Boston, MA — In an effort to bring attention to the growing number of deaths caused by climate driven extreme heat and the dangers of continued fossil fuel extraction, Boston area activists staged the “Mass Graves Pipeline Protests” on June 29th. To connect the dots between mass graves in Pakistan and the trenches being dug by Spectra Energy in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood, activists including my colleague Tim DeChristopher (I do media work with Tim) and Al Gore’s daughter, Karenna Gore, stormed and occupied the pipeline trenches.
A total of 23 people were arrested with six seeking to go to trial, including Tim DeChristopher and Karenna Gore. They are calling themselves the Mass Grave 6.
- Press release for the action
- Tim’s reflection Grief and Resistance: The Mass Grave Pipeline Action.
The morning of the action I asked Tim how he was thinking of it. Is this direct action? A funeral? A die-in? Tim suggested this might be something new as we enter a new age of anticipatory mass graves.
After a series of eulogies for those who have died as a direct result of climate change, Tim DeChristopher spoke on our entering the “Age of Anticipatory Mass Graves.”
You can see more of my footage and footage by Kori Feener (she filmed activists taking the trench) in the following Democracy Now! segments.
My photos from the action are available for media use at https://flic.kr/s/aHskDcoQPY with photo credit: Peter Bowden
Peter Bowden 