Tim DeChristopher

Tim DeChristopher is a national hero. Now he’s in legal trouble for fake bidding on federal land and his trial is coming up.

Join the Climate Trial

On March 15-18, concerned citizens and activists will converge around Tim’s trial in Utah.  His crime was saving land that belongs to all of us from falling into the greedy hands of fossil fuel developers and profiteers.

The following article was co-written by Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, Terry Tempest Williams, world renowned wildlife author, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of The End Of Nature, and Dr. James Hansen, author of Storms of my Grandchildren, website at  http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/, and who is regarded as the country’s leading climate scientist.

All recognize the trial of Tim DeChristopher to be a turning point in the climate movement. If there are to be more necessary acts of civil disobedience on environmental issues in the coming years, this is a very important trial.    See climatetrial.com for more information.

Dear Friends,

The epic fight to ward off global warming and transform the energy system that is at the core of our planet’s economy takes many forms: huge global days of action, giant international conferences like the one that just failed in Copenhagen, small gestures in the homes of countless people.

But there are a few signal moments, and one comes next month, when the federal government puts Tim DeChristopher on trial in Salt Lake City. Tim–”Bidder 70″–pulled off one of the most creative protests against our runaway energy policy in years: he bid for the oil and gas leases on several parcels of federal land even though he had no money to pay for them, thus upending the auction. The government calls that “violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act” and thinks he should spend ten years in jail for the crime; we call it a noble act, a profound gesture made on behalf of all of us and of the future.

Tim’s action drew national attention to the fact that the Bush Administration spent its dying days in office handing out a last round of favors to the oil and gas industry. After investigating irregularities in the auction, the Obama Administration took many of the leases off the table, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar criticizing the process as “a headlong rush.” And yet that same Administration is choosing to prosecute the young man who blew the whistle on this corrupt process.

We cannot let this stand. When Tim disrupted the auction, he did so in the fine tradition of non-violent civil disobedience that changed so many unjust laws in this country’s past. Tim’s upcoming trial is an occasion to raise the alarm once more about the peril our planet faces. The situation is still fluid–the trial date has just been set, and local supporters are making plans for how to mark the three-day proceedings. But they are asking people around the country to flood into [...]