You may know that Al Gore is reported to be considering RAN’s offer to participate in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal-fired power plants, stop mountain top removal mining, and help prevent climate destruction. Just last week, in Rolling Stone, he again talked about civil disobedience in connection with coal, the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gases:

Look at Texas, where TXU wanted to build eleven new coal plants. Mayors all across that state, Republican and Democratic alike, were spurred by their grassroots supporters to rise up and say, “No, you don’t. We will not allow you to build all of these dirty coal plants here.” The entire deal collapsed, until it was reworked by an environment-minded group that said, “Wait a minute, let’s rejigger this whole thing and apply green standards.” All across the world, you’re seeing developments like that. You’re also going to see people practicing civil disobedience, lying in front of the bulldozers and the dump trucks to physically prevent the building of any new coal-fired plants.

We were on the front lines of the TXU fight, and just yesterday, RAN (along with Coal River Mountain Watch, SEAC and others) organized a die-in targeting Citi, the world’s biggest funder of coal. By targeting banks, we can cut off the flow of financing to coal projects at its source. Activists lay in front of a bank rather than a bulldozer, but the principle is the same: we can no longer afford to tolerate coal, or the banks that fund it. We’re still hoping that Al will join us on our November 16-17 national day of action against coal finance (you can still sign our friendly petition asking him to come participate in civil disobedience). And even if you have yet to win a Nobel prize, we need your support, too.