As a concerned citizen, I am planning to take part in a nationwide wave of peaceful civil disobedience in the event that Obama approves the Keystone Pipeline. 76,000 people in the U.S. have signed the “Pledge of Resistance to the KXL Pipeline,” initiated by Rainforest Action Network and CREDO, committing themselves to risk arrest in order to protest the pipeline. Obama has said that if science showed the pipeline would have a negative effect on the climate, he would not approve it — we intend to hold him to his word. The science is clear: This pipeline would lead to a sharp rise in carbon dioxide emissions, just when we need to decrease those emissions in order to stabilize the global climate. Canadian tar-sands oil is among the most polluting, and its extraction is poisoning thousands of square miles of pristine forests and native lands in Alberta.
Typhoon Haiyan is just the latest evidence of the devastating effects of sea-level rise and ocean warming: Thousands have lost their lives because of runaway fossil-fuel emissions, and it will only get worse. What sort of a future will our children and grandchildren have?
In December, a group of people, including members of Asheville350.org, will go to the Federal Building to inform those who work there of our pledge and why we’ll be returning if the KXL pipeline is approved. We have nothing against the dedicated employees who work in the building — we applaud and support their work. We will be taking this action in coordination with tens of thousands of others from around the country to let President Obama know that the KXL pipeline must not be built and that we won’t rest until it is stopped.
— Cathy Holt
Asheville
Have a little empathy. We need the jobs and we need the energy.
Ha ha ha, yes it’s all about environmentalists and their lack of empathy.