#tar sands pipelines

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 9 June 2021, it was announced that the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have carried petroleum over 1000 miles from tar sands in Canada to Nebraska, was to be scrapped. First Nations peoples in Canada had resisted oil extraction in the region for years, and were joined by Native Americans in the United States in opposing the pipeline. These included the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, Assiniboine, Aaniiih and Nez Perce peoples. Native American protests also inspired resistance from other environmentalists, who began a campaign of civil disobedience against the project. The pipeline was first scrapped by the administration of Barack Obama, but then resurrected by later president, Donald Trump. Following renewed protests, the project was finally scrapped by the administration of Joe Biden. The campaign was one of many Indigenous struggles over land, sovereignty, and the environment which has contributed significantly to the fight against climate change. One study found that Indigenous resistance in United States and Canada has helped prevent 12% of the combined carbon dioxide equivalent pollution of the countries. Learn more about Native American resistance in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/500-years-of-indigenous-resistance-gord-hill To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio then click this photo https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=641244214715464&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Chalk up a win for the provinces and a loss for the federal government's environmental ambitions.

In a 5-2 decision released on Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Ottawa and in favour of arguments from provincial governments about how major projects are approved in the country.

The ruling focused on the federal government's Impact Assessment Act (IAA), which gives federal regulators the power to assess potential environmental and social impacts of various major projects, such as pipelines, power plants and airports. 

Experts say it's a setback, but not a critical blow to the federal government's environmental agenda, although it could have broader implications for other climate policies Ottawa is developing.

Meanwhile, it's a triumph for provincial autonomy. [...]

As CBC reporter Erin Collins more colloquially put it on CBC Radio, a few minutes after the decision was released, "this was really Alberta telling the feds to stay off their lawn and the local bylaw officer kind of coming by and agreeing with them." [...]

Continue Reading.

Note from the poster @el-shab-hussein: Yay. Now Alberta gets full reign of their horrifically backwards tar sands environmental policies.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @abpoli

[dailyanarchistposts]

Ecological Reclamation and Reconstruction

Workers in specific industries will be crucial in reclamation and reconstruction activities in moving toward ecological futures. This is because of the unique knowledge they have of specific industries being ended or transformed or requiring clean up or restoration.

One example is the decommissioning of tar sands developments and the reclamation of ecologically devastated areas and wastelands that were created by tar sands development.

Organizing is always key. Because workers are uniquely placed to undertake and enact deep green social transformation does not mean they will, of course. Some workers are conditioned by capital to tie their supposed interests with the short term aims of the particular company or industry in which they work. And, under capitalism, when successfully selling your labor on the capitalist labor market is a prerequisite to survival, the treat of losing your job is a potent inhibition. And this can be, and is, manipulated toward anti-ecological ends. We have seen this in logging, tar sands, and pipelines. But we have also seen the opposite – workers allying with environmentalists and Indigenous activists to engage in eco-defense.

[climatecalling]

It’s a lot easier to justify ripping an activist off the road by their hair, or punching them, when a prominent politician is comparing them to violent terrorists and a major media outlet is repeating that frame. ... What’s happening in Germany—public rhetoric vilifying climate activists, which the media then picks up and amplifies and, ultimately, leads to the criminalization of those activists—is a pattern we’ve seen play out in multiple countries, new research from climate news sites Drilled and DeSmog reveals. That pattern is thanks in no small part to the influence of this little-known network, which has powerful allies in the oil, gas, and extractive industries.  The Atlas Network describes itself as “a nonprofit that aims to secure the right to economic and personal freedom for all individuals” through its global network of think tanks. ... This pattern also took place in Canada and the U.S. over the past decade, in response to First Nations and Indigenous-led protests rejecting the expansion of tar sands extraction, as well as the anti–Dakota Access Pipeline movement. A series of papers put out by an Atlas member think tank in 2013 and 2014 paints First Nations activists as potentially violent, cautioning of the havoc these “warrior societies”could wreak on Canada. ... Social scientists who study movements and social change have largely been confused by how much questions over the “civility” of climate protesters’ tactics have dominated the discourse. “There really hasn’t been much destruction of property—the climate movement’s tactics have been very tame so far,” says Dana Fisher, who heads up the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity and has been researching protest in general and climate protest in particular for years.  The fixation on whether climate activists are “radical” makes a lot more sense in the context of the Atlas Network’s history. “It’s this method that you see over and over again over the years,” Walker, the Atlas researcher, says. “They’ll throw something out into the public sphere, which will get a little bit of press, and then before you know it, a new law has been written, possibly by one of them. And now you have the criminalization of what was previously seen as legitimate civil protest.”

No paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20230914013145/https://newrepublic.com/article/175488/meet-shadowy-global-network-vilifying-climate-protesters

[sataniccapitalist]

From the tar sands of Canada, through the pipelines of BP, on to the US sub-prime mortgage market of and the border with Mexico. Through the destabilisation of Central and Latin America, the deforestation of the Amazon and Pinochet’s Chile across the Pacific, to the Opium Wars in Hong Kong. From the American War of Aggression in Vietnam to Colonial India and the hundreds of thousands dead, maimed and traumatised in the Middle East, through Africa and the whole tragic history of that land, notwithstanding economic exploitation of domestic populations, capitalist ambitions have destroyed, devalued and dehumanised life.

[larkiethings]

it is kind of crazy seeing everyone tripping over themselves for Tim walz like are you the same people who were upset about line 3 in 2020??? Listen I forgot the name of the guy I was calling saying hey maybe don’t bring coal tar sands in a leaky pipeline under three native reservations too but uhhhh

like I’m still going to vote for Kamala dont get me wrong but man some of the stuff you guys are posting on here like. He’s still a politician who cares more about oil money than the environment and peoples lives. Stop acting like he’s gods gift to the presidential ticket

[follow-up-news]

The operator of the Keystone Pipeline System, which carries a form of crude oil from Canada to multiple states for refining, said over the weekend that its largest breach yet has been contained for now.

The pipeline failure 3 miles east of Washington, Kansas, on Wednesday caused an estimated 14,000 barrels of crude, or 588,000 gallons of a form of crude known as tar sands oil, to spill into Mill Creek, a natural waterway, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the U.S. Transportation Department.

The administration has ordered the affected section of pipeline, about 160 miles north of Wichita, closed until corrective action can be completed.

TC Energy, the Canadian parent of day-to-day pipeline operator TC Oil, said in a statement Saturday that the spill was no longer moving downstream. It mobilized 250 crews to handle cleanup and has deployed booms and vacuum trucks to stop the oil, the company said.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement Saturday, "The discharge has been contained, and no drinking water has been impacted."

The failure along a 96-mile segment in parts of Washington County, Kansas; Clay County, Kansas; and Jefferson County, Nebraska, renews concern over pipeline safety after the demise of the contentious Keystone XL pipeline project.

[intothewildsstuff]

What you need to know about the latest Keystone pipeline oil spill : NPR

Shut it down, make it go thru Canada, quit fowling our water and land.

[hwenvs3000f24]

Unit 05 blog

Response to the readings for Unit 05- I agree. But also…

Unit 05's reading by Wals et al. (2014) addresses the need to bridge the gap between knowledge of environmental issues, and more people taking action to address them. This reminds me of something that has been on my  mind for a while— environmental awareness has existed in our society for decades, and most people in my generation not only understand the severity of climate change, but know to value conservation. So why aren't we seeing more change?

While I’m seeing lots of apathy, I don’t think it’s because of a gap in our values. like Wals et al. were getting at, it's important to seriously think about where that apathy stems from, rather than simply assuming it's a lack of knowledge or understanding.

In my opinion, apathy stems form a perceived lack of power. You know how they say, "with power comes responsibility?" Well, maybe people won't think of themselves as having responsibility if they don't think of themselves as having power. And how could we think of ourselves as having power over the outcome of climate change and biodiversity loss, when billionaires such as Taylor Swift emit an estimated 8,000-10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, or when banks such as RBC have pouired over 250 million into fossil fuels financing since the Paris Agreement (and was the top financier of tar sands among all banks in 2023), or when oil and gas companies make record profits while ordinary people struggle to afford basic necessities such as food (thanks Galen Weston)?

How can we tell people to go pick up garbage or monitor some wildlife, when, in the face of everything I've described above, it would barely chip away at a problem we didn't create?

The thing is, I AGREE with taking care of nature in your own backyard. Not because it'll save us, but as a way of continuously affirming in our hearts, through our hands touching the soil, our understanding of why nature matters, as well as to model the values of the world we want to live in.

But what can we do if we're not even the ones with say over what happens-- when the emissions of the richest 1% equal more than 2x the emissions of the poorest 50%?

Well here's the thing-- we have more power than we think. We could shut down Canada if we wanted to-- we did momentarily in 2020, when railways came to a halt as allies blockaded all over Turtle island in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en who were resisting construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. And I think, if we can unlearn the sense of powerlessness and apathy, the individualism and the aversion to responsibility that are all too prevalent in our society, then maybe we can take back our power, and exercise our collective responsibility to steward the land. Maybe. I don't know…

My point is, climate chaos and mass extinction are not our fault; they're the fault of the 1% and the politicians who enable them. But who is going to do anything about it but us?

We absolutely need to keep interpreting so we can try to build a culture of care, appreciation, knowledge and wonder for the land that the Western "developed" society we live in has all but snuffed out. Yes to citizen science, invasive species removals, plantings. But also, yes to shutting. It. Down.

Sources:

Wals AEJ, Brody M, Dillon J, Stevenson RB. (2014). Convergence Between Science and Environmental Education.  SCIENCE 344. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1250515 

Merenlender AM, Crall AW, Drill S, Prysby M, Ballard H (2016).  Evaluating environmental education, citizen science, and stewardship through naturalist programs. Conservation Biology, 30(6): 1255–1265 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12737  

[dailyanarchistposts]

Emergent trust and responsibility: three examples

Indigenous struggles

In North America, the recovery of responsibility and interconnectedness is expressed most deeply and forcefully in Indigenous resurgence and other struggles where people are reasserting a profound land-based knowledge, revaluing traditions that have accrued through generations of reciprocal relationships with land. It is no coincidence that Indigenous peoples have been behind the most durable and militant resistance to ecological devastation, including pipelines, dams, logging, tar sands, fracking, and other forms of resource extraction. To be immersed in a web of reciprocal relationships is also to feel the responsibility to protect that web.

The Unist’ot’en Camp, for instance, is an Indigenous-led project that for years has been successfully resisting proposed fracked gas pipelines that would cross the territories of the Wet’suwet’en people in British Columbia. The grassroots Wet’suwet’en people leading the project have been clear that they are not protesting pipelines but reasserting their traditional responsibilities to take care of their territories, and re-establishing traditional protocols for entry. Several years ago, they created a checkpoint and began turning away those working for surveyors and others involved in pipeline construction, while inviting thousands of supporters onto their territories. Mel Bazil, a long-term supporter and a Gitxsan relative of the Unist’ot’en clan, speaks to the power of these land-based responsibilities:

It’s a reciprocal culture; it never really ended … To share that knowledge outwardly to other grassroots folks—migrants and grassroots settlers, as well as other Indigenous nations—it’s been very, very powerful to see our people come together. Not just in the face of devastation and destruction, but to survive and to understand each other.[112]

Not only have they been successful in halting pipeline construction; in the process, the Unist’ot’en Camp has constructed permaculture gardens, a healing center, and hosted annual action camps where hundreds of Indigenous and non-Indigenous supporters come from across North America (and elsewhere) to connect with each other, explore affinities, and deepen networks of trust and mutual support.

Similar processes are taking place at other camps across territories claimed by British Columbia and beyond, including the Madii Lii Camp and Lax Kw’alaams’s defense of Lelu Island, both part of a network of frontlines committed to stopping pipelines and fracked gas expansion. Furthermore, as we write this, there is a local and worldwide proliferation of solidarity actions, fundraisers, and on-the-ground support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Among non-Indigenous people, we also see expressions of land-connected responsibilities in the spread of communal gardening, environmental and climate justice, permaculture, regenerative farming, grassroots bioremediation, resistance to resource extraction, and animal liberation struggles, among others. Many of these struggles are simultaneously fighting the ecological devastation of Empire and its brutal forms of control and exploitation while making space for convivial forms of life.

[climatecalling]

A non-violent environmental activist has been found guilty of felony obstruction for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by legal irregularities which ended with the prosecutor demanding jail time. Mylene Vialard, 54, was arrested in August 2021 after attaching herself to a 25ft bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin county, northern Minnesota. Her arrest was part of a crackdown on non-violent Indigenous-led protests opposing the expansion and rerouting on Line 3 – a 1,097-mile tar sands oil pipeline with a dismal safety record, that crosses more than 200 water bodies from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the US midwest. Despite the verdict, Vialard told the Guardian that she had “no regrets” and that the trial demonstrated what environmental and Indigenous activists “were up against”. ... “Jury returned a guilty verdict on felony obstruction, following a trial in which the prosecution engaged in repeated, flagrant and intentional misconduct throughout the trial and during closing arguments … the court turned a blind eye to the legal violations of law enforcement and the prosecutor, as well as its own legal errors, at the expense of Ms Vialard’s constitutional rights in this trial,” said Claire Glenn, Vialard’s attorney from the Climate Defense Project. ... Overall, at least 967 criminal charges were filed including several people charged under the state’s new critical infrastructure protection legislation – approved as part of a wave of anti-protest laws inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a rightwing group backed by fossil fuel companies.

[cetra]

He's also a CLIMATE CRIMINAL who betrayed his Indigenous constituents as soon as he was elected governor

tim walz is credited for the free public school lunch program that was actually a years-long grassroots campaign by the mother of philando castille. her son would pay for kids’ lunches out of his own pocket was murdered in cold blood by the cops that walz has funded and protected as they terrorize black minnesotans and their friends and loved ones with impunity (to such an extent that the department of justice found the extrajudicial killings of minneapolis police to be exceptional). this election will be a special kind of hell for twin cities residents who have not seen any resolution to the summer that walz sent the national guard into our neighborhoods to fire rubber bullets at us on our porches. these people will not make our lives better. these people are not “easier to organize against”. harris and walz are blood-drenched terrorists with big cheesy grins on their faces

[juniperharvest]

“I can’t speak about the pipeline thing” FUCKING LOOK IT UP

I spent what felt like years of my life screaming and calling Tim Walz constantly and it’s WILD seeing no one cares enough to google “Line 3 Tim Walz” “Line 3 Enbridge” “COAL TAR SANDS” “MISSISSIPPI RIVER”

Yeah he’s a corporate democrat. He is not White Jesus, nor is he Satan.