WEST BRATTLEBORO — A protest, critically important for the future of our world -not to mention our country, our state and our towns - took place in Washington, D.C. from Aug. 20 through Sept. 3. Hundreds of people have been arrested to speak out against the proposed Keystone XL petroleum pipeline that would run from the extensive tar sand pits of the Canadian province of Alberta through to the Gulf Coast of the United States.
This amount of people getting arrested is among the very largest civil disobedience protests ever in the history of the climate change movement. And many are willing to do so for a fundamentally important reason: to push our nation to get off of its damaging dependency on fossil fuels.
Some people continue to question whether this dependency is related to climate change, citing the questionable work of a very few scientists even though the overwhelming majority of scientists have gathered extensive evidence showing the link. Meanwhile, it is no longer even necessary to rely on the scientists to see that climate changes are taking place.
A recent New York Times editorial spoke out against the building of this new pipeline through the heart of the United States because of “the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain, and the fact that the extraction of petroleum from the tar sands creates far more greenhouse emissions than conventional production does.”
All of the major environmental organizations, who often do not agree on the best strategies to fight climate change, are united in opposition to the proposal. The decision on whether to allow this pipeline to be built is up to President Obama, which is why the civil disobedience trespass action is taking place at the grounds of the White House.
The tar sands in Alberta are a vast reservoir of petroleum, with estimated reserves second only to Saudi Arabia's, but whose very extraction is so energy intensive that it gives off several times more greenhouse gases than normal oil extraction. (See National Geographic, March 2009.)
While getting our oil needs met from Canada rather than the Middle East or Venezuela would seem a major benefit, it would extend the U.S.'s dependency on fossil fuels and generate greater volumes of greenhouse gases at the very time we should be facing up to our responsibilities to the world and conserve more or switch to cleaner fuels.
The proposed pipeline would also cut through the country's heartland, including its extensive Ogallala aquifer that waters our breadbasket, where any major spill would have disastrous consequences. This is why ordinary Nebraskans are also among the people from throughout the country as well as Canada who are participating in the D.C. protest.
The importance of this pending decision by President Obama cannot be overstated. A failure to block this pipeline will set back the effort to fight global climate change years and years, maybe even irrevocably. At the Slow Living Summit in Brattleboro in early June, Bill McKibben talked about the need for this action. He was arrested on the first day, as well as Gus Speth of the Vermont Law School.
The protests are nonviolent in nature and totally respectful of the arresting law authorities. Some people from our area are among those participating in this action in D.C., with many more coming from elsewhere in the state. This protest and this effort to fight climate change needs everyone's support.
For more information, visit www.tarsandsaction.org. You can of course call the White House (202-456-1111) and state your opinion on the matter, which the President is due to decide sometime within the next several months.