Notices by Rose Abramoff (ultracricket@climatejustice.rocks)

Yesterday I stopped work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline. I locked to the drill, 79-year-old Marty Zinn locked to part of the track (she's under the umbrella), & four others were in foot locks blocking the entrance.

Marty summed up why we're doing this beautifully: "I have lived a long life at almost 80 years old; I want to help ensure that young people today and in the future have a chance to live a life too, and one that is worth living. I am acting for them. That is why I came to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Its sole purpose is to transport fracked natural gas mostly for export to foreign countries and make a lot of money for fossil fuel corporations and their owners—meanwhile further endangering the survival of all we know."

These elders are such an inspiration to me, as are all activists working to protect their land and water. The Greenbrier River, which the drill I was sitting on will travel underneath, is the longest undammed river in the eastern US.

This pipeline endangers hundreds of waterways, and would be responsible for 90 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. We cannot build this pipeline.
Listen to the science. Listen to your elders.

#YoungAndOldUnite #NoMVP

@ScientistRebellion

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/08/us-climate-scientist-risks-felony-chaining-herself-pipeline-drill

This report is so egregious. It’s also wrong.

We can stay well below 2°C AND improve quality of life (for all but super wealthy) if we destroy the power, funding, & legitimacy of the fossil fuel industry so we can transition our energy without all this bullshit.

Let’s do that

https://t.co/GqKHpUdeSC

Most of the climate movement agrees on much more important and fundamental points than we disagree. For example (hopefully):
(1) we have to stop burning fossil fuels
(2) we must take action
(3) a diversity of tactics is good

I feel like the rest falls into specific views on what tactics work best, and what communication strategies work best. I do not know the definitive answer to these questions, but I am experimenting like hell. I plan to give both myself, and others who may have different strategies, different theories of change, room to experiment. Some experiments fail: they don’t achieve our objective, they cause some harm that we didn’t foresee. It’s important to share what we can, listen to each other, learn as quickly as we can, & keep going.

One thing that I would love to see happen this year in the climate movement is more and better communication between inside- and outside-beltway climate justice groups. There are so many missed opportunities in ongoing campaigns, where media moments created by disruptive activists generate the opening to bring groups with a more legislative focus to the negotiating table. This is typically an accident, as @ExtinctionR type groups are not always in communication with @citizensclimate type groups (although some are, locally). Even if folks do not agree on tactics or theories of change, some mutual trust and exchange of info on (at least) timing could help us engineer the so-called "radical flank effect" in a much more efficient way.

If you are in this fight, I love you and I support you. If you are not already plugged into a local group whose theory of change and tactics resonate with you, here is one way to find that group:
The March to End Fossil Fuels is actually a series of events (not just a march) in NYC, with local satellite events in the works, many groups working in coordination, many risk levels, and many ways to participate: https://www.endfossilfuels.us/getinvolved

Laaaast thing: privilege and necessity often determine what we are willing to risk as activists. Necessity drives Indigenous and frontline communities to defend their literal land and homes from point source pollution. I am also driven by necessity, but enabled by privilege. I am a white-passing, mostly cis, highly educated professional in a rich Global North country. A lot of people complain that disruptive activism is too white, and it totally is (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/understanding-the-growing-radical-flank-of-the-climate-movement-as-the-world-burns/). But there is a reason for that - being white makes it easier and safer to engage in higher risk activism. So I guess what I'm saying is: wealthy/healthy/white/male/cis/tenured profs - you could probably do a lot without ever being charged of a crime, or fired. It's important for us to understand what our privileges and capacities are, and engage accordingly. I try not to judge others' choices because not all aspects of privilege and capacity are reliably visible. If you can, join us, the water is (way too) warm.

Wow mainstream media coverage of climate protests - does this mean we are finally taking the climate emergency seriously?! One can only hope (and also take action)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/07/19/climate-protest-dc-fossil-fuels-biden-arrest-congress/
@thirdactorg @ScientistRebellion @SRTurtleIsland @ExtinctionR

Serving on the http://climateemergencyfund.org Board has been a blast so far. We fund almost all of the impactful high-risk activism that you've heard of. If you're looking for an effective place to donate, we are better than freaking carbon credits.

https://www.axios.com/2023/06/27/climate-emergency-fund-abromoff

Climate activists aren't brave, we're just afraid of the right thing.

If you ever wondered about
@ScientistRebellion's ethos, theory of change, and operating principles, please read this fantastic article: https://t.co/VslhShh8RO

Fav excerpts: "The “right to act” enables action by encouraging any form of non-violent protest aimed at making the public aware of political inaction against climate failure. SR actions support the demands and the methods of other grassroots non-violent climate movements.."

"It is important to underline that SR does not see its role as a vanguard in this collective push for change; rather SR acts as an organic part of the rich landscape of climate activism."

"For Aadila, scientist and activist from an African context, “the most important part to me as a scientist, rebellious activist, was [..] the whole support that I was getting from the global team, you know, you feel like, yes, I got this and I have people behind me”."

"Activism is more often than not the consequence of an intensive reflection process on the structures and institutions of knowledge production. The pathologies of the modern, “hopeless” (Hall, 2020) university are well-known, in particular to early career scholars faced with precarity, competitiveness and a shrinking job market. The[se] processes are openly questioned in SR activism which is instead based on what anthropologist Graeber (2014) calls “prefigurative politics”."

"Like other activists and movements in a horizontal tradition, SR activists “strive to create social relations and decision-making processes that at least approximate those that might exist in the kind of society we would like to bring about” (2014, p. 85)."

"In openly refusing certain institutional norms, SR activists take a variety of different roles: from participating in actions to pushing for sustainable practices within their institutions and using SR platforms to question scientific financing structures."

Happy anniversary to the more than 1000 people in dozens of countries who risked arrest 1 year ago today to demand climate action. It's been an interesting year. I look forward to the next.?

@SRTurtleIsland @ScientistRebellion @ClimateHuman @gregspooner

In my ongoing field research on how to get in the most trouble for the most innocuous acts ?, I was arrested yesterday with 9 elders in a Chase bank in DC for ...singing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsBe1B9jPbY&ab_channel=BeyondExtreme

We were held for 11 hours, and were barred from this bank for 5 years!

This @thirdactorg action was a continuation of the #RockingChairRebellion that started on 3/21/23

You can join or support ongoing actions to shut down banks until they drop fossil fuels

@thirdactorg
@SRTurtleIsland

This issue is a powerful example of how intersectional environmental justice is. Indigenous land, Black lives, ecosystem services, and climate resilience are all at stake here.
Summary of Weelaunee Forest and the struggle over cop city: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fPMW47tCA1g 2/

Today I'm headed to Atlanta to support the Black, Indigenous, youth and elders who are putting their bodies in the way of 85 acres of mature forest slated for destruction to build a massive police training facility #StopCopCity
@defendATLforest
http://stopcopcitysolidarity.org 1/

Today, my charges from an April 8 Declare Emergency action were dismissed. *Interesting* given how protestors from less privileged groups are often treated
@ScientistRebellion

In related news, @SRTurtleIsland has a new working group focusing on mounting and supporting climate necessity defense trials - all are welcome to help. Serving as an expert witness is a great low-risk way for climate scientists, social scientists, and health professionals to contribute.

Colleagues have asked me over the past month how they can help me (apart from, I hope, becoming activists themselves!) and I just wanted to let everyone know that I have funding to support my research coming from institutions that would rather stay out of the news.

But I am employed/employable [and you can too]! Also if any folks out there have expertise in starting non-profits, I'm seriously thinking about the need for a research institute that is not only permissive of scientist activism 1/

but actively supports it.

Meanwhile, if you have $ but not other capacity, there are many groups to support:
@ScientistRebellion @ExtinctionR
opencollective.com/srti
scientistsforxr.earth
declareemergency.org
honorearth.org
indigenousearthprotectors.com
defendtheatlantaforest.org
climateemergencyfund.org
climatedefenseproject.org
cldc.org

There are so many doing great work I'm sure I'm missing loads - please add to comments & I'll try to include in future! 2/2