Tim DeChristopher
[5][6] After graduating from Shady Side Academy, he attended Arizona State University, and moved to Utah in 2005 where he worked as a wilderness guide for troubled and at-risk youth.[citation needed] DeChristopher's acts of civil disobedience have been compared to those of Rosa Parks by the media,[11] but DeChristopher has said that his actions are more comparable to those of Alice Paul,[12] who escalated the women's rights movement by forcing the government to publicly arrest women protesting on the steps of the capitol and lending visibility to an obscured social movement.DeChristopher's actions garnered national attention for later government auctions of public land leases in the final days of the Bush administration.In February 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar shelved 77 disputed lease parcels[4] – including some on which DeChristopher had bid in 2008 — and criticized Bush administrators for conducting a "rush review" of the contested lands.[13] In 2013, he and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning,[14][15] and DeChristopher spoke in the University of Vermont's Ira Allen Chapel.[21][22] In a 2009 indictment DeChristopher was charged with two felonies: violations of the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act and making false statements.by the House committee on public lands[] stated that it had become common practice for the BLM to take volunteers from the oil and gas industry to process those permits.[28] According to a Peaceful Uprising press release, in March 2012 DeChristopher was moved from a minimum security camp to a restrictive "special housing unit" because an email he sent to a friend contained the word "threaten," triggering an alert from the inmate correspondence monitoring system.[32] Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros singer Alex Ebert recorded a music video "Let's Win"[33] showcasing popular support for DeChristopher and scenes from a Salt Lake City protest in March 2011.Author Chris Guillebeau's book, The Art of Non-Conformity, supports DeChristopher's actions as "creative acts of protest" in times when "morality and law are on opposite sides."[34] Rolling Stone magazine journalist Jeff Goodell wrote an article on DeChristopher calling him "America's Most Creative Climate Criminal."[35] American author and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams published an op-ed piece in The Salt Lake Tribune following DeChristopher's sentence.
West Milford, West VirginiaUniversity of UtahClimate changeBureau of Land Management (BLM)United States Department of the InteriorPittsburghShady Side AcademyArizona State UniversityAmerican environmental movementcivil disobediencecivil rightsRosa ParksAlice Paulpublic landRicardo UrbinaKen Salazarmountaintop removal miningChelsea Manningnecessity defenseDee BensonJohn W. Huberselective prosecutionpre-sentencing statementpolitical prisonersconsequences of climate changeJustice DepartmentSalt Lake CityFederal Correctional Institution, HerlongFederal Correctional Institution, EnglewoodEarth DayUnited States Court of Appeals for the Tenth CircuitEdward Sharpe and the Magnetic ZerosAlex EbertChris GuillebeauRolling StoneJeff GoodellTerry Tempest WilliamsThe Salt Lake TribuneUtne ReaderTreeHuggerGaslandJosh FoxDavid LettermanLate ShowWendell BerryOrion MagazineDeseret NewsSalt Lake TribuneThe New York TimesPittsburgh Post-GazetteOutsideNew York TimesGerhardt, TinaThe ProgressiveRed PepperGoodell, JeffAppalachian VoicesPoliticoYouTubeCBS MoneyWatchCBS InteractiveThe Nationyes! MagazineAssociated PressInternet Movie DatabaseUnited States Department of Justice