KEYSTONE XL AND THE BABY BOOMERS

The last time author* and activist Ellie Whitney returned to Tallahassee, she talked about her experiences with Bill McKibben and the 350.org.  She said that McKibben predicted the baby boom generation would lead the 'in the streets' actions against climate change and the inaction of the US government and policy leaders in adopting significant changes to our fossil fuel addiction. 

The current protests over the construction of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico, is being lead by this very group.  In an guest editorial in The Washington Post, McKibben says that more than a thousand people have signed up to be arrested over two weeks beginning August 20th and calls it the biggest display of civil disobedience in the environmental movement in decades and one of the largest nonviolent direct actions since the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle back before September 11th. He points out that the among the first 500 to sign up, most were 'born in the Truman administration, followed closely by FDR babies and Eisenhower kids.'

In addition, other protesters are gathering this week and next, including an interfaith rally against the pipeline scheduled for August 29th with a sit-in style action at the White House fence.  

*Ellie Whitney co-authored Priceless Florida: Natural Ecosystems and Native Species, a book that was recently added to Green Tallahassee's reading table. Purchase through your independent bookseller here.

Posted in: Ellie Whitney,Keystone XL,McKibben,tar sands