Scientists and Activists Issue A Call To Action To Stop Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
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A group of eleven veteran U.S. and Canadian scientists and environmentalists today jointly issued a call to action for non-violent civil disobedience in front of the White House later this summer to stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.ย  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 Americaโ€™s commitment to mutual fossil fuel addiction for generations to come.ย 

โ€œThis is one issue where the president has total controlโ€“he has to grant or deny the necessary permits. Congress canโ€™t get in the way. Itโ€™s where Obama can get his environmental mojo back. But we need him to lead,โ€ said Bill McKibben, author, DeSmogBlog contributor and signatory on the letter.

The letter ask citizens to come to Washington for a peaceful and dignified protest against the Keystone XL pipeline, which the authors describe as a โ€œ1500-mile fuse to the continentโ€™s biggest carbon bomb.โ€

Climate scientist James Hansen, another signatory, notes that thereโ€™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, โ€œit is essentially game overโ€ for the climate.
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Bill McKibben states that the protest isnโ€™t designed to rail against Obama, but rather to do what the President asked of citizens when he was elected – pressure him to get it right on climate.

โ€œThe last thing we want to do is harass the presidentโ€“instead weโ€™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 weโ€™re going to try and make it clear there is real support for action on climate,โ€ McKibben said.
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Signatories of the letter include Maude Barlow, Wendell Berry, Tom Goldtooth, Danny Glover, James Hansen, Wes Jackson, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, George Poitras, David Suzuki, Gus Speth.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Friends

This will be a slightly longer letter than common for the internet ageโ€”itโ€™s serious stuff.

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.

The full version goes like this:

As you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and weโ€™ve seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth.

And as you also know, our democracy is increasingly controlled by special interests interested only in their short-term profit.

These two trends collide this summer in Washington, where the State Department and the White House have to decide whether to grant aย  certificate of โ€˜national interestโ€™ to some of the biggest fossil fuel players on earth. These corporations want to build the so-called โ€˜Keystone XL Pipelineโ€™ from Canadaโ€™s tar sands to Texas refineries.

To call this project a horror is serious understatement. The tar sands have wrecked huge parts of Alberta, disrupting ways of life in indigenous communitiesโ€”First 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 disastrousโ€”and though the pipeline companies insist they are using โ€˜state of the artโ€™ 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. Theseย  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.

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.ย  Even with the new pipeline they wonโ€™t be able to burn that much overnightโ€”but each development like this makes it easier to get more oil out.ย  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 โ€œthe 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.โ€ In other words, he added, โ€œif the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over.โ€ The Keystone pipeline is an essential part of the game. โ€œUnless we get increased market access, like with Keystone XL, weโ€™re going to be stuck,โ€ said Ralph Glass, an economist and vice-president at AJM Petroleum Consultants in Calgary, told a Canadian newspaper last week.

Given all that, youโ€™d suspect that thereโ€™s 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.

And Secretary of State Clinton has already said sheโ€™s โ€˜inclinedโ€™ to recommend the pipeline go forward. Partly itโ€™s because of the political commotion over high gas prices, though more tar sands oil would do nothing to change that picture. But itโ€™s also because of intense pressure from industry. The US Chamber of Commerceโ€”a bigger funder of political campaigns than the RNC and DNC combinedโ€”has demanded that the administration โ€œmove quickly to approve the Keystone XL pipeline,โ€ which is not so surprisingโ€”theyโ€™ve also told the U.S. EPA that if the planet warms that will be okay because humans can โ€˜adapt their physiologyโ€™ to cope. The Koch Brothers, needless to say, are also backing the plan, and may reap huge profits from it.

So weโ€™re pretty sure that without serious pressure the Keystone Pipeline will get its permit from Washington.ย  A wonderful coalition of environmental groups has built a strong campaign across the continentโ€”from Cree and Dene indigenous leaders to Nebraska farmers, theyโ€™ve spoken out strongly against the destruction of their land. We need to join them, and to say even if our own homes wonโ€™t be crossed by this pipeline, our joint homeโ€”the earthโ€”will be wrecked by the carbon that pours down it.

And we need to say something else, too: itโ€™s time to stop letting corporate power make the most important decisions our planet faces. We donโ€™t 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 foesโ€”who would change the composition of the atmosphere are dangerous radicals. Come dressed as if for a business meetingโ€”this is, in fact, serious business.

And another sartorial tipโ€”if 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 โ€˜rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal.โ€™ We donโ€™t 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. Weโ€™ll do what we can.

And one more thing: we donโ€™t just want college kids to be the participants in this fight. Theyโ€™ve led the way so far on climate changeโ€”10,000 came to DC for the Powershift gathering earlier this spring. Theyโ€™ve 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.

Now itโ€™s time for people whoโ€™ve 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 itโ€™s past time for elders to behave like elders. One thing we donโ€™t want is a smash up: if you canโ€™t control your passions, this action is not for you.

This wonโ€™t be a one-shot day of action. We plan for it to continue for several weeks, till the administration understands we wonโ€™t go away. Not all of us can actually get arrestedโ€”half 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 Canadaโ€”the decision-makers need to know theyโ€™re being watched.

Twenty years of patiently explaining the climate crisis to our leaders hasnโ€™t worked. Maybe moral witness will help. You have to start somewhere, and we choose here and now.

If you think you might want to be a part of this action, we need you to sign up here.

As plans solidify in the next few weeks weโ€™ll 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.

We know weโ€™re asking a lot. You should think long and hard on it, and pray if youโ€™re the praying type. But to us, itโ€™s as much privilege as burden to get to join this fight in the most serious possible way. We hope youโ€™ll join us.

Maude Barlow โ€“ Chair, Council of Canadians
Wendell Berry โ€“ Author and Farmer
Tom Goldtooth โ€“ Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
Danny Glover โ€“ Actor
James Hansen โ€“ Climate Scientist
Wes Jackson โ€“ Agronomist, President of the Land Insitute
Naomi Klein โ€“ Author and Journalist
Bill McKibben โ€“ Writer and Environmentalist
George Poitras โ€“ Mikisew Cree Indigenous First Nation
Gus Speth โ€“ Environmental Lawyer and Activist
David Suzuki โ€“ Scientist, Environmentalist and Broadcaster

P.S. Please pass this letter on to anyone else you think might be interested. We realize that what weโ€™re asking isnโ€™t easy, and weโ€™re very grateful that youโ€™re willing even to consider it. See you inย Washington!

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
Brendan is Executive Director of DeSmog. He is also a freelance writer and researcher specializing in media, politics, climate change and energy. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Grist, The Washington Times and other outlets.

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