by Danthanh Trinh
(Courtesy Tufts Divest.)
Imagine that out of every 94 people surveyed in your hometown community, every 22 had cancer. Imagine having to choose between living on your native land, and your family’s health. Imagine decades-old, government-issued treaties and recognition of your homeland being rendered invalid, and having to watch your land loaned off to big-name corporations just to watch it be dug into, butchered, and sucked dry to bring in revenue to the bottomless hunger of these companies. Imagine watching big business pillage and profit off of your backyard where your ancestors grew from, where the values of your roots were developed.
This is what the people of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta, Canada currently face right this minute, due to the excavation of tar sands right on their native land; I heard these first -hand words from an Athabascan member at a Tar Sands Exposed Tour talk last Thursday. If it’s not moving, both emotionally and actively, to hear the suffering humans are experiencing due to our country’s economic motives, this dehumanizing of people and destroying and profiting off the land that has raised us, then I don’t know what hope we have for our future.
Some background on tar sands:
“Tar sands consist of heavy crude oil mixed with sand, clay and bitumen. Extraction entails burning natural gas to generate enough heat and steam to melt the oil out of the sand. As many as five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of oil. Tar sands oil is the worst type of oil for the climate, producing three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventionally produced oil because of the energy required to extract and process tar sands oil. Additionally, increased greenhouse gas emissions associated with tar sands development is the main reason Canada will not meet its Kyoto reduction commitments. Across the United States, oil refineries are seeking permits to expand their facilities to process heavy crude oil from the tar sands. Processing tar sands oil will mean more asthma and respiratory diseases, more cancer, and more cardiovascular problems. Many local communities are opposing the expansions. In Canada, the toxic burden on communities near the tar sands is already enormous. In addition to direct human exposure, oil contamination in the local watershed has led to arsenic in moose meat—a dietary staple for First Nations peoples—up to 33 times acceptable levels. Drinking water has also been contaminated. The alternative is simple: we need to break our addiction to oil and fossil fuels. We could be on the road to a new energy future if we simply redirect the investment capital slated for the tar sands into sustainable alternatives. Heightened investments in clean energy also mean the creation of new green jobs. We need to stop investing in dirty fossil fuels and start funding the future.” (Source: Rainforest Action Network)
Environmental destruction would sprout along the Keystone XL Pipeline route if it was built. The pipeline is expected to stretch 875 miles from Alberta, Canada, to Cushing, Oklahoma, and the Texas Gulf Coast, and would carry up to 830,000 barrels a day across cities and indigenous lands. It is expected to produce three times more climate exhaust than oil, and likely to spill, as the tar sands pipeline in Arkansas spilled thousands of barrels of crude oil into neighborhoods this past spring. The Keystone XL would be an environmental as well as cultural disaster.
The State Department released their final environmental impact statement this past Friday. The decision to build this obstruction now lies on President Obama. Obama has stated, “I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing.” Now is the time to come together to hold him to his word, to refuse further corporate exploitation of our lands, destruction of indigenous communities’ land and cultures, and unequally distributed health issues due to fuel mining and burning. Yesterday at 6 pm, many from the Tufts community gathered on the Tisch Library patio for a vigil protesting against the Keystone XL. We stood in solidarity with more than 200 schools and institutions across the country, sharing our thoughts on the pipeline, encouraging words for continuing the fight against tar sands, building our motivation.
(Courtesy Tufts Divest.)
It’s time to stand up for our earth and our co-inhabitants, some of which don’t have the same resources we might have to influence officials making the decisions that would affect all of our futures. It’s time to be live with dignity, to commit to be able to look our children in the eyes one day, to be able to say that we’d done everything we could to guarantee they could live in a just, stable climate. It’s time to say no to the Keystone XL, no matter what it takes.
Take action: Tar Sands Action
Tufts Divest for Our Future
More background:
Keystone: The Pipeline to Disaster