GECO: Latest on the Keystone XL Pipeline demonstrations
Protesters sit in front of the White House in opposition to the construction of the Keystone Pipeline XL extension.
By Moriah Adams, GECO Correspondent
The protest against the Keystone pipeline is what The New Yorker magazine calls “the most prominent environmental cause in America.” The Keystone XL Pipeline, also known as the TransCanada Pipeline or the Tarsands Pipeline, was proposed to be constructed to take the oil-rich tar sands of Canada across America to be exported.
The large environmentalist objections to this pipeline include the negative effects of burning the oil from the tar sands, the harm done to land at extraction sights, and the potential damage and disaster that could, and in some cases definitely would, result from the pipeline construction through American soil – all strengthened by the argument that the entire project is for non-American exports.
Not only has this pipeline had a consistent and noisy following of environmentalists against it and of those in favor of its construction, but these years will go down in history for the magnitude of effort to stop it. Information on the pipeline is unfortunately very polarized and requires sufficient cross-checking. Both sides of the argument push brutally for their cause.
More than a thousand people have been arrested for demonstrating against the Keystone Pipeline, including 48 more this month. As well, this movement can claim the largest environmental protest in the history of our country when more than 50,000 protesters joined together in Washington D.C. to rally for the issue of climate change and against this potentially destructive pipeline.
Just fewer than 20 Gettysburg College students participated in that very historical rally! It was an impressive, sensational experience. In addition, Gettysburg students participated in the first of the grand protests against the pipeline back in 2011. Thousands of protesters gathered and formed an overlapping circle and held hands around the White House in demonstration. Protesters sported posters quoting the President’s promises concerning action against climate change. GECO and students here have been invested in this effort ever since.
To the delight of the oppositional side of the pipeline debate, pressure has changed the game: what used to be a done deal two years ago is now an open-ended debate. In early September, President Obama received a letter of negotiation from the Canadian government, asking for approval to build the pipeline in exchange for promise to regulate and reduce the consequential carbon emissions. HOORAH! Looks like protesters have been pushing hard enough to push the anxious Canadian government to make pleas in order to go through with finishing the pipeline construction.
The latest in the persistent series of protests happened on Sept. 21. Draw the Line, a nationwide protest facilitated by 350.org, was a broad and effective demonstration that showed that the opposition still lives. The 350.org Draw the Line organizational team commented, “Yesterday we really showed how beautiful and diverse this movement is: there were ranchers in the pipeline route drawing the line, along with communities next to refineries, and folks whose cities are at risk of going under water as the tides rise.”
Draw the Line was a way for the environmental activists and those opposing the pipeline to unite efforts yet again from their hometowns. This particular style of demonstration emphasized the lack of borders of climate change issues, reminding onlookers that an environmental threat isn’t a localized one – it affects everyone who drinks water, eats food and breathes air.
THIS WEEK’S GREEN HABIT: Unplug your phone and computer chargers when they are not being used.
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