More than 1,200 youth from across the United States converged on the White House on March 2 with a message for President Barack Obama – don’t give the green light to the Keystone XL pipeline.
In what is being termed the largest youth act of civil disobedience at the White House in a generation, around 400 were arrested.
The youth represented more than 50 colleges and universities, standing in solidarity with groups including First Nations and farming communities along the proposed pipeline route.
As Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org commented: “As the fight to stop KXL enters its final stages, it’s truly inspiring to see young people at the forefront. This pipeline is scheduled to last 40 years—right through the prime of their lives. President Obama needs to look them in the face.”
Many people think they understand the threats posed by the pipeline, but there is more that TransCanada would prefer people not to know about (see VIDEO below).
As Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters has made clear to the media, the United States is at the crossroads when it comes to the country’s energy future. The Keystone XL pipeline goes in one direction, she says, and a cleaner and safer less expensive energy policy lies on the other route.
US President Barack Obama is poised to make a decision on KXL, and for those who have been campaigning long and hard against the pipeline, there are serious worries.
As NASA scientist James Hansen has written about tar sands extraction and the Keystone XL pipeline: if Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.”
Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, whose brief involves pushing tar sands extractionand exportation for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called Hansen’s words “nonsense,” and accused the renowned scientist of “crying wolf.” Hansen, not to put too fine a point on it, described Harper’s Conservative government (think George W. Bush with better manners) as “Neanderthal,” stuck “in the hip pocket of the fossil fuel industry.”
For more, check out PR Watch on KXL.
