We Are All Bidder 70

Tim DeChristopher is a 29-year-old Graduate Student of Economics at the University of Utah and also known as "bidder 70" in the trial that is being recognized as a crucial turning point in the Climate Movement. 

On March 3rd, in a Salt Lake City courtroom, with hundreds of protesters just outside, Tim DeChristopher was convicted on two felony charges for disrupting a government auction while posing as a bidder and successfully purchasing oil and gas land leases that he could not afford to buy himself.  He signed up as bidder #70 and successfully won 22,000+ acres of land for approximately 1.8 million dollars to stop the land from ending up in the hands of the oil companies.

Tim launched peacefuluprising.org seeking to inspire citizens to recognize themselves as agents of change. He is quoted as saying, “what we face as a species is far scarier than spending time in jail”. He currently faces 10 years in prison and $700,000 in fines.  His sentencing will begin in June of 2011.


Follow the link to read Tim’s comments about his guilty verdict:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/11/climate-activist-tim-dechristopher

Image by peacefuluprising on Flickr Courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing