Photo: Protesters holding sign on Capitol steps. Courtesy of Paul Chekoten
By Alice McIntyre
On Oct. 5, Indigenous climate activists of Washington held a rally of over 200 at the State Legislature to demand the declaration of a climate emergency. Demonstrators holding banners and signs critical of Governor Inslee’s environmental policies gathered peacefully to listen to several speakers, primarily from Indigenous communities of the South Sound. Rally organizers and attendees openly criticized energy companies such as Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Puget Sound Energy (PSE). Speakers drew particular attention to the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) project in Tacoma, with demonstrators chanting, “No LNG in the 253!”
The activists, affiliated with Protectors of the Salish Sea, began to occupy the Capitol steps on Sept. 24, after a 46-mile walk from the Tacoma LNG facility. In a letter to Governor Inslee, they demanded an end to all fossil fuel projects in the state, the honoring of treaty agreements, and the convening of a special legislative session in 2020 on the climate crisis. In the letter, they state, “While the Arctic recently experienced unprecedented 87-degree heat waves and more than 40 million acres burned in colossal wildfires, Washington State continues upon a path of illegal climate system degradation by expanding fossil fuels and likewise breaking all of the treaties with Washington State Tribes by contributing to climate chaos that is causing the shallowing and warming of our rivers and estuaries which in turn is causing salmon populations to go into shock and die.”
The Indigenous demonstrations followed a prior protest at the Capitol on Sept. 20, where 2,000 youth-led protesters filled the steps of the Legislative Building to demand government action against climate change. The action was part of an internationally-coordinated series of demonstrations dubbed the “Global Climate Strike,” taking place in over 100 countries and involving millions of people.
While recent climate-based actions have shared common protest tactics, in the past, environmental activists in Olympia have had different approaches. Previously, on two separate occasions protesters blockaded rail tracks to prevent the transportation of fracking sands from the Port of Olympia to North Dakota. The first of the two blockades happened on Nov. 11, 2016, where 12 people were arrested in a police raid just seven days later. The next year, on Nov. 17, 2017, another port blockade arose and lasted nearly two weeks and involved between 75 and 100 people each day, according to the Washington Post.
The Olympia Port Blockades were in solidarity with the Apr. 2016 to Feb. 2017 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The DAPL protest involved tens of thousands of people occupying land in order to block construction on the unceded Standing Rock Sioux territory and were met with heavy police violence.
These past protests, along with the ongoing demonstrations at the State Capitol, center the defense of indigenous sovereignty alongside environmental concerns. The fight against the DAPL developed nationally, with pressure exerted on the government as well as banks financing the project. Anti-DAPL protests resulted in the Seattle City Council voting to divest from Wells Fargo. Similar divestment tactics have been pushed by local organizations such as Olympia Assembly, which initiated a “Week of Action to Shut Down ICE Profiteers”.
“Washington State continues upon a path of illegal climate system degradation”
Concurrent with the occupation happening at the Capitol is an ongoing environmental battle for land protection at the sacred historic site Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Indigenous and environmental activists, dubbing themselves “protectors” as opposed to protesters, mobilized to oppose the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on top of the mountain. The protectors cite both the environmental impacts of construction, as well as the significance of Mauna Kea to indigenous Hawaiian spirituality as the basis for their opposition to the TMT. Those opposed to the telescope have nonviolently blocked the roads to the construction site, delaying the project and shutting down other astronomical facilities at the sacred mountain. Demonstrations in solidarity with the struggle at Mauna Kea have been held elsewhere throughout the country, according to the New York Times, and a large number of astronomers signed a letter in support of the protectors against arrests. The protests have forced those in charge of the TMT to consider a “Plan B” site in the Canary Islands.
The Oct. 5 demonstration and others like it follow a general intensification of environmental activism nationally and internationally over the past decade. The UK-originated “Extinction Rebellion” (XR) movement has held continuous protests and occupations in London and has spread internationally alongside the Global Climate Strike. On its website, XR first and foremost demands that “Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.”
Concerns around climate change are scientifically-rooted. According to a report by several climate scientists published on Vox, summers in the southwest will reach temperatures that make it dangerous to be outside by 2050. The report projects that weather patterns will shift, having dramatic effects on agriculture and thus the world’s food supply. A Sept. 19 article from NBC reports that between 1970 and the present, the total bird population in North America has declined by three billion, with steep population drops also reported for insects and amphibians.
BBC reported that in Nov., a single heatwave in Australia wiped out a third of the spectacled fruit bat population. Several hurricanes such as, Maria and Irma have made a devastating impact on communities in the Caribbean, and the Union of Concerned Scientists has identified a trend of increased hurricane activity since the 1970s. Biodiversity is rapidly depleting, with the World Wildlife Foundation estimating that 10,000 species go extinct every year. All of this and more, combined with rising sea levels, paints a bleak picture of the future if action is not taken.
A 2017 article by The Guardian reported that just 100 corporations were responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. The shareholders, owners, and board members of these corporations would thus, to the perspective of some, be directly responsible for unparalleled amounts of past, present, and future ecological devastation. It is clear that large numbers of people in Olympia and throughout the world are angry at an economic and political establishment they deem to be the source of a potential extinction event threatening human and non-human life alike. Systemic transformation, however, seems to be absent from the dominant messaging of the environmental movement.The question is thus raised as to how this anger will manifest. Two trends seem to dominate environmental activism. On the one hand, there’s electoral politics, supporting government action through policies like the Green New Deal. On the other, a number of environmentalists favor civil disobedience and direct action against projects, institutions, and systems they view as negatively impacting the planet’s well-being, taking a more aggressive approach to pressure government institutions. Only time will tell which direction climate activists take.
