Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Keystone XL Pipeline Protest at The White House Feb 17th

350.org, Sierra Club and Hip Hop Caucus are leading a protest in front of the White House on Sunday, February 17th, Presidents Day weekend. They will demand that President Obama reject the Keystone XL pipeline. The organizers believe the pipeline must not be built and because the American public needs a show of faith that he will finally start to lead on climate change.

The demonstration’s goal is to stop the Keystone XL pipeline: if built it would connect Canada’s Tar Sands with Texas refineries and shipping ports.

Editor's note: The Keystone Pipeline is already built and has been operating since 2010 and takes Canadian tar sands oil to Cushing, Oklahoma and to Illinois.  The protesters want to stop and extension from Oklahoma to Houston, Texas (but this part has already been approved by the Obama administration).  So the protesters are protesting the construction of a 'short cut' line that goes through Montana instead of further away through North and South Dakota.

The protesters believe the protest will facilitate the full exploitation of as much as 240 gigatons of carbon, nearly half of what can be safely burned to avoid catastrophic warning over 2° Celsius. In 2011 this fight saw 1,253 people arrested at the White House in an August civil disobedience, and 10,000 people ring the White House in November. The president put off deciding to permit or reject the pipeline. But the opponents believe he must decide soon, and his campaign rhetoric was supportive of the pipeline.

NASA’s James Hansen, a venerated climate scientist, says that if the Tar Sands are exploited fully it’s “essentially game over for the climate.”

350.org and its local chapter 350NYC believe 2013 must be a landmark year of climate protest. With fossil fuel divestment campaigns active at 200 colleges and across faith-based communities, with ongoing action from the Tar Sands Blockade, and with a connection between indigenous rights and environmental exploitation through the Idle No More Movement.

Rally begins at noon.

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