Governor McAuliffe Needs A Compass. We'll Give It To Him.

I’ve been a proud hiker of the Appalachian Trail since I was a boy. And I always take my trusty compass. It’s gotten me out of lots of jams on the trail.
Now, on June 2nd, on the eve of National Trails Day, I want to invite you – my fellow Virginia trail hikers — to Governor Terry McAuliffe’s house so we can give HIM a compass. The Governor supports two massive pipelines for fracked gas that, if built, would dramatically harm the Appalachian Trail. Terry McAuliffe, in other words, is clearly LOST, and he needs our help. Come to Richmond on June 2nd with all your backpacking gear – and bring a compass to give the Governor.
I’m a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, and there are three things hikers like me depend on.
The first is access to clean, reliable water along the trail. Without water, we cannot hike.
The second is our appreciation for beautiful mountain vistas. That’s why we hike. Along the Virginia AT, those vistas include places like Angel’s Rest, the Dragon Tooth, and Kelly Knob.
But the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline for fracked gas could harm all this, each crossing the AT with great impact. With the Governor’s support, companies like Dominion Energy want to plow these pipelines through geologically fragile areas that could threaten not only water along the trail, but water for farmers and communities across 13 counties.
As for vistas, this is horrifying: the companies want to clear cut and then blast off the tops of at least 38 miles of ridgetops – some within view of the AT — across Virginia and West Virginia to make room for the pipelines’ wide paths. They will decapitate these mountains. And the views and ecological health of places like Angel’s Rest and Dragon Tooth will be severely impacted.
Which is why Governor McAuliffe needs the third thing critical to hikers: a compass! He needs to chart a new course that opposes these pipelines and protects our Appalachian Trail.
Won’t you join me on Friday June 2nd, in Richmond? We’ll give the Governor our compasses and ask him to do the right thing. 

RSVP TODAY!

 
If you can’t make it to Richmond, give McAuliffe a call right now to tell him to REJECT these pipelines. Or, share this video with all your friends:

 

Terps are Stepping Up, And So Should You

I was in tears. Sitting on my couch, watching the results on the TV, I felt paralyzed. The night Trump won the election, the only thing I could think was “it’s over, this is game over for the planet.” Obviously, this was a pessimistic viewpoint, but I think a lot of people shared this same feeling of doubt and despair. Some teachers cancelled classes the next day.
That was November. By January, I was crying for a different reason (I swear I’m not prone to crying). On the day after President Trump was inaugurated, I sat waiting to catch a flight home from Honduras after finishing a two week service project as pictures began rolling in of the Women’s March on Washington. People came together in massive amounts, over 2 million strong men and women, to protest for women’s equality. Although it was not an anti-Trump rally, it served to showcase the voices and values that were pushed aside during Trump’s campaign: equality, climate change, social justice. I was crying tears of joy, because hope was not lost.
After the election and post-inauguration, the demonstrations continued on UMD’s campus. Students came out to protest Trump’s presidency as a whole, and masses of people paraded around campus in support of refugees. A number of students attended the Women’s March. It was clear that, in the age of Trump, student activism was at its peak. Yet this trend only seems to have increased since then.winter
My professor, Dr. Jim Riker, seems to agree. Dr. Riker leads a three-course program, known as Beyond the Classroom, that encourages student civic engagement and leadership. I sat down to have a conversation with him about student activism in post-Trump society.
“There is certainly a greater number of people participating in many different ways,” he said. He has seen first-hand how students are more immersed online, protesting on campus, and marching in D.C to take a stand. During this election, and even more so after, larger amounts of students began speaking up and attending events held by the program. People packed into a tiny classroom twice every single week, to view documentaries and have open discussions about the issues we face in the world today. This has only continued.
“What has motivated people to act?” Dr. Riker asked rhetorically.
I could guess the answer.
When these issues affect you, you feel it. You want to help and speak up for yourself and your rights, but also for the rights of others and those you care about.
That’s what happened at the Women’s March, and that’s what happened with the Peoples Climate March on April 29 in Washington, D.C. Our current administration wants to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement. This affects the entire world, not just in the United States. Climate change is something that affects all of us, and 120 UMD students, along with over 200,000 people, would make clear at the march.
In the lead-up to the Peoples Climate March, students attended poster-making sessions, organized panels, and gathered to plan transportation. Dr. Riker’s Beyond the Classroom program included a week of events to help students prepare. On April 29, the day of the march, he took a group of his own students to march together.
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I was one of them.

We marched on Capitol Hill in the sweltering heat. My blister nearly had me scream out in pain while walking along the path to the White House, but there was no stopping me. There was no stopping any of us, even as we made it to the National Monument in 90+ degree weather. The chants, the boos in front of Trump Tower and the White House, and the smiles and passion of the masses brought me to tears yet again.
Now that the Peoples Climate March is over, we are bringing our engagement back to campus. Several on campus organizations, such as the SGA Sustainability Committee, Beyond the Classroom, Sustainable Terps, and others, provide ways to continue engaging on this issue.
The march reminded us that students at UMD — along with hundreds of thousands of others — want more than ever to participate and civically engage. Whatever the avenue, we will continue fighting against injustices to our people and our planet.
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Megan Williams is a rising senior at University of Maryland, College Park, where she studies Environmental Science & Policy.
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Baltimore City Council Takes a Stand for Offshore Wind and Onshore Jobs

On May 8th, the Baltimore City Council resoundingly passed a resolution in support of offshore wind development in Maryland. Baltimore City Councilwoman Sharon Middleton introduced the resolution, which was co-sponsored by 14 of the 15 City Councilmembers, urging the Public Service Commission to approve one or both of the offshore wind farm proposals currently under consideration.
Before Monday’s vote, over 20 Baltimore residents, local elected officials, and environmental advocates rallied in front of City Hall to show support for offshore wind development and the Baltimore City Council resolution. Supporters displayed art created by local artists and activists for the Peoples Climate March, which many attended the previous weekend in Washington, DC.
 

Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton, lead sponsor of the resolution and Vice-President of the Baltimore City Council, spoke at Monday’s rally: “It's important for Maryland, and more specifically, Baltimore, to get on board with organizations such as Clean Water Action and Chesapeake Climate Action Network to join other cities, states, and countries in the delivery of renewable wind energy projects. The health benefits, manufacturing careers, and resources are essential to the growth of our city. We have the components and now is the time!”
Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton, lead sponsor of the resolution and Vice-President of the Baltimore City Council, spoke at Monday’s rally: “It’s important for Maryland, and more specifically, Baltimore, to get on board with organizations such as Clean Water Action and Chesapeake Climate Action Network to join other cities, states, and countries in the delivery of renewable wind energy projects. The health benefits, manufacturing careers, and resources are essential to the growth of our city. We have the components and now is the time!”

 
The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) is currently reviewing two proposals for offshore wind projects off Ocean City, Maryland. These two proposals present Maryland, and Baltimore in particular, with the opportunity to become a hub for the growing offshore wind industry. US Wind plans to build a 748-megawatt offshore wind farm, and Skipjack Offshore Wind proposes a 120-megawatt project. Both applicants have named Sparrows Point in Baltimore County as the site of a future assembly and manufacturing plant for their operations.
The Public Service Commission found that development, construction, and operation of the first phase of the US Wind project (248 megawatts) would create 7,050 jobs over 20 years and generate an estimated $1,354 million in economic activity for the state. The Public Service Commission also found that development, construction, and operation of the Skipjack project would create 2,635 jobs over 20 years and generate an estimated $536.4 million in economic activity for the state. Much of the economic activity created by both projects would take place in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
 
Laqeisha Greene, a young activist and lifelong resident of Baltimore City who is a member of the United Workers Leadership Council, the Westside Human Rights committee, and the Baltimore Housing Roundtable, proclaimed, "Baltimore needs offshore wind energy! Why? Because for too long this city has stood on feeble legs with the stance that trickle down development works, and it doesn't. It's time for the city government to invest in green energy and companies that will offer skilled tradework that's marketable and life sustaining."
Laqeisha Greene, a young activist and lifelong resident of Baltimore City who is a member of the United Workers Leadership Council, the Westside Human Rights committee, and the Baltimore Housing Roundtable, proclaimed, “Baltimore needs offshore wind energy! Why? Because for too long this city has stood on feeble legs with the stance that trickle down development works, and it doesn’t. It’s time for the city government to invest in green energy and companies that will offer skilled tradework that’s marketable and life sustaining.”

 
Not only would offshore wind projects create jobs and economic activity in Maryland and in Baltimore, a commitment to offshore wind energy would also displace polluting sources of energy, many of which are located in and around Baltimore, improving air quality across the state and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
As an urban center and a port city, Baltimore has high potential for being heavily impacted by climate change. State and local efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and invest in clean, renewable energy like offshore wind are important contributions to overall emissions reductions. 
 
“The Maryland Environmental Health Network supports offshore wind in Maryland because it is a real opportunity to displace pollution that increases poor health outcomes for Marylanders,” said MdEHN’s Executive Director Tamara Toles O'Laughlin. “We rank fifth in the nation in adult asthma and have some of the worst ground level ozone pollution in our region. Installed turbines generate no pollution. It is time to act on climate, and embrace renewable energy for cleaner air and better health for all.”
“The Maryland Environmental Health Network supports offshore wind in Maryland because it is a real opportunity to displace pollution that increases poor health outcomes for Marylanders,” said MdEHN’s Executive Director Tamara Toles O’Laughlin. “We rank fifth in the nation in adult asthma and have some of the worst ground level ozone pollution in our region. Installed turbines generate no pollution. It is time to act on climate, and embrace renewable energy for cleaner air and better health for all.”

 
The Public Service Commission must decide by May 17th whether or not to approve the proposals. If approved, these offshore wind projects could bring thousands of family-sustaining jobs to the Baltimore area, reduce Maryland’s reliance on fossil fuels, and limit air pollution.
 
Larry Bannerman, a resident of the Turner Station neighborhood near Sparrow’s Point and member of the Turner Station Conservation Teams, with 38 years of experience in High Voltage test, maintenance and repair, stated, “Fortunately for us, there is a tried and tested source of clean energy that is bringing with it, jobs and skills for the future. That source of energy is offshore wind. I support the U.S. Wind project.”
Larry Bannerman, a resident of the Turner Station neighborhood near Sparrow’s Point and member of the Turner Station Conservation Teams, with 38 years of experience in High Voltage test, maintenance and repair, stated, “Fortunately for us, there is a tried and tested source of clean energy that is bringing with it, jobs and skills for the future. That source of energy is offshore wind. I support the U.S. Wind project.”

 
By passing this resolution on Monday, Baltimore City took a stand in support of offshore wind, family-sustaining jobs, and a stable climate. Now it’s up to the PSC to approve offshore wind in Maryland. Stay tuned! 

Action in Trump's America: Why I March

The following is a guest post from Elisabeth Hoffman of Howard County Climate Action.
 —
Turns out the chief benefit from Donald Trump’s election lies in the backlash.  
Progress on immigration, environmental justice, women’s rights, #BlackLivesMatter, and health care are at risk. On climate change, in particular, we have shifted from barely addressing the unfolding catastrophe to baldly denying it even exists.  
Yet Marylanders, after six years of trying and against all odds, just passed a ban on fracking. It passed with bipartisan support, along with the Republican governor’s backing, after a massive showing of grassroots resistance to this destructive drilling process. 
In Trump’s America, more long-shot victories like Maryland’s fracking ban are sure to come. Why? Because around the country, mass protests and local actions have become the norm. State attorneys general are challenging the Trump administration, and state lawmakers are passing local protections – such as funding for Planned Parenthood. Communities are not watching idly as hopes for a better future are threatened with every executive order, regressive piece of legislation, and crack-of-dawn tweet.
This resistance began in the disoriented days after No. 45 was elected. Then, the day after Trump took the oath, millions protested around the world in the Women’s March. In D.C. alone, the crowd was three times the size of that on Inauguration Day. After Trump issued his first immigration ban, thousands showed up at airports, cities and towns in protest. Voters are confronting lawmakers at town halls. So deluded and unhinged is this administration, even scientists have had to leave the lab and take to the streets to call for facts instead of alt-facts.  
The push for Maryland’s fracking ban coincided with Trump’s first flailing missteps. Stunned yet determined, a broad coalition of Maryland homeowners, tourism businesses, students, faith leaders, farmers and civic-minded residents demanded protection from an industry that violates regulations, preys on low-income communities, and buys its way out of every lawsuit. This grassroots movement of residents – from Friendsville to Lusby, Bel Air to Frederick, Baltimore to Columbia – signed petitions, mailed postcards, made calls and paid visits to state legislators. They implored town, city and county councils to endorse a ban. They spoke out in congregations and at public hearings. They marched through the streets of small towns and in Annapolis. 
I was among 13 people, mostly faith leaders and Western Marylanders, arrested on March 16 at the State House in Annapolis to proclaim that our movement would not compromise the safety of our homes, our water and our climate. We would settle for nothing less than a ban. The day after our arrests, the tide shifted: Gov. Larry Hogan threw his support to the fracking ban, and in a matter of weeks the ban was in place.
With that same moral outrage, we head for the People’s Climate March on Saturday, April 29.
People are rising up against a president who has delivered the Environmental Protection Agency to a climate-denier known mostly as a serial plaintiff against the agency. They are standing firm against a president who has handed over foreign policy to the former head of Exxon Mobil, a company being sued for misleading the public and lawmakers for decades about climate change. Virginians will attest to coastal flooding. Baltimore residents will say no to their children’s asthma and choking pollution. From Standing Rock to Lancaster, Pa., from the Gulf Coast to the Potomac, communities will rise to protect their water and land and themselves from oil and gas pipelines, from fracked-gas power plants, from fracked-gas export factories.  
We are in a race against rising seas, soaring temperatures, deadly droughts, fiercer storms, spreading diseases, forced migrations, dying oceans, and widening wealth gaps. Last week, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere topped 410 parts per million, way beyond the levels that allowed human civilizations to take hold. In 1958, when record-keeping started at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the level was 280 ppm.  
The hours that I spent in an Anne Arundel County jail cell, with its peeling paint and one small window in the heavy door, seem an apt metaphor for our nation’s limited and tired vision in the face of humanity’s greatest challenge. We must rush toward the world outside the cramped cell of our fossil-fueled world. That the current administration is running equally fast to slam the door spurs us to fight even harder. 
Our uprising must and will be loud and persistent. In Trump’s version of America, the measure of our relief will be the extent of our enduring resistance.  
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The Peoples Climate March is Red, White, and Blue

Guest post by Rick Shingles, member of Preserve Giles County
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On April 29, I plan to travel more than 500 miles to Washington D.C. for the Peoples’ Climate Mobilization. For me, marching is about more than politics, more than ideology.
For me, the issue is deeply personal.
The fossil fuel industry threatens my community in southwest Virginia. The proposed fracked-gas Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is routed to bisect Newport which sits in the middle of the active Giles County seismic zone in the midst of the Appalachian fold belt. This 42-inch diameter pipeline would carve through steep ridges and karst valleys in some of the most pristine natural habitat and biodiversity in the world.
Our natural heritage, endangered species, aquifers (the primary source of our farm and residential water), safety from catastrophe like the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, peace of mind, property values and property rights are all at risk.
Our town is just one casualty of a vast fracked-gas pipelines infrastructure either built or planned. There are 9,000 miles of new oil and gas pipelines proposed in the U.S. with 19 (including the MVP and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline) in Appalachia alone. And tens of thousands of homes and businesses are being sacrificed to supply the product these pipelines transport: fracked methane, an even more lethal greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Multiple perils accompany every stage of hydraulic fracturing: the toxic mix of chemicals used to induce it, the dispersal and storage of waste water which can poison drinkable water and soils, seismic activity, methane leaks at every stage of production and distribution, and the destruction of green economies.
A Roanoke Times editorial presents my county as a model for developing outdoor recreational economies. Yet our economy is imperiled by the MVP. The pipeline would cross tributaries of the New River (some multiple times). It would block access to Mountain Lake and the Cascades during the construction. And the Jefferson National Forest could become split by a 500-foot wide utility corridor.
All of this could upend fifteen years of collaboration by local businesses and county government to build a tourism economy that currently provides $26 million in annual business revenue, 16% of our sales tax, $90,000 in transient occupancy taxes and two percent of total tax revenue. That is a lot for a sparsely settled, rural county. We don’t want it trashed by an interstate pipeline ally.
Why should so many American communities be sacrifice zones to supply this fuel to other nations, a good number of which ban fracking?
That’s why I’m going to march in Washington.
I will support Americans in all communities that are being sacrificed to supply fracked gas.
And for what? For continued reliance on antiquated twentieth century energy sources that are increasingly unnecessary, less plentiful and more expensive than wind, solar, hydraulic, and tidal power?
I am going to fight for greater regulation of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that appears controlled by the very gas and oil industry it is supposed to regulate, approves any and all interstate pipeline applications, grants private companies eminent domain to take our land, and runs roughshod over state and local governments.
I am going for my children and grandchildren – to preserve a natural heritage threatened by our addiction to fossil fuels, to help stave off rising seas and coastal flooding and the fundamental alteration of inland climates that underlie many traditional industries (See Stephen Nash’s Virginia Climate Fever: How Global Warming will Transform Out Cities, Shorelines, and Forests). Climate disruption could well lead to unprecedented mass migrations and economic, social and political instability that could destabilize governments and exacerbate international conflicts.
The dire threats posed by climate disruption should not be partisan issues, red-states versus blue-states, or framed by ideologues of the left or the right.
I will journey to Washington understanding that each of us must look to ourselves first to protect our communities, preserve our natural heritage and safeguard our progeny. If we fail, I will not solely blame any particular individual or political party or politicians in general. Each citizen has the responsibility to reduce his or her own environmental footprint and to fulfill the obligation of democratic citizenship. We must act to hold our leaders accountable. We must take direct action.
I accept this responsibility.
One day, I hope to tell my grandchildren that I – with millions of others – met this singular challenge and became this nation’s greatest generation.

Rick Shingles is associate professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and coordinator of Preserve Giles County.

Offshore Wind Is A Fair Development Opportunity In Baltimore

For far too long, Baltimore has been forced to bear the burden of failed development that pollutes the city, causes disproportionate health impacts, and forces residents out of their communities. But now, offshore wind presents the city with an opportunity to become a manufacturing hub for clean energy.
South Baltimore is host to a slew of polluting and dangerous developments, including a 200-acre coal pier, medical waste incinerator, and numerous chemical and pesticide plants. It is also home to a crude oil shipping terminal. “Bomb trains” carrying explosive crude oil from North Dakota travel through the city, and many stop at the NuStar Energy Storage Terminal in Fairfield to transfer oil from rail to barge in order to ship it to refineries in the Northeast.
From 2013 to 2014, over 100 million gallons of crude oil were transported into Baltimore by rail to be offloaded and shipped to refineries. Transporting crude by rail puts 165,000 people in the “blast zone” in Baltimore – the area that could be directly impacted if a train were to derail and explode. Bakken crude oil is highly volatile and transporting it by rail has had devastating consequences, most notably the 2013 derailment and explosion in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec that killed 47 people and leveled the town.
There have been close calls in Baltimore in recent years. Last June, a train carrying acetone derailed in the Howard Street Tunnel right next to the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) — my alma mater. A school parking lot was filled with emergency vehicles for over a week while the derailment was contained. Last month, eight cars on a CSX freight train derailed on a sharp curve in Frederick County. While nothing spilled, the train was carrying hazardous materials and was traveling the same route that crude oil trains have been known to take to reach Baltimore.
And two weeks ago, a fire broke out in a scrap yard in Fairfield just across the street from the oil train shipping terminal there. The fire was contained, but once again, Baltimoreans were faced with a terrifying “what if” scenario had the fire reached the terminal.
These close calls, along with the string of derailments, fires, and explosions caused by oil trains across the country, demonstrate that transporting crude by rail is an unacceptable gamble that endangers people who live, work, and go to school near the tracks.
Meanwhile, it is clear that Marylanders are ready for clean energy.
Last month, the state held two public hearings in Berlin and Annapolis where residents showed up in droves to voice their support for offshore wind farm proposals.
Throughout the three-hour hearing in Berlin, person after person got up in front of the packed auditorium to speak about how offshore wind will help clean Maryland’s air, provide a reliable source of renewable energy, and create thousands of jobs across the state. Union members were a strong presence at the hearing, from piledrivers to carpenters, all of whom stand to benefit from the potential manufacturing and construction jobs across the state. And as a Baltimorean, talk of repurposing Sparrows Point into a wind turbine manufacturing hub was particularly exciting.
Instead of continuing to invest in failed development that brings polluting and dangerous materials like explosive crude oil into the heart of the city, Baltimore has an opportunity to become a central hub for clean energy jobs and fair development. Offshore wind offers one exciting pathway for a just transition in Baltimore where the city can move away from the polluting, dangerous fossil fuel industries of the past and become a clean energy powerhouse.
Tell the Public Service Commission to approve offshore wind in Maryland to help make this fair development future a reality in Baltimore.

 
 
Image at top from Sandia National Laboratories.

Maryland just passed a fracking ban. I'm weeping.

This is it: We have officially made history.

Last night, the Senate voted 35 to 10 to ban fracking statewide in Maryland. The bill will be sent to Governor Hogan’s desk to be signed in a matter of days. We are now the third state to ban fracking and the first state with gas reserves to pass a legislative ban. This is the most environmentally significant bill that Maryland has ever passed. Period.
As I write this, I can barely see the computer screen as my eyes keep welling up with tears. This has been the most personal, grueling, and gratifying campaign that I have ever worked on.
As a Western Marylander, the stakes on this campaign were enormous. If we failed, we would have opened up my family’s land and community to the dangers of fracking — contaminating our water, risking birth defects in our children, and scarring the natural beauty of Western Maryland.
Today, we proved that grassroots power can overcome partisan politics and Big Oil and Gas if we organize and work together for a common purpose.
Today, we proved that together, we can overcome anything.
When I first began this campaign, I learned about my grandfather’s activism in Western Maryland. He led sit-ins to bring racial integration to local restaurants and community pools in Frostburg. He did this to protect his seven sons and one daughter so that they could live a life that was just and free of harm. When I began organizing in Frostburg, I carried his spirit with me.
And today, I can proudly say I carried on his legacy of protecting his family. But we could not have done it without each of you. You gave your time, your efforts, and your passion to secure a better future for my family and for all of Maryland. From the start, each of you worked to build a movement that secured this victory.
Thank you to the residents of Frostburg, where over 800 of you signed petitions and hundreds of you rallied and urged your city council to ban fracking.
Thank you to the citizens of Bel Air, who rallied in the freezing cold and told your city council all you wanted for the holidays was for them to ban fracking.
Thank you to Frederick County activists, who met with your local officials and did not relent until they supported a statewide ban.
Thanks to each of you in Friendsville and across Western Maryland, who were met with harsh criticisms and shouted down by your legislators for standing strong to keep your communities safe from fracking.
Thank you to the countless local officials who stood up against fracking in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Charles County, College Park, Friendsville, Frederick County, Frostburg, Greenbelt, Mountain Lake Park, Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County.
Thanks to each of you who called, wrote your legislators, lobbied in Annapolis and were part of the rally where over a thousand people took to the streets in Annapolis to demand an unfractured future for generations to come.
Thank you to the “Annapolis 13” who were peacefully arrested and helped carry the message to our state Senate that we would not compromise on a ban.
And thanks to each of you who had unwavering faith that sometimes David can beat Goliath. You pushed forward the notion that grassroots organizing can truly change the world.
Because it has.

 
Please take a moment to thank each and every one of our legislators who cast a “yes” vote after YOU made your voices heard.
Thank them for representing our voices in Annapolis and making sure we have a frack-free future.

The Climate Can’t Wait. March with Us 4/29

Just a few weeks ago, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency said carbon emissions don’t cause climate change — contradicting NASA and 97 percent of the world’s scientists. This is not normal.
The Trump administration has made it clear that it will do whatever it takes to dismantle climate protections and bury our voices.
But they do not realize this: We are seeds of the most dedicated and strongest kind. Since day one of Trump’s presidency, the most beautiful and resilient shows of resistance have continued to sprout up and grow across America. Mark my words: our resistance has just begun.
Join CCAN and our allies at the March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice (People’s Climate March) in Washington, D.C. on April 29th. On the hundredth day of Trump’s presidency, we’ll continue to spread our roots of resistance as we come together across issues to march on our nation’s capital. 
In 2014, nearly half a million of us took to the streets of New York City in the most powerful climate march of our time.1 We helped propel the Paris Climate Accord forward and organized for many other local climate victories across the country.
Every victory we’ve worked for is under attack with this new administration — even victories that make clear economic sense, like energy efficiency programs and the rule to capture excess methane from drilling on public lands. It’s now up to all of us to show that we’re not going away.
When we take to the streets on April 29th, we’ll send the White House and Congress the clear message that we’re not backing down. We’ll continue to fight for our climate, our communities, and our shared future.
We’ll march not just to resist — but to rise above and defeat the threats that Trump continues to unravel. The sound of our feet clicking together will echo our powerful show of unity, and then we’ll bring our unmatched fervor and dedication back to our local communities.

We’ll march to show the Trump administration: We will never stop fighting.

The People’s Climate March will not end in the streets. We’ll carry the drumbeat forward, as we march into our representative’s offices to demand action on climate. As we march into meetings before our local board of supervisors to insist on protection from fossil fuel companies. As we march into our communities to inspire others and ignite the passion that will continue to drive our movement forward.
The threat of Trump’s administration is too big for any of us to take on alone.
That’s why you should join us on April 29 at the March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice.  Sign up HERE to wear down your marching shoes a bit further and stand with us.
I hope to see you there.
 

  1. “Climate Change March to Descend on Washington in April.” January 2017. Inside Climate News.

The Battle at Standing Rock, and Lessons for Virginia

Guest post by Gray Michael Parsons
I have been an environmentalist all my life…..it is “in my blood.”  
But growing up in the 50s & 60s in Coastal North Carolina, the more popular term was “conservationist”.  It was a much safer label than proclaiming one’s traditional obligation to protect Mother Earth as an American “Indian.”  
As a child and adolescent, my grasp of concepts such as conservation and ecosystem were deferred in favor of more simple ones such as baseball, football, the Beatles and Temptations.  But my maternal grands (who raised me) taught me to revere all life forms and the elements necessary to support life…..Sun, land, water, air, etc.  All I had to do was watch.  Their walk was their talk.  
So it was that same Traditional Indigenous value system that compelled me to travel to the Standing Rock tribal reservation in ND in the late summer and mid Fall of  2016 as a volunteer water protector.
The contemporary significance of Standing Rock (SR) was initially how the Dakota Access Pipeline threatened access to the only clean water source available to the tribe. As Natives, we saw unprecedented tribal unity happening, with the reemergence of treaty rights as a viable pathway to stop or at least divert the pathway of Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).  SR then became more than a place and a people; it grew into a model of courage, sustainable civil disobedience, and resistance to corporate power at its apex. The movement was prayerful, peaceful and powerful.  
And although an unarmed demonstration, it was met with dramatic overkill in terms of numbers and armament with respect to law enforcement. They used multiple helicopters, military Humvees, water cannons, diverse and powerful disabling sprays such as mace and pepper, rubber bullets, tear gas grenades, disabling sound and even displayed a missile launcher! Police violence and brutality in this region brings to mind that in the deep South during the peak Civil Rights movement era.  
And yet, the resolve of the people was unmovable. Why? For many reasons, but perhaps paramount among them was the fact that their backs were against the wall. It was and remains a matter of sustaining life and habitability on a sacred land.  And as the movement grew, the water protectors became more diverse with respect to all aspects of humanity: age, gender, sexuality, race, religion, culture, country of citizenship, and more.

They were us!  Indigen-US!  Not just “Indigenous”

Fast forward: The Black Snake known as DAPL is only one of an entire network of pipelines intended to transport fossil fuels extracted via fracking. These pipelines have spread like a for-profit cancer across our land, in everyone’s backyard, including your own. They contain poisonous chemicals that are patented and unavailable to be identified in  hospital ERs. The contents are going directly to the seas or major river ports for sale outside our country.  It’s about profit, not domestic security.
In West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, a similar pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, threatens to desecrate documented historically sacred Native lands……and the water source for many of you in the event of a spill.  
Our backs are against the wall. It’s time to act now!
Here’s how: Organize locally and connect statewide and regionally.  Call and write your government reps, start and support petitions.  Run for local office.  Divest from banks that are invested in the Dakota Access Pipeline and other fossil fuel projects.  Attend info meetings and refute the distortions and lies of many in the extractive industries.  The media is rarely our ally in this battle, so be your own media by writing LTEs, blog posts, and op-eds. Engage everyone you know!
In the Renape dialect of Algonquin and of some of my Coastal NC Ancestors, “Pasa Qwer Wuhn”, We Stand, We Fight. ” Ke-Ke Yu Nupi”, Water Is Life!  Join groups such as the Coalition of Woodland Nations or Indigen-US on Facebook.  Ke-Na, Nya:weh, Miigweech, thank you.  
 

Gray Michael Parsons

Author’s Bio:  Gray Michael Parsons is of Machapunga Tuscarora and Hatterask Native American ancestry and was born and raised in “Little” Washington, NC in 1949.  He is the author of “Hope On Hatterask” and drums and dances at native powwows and festivals in the East.  He was a Water Protector in opposition to the DAPL near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation in early September and late October 2016.  He is a graduate of East Carolina University with a degree in Parks, Outdoor Recreation, and Conservation and attended graduate studies at Johns Hopkins, Morgan State and University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  He resides in the Baltimore metro area and works in the Organic & Natural Foods industry.
 
Image at top from Victoria Pickering with a Creative Commons license