Oklahomans March Onto TransCanada Easement to Protest Keystone XL Pipeline
Take our New Year Pledge and tell us (or show us with a photo!) what you will do in 2013 to reduce your carbon footprint.
Come to Texas! Join us in the fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline! If nothing else, expand your network of allies and learn how to climb some shit.
Washington (CNN) — Less than two weeks after Barack Obama won his re-election campaign, protesters gathered Sunday to call on the president and his administration to reject the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and to act on climate change.
While Republican candidate Mitt Romney said he would support construction of the 1,700-mile pipeline, for the jobs he said the pipeline would create, Obama in the past has rejected rapid approval, citing what he called the “arbitrary nature” of the deadline Republicans proposed for passage and the need for sufficient time for the State Department to gather information necessary for a project that crosses into the American border.
Nearly a year ago, the State Department announced the decision to delay until after the 2012 election consideration of the controversial project that would originate in Alberta, Canada,’s tar sands and would extend to the Gulf of Mexico.
On Sunday, protestors flooded Washington’s Freedom Plaza, before laying down their signs and picking up a 500-foot plastic “oil pipe,” which they carried a few blocks to the White House.
One of the event’s main organizers, founder of 350.org, Bill McKidden, said that activists may have been silent but haven’t forgotten about the project and now they’ve organized to remind the administration of their commitment to preventing fossil fuel based projects that they say are causing increased climate change.
“They said a year ago they would study it further, now that year is up, and in the meantime we’ve had the hottest year in America history, we’ve had an epic drought, we’ve had the Arctic melting and we’ve had Superstorm Sandy flooding the subways of New York,” said McKibben.
“The pipeline has come to symbolize something much, much bigger than just one energy project, it’s come to symbolize what is our energy future, and what President Obama is going to do on climate change,” said activist Jane Kleeb of the anti-pipeline organization Bold Nebraska, in a state where the Keystone XL project would cut through predominantly agricultural areas.
At issue is the potential for water and soil contamination from the 500,000 to 700,000 barrels of crude oil that would traverse the pipeline each day.
Film director Josh Fox, whose documentary “Gasland” examined the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” was among protesters with camera in hand. “I’m here doing a film on (McKidden’s 350.org’s) “Do the Math,” and the math tells us that we have more fossil fuels in the ground than is supportable by the atmosphere without total catastrophe and calamity,” said Fox.
Check out 24 Hours of Reality, a live event in every time zone of the world for the next 24 hours, promoting discussion and action on climate change.
There are 47,000 runners registered for the 2012 ING NYC Marathon. In the wake of the devastating hurricane Sandy, many runners will not be able or will be unwilling to get to NYC for the run. Rather than canceling their reservation, we’d like to urge those runners to donate their rooms to NYC residents who have been displaced from their homes. If you’re a runner willing to donate your room all we need from you is your hotel reservation information and we will call the hotels directly to facilitate transferring the reservation. If you’re a New Yorker looking for a place to stay please submit your information and we will grant you a room on a first come first served basis. Media, please help spread the word. Contact us with any questions. And remember, this is literally a race against the clock to ensure that these reservations don’t go to waste, so please act with a sense of urgency!
This is a great idea. Great work by Conley Wingfield Downing, who came up with the concept apparently on the fly.
First Nations lead the way in Victoria protest against pipelines and oil sands
Protesters trickled in like salmon heading home—a few signs on the Canada Line at 5:30 in the morning, a big line up at the Bridgeport bus stop, a ferry full of protesters, all ages, a few costumes, lots of signs…One of the organizers, Clayton Thomas Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network, took a few minutes from the final preparations to list some of the First Nations who would be present: Esquimalt, Suquamish, Songhees, Haida, Gitga’at, Wet’ suwet’en, all five First Nations in the Yinke Dene Alliance, Cree, Heiltsuk, Kitkatla, Nuchatlaht, Penticton and Musqueam, among others.I asked Muller what story he thought had not been fully told. “Nearly all of BC is unceded lands,” he said. “Attacks on constitutionally protected indigenous rights and cuts to indigenous funding –these strategies are aimed at destabilizing native communities and gaining further access to our lands for the mining, forest and energy sectors.”
…In addition to BC First Nations, a Metis representative came to offer apologies for some people of his nation who had accepted cash from Enbridge. “Nearly all of us oppose the pipeline,” he said. “We will be there with you.” Similarly, a representative of the Mohawk came to show support from Canada’s eastern First Nations. “The indigenous people in the east support you,” he said. “We will bring our bodies in support if need be.”
NEW REPORT OUT TODAY —
39% of American adults (66% of social media users) have used social media platforms to engage in at least 1 of 8 civic or political activities:
- 38% of those who use social networking sites (SNS) or Twitter use those social media to “like” or promote material related to politics or social issues that others have posted. Liberal Democrats who use social media are particularly likely to use the ‘like’ button—52% of them have done so and 42% of conservative Republicans have also done so.
- 35% of social media users have used the tools to encourage people to vote. Democrats who are social media users are more likely to have used social media to encourage voting—42% have done that compared with 36% of Republican social-media users and 31% of independents.
- 34% of social media users have used the tools to post their own thoughts or comments on political and social issues. Liberal Democrats who use social media (42%) and conservative Republicans (41%) are especially likely to use social media this way.
- 33% of social media users have used the tools to repost content related to political or social issues that was originally posted by someone else. Republican social media users are more likely to do this on social media—39% have used social media to repost content, compared with 34% of social media using Democrats and 31% of independents.
- 31% of social media users have used the tools to encourage other people to take action on a political or social issue that is important to them. Some 36% of social-media-using Democrats have done this as have 34% of Republicans. This compares to 29% of independents who are social media users.
- 28% of social media users have used the tools to post links to political stories or articles for others to read. The social media users who are liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans are the most likely to have used social media this way (39% and 34% respectively).
- 21% of those who use SNS or Twitter belong to a group on a social networking site that is involved in political or social issues, or that is working to advance a cause. There are no major differences by ideology or partisanship when it comes to using social media this way.
- 20% of social media users have used the tools to follow elected officials and candidates for office. Some 32% of the conservative Republicans who use social media follow officials on social media and 27% of liberal Democrats who use social media do so.
Which of these do you engage in regularly?
it’s a beautiful thing that you can help so easily by just signing your name :-) www.savethearctic.org
