You’ve been hearing me whoop and holler here about the activities of the new Administration and the new Congress. (Fear not: You’ll continue to have more of this from me.) But there’s going to be some other visible and important action on The Hill next week – on Monday, March 2, in fact.
Capitol Climate Action is organizing a “mass civil disobedience” at the old coal-fired Capitol power plant. Perhaps it needn’t be said, but I’ll mention it anway: This is meant to be 100% nonviolent civil disobedience, in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King.
I will be teaching on climate change on Monday in New York, but I will definitely be with the protesters in spirit. I say with some pride that I was in jail for three days for CD at the Pentagon in 1972 along with Father Groppi, the veteran Civil Rights activist; David Dellinger, one of the fathers of American civil disobedience; and a hundred or so others.
See this open letter from Martin Sheen, Paul Hawken, Jim Hansen and some other prominent environmentalists that appeared in the Huff-Po. Their call to arms: “It is time to seize the opportunity to be a country where actions speak louder than words–we can and we must!” Here’s a video from Jim Hansen, one of the world’s pre-eminent climate scientists and environmental protection visionaries.
You should also check out the hard-hitting new website, Coal is Dirty, a joint project managed by The DeSmog Project, Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace USA. I am further proud to say that I made Kevin Grandia’s list here of the “Top 75 Best Blogs on Clean Coal.”
UPDATE: Reid, Pelosi Call For End To Coal At U.S. Capitol Power Plant from The Wonk Room.