From the Nation:
If Gore Were Arrested... Mark Hertsgaard
Wed Oct 24, 4:04 PM ET

(Though this is an opinion piece, it has some startling, exciting news in it).

The Nation -- Fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his climate change evangelism, Al Gore is apparently considering an invitation from a prominent environmental group to engage in civil disobedience against the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Rainforest Action Network issued the invitation to the former Vice President, according to RAN executive director Michael Brune. The San Francisco-based group has a twenty-year history of protesting against destructive logging practices and other causes of climate change; it specializes in targeting corporations as much as governments.

"We came across a quote from Gore in an interview with [New York Times] columnist Nicholas Kristof back in August, saying he didn't understand, quote, 'Why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them constructing new coal-fired power plants,'" said Brune. "We thought, 'Great idea!' That's the kind of activism we do at RAN. So we decided to invite Gore to join us."

Gore's office confirmed that the former Vice President had received RAN's invitation and was considering it, though no decision has been made.

"He has not accepted any of their offers to date," Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, said of the RAN offer. Kreider did not deny that this phrasing leaves open the possibility of Gore saying yes down the road.

RAN plans a national day of protest against coal on November 16, according to Brune.

If Gore did end up getting arrested during a protest against a coal-fired power plant, it would make front-page news throughout the world and put a spotlight on what some climate scientists and activists consider the single most important priority in the fight against climate change: halting the use of coal as the world's top source of electricity production. Coal is the most carbon-intensive of the three major fossil fuels (the others are oil and natural gas) whose combustion produces most of the carbon dioxide that is helping to raise temperatures and change climatic patterns on earth.

NASA scientist James Hansen, the man who first warned during testimony before the US Senate in 1988 that man-made greenhouse gas emissions were warming the planet, has called for a complete ban on new coal-fired power plants "until we have the technology to capture and sequester the CO 2 ." That technology, Hansen estimates, is "probably five or ten years away." Any plants built without that technology "are going to have to be bulldozed," argues Hansen, if the earth is to avoid "dramatic climate changes that produce what I would call a different planet."

John McCain, the Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate, reportedly told a crowd in New Hampshire this week that he would consider supporting a ban on new coal-fired power plants if he could be shown possible alternatives. McCain was responding to a question from activists with Step It Up, a grassroots organization pushing for bolder federal action against climate change, including a total ban on coal. Step It Up plans a national day of demonstrations on November 3, exactly one year before the 2008 presidential election.

The State of Kansas recently denied a permit for construction of a coal-fired power plant due to concern over the plant's CO 2 emissions. "I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment if we do nothing," said Roderick Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment, in explaining his rejection of the permit for the Sunflower Electric Power company.

In neighboring Iowa, Hansen is offering expert testimony in a lawsuit aiming to halt construction of the Sutherland Generating Station Unit 4 coal-fired plant. "Coal will determine whether we continue to increase climate change or slow the human impact," Hansen testified.

A native of Iowa, Hansen contended that a decision by his state to reject coal-fired power plants could be an important tipping point that would trigger broader shifts in public opinion and institutional behavior. "If the public begins to stand up in a few places and successfully oppose the construction of power plants that burn coal without capturing the CO 2 , this may begin to have a snowballing effect, helping utilities and politicians to realize that the public prefers a different path, one that respects all life on the planet."

Asked why he is focusing on Iowa when China is building many more coal-fired power plants, Hansen replied that China and other developing nations "must be part of the solution to global warming, and surely they will be, if developed nations take the appropriate first steps." The United States, Hansen noted, is responsible for three times as much of the excess CO 2 in the atmosphere as any other nation.

True enough. But if China keeps building new coal plants at a rate of one every ten days, it won't much matter if US companies turn away from coal. The campaign against coal must be global if it is to succeed.

Al Gore could launch this campaign with a bang if he joined activists in facing down the bulldozers. But a word of advice, Mr. Gore: make a US power plant your first target, but don't leave out China and the rest of the world. Carbon is a climate killer, wherever it originates.

Oops. Here's the link to the Nation piece above:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20071024...71105hertsgaard

The way I feel about something like this..........IT SUCKS. Even the thought of something like this happening to AL. I don't care how many awards the real president has won, hasn't AL GORE taken enough abuse from lowlife scum over the past seven years??? :bad:

Al is above a "getting arrested" event.

What would be the side effects of an arrest?

Possibly not being able to get into the primary race?

Wouldn't that play into the rabid rights hands?

It would draw media attention- but what kind? Remember the media is just a PR machine for the GOP and Bush.

Think several strategic moves down the board and the options or consequences.

Hey kids,

Listen up: Getting deliberately arrested for reasons of conscience has a long and hallowed history in the annals of fighting for social justice.

The father of NON-VIOLENT civil disobedience is of course Mohandas K. Gandhi, who is reknowned the world over for creating a mass movement to free India from British colonial rule, when no power but moral force was available to them. He was thrown into jail a number of times, fasted as a protest, and inspired a whole nation to rise up. they never could have defeated the British as a military force, but they did as a moral force.

And Gandhi's spiritual child in our country was Martin Luther King, who, though arrested for his acts of civil disobedience, changed the consciousness of America with regard to race and equality. Now we have a national holiday with which we honor him - the only person-based holiday we have to honor a non-president! Think about that!

Activists in the civil rights movement of the 60's and the anti-war movement of the 60's and 70's regularly used civil disobedience. There were the sit-ins of blacks at "white" lunch counters, to integrate segregated businesses in the south. I think that's where the term "sit-in" even comes from - sitting at a counter, not getting service, but nonetheless taking one's seat. Same with sitting in the buses. There were sit-ins in college campuses, take-overs of congressional offices, lie-ins, and die-ins during the Viet Nam war. There were the Berrigan brothers - anti-war activist priests - who staged sit-ins, spilling of (animal?) blood at the Pentagon, if I remember correctly, and the destruction of papers at ROTC recruitment offices. A number of people have lain down on the tracks of trains which were bringing armaments to to a facility (one Massachusetts man lost his legs when the train did not stop!). And who will ever forget that brave young Chinese man who stood in front of a tank in Tienamen Square during the student uprising? Today we have the Raging Grannies, plus other groups, such as members of Code Pink who make their presence known in Congressional hearings, and so forth.

Some of the language that Gore uses is straight from Gandhi: have you heard him refer to "truth force"? That's from the word "Satyagraha", which was Gandhi's (Hindi?) word for the same thing.

If you are arrested for non-violent civil disobedience, it is not a felony, on its own. So there is no danger to losing the right to vote or hold office.

Those who commit civil disobedience show tremendous courage, vision, and leadership, demonstrating that (as Gandhi probably said) to obey an immoral law or to allow an immoral policy to remain is immoral, and it is a moral duty to stand against it. Al Gore would acquit himself (as he always does) with great dignity, resolve, and moral authority.

I don't know that Al Gore will commit civil disobedience, but if he did, he couldn't choose better than to protest this coal plant effort along with R.A.N. If he did, it would be very effective, illuminating, and probably transformative, and kick the green movement to a whole new level, perhaps to a tipping point. It would also show his depth of commitment to change, and inspire half the young people in America. It would be extremely powerful, and help grow the green movement. Many young people would be honored to be arrested along with him. If he were even to be present at an event where civil disobedience were scheduled to take place, the organizers would have to beat people off with a stick to keep them away from participating, such will be the level of inspiration!

That he is even thinking about it - and letting the public know that he might consider it - is a statement in itself, that an urgent and galvanizing response is needed. Don't you feel your heart beat just a little faster, to know that Al Gore would even consider putting himself on the front lines of activism?

That was a thought provoking post. Thanks Whybaby. :Y:

Oh, you're so welcome, TNBlue! I can talk about this period of history with some authority, having been there; that's one benefit of being "old" (I'm Al's age)!
:lol: