Article content

A jury was selected in Washington state on Monday in the first trial over a coordinated protest that disrupted the flow of millions of barrels of crude oil into the United States, a proceeding activists hope will serve as a referendum on climate change.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Activist charged with vandalizing Kinder Morgan pipeline ‘shocked’ that judge questions global warming Back to video

Activist Ken Ward says he will not dispute that he shut down a valve on the Kinder Morgan Inc’s Trans Mountain Pipeline near Burlington, Washington, but he will testify that such actions are necessary in the face of the government’s failure to address global warming.

“I am going to talk a little bit about climate science” during the trial in Skagit County Superior Court, said Ward, a former deputy director of Greenpeace USA and co-founder of Green Corps.

“I spent 30-some-odd years following only legal approaches,” Ward said in an interview. “It’s only been in recent years that the scale of the problem and lack of a political solution leaves no choice but direct action.”

Ward, 60, is charged with trespassing, burglary and sabotage. If convicted, he could face up to three decades in prison.

The protest group Climate Direct Action said the move was in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which has protested the construction of the US$3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline carrying oil from North Dakota to the U.S. Gulf Coast over fears of damage to sacred land and water supplies.