The People's Climate March Makes History

The People's Climate March on September 21, 2014, was one of the best days for the environmental movement in history. Thousands turned out to march all over the world, including over 400,000 marchers in New York City.

Listen to the roar of the crowd after the moment of silence! We are the future, hear us roar! :)

Jane Goodall, Al Gore and Bill de Blasio marched together during the “People’s Climate March.” Getty Images pic.twitter.com/zgwHDMNEF5

— Rebecca Leahy (@rlbrasket) September 22, 2014

#PeopleClimateMarch http://t.co/rFOD9nIV9Z display their beautiful hand-painted banner at #ClimateMarch pic.twitter.com/IARKJS0ryk

— john zangas (@johnzangas) September 21, 2014

#Indigenous resistance #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/tVhnTSsY35 via @democracynow #firstnations #climatemarch #ClimateJustice #Climate2014

— #Munduruku (@PersonalEscrito) September 22, 2014

Celebrating the Birthday of Naturalist John Muir

John Muir is often called a "Scottish-American" because he was born in Scotland. But he was really an all-American hero, striding across the landscape in search of natural treasures and using his skill as a writer to help preserve the wilderness. He was key to founding our National Park System, especially the great western parks of Yellowstone and Yosemite. He founded the Sierra Club which carries on his great work to this day.

Happy Birthday, John Muir!!! How fitting that his birth is one day before Earth Day.

"The Battle for Conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong."
~ John Muir







From PBS

John Muir was one of the earliest advocates of the national park idea, and its most eloquent spokesman. Born in Dunbar, Scotland, he moved with his family to a Wisconsin farm in 1849. Muir's father, an itinerant Presbyterian minister, treated him harshly and insisted that he memorize the Bible. By age 11, he was able to recite three-quarters of the Old Testament by heart, and all of the New Testament.

Muir studied botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin and had a natural flair for inventions. In 1867, after recovering from a factory accident that left him temporarily blinded for several months, he cut short a promising career in industry to walk from Indiana to Florida, creating botanical sketches on his way. From there he sailed to California and then walked from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada – the "Range of Light" that would transform his life with his "unconditional surrender" to nature.

After working as a sheepherder in the high country for a season, Muir took a job in the Yosemite Valley in 1869, building a sawmill for James Mason Hutchings. In his free time, he roamed Yosemite, where he developed a scientific theory that the valley had been carved by glaciers. Muir felt a spiritual connection to nature; he believed that mankind is just one part of an interconnected natural world, not its master, and that God is revealed through nature.

. . . he traveled to Alaska's Glacier Bay and Washington's Mount Rainier. His writings brought national attention to two more places that would eventually become national parks.
Muir would also champion protection of the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. He was the public voice for setting aside the high country around Yosemite Valley as a national park in 1890, as well as for General Grant and Sequoia national parks.

. . . Muir was a founder and the first president of the Sierra Club; Muir Woods National Monument, a grove of redwoods north of San Francisco, is named in his honor.

Thousands March to Protest Tar Sands Pipeline and Fracking

For the first time in 120 years the The Sierra Club is urging citizens of the U.S. and Canada to practice Civil Disobedience against the XL Pipeline, planned to carry toxic tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This weekend, many protests took place across the country, and celebrities chained themselves to the gates of the White House leading to the arrest of Michael Brune, head of the Sierra Club, Julian Bond, Darryl Hannah, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..


Protests Across the Country

Thousands of people rallied in downtown San Francisco on Sunday to urge President Obama to reject construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, an action they said would prove he is committed to fighting global warming.
The demonstration across from the Ferry Building was held at the same time as similar events in cities including Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles. The main event in Washington, D.C., drew tens of thousands of supporters in what was billed as the largest climate change rally in U.S. history.

Activists Arrested in White House Protest Over XL Pipeline

Celebrities and environmental activists, including lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and civil rights leader Julian Bond, were arrested Wednesday after tying themselves to the White House gate to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also was arrested – the first time in the group's 120-year history that a club leader was arrested in an act of civil disobedience. The club's board of directors approved the action as a sign of its opposition to the $7 billion pipeline, which would carry oil derived from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.



Activist Bill McKibben, actress Daryl Hannah and NASA climate scientist James Hansen also were arrested, along with more than 40 others. They were charged with failure to disperse and obey lawful orders, and released on $100 bond each.

. . . Kennedy, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a New York-based environmental group, said he was being arrested "with regret," noting that he would prefer to contest the pipeline in court – and may eventually do so.
Kennedy, whose father was an attorney general and U.S. senator, called the pipeline "a boondoggle of monumental proportions" that will "ruin the lives of millions of people," through increased carbon pollution and likely spills.