By Josh Hughes
Last October, five brave climate activists across the country collectively organized to illegally close safety valves on all five pipelines carrying tar sands crude oil into the U.S. from Canada. Emily Johnston, Ken Ward, Annette Klapstein, Leonard Higgins and Michael Foster all worked in conjunction with one another on October 11, 2016 to turn the valves of all pipelines and safely shut down the import of crude oil for a period of time. All five of the ‘valve turners’ will be starting a tour in the Puget Sound area, visiting colleges and other institutions to give a panel and lecture, and the first stop on their trek is here at Western.
On Tuesday, April 11, the Students for Renewable Energy (SRC) will be hosting the talk on campus, which is meant to provide an evening of discussion on climate change action and the current issues involving pipelines in this country. The five speakers, who are all still in the middle of legal involvement concerning their actions, will have a chance to talk to students about the significance of their movement, which has been dubbed “the biggest coordinated move on U.S. energy infrastructure ever undertaken by environmental protesters” by Reuters.
The five activists, who all come from vastly different backgrounds in conservation and climate change awareness, felt the need to come together to make a physical impact on the conversation around global warming–outside of the political conversation.
“In order to preserve life as we know it and civilization, give us a fair chance–and our kids a fair chance, I’m taking action as a citizen. I am duty bound,” Michael Foster said in the brief documentary on the valve turners that can be found on their website at http://www.shutitdown.today.
Their collective, ongoing mission is to raise awareness and lessen ignorance on active ways that the public can combat climate change and the greed of big oil companies, and their campaign #ShutItDown seeks to continue the work that they have started.
When the five first shut off the valves, other activists working with them called those responsible for maintaining the pipelines to make sure that they would safely be shut off. Additionally, at the time of their trespassing, all five realized the imminent threat of going to jail for decades for their actions.
Speaking just before going to shut off the valve, Emily Johnston said “(I feel) somber and worried, but also serene. You know, at this point we have to do something,” expressing her ultimate peace with her efforts to combat the pipeline industry.
The most immediate effect of the movement was that Johnston, Ward, Klapstein, Higgins and Foster alone shut down 15% of all crude oil imports into the country on the day they executed their plan. The lasting effects, however, speak more to a movement than the visceral impact of their rebelling against the industry. Inspired by the #NoDAPL movement, #ShutItDown hopes to spread across the country in the next months as the five activists tour colleges to talk about their experiences and the next logical steps in the process of dismantling the energy-intensive, wasteful system that the United States is built on.
This takes us to Western, specifically in Communications Facility room 120, where the valve turners will hold their talk at 6 p.m. on April 11, kicking off their Northwest tour of lectures. Students can meet these environmental champions, hear them talk and ask any questions they may have regarding the movement. It still has a long way to go, but activists like the valve turners and movements like #ShutItDown are physically standing up for the wellbeing of the earth and all its inhabitants, and we have the chance to take action with them.
Featured image from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=677.