Why I got arrested to help stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

I was the 955th person to be arrested in front of the White House for civil disobedience on 9/2/11 during the Stop Keystone XL Pipeline Action. Photo by Josh Lopez. 1252 people were arrested from 8/21/11 - 9/3/11 during this Action.

Why did I do this?  

The production and refining of tar sands oil produces more earth-warming carbon dioxide than does conventional petroleum - substantial amounts of natural gas are burned in its production. It also results in despoiled landscape and polluted water. Also, the transportation of the synthetic crude oil thus produced through pipelines creates the risk of leakage and the potential contamination of wilderness lands.

James Hansen calculates that burning all of the Earth's coal and unconventional fossil fuels  (like those in tar sands) could potentially release enough carbon dioxide to change the climate to the extent that humans could not survive on Earth.  Hansen was arrested on 8/29. Here is a link to his writings regarding this action.

Some ask. don't we need more domestic oil production? I think we need to draw the line short of tar sand production. I believe that with aggressive conservation measures (e.g., 100 fold increases in bicycle commuting) and aggressive development of renewable energy (e.g. solar power), existing domestic sources of conventional petroleum could be sufficient. I think that a progressive carbon fee with rebate would be effective in moving us toward this.

But what about the approximately 150 pounds of carbon dioxide that I released into the atmosphere driving from North Carolina to DC in my Volvo for this? A concern! But I see this as an investment to enable my support of this Action, support that may turn out to be key to an eventual turning of humanity toward sustainability.  

I would like to have traveled to DC by train for this, releasing only about 10% of the carbon per passenger-mile, but unfortunately my schedule did not allow for this. If we all insisted on leading low carbon lives, there would be more trains running, and my schedule could probably have been accommodated. 

I was honored to be photographed during the 9/2 Action behind Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and Canadian author, Naomi Klein. Photo by Josh Lopez.