Activist calls for pro-environment uprising

Nothing short of an uprising will stop the destruction of the environment, activist Tim DeChristopher told a standing-room-only crowd Friday night.

And while the federal government contemplates charging DeChristopher as a criminal, the more than 300 people crowded into the First Unitarian Church at 569 S. 1300 East hailed him as a hero.

DeChristopher discussed the need for environmental activists to use civil disobedience to accomplish their goals.

"I don't use the word 'uprising' lightly," DeChristopher said. "Because anything short of that will not get us where we need to go."

On Dec. 19, DeChristopher disrupted an auction of oil and gas drilling leases by bidding on land for which he told the Deseret News he "had no intention to pay." According to auction records, DeChristopher won the bidding on 13 parcels and drove up the price on several others.

DeChristopher was questioned then escorted out of the Bureau of Land Management Building in Utah after other bidders complained about his unusual tactics. He has yet to hear whether or not he will face federal charges in connection with the auction.

"It's really been overwhelming and emotional for me to see so many people who stand in solidarity with what I did," said DeChristopher, who twice received standing ovations from the crowd. "It's been encouraging and it's given me more hope than I've had for a long time to see that so many others value the land and value the climate and value a participatory democracy as much as I do."

DeChristopher said that in the fight to save our future, there is only one thing too valuable to sacrifice: our humanity. He told the crowd that the uprising must be peaceful and nonviolent.

"As much as those who choose their own short-term profits over the lives and well-being of everyone else on this planet," DeChristopher said, "as much as they may ask for violent retribution, as much as they may deserve it, we cannot go down that path. We must remain peaceful."

Other speakers at the event included former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, the University of Utah's graduate school dean, David Chapman, and the Rev. Tom Goldsmith of the First Unitarian Church.

"The ultimate moral question for each of us is, what did I do that made a difference?" Anderson said.

DeChristopher implored the crowd to look for the opportunities, which are all around, to do just that — make a difference.

He compared the environmental movement to a football game.

"Our team is getting slaughtered. The referees have been paid off. There's no rules, and the other side is playing with dirty tricks. It's time for us to (stop standing on the sidelines and) rush the field."

---

E-mail: kkuhn@desnews.com