On Tuesday, five residents of Seattle and Everett, WA, working with Rising Tide Seattle, stopped work at a Burlington Northern Santa-Fe Rail Yard in Everett by erecting a tripod-structure on the outbound railroad tracks, directly in front of a mile-long oil train.
Seattle resident, small business owner and mother Abby Brockway took bold and effective action by climbing the 18-foot tall tripod. A tripod is a tool used traditionally in forest defense that looks like a teepee without the tent canvas.
Brockway was arrested, along with four other members of her team, after sitting atop a tripod for eight hours. The blockade stopped trains carrying both coal and oil. Numerous times, the police tried to extract her and she held out with additional lockdown devices to prolong her occupation. Also at one point she told the police, she’d come down if three of them would sign her petition to Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee asking him to stop oil by rail in Washington state. They refused and she remained until rescue workers finally extracted her.
We’re in an amazing moment where suburban moms are climbing atop devices traditionally used by crusty forest defenders to stop pollution and climate change. It is courageous actions like this that will push envelopes and shift paradigms in this fight against fossil fuels and climate change.
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