Excerpt: "Every once in a while an opportunity comes along for all of us to be the solution. This is one of those times. We're collecting a half million messages to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the next 24 hours."
Actor and environmental activist Robert Redford. (photo: Contour/Getty Images)
24 Hours to Stop the Pipeline
13 February 12
very once in a while an opportunity comes along for all of us to be the solution. This is one of those times. We're collecting a half million messages to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the next 24 hours.
This dirty, dangerous tar sands pipeline is not in the national interest. It's that simple. And the United States Senate, officials of both parties, need to hear that message loud and clear and fast because some of them are threatening to push a bill as soon as Tuesday, to approve it.
Go to www.stoptar.org and send a message. Then turn up the volume and send it to everyone you know....tweet it, Facebook it, blog it...urging everyone you know to become part of the solution in the next 24 hours. Go to www.stoptar.org, please, and send a message.
This U.S. Senate has to stop looking towards the past and move into the new century. If only some of these politicians showed the same level of passion for creating new markets around cleaner forms of energy, as they're showing for crippling a sitting president with a dirty, potentially highly dangerous, old-school Canadian tar sands pipeline.
This struggle is about every parent's fears for our children's future. And this struggle is about every young person's hope for their immediate future. It should be every parent's worst nightmare that these people we sent to Washington to lead us into the future, will continue to embrace the flawed philosophical case for doing nothing.
This do nothing option is the same flawed recommendation that economists made in the 1960's and 1970's to the automobile industry. Imagine something like seat belts being seen as the jobs killer of that day. We should not make the same mistake around energy.
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Comments
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believe that the invironment is safe. This is one of the most
outrageous proposals.
to help domestic supplies the pipeline would go to the nearest refinery, not to the gulf of Mexico - this pipeline is to put Canadian oil onto the world market - nothing more - it will not affect our gas price any more than someone finding a new large oil field in India
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/49-49/5569-scientists-link-oil-on-dolphins-to-bp-spill
The fishing and tourism industries have suffered. Additionally, people are getting sick due to the effects of the oil and the dispersans BP used to cause the oil to sink (out of sight, out of mind) only to settle in the bottom of the gulf and washing up on shore
http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/01/mothers-grandmothers-speak-out-about-childrens-health-problems-after-bp-disaster-video.html
Beyond oil, there are dead zones in the gulf without any sea life because of chemical runoff from the Mississippi - you can't just dump whatever you want in the water supplies without consequences. Nature is resiliant but there are limits.
To the extent that there have been efforts at clean up and recovery, it was the government forcing BP to do it, over Republican objections, and they haven't and won't face the full consequences for the spill. If the Keystone XL pipeline gets built, the same crap will happen - when the leaks occur, people will get sick from oil in the water supply, farmers will be negatively affected, TransCanada will try to conceal or whitewash over the problems and Republicans will try to block them from accountability.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/kxl_24hours/?r_by=34968-2137682-K5Ti2Sx&rc=confemail
http://democracyforamerica.com/activities/754-24-hours-to-stop-the-pipeline?akid=1696.1693223.S6sSZp&rd=1&t=2
"I sign because I must. ANY pipeline to ANYWHERE designed to carry ANY fossil fuel to ANY location where it could be used to facilitate increases in emissions of ANY greenhouse gas is equivalent to a shot of cyanide into you and me and ANY member of any species on this earth, and must be stopped. But humanity is so thoroughly corrupted that I do not know or trust the motives of the opponents of this bill, and this signature is not an endorsement of any party or any presidential candidate or any major environmenal organization."
It is a sad day when that sort of caveat is necessary,yet this very day we are puzzling over the extent to which the Sierra Club's acceptance of $25 million from the natural gas industry has softened its opposition to natural gas as a greenhoouse gas. And the Sierra Club is only one of a growing number of influential "green" organizations with serious conflicts of interest. It is time for them all to disclose what they have done, apologize to those who are dependent upon them for solid information, and promise never again to permit conflict of interest to creep into their decisionmaking processes. We may all be proud that we came together on this issue, but many are the organiations that are making it difficult.
Nicholas C. Arguimbau
Sounds as if they've "institutionaliz ed" and become part of the system. It would be good to compile and publish a list of co-opted organizations to be avoided.
Second, there already is a pipeline for tar sands (or shale oil) to the Conoco Phillips refinery in Wood River, Illinois. I have friends who work at that refinery. Please be aware of that.
Unfortunately, there is no way for me to include my support for this measure as it would not accept Canadian addresses.
Pity.
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