Full announcement from Pledge of Resistance:
Over three hundred people in WNC have signed a pledge to engage in nonviolent arrestible actions if President Obama approves the Keystone XL pipeline. This is part of the national Pledge of Resistance campaign organized by Rainforest Action Network, CREDO and the Other 98%, in which over 75,000 people have pledged similar activities which will take place in communities all over the country.
The first part of this campaign locally is trainings of potential participants. We did one training before Thanksgiving. The next one will be done at Warren Wilson College on Saturday, December 14.
On December 17, many of us will march from Pritchard Park to the Federal Building and the Courthouse and inform the US Attorneys there, as well as the Building Managers and employees, that in the event the KXL is approved, we will return to nonviolently disrupt business as usual.
The last part of the campaign will happen only if the US government recommends that KXL be approved. At that time we will return and actually perform nonviolent civil disobedience.
Both locally and nationally we are being completely open and public about our plans because we want local officials and President Obama to know that there are tens of thousands of people across the country who take the issue of climate change seriously enough to risk arrest to stop it now.
Locally and elsewhere this campaign includes both seasoned activists, some of whom have been arrested multiple times challenging KXL, and also people who have never engaged in protest activities of any kind before.
All of us are concerned that if KXL is approved, climate change will become catastrophic for our children and grandchildren. So drastic action must be taken to head it off.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.