I met up with the Lancaster anti-fossil fuel pipeline advocates last year and have gone up there twice now to lend a hand and to be another person supporting their efforts. This set of offices had been carefully scouted out to ensure that it would be open when we got there, but that there wouldn't be many people there. Our reconnaissance was accurate.
We knew full well that the police would be called and that it wouldn't take long for them to get there, so we made no attempt to be subtle or quiet.
We charged into the office suite as a group, went all around it and then exited.
What was the purpose of doing this? To make the people working on the pipeline at a desk job feel as though they're in enemy territory, that they're unlawful occupiers of a foreign country. What was not the purpose was to cause any damage to anything. We had no intention of doing anything we could be charged for.
The police arrived quickly,
so we displayed our signs and sang labor-friendly songs until we were cleared to leave (They eventually decided we hadn't done anything we could be charged with). Here's our website that explains what we're fighting for. Here's the document that we sent out prior to the direct action.
Here's the compiled set of clips I took of the singing we did while awaiting police clearance so that we could take off. The weather was very mildly chilly, so standing around for an extended period wasn't a problem.
Here was our next stop, a spot where construction of the pipeline was in progress. There were a few people there, so again, we knew we'd be reported quickly.
Our people took up positions on the drilling rig and five of them remained there until they were removed by police officers.
We sung our pro-labor songs and chanted. We were informed that the people on the rig greatly appreciated hearing the sounds of solidarity coming from us. It made the seizure of the rig much more pleasant and enjoyable. Here's another set of clips featuring our singing.
A while back, a conservative asked me what the cause of global warming/climate change was. I went through the whole carbon spiel. He said he thought he had been given the impression by another liberal that it was more complicated than that. I replied nope, it was a simple, straightforward concept. All we need to do is to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and keep it reduced and the project of defeating global warming is done. We don't need to concern ourselves with the proper temperature. If the amount of carbon is good, we're set. That also means of course, that producing any carbon anywhere is bad and affects the globe, not just a local area.
Heh! Awfully convenient of the pipeline company to erect a flag to mark our being there. Hey, we're all Americans!
The amount of carbon in the atmosphere during pre-industrial times was, according to 350.org, about 280 parts per million (ppm). That was the norm for at least the past million years. We can go safely up to 350 ppm (Hence the name of the anti-global warming group). We're now at about 410 ppm.
We're opposed to ALL use of fossil fuels! Natural gas, which this particular pipeline is scheduled to transport, isn't as bad as long as it gets burned. When it does go up into the atmosphere unburned, it's a problem. Best way to keep that from happening is to switch to wind, solar and other non-polluting forms of energy.