Climate
justice and Indigenous activist Siqiñiq Maupin of Sovereign Inupiat for a
Living Arctic joins a protest against fossil fuels in front of the White House
in Washington, D.C. on October 13, 2021. (Photo: Eman Mohammed/Survival Media
Agency)
90 More Arrested as
Victims of Climate Chaos Descend on White House
"People are dying
rapidly," said one campaigner battling a proposed petrochemical complex in
a polluted region of Louisiana. "President Biden… you are letting us
down."
October 13, 2021
Another 90 people were arrested outside
the White House on Wednesday as residents and supporters of communities on the
frontlines of climate chaos joined a week of action ramping up pressure on
President Joe Biden to deliver on his campaign promises.
"How much longer
will the future of our communities be on the shoulders of citizens without the
backing of our elected officials?"
Nearly 300 people have
been arrested over the past three days,
according to organizers of the #PeopleVsFossilFuels, who are calling on
the president to block all new fossil fuel projects
and declare a climate emergency.
The theme of Wednesday's protest was "climate
chaos is happening now." People from Alaska, California, Louisiana, North
Carolina, and Texas shared how fossil fuel development and extreme weather exacerbated by rising
temperatures are affecting their communities.
Among them was Sharon
Lavigne, a recipient of the Goldman
Environmental Prize who founded RISE St. James, a group fighting against the
proposed Formosa Plastics petrochemical complex in an area of Louisiana
called "Cancer Alley" due to decades of
industrial pollution.
"I want to tell
our President Joe Biden, you campaigned on Cancer Alley. That's
where I live. People are dying rapidly. People are dying of cancer and other
ailments," Lavigne said. "President Biden, I sent you a video to tell you about our
community. I've asked you to come to see where we live, to come and visit us
and get a whiff of all the chemicals that we're breathing."
"You promised
that you would do something for Death Alley," she continued, addressing
Biden directly. "We haven't seen anything yet. We want to hold you to what
you said to us in your campaign. We voted for you and this is the way you treat
us? You are letting us down by not even coming to see about us."
Mario Atencio with
Diné CARE, which works to protect the environment of the Navajo Nation, drew
attention to Biden's failure to stop the fossil fuel
industry's exploitation of public lands and waters, despite campaign promises
to do so.
"The Navajo
communities in the Greater Chaco landscape cannot wait for the Biden
administration to act to stop oil and gas fracking leases," Atencio said
of a region in northwestern New Mexico. "The lack of action to stop
drilling on public lands has had serious impacts on the community health of the
Navajo people who live near oil and gas wells."
"According to a
community Health Impact Assessment done by the local Navajo communities, the
toxic chemicals released by the oil and gas wells are impacting the health of
the children," he noted. "This is the consequence of the inaction:
The little ones are being hurt because Biden can't fulfill something he
promised. We can't wait. Our communities are being hurt. We need the leases
stopped."
Kevin Cramer, a
resident of Wilmington, Delaware and co-founder of the Black-led Palm
Collective, which works to end systemic racism in Washington, D.C., pointed to
increasingly devastating hurricanes, which scientists have connected to the climate emergency.
"Biden has the
power and we are asking him to choose us over fossil fuel corporations."
"When these
hurricanes came and they hit the East Coast and the Gulf, and it rained on the
East Coast for hours, people were left behind. My 71-year-old grandmother was
left with 19 feet of water around her," Cramer said. "If you're poor
and Black and can't afford flood insurance, how are you supposed to repair? I
almost lost my grandmother and my community because Joe Biden doesn't care
about us."
Jane Kleeb, founder of
Bold Alliance, asked, "How much longer will the future of our communities
be on the shoulders of citizens without the backing of our elected
officials?"
"The farmers,
ranchers and Tribal Nations should not have to fight for over a decade to
protect the land and water," said Kleeb, whose group battled the now-canceled Keystone XL pipeline. "This
should be everyone's fight—including President Biden."
"We need to stop
pretending we can tackle the climate crisis while still building fossil fuel
pipelines," she added. "Biden has the power and we are asking him to
choose us over fossil fuel corporations."
Indigenous and climate
justice activists are planning two more days of protests
outside the White House. On Thursday they will tell Biden that "we need
real solutions, not false promises," followed by a youth-led action on
Friday—aligned with weekly demonstrations spearheaded by young people
worldwide.
The demonstrations
come as scientists and other experts continue to warn about the need to
immediately phase out fossil fuels and transform global agriculture, energy,
and transportation sectors to ensure a habitable future planet—messages that
have mounted as world leaders prepare for
COP 26, a United Nations climate summit scheduled for the end of October.
"The world's
hugely encouraging clean energy momentum is running up against the stubborn
incumbency of fossil fuels in our energy systems," Fatih Birol, executive
director of the International Energy Agency, said Wednesday. "Governments
need to resolve this at COP 26 by giving a clear and unmistakable signal that
they are committed to rapidly scaling up the clean and resilient technologies
of the future."
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to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206,
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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