Tarsands Action-Compost

     Seeing a picture of my arrest may understandably be a little jaw-dropping. I was demonstrating in front of the White House in Washington, DC for Tarsands Action participating in an act of Civil Disobedience. Given the power oil has over the world, protesting the construction of an oil pipeline over 2,000 miles long across the US is no easy task.

     The proposed pipeline, extending from what’s now endless miles of deep forests occupied by several indigenous tribes to as far south as Texas would be what some scientists denote as the “Carbon Bomb.” In other words the world has burned so much fossil fuel already, and is already scheduled to release so much more fossil fuel emissions, a pipeline as bold as this would, according to Bill McKibben seriously jeapordize the environment. For obvious reasons, burning oil would add extra carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. However, the process of extracting oil from a mixture of sand, tar, and crude oil is also a much more energy-intensive process. Compounding, is the fact that Canada’s forests also lock carbon, not only into the trees, but also in the soil and peat moss below. That’s the carbon problem. Other reasons to oppose it include the displacement, once again of indigenous people from their land and way of life not just in Canada, but also in the US, seeing the proposed pipeline would cross Native American reservations in the US. Containing a long list of highly toxic chemicals, the extraction process would release these chemicals, contaminating the area around it for hundreds possibly even thousands of miles. While Transcanada touts its pipeline has the highest safety standards to date, several pipelines have gone leaking as recently as the past year, including one that leaked twelve times just 2010 alone.

    Barring all of these reasons, I also opposed it because Obama made a promise to address climate change in a serious way, yet his presidency has come to a near end and he has barely done anything to address climate change. Obama neglected to use his energy to help pass a carbon tax which failed to pass, neither have serious subsidies on renewable energy been considered or seriously pushed by him, and a higher fuel efficiency standard for cars might pass, but how likely? Who knows, and little has come of that bill as a result of Obama’s leadership. While Obama may blame Congress, and Congress may be blame-worthy, this is one situation for the environment in which Obama could act. The only way an oil pipeline could cross Canada to the US would be if the president signed for it. If he chooses to say no, the pipeline won’t get built. Given the pressure for jobs, the economy, and the oil lobbyists, whether he would refuse to sign it is so questionable many articles are bold enough to state that the demonstration I participated in would not be enough to pressure him to say no.

      How could several hundred peaceful demonstrators sitting in front of the White House over the span of 2 weeks get arrested? Good question. There is a law stating that no one is allowed to sit in front of the white house because they would destroy the post-card view for the tourists. People can walk across it, but they cannot stand or sit for longer than ten minutes or something like that. Thus when we decided to stand and sit in front of the White House, the police immediately cordoned off the area, and gave several warnings requesting demonstrators to leave. When they and I refused, showing our act of civil disobedience, they then proceeded to arrest us. Crowds of people chanted with us and cheered each time the police handcuffed someone. In my arrest picture I was leading the crowd in a chant, “When I say tarsands you say no Tarsands! No! Tarsands! No! When I say pipeline you say no! Pipeline! No! Pipeline! No!” I also chanted “Stop the tarsands stop the greed give the people what they need!” as they took my mug shot. I led chants for the crowd from the police caravan the entire hour I sat there waiting for the rest of my fellows to get arrested. The police arrested all the women first, but I was arrested with the women because I was taking such an active role in leading the chants. The police then gave me a personal chauffer to haul me off to prison. Since the crowd could still hear me from the car, I just kept leading the chants from the car too! Well, why not? Nothing like screaming your head off in handcuffs for a cause you believe in! Also, the government should be reminded that it is required to serve the people and respect their rights to protest.

     No court hearing was taken, the police ran out of space at the Anacostia prison so they just gave us a post and forfeit option, which means no charges on my permanent record, but I’ve better not interfere with the law for another 90 days. None of us saw a jail cell-the first protesters were kept for 3 days and had to show up to a court hearing, however, seeing civil disobedience is so routine in Washington DC and that there were just too many of us, I was released from my handcuffs within 3 hours. The activist group leaders gave us snacks and drinks outside the Anacostia Prison. 

      What does a demonstration against an oil pipeline have to do with composting though? Well, I would argue everything in the world is connected in one strange way or another; therefore, it is essential to throw in an article about something a little out of the box occasionally no matter how off-topic it may appear. Given the fact that production of ammonia for fertilizer requires 1-3 percent of the world’s energy production (it’s a very heat-intensive process), and that just one day of mining another vital plant nutrient for chemical fertilizers, phosphorus, uses enough energy to power over 150 American homes for a month, it may be worth arguing the composting is in at least in an indirect way, a source of renewable energy for the planet. For the biogas facility getting drawn up for SLC, it can provide a source of methane which can be burned for heat and electricity.