Are Climate Campaigners Terrorists?
There are few things that reveal the true nature of the kind of power we’re up against. Surveillance is one of them. Who knew that the Patriot Act and our culture of fear would target some our most inspiring change agents?
In an Orwellian turn of events, my friend Josh Tulkin, a climate organizer with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Energy Action, received a letter in the mail last week from the State of Maryland that he had been under surveillance for about one year, and suspected of terrorism, simply for being a climate organizer.
Here’s the story from Andy Revkin’s dot.earth blog:
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.
And a video response from Josh:
