Protests Against Fascist Profiteers bring arrests in the USA - Arrests: 275

We thought you should know that as of today over 150 people, including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, have been arrested at the White House.  (as of Aug 24 the arrest toll was 250)

Bill is just getting out of prison after spending 48 hours in a tiny cell -- and here in DC spirits are high and resolve is strengthening with each passing hour. For the past three days, large groups of Americans have joined a non-violent civil disobedience action at the White House. The goal is to send President Obama a simple message: “Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline.” These protests will continue over the next two weeks -- and what the activists in DC need more than anything is the knowledge that there is a massive global movement backing them up. 

There are three ways that you can stand in solidarity from wherever you are:

1. Sign the petition to President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline -- we’ve already rocketed past our initial goal of 35,000 signatures and are hoping to add as many names as possible before we deliver it to White House officials on September 3rd.

2. Send in a solidarity message or photo to the people taking action at the White House.

3. Take part in Moving Planet -- a worldwide climate rally on September 24 -- and move beyond all fossil fuels in the loudest, most beautiful way possible. 

You probably know that building the Keystone XL pipeline is a terrible idea. The oil it will carry from Canada’s tar sands will travel all the way from northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. Think: oil spilling all over America's heartland. Think: way more CO2 all over the atmosphere, since the tar sands are among the most carbon-intensive of all the fossil fuels. With so many strikes against the Keystone pipeline, it’s understandable that folks are so fired up and willing to put their bodies on the line to stop it. 350.org isn’t organizing the action in DC, but there’s a separate website to find out more about the two weeks of daily sit-ins at the White House (today was just day #3).

When nominated for President in 2008, Barack Obama promised that his administration would ensure “the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” It’s not a protest I feel like I’ve been watching unfold here in DC -- but a big and beautiful reminder of that vision. 

With rising hope from DC, 

Will Bates for the 350.org Team

P.S. Our friends in DC just made an beautiful video about Day 1 of the action in DC -- click here to watch it and be sure to share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.

P.P.S. For an extra dose of inspiration, check out a few of my favorite photos from the protest:

Standing Strong on Day 3! (Photo Credit: Josh Lopez) 

Youth Keep Spirits High as Arrests Begin (Photo Credit: Shadia Fayne Wood)

 

Bill Mckibben Speaks to Tar Sands Action Participants (Photo Credit: Shadia Fayne Wood)

  

Media Take Opportunity To Capture A Piece of The Action at the White House Protest of Keystone XL (Photo Credit: Josh Lopez)

350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries. You can join 350.org on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350. To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup. To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate.

What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM–a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.
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  We just watched our farm blow away. There was nothing else we could do. Five acres of cucumbers withered in the heat, unable to blossom. No blooms, no cukes, no money.

It was mid-September and hadn't rained much since June. In the garden, corn stalks crackled in the sparse wind, their kernels puckered, silks mere strands of dust. Peas dried on the vine. Grass lay flat on the ground. Buzzards patrolled the dry creek beds where cattle, weak from the drought, would go to die.

We hid in our houses like hermits, curtains drawn against the sun. When nothing grew there was nothing to do, and by noon it was too hot to do anything anyway. So we were surprised that day by a commotion at the door. More.........

http://moonladymeanderings.blogspot.com/2011/08/forgiving-summer-rain.html

Also Texas:

 

Jill

August 24, 2011 at 8:36 pm

"non-predators spend their time trying not to get killed. "

Yeah, but they mostly spend their time trying to find food like anybody else. I wish you could see, for instance, the pathetic deer around here. The record-breaking Central Texas drought has killed off all their food (in summer deer normally survive on leaves and the green shoots found on twigs, but nothing has been green around here since April). They are skin and bones.

I don’t normally feed wild animals, but this year I’ve been chucking out commercial extruded deer food because I just can’t stand to see these bedraggled, skeletal does with this year’s fawns at their sides and last year’s yearlings still mooching. I’ve got a small herd rolling up to the house every evening, sticking me for 50 pounds a week.

I realize I’m probably just keeping them alive so some jagoff hunter can pick them off in the fall, but a bullet has got to be better than slow death by starvation. Hopefully there’s something nasty in the deer chow that’ll give the hunters diarrhea when they eat the venison.