In an article, “Stop the
Keystone XL Pipeline,” published by Kathryn Savoie in November of 2011, Savoie
discusses the damage that the Keystone XL Pipeline would create if
approved. The Keystone XL Pipeline spans
the length of 1700 miles, and would transport tar sands oil from Alberta,
Canada to the United States. The
pipeline would cross six states in America, and cost a large sum of 7 billion
dollars. The company behind the
pipeline, TransCanada, needs the approval of the United States Department and
for President Obama to grant the project a, “certificate of national interest.”
One
of the main reasons that this project would be destructive to earth is because
of tar sand, itself. Tar sand is a
thick, black substance, which serves as an unconventional petroleum
deposit. Tar sand can only be mixed with
toxic lighter hydrocarbons in order to flow through a pipeline. Savoie classifies tar sands as, “ecologically
devastating,” and the project as “…one of the most destructive industrial
mega-projects on the planet.” Tar sands
lie beneath the boreal forests in Alberta.
To extract oil sands, oil companies cut down trees in the boreal
forests, then strip mine the soil beneath the forests. The process of obtaining oil sands uses a lot
of fresh water and natural gas to separate the oil from the tar. For example, every barrel of oil produced
uses four barrels of water. The after
effect of the extractions is huge toxic lakes. The extractions link to “unnaturally high
levels of cancer in surrounding communities.”
Residents living in the surrounding areas where oil sand extractions
take place “have experienced rare bile duct cancers at a 30% higher rate than
the general population.” The pollutants
that are released are “directly linked to asthma, emphysema, and birth defects.”
Another
important reason to deny TransCanada the permission to create the pipeline is
due to it passing over the Ogalalla Aquifer, which is not only the largest
freshwater aquifer in North America, but it also supplies irrigation water for
one-third of the nation’s agriculture. A
concern of Savoie is that the creation of the Keystone would trigger the fatal
overheating of our planet. Savoie states
that, “…a barrel of tar sands oil produces three times as much global warming
pollution as conventional oil.”
Studies have shown that if we utilized the tar
sands oil completely, it would increase the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by
200 ppm. The current levels of carbon
dioxide are 390 ppm, and desperately need to decrease by 40 ppm for a
sustainable earth. An organization that
solely focuses on awareness of this issue is called the 350 organization, and
is led by Bill McKibben. The 350
organization, along with McKibben, Savoie, and many others, organized a
non-violent protest in Washington, DC to demand that Obama refuse to approve
the pipeline. The protest took place
from August 20-September 3, and planned to have 50-100 protestors. On the first day of the protest, 70
protestors were jailed, including McKibben.
Overall, there were 1253 protestors arrested during the Tar Sands
Action.