Andreas Wenzel
Soc. 122: Social Movements
Democracy Now
Bomb Trains
As a part of a larger global effort to Break Free from Fossil Fuels, one of the protests that occurred in Albany, New York, specifically targeted environmental racism and the "Bomb Trains" that transport huge quantities of crude-oil straight through neighborhood communities. Thousands showed up to support the cause, sitting and standing on the tracks in downtown Albany risking potential arrest, but the only two arrests made happened 16 miles away where two men suspended themselves from a bridge with ropes to block a train transporting crude oil from North Dakota. The trains transporting the oil can be over a mile long, releasing toxic gases while in route to their destinations, with a potential blast radius over a half mile wide if one were to explode, threatening surrounding neighborhoods and communities. The largest explosion in Quebec killed 47 people, demolishing an entire town. One of the members of an affordable housing community surrounded by the tracks shared her experiences with deteriorating health including two battles with cancer since living there, and how the trains will park their shipments in these neighborhoods to avoid storage charges at local ports.
This particular protest adopted the framing of the larger Break Free movement, demanding our separation from fossil fuel dependency. Some of the movements demands include leaving at least 80 percent of fossil fuel reserves in the ground, stopping and preventing any new large oil projects including fracking, and stopping the huge subsidies given to oil companies and transferring those funds to clean, renewable energy projects. The two bridge danglers also illustrated resource mobilization theory by utilizing the tools and knowledge available to effectively hold up a bomb train for a good portion of a day using only ropes, as well as the rest of the protesters by simply bringing large numbers of people together to accomplish the same common goal.
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