Bill McKibben (2009), in a recent post on AlterNet wrote [bracketed
by lines "MMMM. . . ."]:
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It may seem odd timing that many of us are heading to the nation's
capital early next month for a major act of civil disobedience at a
coal-fired power plant, the first big protest of its kind against
global warming in this country. . . . . .
. . . .we need a powerful and active movement not to force the
administration and the Democrats in Congress to do something they
don't want to, but to give them the political space they need to act
on their convictions. . . .
Consider what has to happen if we're going to deal with global
warming in a real way. NASA climate scientist James Hansen -- who has
announced he plans to join us and get arrested for trespassing in the
action we're planning for March 2 -- has demonstrated two things in
recent papers. One, that any concentration of carbon dioxide greater
than 350 parts per million . . . .[see McKibbon's Website
<http://www.350.org/>]. . . . in the atmosphere is not compatible
with the "planet on which civilization developed and to which life on
earth is adapted." And two, that the world as a whole must stop
burning coal by 2030 -- and the developed world well before that --
if we are to have any hope of ever getting the planet back down below
that 350 number. . . . .
The only hope of making the kind of change required is to really
stick in people's minds a simple idea: Coal is bad. It's bad when you
mine it, it's bad for the city where you burn it, and it's bad for
the climate.
Happily, there's no place that makes that point much more easily than
the power plant Congress owns not far from the U.S. Capitol building.
It's antiquated (built today, it wouldn't meet the standards of the
Clean Air Act). It's filthy -- one study estimates that it and the
other coal-fired power plants ringing the District of Columbia cause
the deaths of at least 515 people a year. It's among the largest
point sources of CO2 in the capital. It helps support the mining
industry that is scalping the summits of neighboring West Virginia,
Virginia, and Kentucky. Oh, and it would be easy enough to fix. In
fact, the facility can already burn some natural gas instead, and a
modest retrofit would let it convert away from coal entirely.
Not only that, but it's owned by Congress. They don't need to ask any
utility executives. They could just have a vote and do it -- as easy
as you deciding to put a new, clean furnace in your basement. It
would even stimulate the local economy.
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REFERENCES
McKibben, B. 2009. "Why I'll Get Arrested To Stop the Burning of Coal
(and You Should, Too): On March 2 leading environmentalists and our
country's top scientist, James Hansen, will put the heat on DC --
join them," AlterNet, 24 February online at
<http://tinyurl.com/cxy2b2>. See also McKibben (2008a,b).
McKibben, B. 2008a. "Civilization's last chance: The planet is at a
tipping point on climate change, and it gets much worse, fast," Los
Angeles Times, 11 May; online at <http://tinyurl.com/6a3frb>.
McKibben, B. 2008b. "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the
Durable Future," Holt Paperbacks. Amazon.com information at
<http://tinyurl.com/ajkrc4>. Note the "Look Inside" feature.