Oil & Water Don’t Mix: Rally for the Great Lakes

As the temperature rises, so do we!

The Oil & Water Don’t Mix Rally was a part of Summer Heat, a campaign organized by grassroots climate justice activists from all over the United States, and supported by 350.org.

In July 2013, we took on the fossil fuel industry. From where fossil fuels leave the ground, to the halls of power, to the communities feeling the impacts of climate change, it was a time to join in and stand up for our future!

TC350 was the lead organizer for the Rally. We worked alongside many partners including Michigan Land Use Institute, Michigan Environmental Council, FLOW, Food & Water Watch, Ecology Center, D-Cats, and Ann Arbor 350. Almost 500 people came to the Straits of Mackinac to listen to speakers and music, and to sign petitions.

Our keynote speaker was Bill McKibben, American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the founder of 350.org, and a Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College. In 2010, the Boston Globe called him “probably the nation’s leading environmentalist” and Time magazine described him as “the world’s best green journalist.”

The Oil & Water Don’t Mix Rally was an exciting and inspiring place to learn about the imminent threat the Enbridge Energy pipelines pose to our Great Lakes, and about what we can do to prevent a disaster from happening.

 
Thanks to the nearly 500 people that came to the rally on July 14, 2013 to ask Michigan’s Governor Snyder to protect our Great Lakes from toxic tar sands oil. Together, we started a movement!