Maybe public pressure really can make a difference.
Earlier this week, Earth Tribe was alerted by Peaceful Uprising that jailed environmentalist Tim DeChristopher had been thrown into an isolation cell or Special Housing Unit a couple of weeks before. The story was that an unidentified U.S. congressmen had called the jail complaining about an email the environmentalist had sent to a friend. DeChristopher was inquiring about the reported business practices of one of his legal fund contributors, threatening to return the money if their values no longer aligned with his own.
He would stay cooped up in an 8-foot by 10-foot cell until an investigation was carried out.
Inmates thrown into the Special Housing Unit may wait for months for the conclusion of an investigation, it was said.
Supporters matter
DeChristopher, though, has friends.
The activist was moved into the unit on March 9. As soon as his NGO Peaceful Uprising and his lawyer heard about it, they began looking at their legal options, the decision made to keep the story under wraps. The wrong move could have jeopardized DeChristopher’s position, particularly as his lawyer is pursuing an appeal against his two-year sentence.
However, they came to the conclusion that the best course of action was to release news of this development.
As soon as the news was released, news stories and chatter on Facebook and Twitter saw people rallying in support. His lawyers said a campaign by influential environmental leaders and widespread media coverage led the U.S. Department of Justice to order the Bureau of Prison to release DeChristopher.
No more than 48 hours had transpired between release of the news and DeChristopher’s release.
Relieved to be out of ‘isolation’
The 30-year-old activist called his supporters Thursday to say he was out of isolation and back in a nearby minimum-security camp with full privileges after spending 20 days in the dock, Pat Shea, one of his lawyers told reporters.
The U.S. Bureau of Prison won’t confirm or deny that DeChristopher was punished or discuss the nature of any of his emails, according to media reports. Shea said DeChristopher’s casual use of the word “threaten” was inadvisable “and I think he learned a lesson that you don’t necessarily put all of your thoughts down in emails.”
Shea added, “He’s not locked in and can go back to his job in the kitchen and take a walk.”
The offense that put him in jail
As many people will be aware, DeChristopher was jailed for two years for disrupting an auction in December 2008 of land parcels for oil and gas drilling, claiming they were illegal. The activist had turned up to protest but said he impulsively grabbed a bidder’s paddle and ran up prices for drilling parcels near the famous Arches and Canyonlands national parks. His bidding cost angry oil men hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher bids for their parcels, and DeChristopher ended up with $1.7 million in leases for which he couldn’t pay and said he wouldn’t pay. But when he later offered to cover it with an Internet fundraising campaign, the government refused to accept any of the money after the fact. DeChristopher has said the administration of former President George W. Bush violated environmental laws in holding the auction. A federal judge later blocked many of his leases from being issued.
Icon for the environmental movement
DeChristopher has become a hero and icon for the environmental movement, a guy who says protesting on the streets and signing petitions is not enough. Civil disobedience is the tool to be used against threats to the environment, whether upsetting a land auction or attempting to prevent mountaintop removal.
As he says, his generation has to act and act now. That’s the message.
DeChristopher is high profile, with a loyal following who support him and the cause.
What about all the other activists who get jailed and fined? What about those whose activism has led to their death?
Environmentalists have been murdered in such countries as Brazil, Thailand, India and the Philippines. Often their murders go virtually unnoticed.
As Outside Magazine noted at the end of 2011, the news picked up on at least nine murders, from Thailand to India, where Shehla Masood, an activist who protested illegal diamond mining and worked to protect tigers and leopards from poachers was shot in August. In Brazil, three activists—Adelino Ramos, and married conservationists José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo—were murdered within a week in May.
It is important to keep in mind the potential power of public opinion. Often the people in power think they can run roughshod over the people’s rights and the interests of the land and environment.
But in this increasingly interconnected world, the fate of people fighting to protect our planet who are jailed, threatened or worse needs to make the news. The use of social media, emails and telephone calls can make a difference.
DeChristopher is lucky in living in the United States where instant communication is available virtually 24/7.
Let’s make sure that other environmentalists make the news.
This is a message that DeChristopher himself will agree with.
Tom Goldsmith on DeChristopher’s “solitary confinement”
Bidder 70 – A coming documentary by Gage & Gage Productions
Bidder 70 from Gage & Gage Productions on Vimeo.
