Climate Campaigners Were on Terrorist List

[Viking12]

Welcome to 1984.

For a 13-month stretch starting in March 2005, three environmentalists working for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network were listed in a Maryland State Police data base as being “suspected of involvement in terrorism.” The description went on to note that the police had “no evidence whatsoever of any involvement in violent crime,” and the listing, and possible tracking, did not continue. But the activists — not surprisingly — were not happy to hear about this when they received letters from the state police earlier this month informing them of the situation.

On his blog, Mike Tidwell, the founder of the Chesapeake-area climate group and author of Bayou Farewell, decried the situation, saying his work hardly amounts to terrorism: “Since 2001, I have devoted my life entirely to the peaceful promotion of windmills and solar panels to solve global warming. Apparently not everyone liked my work, however.”

Josh Tulkin, who just moved to the Energy Action Coalition after working for the Chesapeake group for several years, also received a letter, along with a third person at the organization who does not want to discuss the incident. I met Mr. Tulkin during the stretch when he was on the “terrorist” list, at the 2005 climate-treaty talks in Montreal.


Josh TulkinTo all appearances, he was a sincere and passionate member of a contingent of hundreds of young people sifting among delegates to press the idea that today’s “fossils,” the generation running countries and companies now, were hijacking their climate. The closest thing to civil disobedience that I saw was a cluster of youth activists camped out in a cavernous hallway singing a repurposed Beatles tune: “All we are saying, is give youth a chance.”

More: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/climate-campaigners-on-terrorist-list/

Youtube commentary from "suspected terrorist":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SafNEc0LhzA

[lynnertic]

1. “All we are saying, is give youth a chance.”

Ptht. They gave youth a chance in the 70s and it brought us ....here. Wasted climate. Seas full of plastic. Entire populations on prozac. Poison in baby food.

The kids aren't as scary to the status quo as us GenXers -- we are the grownups now. The kids are good for skipping school to block intersections (and shipping ports!! Woo hoo) but it's us adults who must get to work cleaning up after our parents.