(message posted on behalf of our allies)
Call to Action
Keystone XL Resistance Denver | Saturday, April 26th
The Keystone XL pipeline, which leading climate scientist James Hansen has described as “game over for the planet,” is entering the final stages of the approval process, with final approval possible as early as May 2014.
For a handful of multimillionaires, Keystone XL would be a dream come true. Koch Industries alone expect to rake in $100,000,000,000 if it is built, which for perspective, is as much as the federal government spends annually on education. Yet for us, the pipeline would be a nightmare.
The Keystone XL pipeline, if approved, would carry over 800,000 barrels of tar sands oil–best described as a semi-viscous, carbon intensive, toxic injustice–through America’s heartland each day. Tar sands oil is a disaster at the point of extraction, where it causes cancer rates to spike and destroys local ecosystems, all the while violating the treaty rights of Canadian First Nations. It is a disaster when transported, as both the recent railroad crash in Quebec and the recent pipeline spill in Arkansas have made strikingly clear. It is a disaster when refined, exacerbating cancer and asthma clusters, and doing so mostly in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
Tar sands oil is an absolute disaster at the final stage, when it is burned and carbon pollution is dumped into our skies. This carbon serves to further destabilize our imperiled atmosphere, threatening society with one of the greatest crises it has ever faced.
The decision on Keystone XL will be the definitive test of President Obama’s character and integrity. Moreover, it will be a crucial arbiter of his legacy, impacting history’s verdict on his presidency far more than incidents such as the Benghazi affair or the NSA ordeal could.
We know that if we sit back and trust him to independently make the right choices, we will be doing so at our peril.
The time for action is now. Rejecting Keystone XL will help keep the tar sands where they belong, buried safely in the ground. It will protect communities that are already struggling to survive. And it will send a resounding message that the days of unchecked fossil fuel recklessness are coming to an end.
So here is our plan:
On April 26th, people from around Colorado will converge at the City Capitol to demand of President Obama that he refuse the Keystone XL pipeline. From the Capitol, we will march to the implicit corporations around Downtown Denver; our march will be theatrical in nature. We will then march back to Lincoln Park where we will have a huge rally featuring speakers from Denver communities that are at the frontlines of the fight against tar sands oil. Emboldened by our passion and our frustration, we will partake in a non-violent action to denounce the Keystone XL pipeline and the “all-of-the-above” energy approach that makes such fossil fuel projects possible.
We ask you to join us in Denver on Saturday, April 26th for this action.
In Solidarity,
The International Socialist Organization – Denver Branch