Conor Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was arrested Wednesday at a climate change rally in Washington, D.C. The 18-year-old ex-boyfriend of singer Taylor Swift joined his father and dozens of other environmental activists in an act of civil disobedience against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Kennedy dated Swift for several months last summer, but rumors surfaced in the fall that the couple was still together. Sources suggested in January that Swift was looking to rekindle her romance with Kennedy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president of Waterkeeper Alliance, said in an emailed statement from his organization, "It's unfortunate that civil disobedience is the only recourse against a catastrophic and criminal enterprise that will enrich a few while impoverishing the rest of humanity and threatening the future of civilization."
Along with the Kennedys, 350.org founder Bill McKibben, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune and actress Daryl Hannah were also arrested. Hannah was previously arrested for separate Keystone pipeline protests in Texas last October and at the White House in August 2011.
McKibben said in a statement from Tar Sands Action, “We really shouldn’t have to be put in handcuffs to stop KXL–our nation’s leading climate scientists have told us it’s dangerous folly, and all the recent Nobel Peace laureates have urged us to set a different kind of example for the world, so the choice should be obvious."
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