I’m writing to you, Senator #nokxl
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under united states
Senator Durbin:
This is not a form letter. You and I have shaken hands plenty; for a while we were on a first-name basis when I was a political reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. How many times did I tour the Metro East with you? How many times was I there at town hall meetings in the Collinsville City Council chambers or Edwardsville or Granite City?
Today, I am in graduate school here in D.C. studying environmental policy. I’m an activist. I was arrested for protesting in front of the White House in September. I’m a scholar. I research natural resource policy, environmental degradation and sustainable development.
I’m asking you as a professional acquaintance, as someone who listened for a long time to the political concerns of southern Illinoisans, as a worried citizen and as a registered Illinois voter (my permanent address is in Champaign) to do all you can to stop GOP factions and Big Oil special interests from resurrecting the Keystone XL pipeline.
If you and your allies in the Senate take the time to talk straight to Americans (whatever the hell Fox News thinks), they will listen. If you take a moral stand, you’ll be doing the right thing (whatever the hell the Tea Party thinks).
And if you need help that I can provide, contact me.
There’s so much more we could be doing to invigorate our economy and protect this planet. Think about green jobs in a renewable energy economy. Think solar and offshore wind and green infrastructure. Think better quality of living and public health. Think natural splendor that warms heart and soul.
But if we instead take the cheap (actually more costly) and dirty (yes, really, really dirty) way of burning tar sands, we become that much more path dependent on oil. That’s game over for our planet.
I’ve heard you tell me directly about how Washington needs change, how it’s beholden to special interests, how our government needs bold action.
I say to you, lead the charge.
Adam Jadhav
Tags: activism, conservation, dick durbin, energy, environment, illinois, keystone xl, oil, pipeline, politics, protest
People against pipelines… for the win!
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under united states
Yes we can!
Activists and ordinary people across the country claimed a victory yesterday as the Obama administration has postponed a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, pending further reassessment of the economic benefits and untold environmental consequences.
In case, you’re wondering, this is kind of a big deal.
I’ll try to keep it short: Oil industry folks — and some construction companies looking for temporary jobs — were very excited about laying a long pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, to make extraction of crude oil found in Alberta tar sands easier. Their argument: This brings more oil from a friendly source to the U.S. and would create jobs in the United States.
Those claims are at best specious and they ignore the serious harm the world would get in the bargain.
Let’s start with the “friendly energy” concept. Oil is a global commodity; prices are determined largely by world demand. Lower prices in the U.S. are not due to some charity or good will from our suppliers.
And this wouldn’t somehow supply the U.S. better. Some have actually argued the opposite, that the pipeline would make the export of the oil to the world market even easier. Plus, independent resource economists who have looked seriously at the “dependence on foreign oil” argument generally agree that price shocks from unfriendly sources are almost always smoothed by increased supply from other sources. If a country that doesn’t like us withholds, the price might rise briefly and another country will invariably give in and fill supply.
(In case you’re wondering, Cananda at present is the biggest supplier of the U.S., but that doesn’t mean we get drastically lower prices because Canucks like us so. Our discounts at the pump are largely thanks to the awesome [sarcasm] subsidies our government offers oil companies.)
Then there’s the jobs question. The U.S. economy is hurting, certainly, and proponents say the pipeline would create somewhere around 20,000 jobs. Not 20,000 permanent jobs, mind you. About 13,000 of those are job-years in construction. So maybe 6,500 one year, 6,500 another. The remainder of 7,000 is an equally dubious proposition, as it refers to secondary supply chain effects, some of which are unlikely as materials are already purchased or sourced.
So, in reality, we get just a temporary bump and then it’s back to unemployment. I’m oversimplifying, but that’s not structural economic change that leads to lasting work or better standards of living. We need a true green employment revolution, in public transport, eco-friendly energy, clean (slow) food, retooling our infrastructure across the country.
And we need an ethical change that decouples happiness and standards of living from over-consumptive growth dependent on materials (in this case, carbon).
In short, more love and bikes.
Meanwhile, the tar sands crude extraction process rips holes in the earth that are visible from space. This is the less-than-easily accessible oil; extraction is itself more energy and input intense, creating vast lakes of toxic water and vast swaths of razed forest. Due to the nature of this oil, using tar sands crude releases drastically more carbon dioxide, our not-so-friendly climate change gas. This quote has been over used, but it is worth repeating: NASA’s top climatologist, a guy who isn’t exactly political while he studies the atmosphere and space and the like, called the pipeline and full exploitation of these tar sands “game over.”
Speaking of climate change, this pipeline would have the added benefit of committing the U.S. and the world that much more to a carbon economy. It would only strengthen our “path dependency,” making structural change more difficult. Make no mistake, climate change is real and we will have to adapt to it. Despite the tirades of deniers in the U.S., we will be weaned of carbon one day; the question is whether that transition is orderly and comfortable sooner or chaotic and painful later.
That’s why 1,253 people were arrested, myself included, outside the White House gates this summer in protest. That’s why thousands of people across the country raised a ruckus. That’s why Obama was birddogged by reporters protesters on various circuits this autumn. That’s why Canadian embassies across the world were the targets of demonstrations. That’s why 10,000 or so folks literally joined arms last weekend in a human chain around the White House (I lost my voice shouting).
And let’s be clear, this was not a coalition of fringe hippies. I met students, retirees, labor, hunters, farmers, preachers, professors, lawyers, truckers and everyone in between. I was arrested with people from Vermont, Nebraska, Illinois, Puerto Rico and Canada.
To reiterate, this decision to reevaluate the pipeline is certainly a big win. Cynics will say it only punts the question until after the 2012 election, but it also likely dooms the project.
And, more importantly, it doesn’t send us careening us down the path to ever more environmental harm.
Tags: climate change, environment, environmentalism, for the win, photography, protest, social movements, tar sands, transcend, washington d.c.
Protests and Panama hats…
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under united states
All dressed up, one place to go...
Another shot of me being lead away this weekend in a civil disobedience action against the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands crude from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. If completed, this would be, according to one of the nation’s leading climate scientists, game over for mitigating climate change.
Because I cared and was able, I was arrested Saturday in protest like others who joined the sit-ins in front of the White House for the last two weeks. Billed as the largest civil disobedience movement in a decade, the daily protests/arrests offered a unique chance to focus on a single issue — the decision on the pipeline requires only Obama’s signature — that has such international import.
I went to bear witness and be counted. I went because I could afford to. I went to observe a social movement from the inside. I went because MLK’s voice moved me to not be silent.
On the final day, I was the final person arrested. No. 244. And, as is obvious, I wore a suit, tie and hat, because when the matter is serious, perhaps it’s best not to dress like a hippie.
Tags: arrest, barack obama, climate change, environmentalism, global warming, keystone xl, protest, tar sands, united states, washington d.c., white house
This is what Democracy looks like!
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under united states
And then, they were arrested...
Photo by Josh Lopez
See anyone familiar? (Look just above the second eight).
I now have an arrest record. And after two weeks, more than 1,250 people built (or added to) one, too.
There’s more to the tale coming in subsequent posts. But in the meantime, you should read in to find out the serious trouble literally coming down the pipeline.
By the ways, “Show me what Democracy looks like! / This is what Democracy looks like!” is the best call-and-response protest chant out there.
Tags: action, arrest, environmentalism, keystone xl, oil, politics, pollution, protest, tar sands, united states, washington d.c., white house
Monk’s mood: Candelight march
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Protest
Monks and others march ’round the main square of Dharamshala in memory of a young monk in Tibet who a day earlier had set himself on fire in protest of Chinese rule over his country. As the primary community for Tibetans in exile from Chinese rule, Dharamshala is something of free expression zone for all manner of protest and sociopolitical thought, like the monk’s vigil.
They do here what they would be shot for doing in Tibet. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: buddhism, dharamshala, india, monk, photography, protest, religion, tibet
Wearing red in Bangkok
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under thailand
Not much for Red Shirts to do, except sell red shirts
My only day in Bangkok a few weeks ago, I wandered the streets and, in particular, the Red Shirt protest zone. The protests are making the news more frequently as the political situation worsens and violence breaks out.
I can’t pretend to sort out the full politics, but the tension includes a healthy dose of class struggle. The Red Shirts, the protesters that are camped in the Thai capital, are mostly poor villagers with nothing better to do, led by a populist leader. They accuse the other side — the Yellow Shirts — and the current government of being morally bankrupt and only focused on urban wealth.
I should also note that it’s generally accepted, if not publicly agreed to, that there’s corruption on both sides of the political-cum-violent struggle.
Tempers are clearly rising now, but the one day I was there, things were peaceful. Aside from a bit of rallying which I stayed away from, the Red Shirts mostly were hanging out as above and below. Police were on guard, but seemed half-asleep at their posts when I spoke to them briefly. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: bangkok, journalism, photography, politics, protest, red shirt, red shirts, street, thailand
