Environmentalist Bill McKibben says the oil in these tar sands is the contintent's "biggest carbon bomb." And getting oil out of tar sands is even dirtier than regular oil drilling: It requires strip-mining whole fields, creating lakes of toxic sludge, and just extracting it produces two to four times as many greenhouse gases as regular oil.
Scientists also worry that the Keystone XL pipeline could leak, poisoning the Ogallala Aquifier, the largest underground source of drinking water in the United States. The last Keystone pipeline, built last year, has already had at least a dozen spills.
Over 800 committed demonstrators have already been arrested, from grandmothers and first-time activists to movie stars like Daryl Hannah and scientists like Dr. James Hansen. Obama's
press secretary is being asked about it at briefings and the protests have received floods of national media attention.
You are under arrest for failing to obey a lawful order."1. "Report: Exporting Energy Security: Keystone XL Exposed," Oil Change International, August 31, 2011
Those were the words we heard Monday as CREDO CEO Michael Kieschnick, Political Director Becky Bond, campaigner Josh Nelson and I were arrested in front of the White House while representing you and the more than 200,000 other CREDO members who have asked President Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
2. "GOP Nebraska gov. asks Obama to stop tar sands pipeline," CBS News, August 31, 2011
President Bush would allow this pipeline to go through in a second. So would every single Republican presidential candidate. Obama, we need "change you can believe in", we need "change we can see"!
Avaaz petition to stop the Keystone pipeline
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