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Ralph Nader | Tar Sands Arrests on Obama's Doorstep

Thu, 09/01/2011 - 10:33 — Dave Culver

Were Obama to look out his White House window and see the arrested and handcuffed demonstrators against this $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline, he might think: 'This will upset my environmental supporters, but heck, where can they go in November 2012?'

Ralph Nader, Reader Supported News

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Joanne Thielen

Ralph Nader being interviewed during his 2008 presidential campaign, 08/01/08. (photo: Scrape TV)

This (Aug 28-Sep 3)  is the second week of protests, led by Bill McKibben, in front of the White House demanding that President Barack Obama reject a proposed 1700 mile pipeline transporting the dirtiest oil from Alberta, Canada through fragile ecologies down to the Gulf Coast refineries. One thousand people will be arrested there from all fifty states before their demonstration is over. The vast majority voted for Obama and they are plenty angry with his brittleness on environmental issues in general.

Following the large BP discharge in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama gave the OK to expand drilling over 20 million acres in the Gulf and soon probably in the Arctic Ocean. He delayed clean air rules over at EPA. Following the worsening Fukishima nuclear disaster last March in Japan, he reaffirmed his support for more taxpayer guaranteed nuclear plants in the US adding his Administration's hopes to learn from the mistakes there.

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Health & Environment

Steve Benson | What a grand canyon / content.cartoonbox.slate.com

Wed, 08/31/2011 - 10:05 — Dave Culver

Section(s): 
Health & Environment

Civil Disobedience on Tar Sands Continues, Amid Ominous Signs From Administration

Wed, 08/31/2011 - 09:58 — Dave Culver

  • As the arrests build, so too does the movement’s support. Unfortunately, the administration has not yet acknowledged the mass civil disobedience.
  • Why We're Protesting: Tar Sands Pipeline Opponents In Their Own Words
  • Steve Clemens | Climate Change Arrest at the White House

George Zornick, Nation Magazine

A prolonged civil disobedience campaign outside the White House that opposes a major oil pipeline from the “tar sands” of Canada is now in its sixth day, and 322 people have been arrested.

The Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico would carry 900,000 barrels per day of crude oil refined from bitumen in the Canadian soil. Aside from the ravaging impacts of extraction, the process contributes anywhere from twice to three times as much greenhouse gases as normal crude refining, and there’s serious potential for leaks in the transcontinental pipeline.

The State Department, which is now conducting an environmental review, will then decide by the end of the year whether to issue a “certificate of national interest,” which would allow the pipeline project to go forward.

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Related:

Climate Change Arrest at the White House, Steve Clemens, Mennonista
The Rest of the Story: Tar Sands Action at the White House

Section(s): 
Health & Environment

What tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline mean for climate change

Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:46 — Dave Culver

  • Environmentalist Bill McKibben was among 100 people arrested on the weekend  (Aug 20-21) for protesting against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. But why are climate campaigners so concerned?
  • 3 Reasons Why the Tar Sands Pipeline Has to Be Stopped

Dana Nuccitelli, London Guardian | UK/OpEdNews.com

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

Bill McKibben is leading what may be the largest green civil disobedience campaign in a generation, against the proposed construction of the 1,600-mile long Keystone XL pipeline.  The pipeline would transport oil from the Alberta tar sands in Canada to American refineries at the Gulf of Mexico, and many are concerned about the associated impacts on the climate.  Digging up new sources of fossil fuels will inevitably increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and the tar sands result in higher carbon emissions than even conventional oil. 

On 15 June 2011, the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Panel approved a bill to expedite a decision on the pipeline, possibly trying to rush it through before adequate environmental impact assessments are completed.

The project must be approved by President Obama in order to proceed, and the aim of the protest is to convince the president to reject the project.

If the Keystone pipeline is not approved, the tar sands oil may be stuck in place.  As McKibben noted, "Alberta is remote, and its only other possible pipeline route — to the Pacific and hence Asia — is tangled in litigation."

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Related:

3 Reasons Why the Tar Sands Pipeline Has to Be Stopped, Janet Redman, AlterNet

  • Here's three reasons why the pipeline is truly idiotic and why I'm willing to get arrested to stop it.
  • Video: Josh Fox for the Tar Sands Action

 

Section(s): 
Health & Environment

Sensible food protections needed

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 12:10 — Dave Culver

Increased supervision from the EPA is necessary to assure that an assumed "track record of safety" is indeed legitimate.

Phyllis Kahn, Minneapolis Star Tribune | MN

If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cuppa jove to Evergreene Digest--using the donation button above—so we can bring you more just like it.

The recent column extolling the virtue of genetically modified foods ("'Genetically modified' isn't evil<>," August 22) contained omissions and contradictions.

In one paragraph, the author praised the extra gene conferring resistance to certain insects, thus requiring much less pesticide, clearly pointing out the deleterious effect pesticides have in adding poison to the rivers, lakes and oceans.

In the very next paragraph, she commended the development of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant soybeans.

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Section(s): 
Health & Environment

Special Project | Health Care Reform: Week of July August 28

Sun, 08/28/2011 - 13:36 — Dave Culver

'Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.' - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

3 New Items including:

  • Will Clarence and Virginia Thomas succeed in killing Obama’s health-care plan
  • Universal Health Care: Can We Afford Anything Less?
  • Universal Health Care in Vermont?

David Culver, ed., Evergreene Digest

Joe Heller

Will Clarence and Virginia Thomas succeed in killing Obama’s health-care plan? Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker Magazine

  • Thomas’s views both reflect and inspire the Tea Party movement, which his wife has helped lead almost since its inception.
  • For decades the conservative movement has called for a small federal government, but for the Tea Party, and for Thomas, small government is a constitutional command.
  • Impeach Clarence Thomas.

Universal Health Care: Can We Afford Anything Less? Gerald Friedman, Dollars & Sense/Truthout
Why only a single-payer system can solve America’s health-care mess.

Universal Health Care in Vermont? Firedog Lake

  • Only If Obama Administration Allows
  • Firedoglake and Physicians for a National Health Program Petition to Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
  • Add your name to our letter
  • Single-Payer in Vermont, A State of Healthy Firsts


Section(s): 
Health & Environment

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