Yesterday I went to a presentation at a local Unitarian Universalist Church from environmental activist, Tim DeCristopher, who famously outbid dozens of oil companies to protect the land and make a statement on the continued use of fossil fuels. His presentation centered around the trail of the Delta 5, five activists who tied themselves to a tripod to block a train carrying crude oil, that happened this past week. Two of the Delta 5 were also in attendance last night. The central debate in the trial was whether or not there was any other way to accomplish the same results without breaking the law, determining the criminality of their act of civil disobedience. On one hand, the judge saw legal ways to garner the media attention that their actions created, but DeCristopher disagreed.
The central argument DeCristopher presented was that civil disobedience, unlike all other forms of activism, demonstrated a critical vulnerability of those involved. Civil disobedience ignites a collective conscience by showing people willing to put their lives on the line for the change they believe in. He believed this to be the essential spirit of any movement and compared it as such to an act of prayer. He continued to say that this is what the environmentalism movement currently needs at its current stage. Put up to the jury, the Delta 5 were acquitted from their charges against stopping the train and only found guilty of trespassing.
DeCristopher was quite the convincing speaker and I found myself rethinking about the role of civil disobedience. The very real and very vulnerable act of going against the law has consistently propelled social movements to the forefront of social and political conscience and I imagine this will continue to do so, especially in the era of hashtag activism. However, I found myself wondering about how this changes the relationship between the environmentalists and the policy and law makers that we, as environmentalists, need to work with to enact meaningful change.
I also wonder about how environmentalism is different from most social movements. Through movements like Civil Rights Movement or Arab Spring, there is a specific group is being targeted that then stands up to their oppressors. With environmentalism, everyone is a target and everyone contributes. I think this is an important distinction that perhaps lessens the effects of environmental activism in the eyes of those opposed; it is easy to write off activists as privileged, hippy ecoterrorists who don’t experience the same struggles as other activists. This may be part of the reason the environmentalism movement doesn’t create the same attention as something like the Black Lives Matter movement. Yet, maybe this will change with climate justice becoming an increasingly important issue.
Civil disobedience is clearly an important part of any social movement. It is not, however, the end all be all of a movement, and I would be interested to learn more about the direct effects of civil disobedience in the environmentalism movement.