action, we want to help 350 supporters from around the globe share your support and solidarity with the many brave folks who are participating. Many people will be traveling far from home, and are taking this journey alone. And the great majority — mothers, grandfathers, teachers, farmers, college students, climate scientists, you name it — will be risking arrest for the first time. That's a daunting, scary experience for most anyone.
We've been told by the DC coordinators that over the two weeks of action, activists will first be training and preparing in church basements in Washington DC, where they'll have a projector set up. To show them that they have the whole climate movement behind them, we're sending photos with messages of support to participants in the action. The photos will be projected on the walls of the training spaces for everyone who is sitting-in to see.
To send your message of support:
- Take a pen or marker (or crayons!) and write a personal message of support
- Hold up the message and snap a picture (a cell phone camera will do)
- Email your photo as an attachment to [email protected]. Put "Tar Sands Action Solidarity from (*Wherever you live*)" in the Subject. And if you'd like, elaborate on your message in the Body of the email.
Whether you're from Alberta, Montana, or the Maldives, — you're invited to send your messages of support, and we'll make sure they're projected on the workshop walls. Like athletes walking through rows of cheering fans to prepare for victory, your lovely faces and messages will be what these folks will see the evening before they step forward to protect our future. We'll also work to pop these images all over Facebook, Twitter, and likely a a bunch will be spotlighted on TarSandsAction.org.
Thanks for giving this some thought — expect more updates as things start to really unfold!
UPDATE: Over 200 beautiful and moving photos have arrived from across the US and the world, check some of them out here — with more arriving daily!