Protests Agains the Keystone XL Pipeline in Texas
Below is a video that I saw on the blog “The Harbinger – Green Politics and Culture in New Brunswick“. The video is a clip from the show “Democracy Now” and it discusses the protests and blockades that environmentalists and other citizens are putting up to stop the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The interviews highlight the use of “Eminent Domain” in order to seize private property, police officers acting as though they are private contractors for Transcanada (the company building the pipeline) as well as the physical abuse of protesters by the police. So, not a happy story.
Discussed also is the significance of the pipeline in the fight against climate change. As climatologist James Hansen has once said, if the Keystone XL is built, it is “game over” for our climate. In an interview he did before demonstrating in front of the White House last year, Dr. Hansen said that “If released all at once, the known tar sands resource is equivalent to 150 parts per million [of carbon dioxide].” (Note: Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 113 ppm.) He went on to say that “what makes tar sands particularly odious is that the energy you get out in the end, per unit carbon dioxide, is poor. It’s equivalent to burning coal in your automobile. We simply cannot be that stupid if we want to preserve a planet for our children and grandchildren.”
It makes me ashamed to be Canadian.
You’re ashamed to be Canadian? Stuff like this makes me ashamed to be human.
Point taken!