Thoughts on Keystone Pipeline

Thoughts on Keystone Pipeline     Dec 25, 2011

No question we are all overwhelmed with information, still I felt surprised that some friends in Canada had no idea about the Oil sands or the Keystone Pipeline. "Better not to watch the news, it's bad for the health." They said. "And besides, what difference would it make, there’s nothing we can do."

But let me tell you, there is something we can do that will make a difference. Here is the story, call it holiday cheer!

The Keystone pipeline is planned to be a new outlet for the tar sand oil from Alberta towards refineries at the coast of Texas. If realized, it will speed up the development of the tar sand oilfields in Canada, with dire consequences for both the local environment and global warming. It will also compete with the need for renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.

Because of my husband's work in Norway with climate change, we actually speak about these topics at home woven in between our daily affairs. I also met many of his refreshingly intelligent colleagues, who really have no interest in manipulating my thinking – none of them are running for political office – so I feel fortunate in having more than a laywoman’s idea of what is actually happening and what we, little puny individuals can actually do.

My husband very much agrees with James Hansen – a leading scientist on climate issues – who warns that unless we change our ways we are hurtling to a climatic point of no return. Mr. Hansen was quoted Dec 24th in an article in the NY Times about the Pipeline saying: "that if development of the oil sands deposits goes forward unchecked it means 'game over' for the global climate." And "removing and burning all that oil would spew so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that it would be impossible to stabilize the climate and avoid disastrous global impacts."

The battle about the Keystone Pipeline seemed already to have been won by the oil industry, but then last fall things happened. 

We had joined together with millions of others  through Avaaz, and 350.org and participated in the recent big anti-Keystone protests led by Bill McKibben and the team of 350.org and actually sent e-mails and phone calls to the white house This in addition to “Live” demonstrations this fall. It actually factored into Mr. Obama's decision in November to demand a better environmental assessment which will delay the project Than it came up again recently in the recent pay-roll tax charade. 

In the meantime, on an extended visit to my family here in South Florida, my husband and I met with a local environmentalist, a former Canadian who had worked in the 70's on the oil sand project. "Those guys are big and powerful," this man said. "They will go on no matter what we try to do. No chance to stop this project."

I wonder sometimes if it is easier to give over to the big guns that run the show, that destroy what they have no need for, in the chance of playing God. Easier no doubt, but the feeling I had participating in recent events and the commitment to continue was and is stronger. Just as I loved the way the article yesterday ended with the hopeful words of Bill McKibben: "Stopping Keystone will buy time and hopefully that time will be used for the planet (meaning us) to come to its senses around climate change."

On the humoristic side – I think of a t-shirt one of my husband's young colleagues has. On one side it says boldly: SAVE THE PLANET and on the back, even bigger:

KILL YOURSELF. In truth, I hope instead you join up with 350.org and open your heart into the New Year with vigor and determination to show up and participate because we the little puny people are not so few and not so powerless.