More than 100 Colby students and community members stood in a candlelight vigil by the Universalist Unitarian Church on Nov. 14 to support the First Nations people who are blocking the Dakota Access pipeline. This oil pipeline would threaten to pollute both their tribe’s water supply and the Missouri River. The local activists gathered both to support these Native Americans’ rights, and also to protest Donald Trump’s plans to reverse progress on controlling climate change.

We have to switch to renewable energy very quickly to stop climate change, but this will be hard, partly because the fossil fuel industry has been paying to elect politicians to prevent this conversion from happening. And now Trump is planning to veto the Paris climate agreement, remove regulations on how fossil fuels can be extracted, transported and used, and appoint a climate change skeptic to run the Environmental Protection Agency.

Unfortunately, we have run out of time to delay taking action if we want to leave a healthy planet to our children. So climate activists have settled on a simple and essential plan to promote this conversion to renewable energy; permitting no new fossil fuel infrastructure to be built. The Dakota Access pipeline is the latest major violation of this plan.

Our government will protect our children’s lives only if we speak up now, while Trump is still setting his agenda. Call or email your federal representatives, and email linda350centralmaine@gmail.com to find out about local actions.

Last week, more than 100 local protestors spoke with their feet to show they recognize that we all have to get involved now or it will be too late to protect our lives and our children’s. Please think about how you can help.

Richard Thomas

Waterville

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