On Tuesday, October 9th, as Dr. James Hansen was in town to testify in the ValveTurners court case in nearby Bagley, MN, students and community members were treated to a couple of talks, entitled “Young People's World: Making Your Future Energy, Climate, Human Health & Politics”. Both speakers, Dr. James Hansen and Tara Houska, have given TED talks on climate (Hansen) and Standing Rock (Houska). The talk was hosted by Bemidji State University’s Sustainability Office.
I was able to capture video of the talks and they require a bit more processing, my equipment is a little old and the venue was packed, dark and loud. As I tweeted afterwards I was shocked by Dr. James Hansen’s endorsement of voted third party as, in his view, both parties have failed to act on climate scientist warnings. I was also alarmed by his embrace of both nuclear power and market-based solutions to reducing emissions.
It hasn’t been covered by other bloggers here on DailyKos, but the judge acquitted the Valve Turners in Bagley before this talk was given, and the mood in the large room at the American Indian Resource Center was pretty upbeat, despite the urgent IPCC report, also in the news and on everyone’s mind that night.
I plan to write more about these talks and the opportunity to address climate change and connectivity issues on our landscape here in Northern Minnesota and the Dakotas in the coming days, but I want to share some of Tara Houska’s speech with you now, to prime the pump or whet your appetite.
Tara had quite a lot to say about the experience of protesting at Standing Rock, the efficacy of protests and legal fights against tar sands pipelines, and the power of social media. My apologies for the distortions and weird camera noises, I will do a better job when I get a little more time to work with the raw video. I should probably also plan a GoFundMe or similar fundraiser to get better gear and get back in the indy journalism game, as obviously these important climate stories are not being covered well on Daily Kos and similar sites these days.