Message From the Editor

“Climate chaos is happening now.” Each day this week, hundreds of people, led by Indigenous climate activists, marched to the White House, made speeches, protested, and were arrested in an attempt to get President Biden’s attention focused on the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to stop supporting new fossil fuel projects. Multimedia journalist Julie Dermansky was reporting on the ground, capturing images of the first arrests of Indigenous leaders.

Over the whole week, more than 500 arrests were made and 1 million petitions delivered to the Army Corps of Engineers demanding a full environmental review of the Line 3 oil pipeline. At one point, Indigenous activists and allies occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs, stringing up custom police tape that read “Climate Emergency.” Biden, who has called the climate crisis a “code red” emergency, has yet to acknowledge the protesters and their demands.

Independent reporters play an essential role in holding our democracy accountable to its values, and that includes exposing potential wrongdoing by police and pipeline companies. Investigative journalist Karen Savage shares her perspective after being arrested twice under Louisiana’s new felony trespassing law while reporting on resistance to the Bayou Bridge pipeline construction. Ultimately, however, she wasn’t the one convicted of trespassing — that was the pipeline company. Read Karen’s story.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected].

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Readers like you make it possible for DeSmog to pursue ambitious investigations and insightful research and analysis. Can you spare $10 or $20 to support DeSmog’s investigative journalism right now?

Indigenous Leaders Among the 136 Arrested at White House Fossil Fuel Protest

— By Julie Dermansky (5 min. read) —

On October 11, Indigenous People’s Day, 136 people, including many Indigenous leaders opposing fossil fuel projects, were arrested in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., while calling on President Biden to declare a climate emergency and to stop approving fossil fuel projects. The day marked the first in a five-day-long series of protests in the nation’s capitol organized by the Build Back Fossil Free coalition, which is made up of numerous environmental and social justice advocacy groups.

Over the course of five days, thousands are expected to bring the message to Biden’s door that he must do more to protect the planet, and many demonstrators are coming prepared to participate in acts of civil disobedience, to make sure the President hears their message before next month’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. These demonstrations, labeled People vs. Fossil Fuels, are being billed as a test for Biden.

Indigenous Leaders Deliver Petitions to Army Corps DC Headquarters, After 155 Activists Arrested at The White House

— By Julie Dermansky (4 min. read) —

On the second day of ‘People vs. Fossil Fuels’ demonstrations in Washington, D.C., hundreds marched to the White House, again calling on President Biden to recognize the world is in a climate emergency and to halt approvals of new fossil fuel projects. More than 150 people were arrested for refusing to clear the sidewalk in front of the White House, just a day after similar arrests of 136 people. After the U.S. Park Police escorted the last protesters away, a second rally was held in front of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters. There, over a hundred environmental activists showed their ongoing resistance to the recently completed construction of Enbridge’s expanded Line 3 tar sands pipeline.

Raising Pressure on Biden, Dozens of Indigenous Activists Occupy Bureau of Indian Affairs and Climate Justice Advocates Decry Gulf ‘Sacrifice Zones’

— By Julie Dermansky (10 min. read) —

This week, environmental advocates addressed intensifying fossil fuel pollution, climate injustices, and the Biden administration’s failure to take the lead on climate change solutions during the People vs. Fossil Fuels protests in Washington, D.C. Their goal remains to increase the pressure on the President to declare a climate emergency. The Indigenous-led actions are supported by dozens of environmental and social justice groups from around the country and have resulted in 585 arrests so far. They began on Indigenous People’s Day, October 11, and will continue through October 15.

Thursday morning, October 14, 130 people were arrested in front of the White House. For four days, activists have marched each morning from Freedom Plaza to the White House. Some protest on the sidewalk in front of the fence and are arrested after defying orders to disperse, while others cheer them on from across the street. They say they are doing this to bring their message to Biden’s doorstop ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland next month.

I Was Targeted Under Louisiana’s Felony Trespassing Law for Reporting on Police Working for a Pipeline Company

— By Karen Savage (5 min. read) —

For the first time in nearly three years, I woke up a few months ago without felony charges hanging over my head.

I’m an investigative journalist and I’d been arrested twice in 2018, both times for allegedly trespassing on what’s known as “critical infrastructure,” a felony under a then-new Louisiana law that — at the urging of the oil and gas industry — redefined pipelines and their construction sites as critical infrastructure. (In the U.S., that term historically referred to systems necessary for society to function, such as power plants and communication lines.)

Environmental and Labor Groups Urge Canada to Support Just Transition

— By Nick Cunningham (6 min. read) —

Canada has not provided a transition pathway for its fossil fuel workers to move into other industries, and as global demand for oil and gas wanes, tens of thousands of workers could lose their jobs, say the authors of a new report.

Roughly 167,000 people are directly employed in Canada’s oil and gas industry, but increased automation combined with the energy transition and climate policy mean that half of those jobs are slated to disappear by the end of the decade, according to a report published on October 13 by the Climate Action Network Canada and Blue Green Canada, which is a coalition of labor and environmental groups.

Drax’s ‘Carbon Negative’ Bioenergy Claims ‘Wildly Exaggerated’, Study Argues

— By Phoebe Cooke (3 min. read) —

The current supply chain of biomass giant Drax “makes the impacts of climate change worse”, a new study has claimed.

Analysis by US environmental advocacy group, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), studied the emissions from wood pellets transported from pine plantations in the southeastern United States to be used in a bioenergy, carbon capture and storage (BECCS) operation by Drax in Yorkshire.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Marc Morano

Marc Morano is the executive director and chief correspondent of ClimateDepot.com, a project of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). Morano is also the Communications Director at CFACT, a conservative think tank in Washington D.C. that has received funding from ExxonMobil, Chevron, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars from foundations associated with Richard Mellon Scaife. Although he has no scientific expertise in the area, Morano has become a prominent climate change denier, accusing climate scientists of “fear mongering,” and has claimed that proponents of man-made global warming are “funded to the tune of $50 billion.”

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.