[act-ma] FUNERAL FOR OUR FUTURE: Massachusetts Tar Sands Blockade at Westborough, MA Transcanada Keystone XL Pipeline office [details from today's protest]

[James in Cambridge]

http://funeralforourfuture.wordpress.com/



FUNERAL FOR OUR FUTUREMassachusetts Tar Sands BlockadeHomeAbout the Keystone XL PipelinePress ReleaseParticipantsGet InvolvedMediaDonateSTOP THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINEUPDATE (11:50am):  26 arrested for refusing to leave, after locking arms outside TransCanada office. (follow on twitter) (liveblog)On Monday, March 11, over 100 people representing a coalition of students, members of the Massachusetts Methodist clergy, mothers fighting for their children, and concerned community members marched into the Westborough, MA office of TransCanada Corporation and held a funeral mourning the loss of our future at the hands of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline will transport the tar sands that climate scientists say will lock us into irreversible global warming.Of those 100 protesters, 25 of us locked themselves together with handcuffs and were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Carrying a coffin emblazoned with the words “Our Future,” we held flowers and sang an elegy as we marched in procession.Our action comes a week after a week after the US State Department released a widely criticized Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Keystone XL. While admitting that rejecting the pipeline would have little effect on jobs, the document minimizes claims about the pipeline’s impact on climate change and on communities who would be at risk for devastating pipeline spills like the 2010 Kalamazoo spill, from which the affected communities are still recovering. The impact assessment also makes the assumption that the Alberta tar sands will be developed regardless of whether Keystone XL goes forward—an assumption that we stand with indigenous communities, whose treaties the Canadian government is violating by allowing development of the tar sands, in rejecting.We did not act in isolation on this day, but as part of an escalating global movement to fight for a stable future, a livable planet, and for justice for affected frontline communities.In January, eight students locked and glued themselves together in an act of civil disobedience at this same office. Nationwide, the pipeline has already prompted civil disobedience outside the White House, direct blockades of construction from Texas to Oklahoma, and the largest climate rally in US history. Indigenous communities with the Idle No More movement have been resisting tar sands extraction in Alberta, Canada. Today’s action also kicks off a week of solidarity actions being called for by our allies at the Tar Sands Blockade — during the week of March 16th-24th, protesters from across the country will target the offices of TransCanada and its investors.“If the tar sands are extracted and burned, it will wipe out my future and the future of my entire generation,” said Will Pearl, a Tufts University freshman arrested in our action. “If President Obama will not reject the Keystone XL pipeline, we will stop it ourselves. We will rise up and resist—from the backwoods of Texas, to corporate offices in Massachusetts, to the steps of the White House.”LIVESTREAM ARCHIVE VIDEO:Share this:Twitter360Facebook547Like this:11 comments to STOP THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINEBrigitte Hayes says:March 11, 2013 at 3:01 pmFuneral for our Future is a very effective message. This Canadian thanks you – we don’t want the tar sands and the fossil fuel economy either!Replyxgecoder says:March 11, 2013 at 8:12 pmIf you are opposed to the development, demonstrate like these kids. Join with the indigenous peoples to resist the corporate-government alliance that wants this so they will make ever more obscene profits!ReplyBetty Ferster says:March 11, 2013 at 3:09 pmThank you.ReplyDeirdre says:March 11, 2013 at 3:27 pmThank youReplysonya lippold says:March 11, 2013 at 3:33 pmwell done all you people, your carrying a banner for the unfortunately silent majority of people who do not think they have a voice or power to effect change.ReplyJohn Garrett says:March 11, 2013 at 6:26 pmWell done and thank you all!ReplyYaseen says:March 11, 2013 at 7:10 pmYou all are Awesome, I thank you from Maldivian youth climate network -mycn- ReplyRebecca Friedman says:March 11, 2013 at 7:12 pmBravo!!!! You fill me with hope.Replykristina johansson says:March 11, 2013 at 7:20 pmthank you!!!! you are putting your bodies at risk for our future!ReplyMark Bonar says:March 11, 2013 at 8:06 pmOnly a person that has taken leave of his senses would support the Keystone pipeline. Republicans, of course, believe that they are immune to this type of thinking.ReplyAylea says:March 11, 2013 at 8:42 pmThank You with all my heart for standing up for the future of the people and Our Planet!ReplyLeave a ReplyBlog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Quintus by Automattic.FollowFollow “FUNERAL FOR OUR FUTURE”Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.Powered by WordPress.com 		 	   		  
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