Romm: McKibben and Berry call for civil disobedience at DC coal plant: “Bear witness to an evil”

Is it time to get arrested to send an urgent message about preserving the health and well-being of the next 50 generations to warm the planet?

Two of America’s leading men of letters, Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben, have written an urgent open letter to all Americans saying “yes” [my thoughts at the end]
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I can’t argue with the call for civil disobedience. If any issue cries out for civil disobedience and marching in the streets, it is this one. That said, each person must decide on their own how best to express their conscience in the public arena consistent with their values.

I am very fortunate to have this blog and many other means of communicating the dire nature of the effort to stop humanity’s self-destruction. Therefore, I am not going to participate in this activity — although I do reserve the right to change this judgment. So I don’t see how I can call on others to do so (see “Gore calls for civil disobedience to stop coal. But will he lead like Gandhi and King?“)

Thousands Negotiate New Climate Treaty | LiveScience

Last year, Pachauri's IPCC, which collected the work of more than 2,000 scientists, said climate change is "unequivocal, is already happening, and is caused by human activity."

It listed likely effects of global warming: arid regions will grow dryer, rising seas will flood coastal areas, melting glaciers will flood communities downstream and then dry up the source of future water supplies, and up to 30 percent of all plant and animal species may become extinct.

Since then, new evidence has emerged showing that ice caps in the Arctic and Antarctic are melting, which threatens to dramatically raise the level of the oceans and flood coastal cities and low-lying islands.

"Small island states are living in a state of fear," he said.

But Pachauri said there was no conclusive evidence the world is in imminent danger.