Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters linked climate and the environment to their movement this past Sunday, Oct. 30.
OWS’s environmental working group put the Climate Justice Day event together in five days, hosting workshops at New York City’s Zuccotti Park on topics such as fracking and sustainable economics.
Throughout the day, speakers drew connections between the economy and the environment. “Every bank which you are down here protesting finances extreme energy — fracking, tar sands development, mountaintop removal, deep water drilling,” said Gasland documentary director Josh Fox after a “mic check” to the crowd.
He encouraged listeners to join the protest against fracking in the Delaware River basin planned for Nov. 21 in Trenton, N.J., to protect New York City’s drinking supply. “Right now,” he said, “50 percent of New York State, including the New York City watershed, the aquifers and the aqueducts that bring the water to the city are in jeopardy of this massive natural gas drilling campaign.”
You can see Fox’s speech to the crowd here:
An animated Joshua Kahn Russell spoke about the plan to encircle the White House on Sunday, Nov. 6 to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Here’s Russell’s speech at OWS:
Also urging the OWS crowd to join the Keystone protest was incarcerated climate activist Tim DeChristopher, who sent OWS a letter from jail, which was read by Russell and Ashley Anderson from Peaceful Uprising. “The message should be clear,” DeChristopher wrote. “We’re not giving up on our future even if it’s difficult. And we need a president with similar courage.”
You can read the entire letter here, or watch the reading at OWS:
