By Brooke Jarvis, Yes! Magazine
In a few days, Tim DeChristopher will face two felony charges for disrupting a federal auction of oil and gas leases on public lands (by bidding $1.8 million he didn't have on more than 22,000 acres of land, an action that got the auction results thrown out long enough for the Obama administration to rule the process illegitimate). If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. DeChristopher doesn't regret his decision—in fact, he hopes a lot more people will follow their convictions to take direct, nonviolent action to stop climate change.
[Click here for the rest of the interview, in which DeChristopher discusses the mechanisms of people power and what it would take for the climate movement to shut down the fossil fuel industry].
But DeChristopher's experience has taught him a lot about the legal processes—and history—of civil disobedience in the United States. I asked him about his expectations for the trial and why the judge in his case has restricted him from discussing the motivation for his actions: slowing global climate change by keeping fossil fuel in the ground.
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