Young people protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline in front of the White House 3/2/2014
This past Sunday afternoon, 489 young people zip tied their hand to the White House fence as part of an act of non-violent civil disobedience. They were doing what they could to send a strong message to President Obama about the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Similar acts of civil disobedience have been increasing in number since the summer of 2011 when over 1253 people of all ages (myself included) were arrested in front of the White House for the same reason: to convince President Obama to say NO to the Keystone Pipeline.
I was unable to travel to DC, so I watched most of the march from Georgetown University to the White House on my computer via LiveStream. Their enthusiasm was palpable and it lifted my spirits as I watched them chanting, carrying signs and risking arrest in a very peaceful manner.
While mainstream media may have not given this story the attention it deserves, there are many alternative news sources out there along with things like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and more to get your news from these days. Independent photographers, like Jenna Pope, were on the scene photographing, Tweeting and Instagraming throughout the day in the cold. Jenna is one of my favorite photographers, she used Storify to catalog her photos, click here to see them.
The first arrested. A doppelganger for Chelsea Clinton Photo credit: Jenna Pope
The first person arrested by the DC police looked strikingly similar to Chelsea Clinton. Someone on Twitter (not Jenna) started a rumor and it spread like wild fire on social media.
Even today, I have Facebook friends posting this now famous photo with comments about how great it is that Chelsea Clinton was arrested protesting the Keystone Pipeline.
The reality check is that Chelsea is now 34 years old, she went to college at Stanford University from 1997 to 2001, she got her MPH from Columbia University in 2010 and married Marc Mezvinski, an investment banker the same year. Chelsea works for the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. The CGI is an organization that convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Climate change is THE most pressing problem! It impacts everything.
What does Chelsea think about climate change and the role that the Alberta tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline play in accelerating climate change? After all, she’s a smart gal with a good education. Would she be so bold as to get arrested in front of the White House to make her position known? As much as I’d like to see Bill and Hillary’s daughter taking a stand against climate change, my gut tells me it wouldn’t happen.
You do have to wonder, what is going through her mind. Especially when this rumor is all over her Twitter feed. As someone with a masters in public health, she should be aware that the Keystone pipeline poses a great risk to water resources in the US. She is smart enough to understand that tar sands extraction has huge consequences for our climate, this is the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet! Yet her 1700 tweets have never mentioned climate. Not even once.
The view of the Keystone XL pipeline youth protest from inside the White House
Thinking about Chelsea causes me to think about two other young women, Sasha and Malia Obama. If they were home on Sunday and if they looked outside, this is the view they would have seen.
What would they ask their dad if they saw all those hands tied to the fence?
Malia, 15 and Sasha, 13 are without a doubt learning about climate change in their science classes at Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC. Next year, Malia could even opt to take an Environmental Science class.
At some point, a discussion of climate change will most definitely happen at the dinner table. After all, climate change is not going away, it is only becoming more and more obvious with each passing year.
I’ve raised 3 daughters, I know that 13 and 15 are challenging ages. I can only imagine the questions they would ask their dad about the future.
What will their dad tell them about the Keystone Pipeline? Will he tell them that it was a tough decision, but that he loves his daughters so much that he refused to approve the pipeline? Will he explain to them that this pipeline lights a fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet and by approving it, he is endangering their future?
Climate change is the most important issue that we’re facing, and it’s going to affect millions and millions of people all over the world. It will impact younger people far more than us “older” folks. Our kids are the ones who will have to deal with the mess we are making. My kids, your kids, President Obama’s kids.
