Compiled by The Bedford Citizen
Along with climate justice activists Tim DeChristopher and Karenna Gore Schiff, Rev. John Gibbons, the senior minister at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church on Bedford Common, demonstrated against the West Roxbury Lateral (WRL) pipeline and was arrested on June 29. The pipeline is being built by Spectra Energy’s subsidiary in Waltham, Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC.
Upon completion, the pipeline would carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale fracking fields in Pennsylvania to Boston through a densely populated urban area. A metering and regulating station is to be built adjacent to an active blasting quarry, West Roxbury Crushed Stone, at the corner of Grove and Washington Streets. There, the pipeline pressure will be stepped down through a series of above ground pipes and valves, from 750 psi to the range of 22 to 62 psi before it feeds into National Grid’s distribution system for the City of Boston. (Source: www.ResistThePipeline.org)
Rebuffed by a phalanx of Boston Police before reaching the pipeline construction site in the morning, the demonstrators held a symbolic funeral service to commemorate those whose lives may end up in the mass graves recently dug in Karachi in preparation for a future wave of heat-related deaths. More than 1,000 lost their lives in Pakistan’s June, 2015 heat wave.
“The trench being dug for the pipeline is eerily reminiscent of the mass graves dug in anticipation of climate deaths in Pakistan,” said Rev. Gibbons in an email, “and the demonstrators lay in the trenches to call attention to the deaths that are already being caused by climate warming.”
Twenty-three protestors returned to the pipeline construction site in the early afternoon with the element of surprise on their side. The number of patrolmen was reduced to two detail officers, and with little effective opposition the demonstrators quickly took their places within and alongside the trench.
“My head was at Karenna Gore Schiff’s feet,” said Rev. Gibbons, whose green pastoral stole almost exactly matched the color of the pipe.
Boston Fire and Police reinforcements were quickly summoned, and the number of emergency vehicles speeding to the site gave rise to the rumor on one Boston news blog that the Spectra trench had collapsed trapping eight people.
Above: Emergency personnel were called to the scene to remove the demonstrators from the trench – Images (c) Peter Bowden, 2016 all rights reserved. Click each image to view at full resolution
While Rev. Gibbons and some of the demonstrators climbed out of the trench at police request, several refused and were removed via Boston Fire Department rescue baskets. All 23 demonstrators were arrested and taken to one of three police stations (West Roxbury, Hyde Park or Jamaica Plain) for booking.
Christine Dudley-Marling and Judy Curcio were on hand for the demonstration and volunteered to support Rev. Gibbons in the event of his arrest. The two waited near the West Roxbury station house until he was released around 8 pm on Wednesday evening.
Each has a passion for climate justice. “This is an urgent crisis that we have caused by our over-use of fossil fuels in our extravagant Western lifestyle,” said Dudley-Marling. Curcio added, “I want my grandkids to be able to enjoy the earth as much as I have.”
“Climate justice,” said Rev. Gibbons, “is the paramount issue of our era. Whatever we do, or don’t do, will reverberate forever.”
According to a report in the New York Times, Karenna Gore Schiff and Tim DeChristopher were arraigned on July 1 on charges of trespassing, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace; they will return to court on July 29.
Rev. Gibbons has already appeared in court where Wednesday’s criminal charges were reduced to a civil complaint. He was previously arrested on May 25, having committed civil disobedience at the construction site while dressed in 18th century attire as chaplain to the Bedford Minuteman Company. For that offense he will return to court on July 20 to face charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace.
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