Climate Activist Unrepentant After Being Charged in #ShutItDown Pipeline Protest
"My actions of walking across a field and cutting a fence chain are inconsequential and excusable compared to the ghastly effect of continuing to burn tar sands oil," said Ken Ward.
Ken Ward, second from right, faces four charges after a tar sands pipeline in Anacortes, Wash., was shut down Oct. 11. (Shut It Down)
By Deirdre Fulton / Common Dreams
A climate activist and two documentary filmmakers were arraigned Thursday in Washington state for their roles in last week’s #ShutItDown act of non-violent civil disobedience.
Ken Ward of Oregon, who was arrested for closing a safety valve on Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain tar sands pipeline in Anacortes, Washington, faces charges of burglary, criminal trespass, sabotage, and assemblages of saboteurs.
Videographers Lindsey Grayzel and Carl Davis, who were on site documenting Ward’s actions—but did not participate—were arraigned on conspiracy charges. Four other activists, two support team members, and another independent documentary filmmaker are also facing charges in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana.
Ahead of his participation in the “unprecedented” protest, 59-year-old Ward explained why he was taking part: “There is no plan of action, policy, or strategy being advanced now by any political leader or environmental organization playing by the rules that does anything but acquiesce to ruin. Our only hope is to step outside polite conversation and put our bodies in the way. We must shut it down, starting with the most immediate threats—oil sands fuels and coal.”
In a statement on Thursday, Ward reiterated that sentiment, noting that he is “a responsible and law-abiding citizen” whose previous brushes with the law also involved attempts to avert climate catastrophe. In 2013, Ward and one other activist blockaded a shipment of West Virginia coal from arriving at Brayton Point Power Station in Massachusetts—an act for which they were later praised by a local district attorney who dropped all charges against them. Then last year, Ward took part in the Break Free from Fossil Fuels oil train blockade, also in Anacortes.
“I did these things because I believe that it is the obligation of every thinking person to find a way to stave off climate cataclysm, and there is no effective, legal alternative to personal direct action,” Ward said.
He cited a recent study from Oil Change International that showed the vast majority of fossil fuels must be left in the ground for a good chance at a habitable planet.
“In this context and with these terrible imperatives,” Ward said, “my actions of walking across a field and cutting a fence chain are inconsequential and excusable compared to the ghastly effect of continuing to burn tar sands oil.”
Deirdre Fulton is a staff writer at Common Dreams.
Your support matters…Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Economic Justice
The White House's 'Solar for All' program is designed to reduce greenhouse emissions and energy inequity.
Editorial Cartoons
Activism
Indigenous peoples around the world are harassed and killed at alarming rates. Will the world act?
Editorial Cartoons
Environment
Regulators just imposed unprecedented fees on water usage in the state’s agricultural heartland.
Environment
Despite record heat waves and biblical floods, Middle Eastern leaders continue to do as little as possible to combat the reality of climate change.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.