{"id":23121,"date":"2011-06-28T02:16:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T00:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=23121"},"modified":"2011-06-28T02:16:25","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T00:16:25","slug":"help-stop-keystone-xl-tar-sands-pipeline-take-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/help-stop-keystone-xl-tar-sands-pipeline-take-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Stop Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline {TAKE ACTION}"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tar<\/a><\/p>\n

11 veteran U.S. and Canadian scientists and environmentalists (Maude Barlow, Wendell Berry, Tom Goldtooth, Danny Glover, James Hansen, Wes Jackson, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, George Poitras, David Suzuki, and Gus Speth) have jointly called for non-violent disobedience in front of our grand White House this summer to try to stop the\u00a0proposed Keystone XL pipeline.<\/p>\n

Succinctly put<\/a> by Brendan Demelle over at DeSmog Blog: “This proposed Transcanada pipeline, which must be approved by President Obama in order to proceed, would carry filthy tar sands oil from Alberta to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, and further solidify North America’s commitment to mutual fossil fuel addiction for generations to come.”<\/p>\n

And leading environmental activist & author\u00a0Bill McKibben writes: “This is one issue where the president has total control–he has to grant or deny the necessary permits. Congress can’t get in the way. It’s where Obama can get his environmental mojo back. But we need him to lead.”<\/p>\n

More on leading climate scientist Dr. Jim Hansen’s take on this issue as well, from Demelle:<\/p>\n

“Climate scientist James Hansen, another signatory, notes that there’s enough carbon in the tar sands, were it all burned, to increase the atmospheric concentration of CO2 by nearly 50%. If the tar sands get fully developed, said Hansen, ‘it is essentially game over’ for the climate.”<\/p>\n

Sounds good, eh?<\/p>\n

I feel like coming over there from Poland to take action (but that would be a little counter-productive and hypocritical).<\/p>\n

But, you probably can take action!<\/p>\n

The action is not focused on complaining to Obama, but on respectfully and dutifully putting pressure on him to do the right thing and protect our world from catastrophic climate change.<\/p>\n

“The last thing we want to do is harass the president–instead we’re asking people to dig those Obama buttons out of their closet and wear them when they protest. The president asked supporters to keep pressuring him once he was in office, and we’re going to try and make it clear there is real support for action on climate,” McKibben said.<\/p>\n

The stakes in this matter are clearly high and there is no gray area — the project needs to be stopped!<\/p>\n

Here’s the full letter\/call to action from the scientists & leading environmentalists<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Dear Friends<\/p>\n

This will be a slightly longer letter than common for the internet age\u2014it\u2019s serious stuff.<\/p>\n

The short version is we want you to consider doing something hard: coming to Washington in the hottest and stickiest weeks of the summer and engaging in civil disobedience that will quite possibly get you arrested.<\/p>\n

The full version goes like this:<\/p>\n

As you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and we\u2019ve seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth.<\/p>\n

And as you also know, our democracy is increasingly controlled by special interests interested only in their short-term profit.<\/p>\n

These two trends collide this summer in Washington, where the State Department and the White House have to decide whether to grant a\u00a0 certificate of \u2018national interest\u2019 to some of the biggest fossil fuel players on earth. These corporations want to build the so-called \u2018Keystone XL Pipeline\u2019 from Canada\u2019s tar sands to Texas refineries.<\/p>\n

To call this project a horror is serious understatement. The tar sands have wrecked huge parts of Alberta, disrupting ways of life in indigenous communities\u2014First Nations communities in Canada, and tribes along the pipeline route in the U.S. have demanded the destruction cease. The pipeline crosses crucial areas like the Oglalla Aquifer where a spill would be disastrous\u2014and though the pipeline companies insist they are using \u2018state of the art\u2019 technologies that should leak only once every 7 years, the precursor pipeline and its pumping stations have leaked a dozen times in the past year. These\u00a0 local impacts alone would be cause enough to block such a plan. But the Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous.<\/p>\n

How much carbon lies in the recoverable tar sands of Alberta? A recent calculation from some of our foremost scientists puts the figure at about 200 parts per million.\u00a0 Even with the new pipeline they won\u2019t be able to burn that much overnight\u2014but each development like this makes it easier to get more oil out.\u00a0 As the climatologist Jim Hansen (one of the signatories to this letter) explained, if we have any chance of getting back to a stable climate \u201cthe principal requirement is that coal emissions must be phased out by 2030 and unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, must be left in the ground.\u201d In other words, he added, \u201cif the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over.\u201d The Keystone pipeline is an essential part of the game. \u201cUnless we get increased market access, like with Keystone XL, we\u2019re going to be stuck,\u201d said Ralph Glass, an economist and vice-president at AJM Petroleum Consultants in Calgary, told a Canadian newspaper last week.<\/p>\n

Given all that, you\u2019d suspect that there\u2019s no way the Obama administration would ever permit this pipeline. But in the last few months the administration has signed pieces of paper opening much of Alaska to oil drilling, and permitting coal-mining on federal land in Wyoming that will produce as much CO2 as 300 powerplants operating at full bore.<\/p>\n

And Secretary of State Clinton has already said she\u2019s \u2018inclined\u2019 to recommend the pipeline go forward. Partly it\u2019s because of the political commotion over high gas prices, though more tar sands oil would do nothing to change that picture. But it\u2019s also because of intense pressure from industry. The US Chamber of Commerce\u2014a bigger funder of political campaigns than the RNC and DNC combined\u2014has demanded that the administration \u201cmove quickly to approve the Keystone XL pipeline,\u201d which is not so surprising\u2014they\u2019ve also told the U.S. EPA that if the planet warms that will be okay because humans can \u2018adapt their physiology\u2019 to cope. The Koch Brothers, needless to say, are also backing the plan, and may reap huge profits from it.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re pretty sure that without serious pressure the Keystone Pipeline will get its permit from Washington.\u00a0 A wonderful coalition of environmental groups has built a strong campaign across the continent\u2014from Cree and Dene indigenous leaders to Nebraska farmers, they\u2019ve spoken out strongly against the destruction of their land. We need to join them, and to say even if our own homes won\u2019t be crossed by this pipeline, our joint home\u2014the earth\u2014will be wrecked by the carbon that pours down it.<\/p>\n

And we need to say something else, too: it\u2019s time to stop letting corporate power make the most important decisions our planet faces. We don\u2019t have the money to compete with those corporations, but we do have our bodies, and beginning in mid August many of us will use them. We will, each day, march on the White House, risking arrest with our trespass. We will do it in dignified fashion, demonstrating that in this case we are the conservatives, and that our foes\u2014who would change the composition of the atmosphere are dangerous radicals. Come dressed as if for a business meeting\u2014this is, in fact, serious business.<\/p>\n

And another sartorial tip\u2014if you wore an Obama button during the 2008 campaign, why not wear it again? We very much still want to believe in the promise of that young Senator who told us that with his election the \u2018rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal.\u2019 We don\u2019t understand what combination of bureaucratic obstinacy and insider dealing has derailed those efforts, but we remember his request that his supporters continue on after the election to pressure his government for change. We\u2019ll do what we can.<\/p>\n

And one more thing: we don\u2019t just want college kids to be the participants in this fight. They\u2019ve led the way so far on climate change\u201410,000 came to DC for the Powershift gathering earlier this spring. They\u2019ve marched this month in West Virginia to protest mountaintop removal; a young man named Tim DeChristopher faces sentencing this summer in Utah for his creative protest.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s time for people who\u2019ve spent their lives pouring carbon into the atmosphere to step up too, just as many of us did in earlier battles for civil rights or for peace. Most of us signing this letter are veterans of this work, and we think it\u2019s past time for elders to behave like elders. One thing we don\u2019t want is a smash up: if you can\u2019t control your passions, this action is not for you.<\/p>\n

This won\u2019t be a one-shot day of action. We plan for it to continue for several weeks, till the administration understands we won\u2019t go away. Not all of us can actually get arrested\u2014half the signatories to this letter live in Canada, and might well find our entry into the U.S. barred. But we will be making plans for sympathy demonstrations outside Canadian consulates in the U.S., and U.S. consulates in Canada\u2014the decision-makers need to know they\u2019re being watched.<\/p>\n

Twenty years of patiently explaining the climate crisis to our leaders hasn\u2019t worked. Maybe moral witness will help. You have to start somewhere, and we choose here and now.<\/p>\n

If you think you might want to be a part of this action, we need you to sign up here.<\/p>\n

As plans solidify in the next few weeks we\u2019ll be in touch with you to arrange nonviolence training; our colleagues at a variety of environmental and democracy campaigns will be coordinating the actual arrangements.<\/p>\n

We know we\u2019re asking a lot. You should think long and hard on it, and pray if you\u2019re the praying type. But to us, it\u2019s as much privilege as burden to get to join this fight in the most serious possible way. We hope you\u2019ll join us.<\/p>\n

Maude Barlow \u2013 Chair, Council of Canadians
\nWendell Berry \u2013 Author and Farmer
\nTom Goldtooth \u2013 Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
\nDanny Glover \u2013 Actor
\nJames Hansen \u2013 Climate Scientist
\nWes Jackson \u2013 Agronomist, President of the Land Insitute
\nNaomi Klein \u2013 Author and Journalist
\nBill McKibben \u2013 Writer and Environmentalist
\nGeorge Poitras \u2013 Mikisew Cree Indigenous First Nation
\nGus Speth \u2013 Environmental Lawyer and Activist
\nDavid Suzuki \u2013 Scientist, Environmentalist and Broadcaster<\/p>\n

P.S. Please pass this letter on to anyone else you think might be interested. We realize that what we\u2019re asking isn\u2019t easy, and we\u2019re very grateful that you\u2019re willing even to consider it. See you in Washington!<\/p>\n

Image via Toban Black<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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