Tim DeChristopher

This morning, before the start of today's historic Delta 5 trial, Tim DeChristopher and defendant Abby Brockway spoke with Democracy Now! about the significance of the case.  This is the first time a U.S. court has heard a ‘necessity defense’ in a case relating to climate action.

For full trial coverage visit the Climate Disobedience Center and Delta 5 trial websites. For Tim's live tweeting on the trial follow @DeChristopher.

Follow @dechristopher

Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,300+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9am ET: http://democracynow.org

Watch Tim's recent segment on the Greenhouse (Shift | MSNBC) with Tony Dokoupil. This segment originally aired on the Greenhouse with the title "The fight to protect climate activism."
Duration: 5:53

On today's episode of Democracy Now! Tim discusses the #KeepItInTheGround campaign and the launch of the new Climate Disobedience Center.

Segment description via Democracy Now!
A coalition of more than 400 organizations have called on the White House to stop issuing new fossil fuel leases on public lands and oceans. More than 67 million acres of public land and ocean are already leased to the fossil fuel industry. The coalition says that declaring unleased oil, gas and coal on public lands as "unburnable" would accomplish more in the global fight against climate change than any other single action taken by the Obama administration. Joining us to discuss the new campaign is climate justice activist Tim DeChristopher. In 2008, DeChristopher spent 21 months in federal prison after he disrupted an oil and gas leasing auction on public land in Utah by posing as a bidder. Tim DeChristopher is now one of the co-founders of the new Climate Disobedience Center, which is among the many organizations calling for the end to all new fossil fuel leases on public lands.

Cross posted on the Climate Disobedience Center website.

Big day...  Not only is Tim at the #KeepItInTheGround event in front of the White House, this morning the new Climate Disobedience Center website went live.  Below is a brief overview of the CDC by Tim and Jay O'Hara.  Make sure to visit and share climatedisobedience.org! 

Founded by Tim DeChristopher, Marla Marcum, Jay O'Hara and Ken Ward, the Climate Disobedience Center brings together an experienced team of climate dissidents to provide logistical, legal and spiritual resources, on the ground assistance, and advice to climate activists organizing civil disobedience campaigns across the country

The Center will deploy those assets to nurture strong, grounded communities of resistance willing to take risks of moral imagination. We are committed to supporting those who hold allegiance to a higher moral law from action design through the legal process and consequences of action.

The goal is for the Climate Disobedience Center to serve as a catalyst for direct action, creating points of vivid moral clarity, emboldening both climate activists and the unlikeliest of allies, capturing the heart and soul of the climate debate. 

Climate Disobedience Center founders O'Hara, DeChristopher, Marcum, Ward hold photo of Lobster Boat Blockade action at press conference

For 30 years environmentalists have attempted to change the United State's and world's trajectory on fossil fuel emissions through incremental reform efforts. Drawing on conventional wisdom, environmental advocates believed their efforts would lead to sufficient incremental change to avert disaster. Those efforts have failed, and in the ensuing decades the magnitude and urgency of the crisis has escalated dramatically. Drawing on current science, we recognize that what is needed is a massive, decisive end to the fossil fuel era to avert the worst cascading effects of the climate crisis.

We recognize that what is needed is a massive, decisive end to the fossil fuel era to avert the worst cascading effects of the climate crisis, and that civil disobedience will play a critical role in bringing this about.

Climate activists engaging in civil disobedience, the Climate Disobedience Center exists to get your back.  Rather than a set curriculum, we offer flexible services to help meet the needs of activists and organizing communities.  Everything we do revolves around our principles instead of a structure.  Our goal is to encourage experimentation that expands the boundaries of climate movement organizing.  We aren’t looking for foot soldiers, but partners in experimentation. 

If you and your community want to do civil disobedience but aren’t sure where or how to start, the CDC can facilitate trainings that help you pull off a successful campaign.

If you have already taken action and gotten into some good trouble, the CDC can help you make the most of it.  We can help you craft your strategy inside and outside the courtroom.

For activists who are taking bold, creative and principled action against the fossil fuel industry, we provide our services, from phone consultation to extended on-the-ground organizing, free of charge.

Visit the Climate Disobedience Center

District Attorney Sam Sutter makes history siding with Lobster Boat Blockade protesters, Jay O'Hara and Ken Ward.