Kids in Tow, Tar Sands Pipeline Protest Here We Come

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We are loading up the car, ready to burn fossil fuels, albeit in our hybrid, as

we prepare for our road trip to DC to take part in the Tar Sands Action against the XL Keystone Pipeline that would carry oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas.

The Action organizers are asking all protesters to come to a training the night before they “sit in” at the White House, so that everyone is prepared for what might happen, and that the protests don’t get out of hand. My 12 and 13 year old, who will be coming to the civil disobedience training with me, although not the protest itself, are both excited and scared. They keep asking me: “is it true everyone so far has been arrested?” A bit hard for them to comprehend that their mom seems willing to join in on this one. I have to admit to being nervous as well. My generation, unwittingly and unknowingly got ourselves in this mess. I feel strongly, we need to act now to try to clean it up.

I don’t want my children to look back in 20 years, if we continue as a society, business as usually, and ask me what I did to try to stop the crash course we are on with our environment. I want them to see and know first hand that I do care deeply about their future and that I am doing all I can to raise attention to the greatest challenge any of us will face in our lifetime, climate change. My children are too young to vote our risk arrest for policy change to slow down our consumption of fossil fuels. But I am not.

We need to pressure our government to jump start and encourage clean energy development. As parents, I believe our job is to do our best to create a safe and secure world for our children. Right now, for me, that means standing up to big oil companies and media misrepresentation which is trying to confuse us as about the seriousness of the problems we face. 98% of climate scientists around the world tell us we are changing our environment and that we are causing our climate change, that we need to act now to avert the worst consequences. I believe them, do you?

Follow me on twitter @climatemama for regular updates from DC. Our ClimateMama blog will update later in the week. Follow TarSandsAction.org to support the protesters and for regular updates as well.