Students Protest Keystone XL
A Student’s Take on Why It’s Imperative to Risk Arrest Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline
Article by Spencer H. Johnson, EcoWatch.com, February 25, 2014
On Sunday, March 2, at 22-years-old, I will take part in a nonviolent for civil disobedience campaign along with nearly 500 other college students in our nation’s capital and very will likely be arrested. Why would I and others risk arrest without our degrees yet in hand? Aren’t we worried about jobs and employment? The short answers to those questions are to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and no.
The long answers take a bit more time to explain.
In a Rolling Stone article that has been viewed by millions and referenced in thousands of news articles, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, highlighted three numbers: 2 degrees Celsius, 565 gigatons, and 2,795 gigatons. The sustainability tipping point temperature increase, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) we can emit without passing that point and the current estimates of fossil fuel company reserves, respectively.
This article helped launch the Do The Math tour, which today calls for colleges and universities to divest their endowment fund holdings from the fossil fuel industry whose emissions have been largely responsible for climate change. The best example of a successful divestment campaign was during Apartheid when 155 colleges and universities pulled their endowment holdings from companies doing business with and operating in South Africa, hoping to cause enough financial and political pressure to collapse the industry—and it worked.
An article in The Guardian, mentioned a study by Oxford University that said the Fossil Free Divestment movement is the fastest growing divestment movement in history. Today more than 400 colleges, universities, municipalities, cities, religious institutions and states are signed on to 350.org’s Fossil Free Divestment campaign.
The fight to stop the Keystone XL is pivotal to the divestment campaign. This pipeline would shoot about 800,000 barrels of tar sands crude oil per day from Alberta’s Tar Sands extraction site in Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, TX. It would produce as much carbon dioxide as seven coal-fired power plants, provide only 35 permanent jobs and be shipped overseas to China to sell on the global market.
Crossing through the heart of America’s cropland, its construction would decimate sacred territories of Native Americans. Van Jones, founder of Rebuild The Dream, a 21st century think tank hoping to fix the U.S. economy, says if President Obama thinks this pipeline will be as great as they say, he should be willing to name it The Obama Tar Sands Pipeline.
In 2008, Barack Obama was elected president of the U.S. Breaking racial barriers and social stigmas, he was the first African American to be elected into the White House. In his 2008 inauguration speech, he said: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.” Newly involved environmental activists cheered into their television screens and toasted his words with glasses of beer.
Despite what he said, President Obama has already fast-tracked approval of the southern leg of Keystone XL (which is currently operational) and is close to approving the northern leg. At Georgetown University in June of 2013, President Obama gave another speech at which he said: “Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interest … and our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.”
Young self-proclaimed environmentalists such as myself are risking arrest to stop this pipeline in an action named XL Dissent. But we’re not alone. Business, economics, geoscience, philosophy, english and history majors all stand with us. This isn’t just environmental students. This is students from all over the country standing up and saying “No Keystone XL Pipeline,” because we want a livable future. We want clean water and clean air. We’re doing this for future generations because we want them to live a life like the one we’ve enjoyed. We want them to live in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable world.
Visit EcoWatch’s KEYSTONE XL and CLIMATE CHANGE pages for more related news on this topic.
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To the Friends of INTERFAITH POWER AND LIGHT, March 5, 2014:
Time is running out! Interfaith Power & Light needs your immediate help to stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline, once and for all. The U.S. Department of State’s public comment period on the Keystone XL pipeline ends this Friday, and we have to make our voices heard before then.
Thousands of clergy and people of faith have already joined me in signing a letter to President Obama urging him to protect Creation and reject this dangerous project, but your name is missing? Please stand with Interfaith Power & Light and urge President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline on moral grounds, once and for all.
We need to increase pressure in this critical moment before the president makes his decision. Starting today, we’re running an ad on POLITICO’s website, a must-read for Washington insiders, to make sure they know that people across America are standing up for Creation.
But big oil and gas companies have deep pockets and are investing heavily to try and sway public opinion. We can’t let them drown out the truth. The Keystone XL Pipeline is simply too risky. Our country should be developing the clean, efficient vehicles of the future, not piping toxic tar sands oil across the heartland.
Stand with Interfaith Power & Light today and urge President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline on moral grounds before it’s too late. Thank you in advance for joining us to fight the pipeline.
Sincerely, Susan Stephenson, Executive Director, IPL
Dear Friend of the SIERRA CLUB, March 5, 2014:
This is your last chance to submit an official public comment against Keystone XL. On Friday, we will deliver more than one million comments to the State Department to declare that Keystone XL is NOT in our national interest!
Make sure your voice is one of them. Take a moment right now to add your name in opposition to this dirty oil pipeline.
Public comments may sound boring, but they’re an important part of this process. After years of blocking this pipeline, we’ve reached the final stretch, and this comment period is your last opportunity to make your opposition to Keystone XL official.
President Obama is waiting to hear what the State Department recommends on Keystone XL. But first, the State Department is waiting to hear from you!
Don’t miss this chance! Tell President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry that Keystone XL is NOT in our national interest!
President Obama vowed to reject the pipeline if the project would “significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.” The facts are clear: Keystone XL fails President Obama’s climate test. Evidence from the scientific community, industry analysts, and the EPA had already shown that Keystone XL would increase carbon pollution from the tar sands, and even the State Department can’t deny that truth.
This is the final stretch, and we can’t stop until we finish this. Take action now before the Friday deadline! Together, we can win this. Thank you for protecting our water, land and climate.
Michael Marx, Beyond Oil Campaign Director, Sierra Club