Stop the Pipeline

Global warming is here … life as we know it will not be possible unless we take drastic steps immediately to reduce emissions that come from burning fossil fuels: oil, coal and natural gas.  The draft of the US National Climate Assessment is available on the web for your review: http://www.globalchange.gov/what-we-do/assessment.  The reading is stark and should raise one serious question:  What can we do to curb the rise of man-made emissions that are causing global warming?  Call the White House.  Tell the President to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline.  The President has the authority to do this.  And, the President will make his decision within the next month. 

The Keystone XL Pipeline, if it is allowed to go ahead, will carry toxic oil-like substances from tar sands deposits in Alberta, Canada.  The Keystone XL Pipeline will cross the heartland of our country to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.  The tar sands oil will then be shipped.  It’s not for us.  Moreover, the notion that the Keystone XL Pipeline will create jobs is propaganda from TransCanada, the Canadian company pushing to off-load its toxic product through our country.  No more than 6,500 part-time jobs will be created.  But that’s not the worst of it.

James Hansen, the chief climate scientist for NASA, has declared that the burning of the huge tar sands oil deposit in Alberta will spell “game over for the climate.”  The Keystone XL Pipeline will be the fuse to a giant carbon bomb.   We have to think of our lives as well as those of our children and our grandchildren.   We must urge the President to deny approval for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.  This could begin the turnaround that will encourage the development of alternative energy before more damage is done.