Portland Climate Action

By Karen Kirchoff

Downtown Portland, Maine was the rally destination for climate activists on January 26 as 1,000 people converged to declare strong opposition to the movement of tar sands oil from Canada through the Northeast to the port of Casco Bay. GreeningRozzie board members Pam Sinotte and I joined two busloads of Massachusetts residents in support of Maine environmentalists who are working to keep the corrosive tar sands oil from their land and waters. The event was coordinated by a coalition of regional environmental groups.

Pam and I teamed up with Jamaica Plain activists from Boston Can (Climate Action Network), JP Greenhouse, and JP Net for the journey. Buses from throughout the northeast arrived in Portland to sonorous Native American drumming and spirited chanting. Creative hats spotted in the crowd included paper mache water fowl covered in tar sand oil, a fedora “Windpower” hat with pinwheels, and a gaggle of fish with a hand- puppet squid holding up a sign that read: “Fossil Fuels = Acid Oceans.” Many participants in the crowd carried signs urging wind and solar energy.

Student representatives from many regional colleges updated us on their efforts to get their universities to divest from fossil fuel companies. Also addressing the crowd were coalition activists, Jill Stein (the MA Green Party candidate), and Maine representatives. The civil disobedience at TransCanada by the Westborough 8 of Massachusetts also made it on the program.

Tar sands oil extraction is devastating the Canadian lands and waters from which it is taken. The pipeline from Canada to Portland, already built, now transports crude oil from Portland to Canada. Reversing that flow of oil is riskier. Tar sands oil poses a threat due to its corrosive, much heavier consistency. Clean-up for a spill requires technology and methods more sosphisticated -- and untested -- than for crude oil spills, which already create environmentally toxic conditions. Tar sands oil extraction also requires more intensive energy and water use. These factors contribute to greater carbon dioxide emissions into an atmosphere already containing more than the 350 parts per million deemed safe for earth’s inhabitants.

GreeningRozzie plans to hold a letter-writing gathering on Saturday, February 2 at 3:00 at Select Café (2 Belgrade Ave.). Gary Rucinski of Boston Citizens Climate Lobby will join us to talk about their effort to get a carbon tax-and-dividend on states’ ballots in 2014. Please join us! RSVP to kmkirchoff@aol.com.

For more information about the event, see www.350MA.org and www.350.org.