Thursday, September 15, 2016
Re-route the Dakota Access Pipeline through Cities, Suburbs and Golf Courses
The Dakota Access Pipeline was originally supposed to pass near Bismark, North Dakota; population 88,000 and mostly white. They decided to re-route the pipeline through rural areas and tribal lands so there wouldn't be any public outcry. How'd that approach work out for them?
yup. What a coincidence, eh?
ReplyDeletejadedj: Just a coincidence. The oil barons had no idea thousands of Native Americans from all over the country, and Canada, would congregate there and set up camp. I hope this becomes a trend.
ReplyDeleteJust where is like the Sierra Club in all this? Maybe sitting behind their
ReplyDeletecurtains in those bypassed white neighborhoods and happy the pipeline got diverted.
Erik
Hi Tom,
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog.. Thought I'd post a thought.
I wrote a note to Hartmann about the following earlier this week. Why is the fact that America became the world's top oil and gas producer under the Obama Administration not shouted from the rooftops? Why is the fact that the US is now shipping frack-produced LNG to Europe, in fossil fuel powered tankers, so that American companies can replace the gas that has been supplied by Russia via pipelines? What is the connection between the renewed Cold War posturing of the US and it's allies in NATO, and the US goals of furthering it's control of global energy policies?
And, why has there been so little discussion about the obvious impacts of the US to flood the world oil market with more oil than anybody can use? As a result of the fracking, the US has pumped so much oil out of the ground that "storage" is a major industry. Oil laden tankers sit in harbors, as tank farms are hastily built. Pumping the oil back underground, into storage caverns, are now considered! Pump it out, then pump it back into the ground?
No discussion about the devastation to the economies of so many countries, because of the intentionally lowered oil prices, that the US doesn't like, and has sought to destabilize. Interesting to note that these "lefty" governments are being replaced by right wing, industry favorable clones as the population complain about the impacts to their lives.
And the pipelines? Impacts to grave sites? Of course that is beyond belief. But, with the rapid increases in the effects of climate change being seen around the world, whether a pipeline should traverse this part of the state, or the other, is ridiculous.
It is a distraction to discuss whether pipelines might rupture and pollute groundwater or shorelines. The real line in the sand is "NO MORE!"
American communities across the country are suffering the effects of the proliferation of fracking and oil development, all made possible by the flood of tax payer money, and near zero interest rates.
We are being jerked around, and allowing ourselves to be manipulated by the media. Just as the media puts Trump in our faces every moment of every day, the media is highlighting fractional issues like the Dakota pipeline, instead of helping the public understand the bigger picture, so they will no longer allow the oil companies and their government servants to destroy our lives, and our children's future.
We are allowing all this to happen. We allow them to define what we discuss.
Erik: You're right. If you run the pipeline through San Anselmo, Ross, Atherton, Hillsborough -- then you'd get a rise out of the Sierra Club. Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteAnon. 9:52 a.m.: Excellent points all around. Troubling questions, for which I have no answer.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there's a much larger, more dire picture that most people aren't aware of. But unfortunately, most people are too unaware or too involved in their own day to day lives to be motivated by the global urgency. At least some people are getting pulled into this when their own backyards are threatened. As sad as it is, I think NIMBY is the main driver of the environmental/"keep it in the ground" movement. But the fact remains that the entire planet is in jeopardy, and most people are unaware and/or they're relieved that so far it hasn't affected them personally.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteAgain, the sad reality is that it IS affecting them personally. Every one of us pays for both the fracking to happen, and the consequences and results.
Food crops in California are being irrigated by fracking waste water. Americans are paying with their tax money for the oil industry to turn their communities into toxic environments where they can.t leave.. who will buy a house with a newly constructed oil well in view, spewing fumes?
Our foreign policy is dictated by oil policy that both major parties are completely beholden to. The "terrorist threat" is the result of "wars for oil" that put in power governments that represent American interests, and the locals are reacting to the US in their country. In trying to save their own counties, we name them "insurgents", and bomb them from above with drones..
The issue is that the media is not informing the public of what is being done in their name, but placates any concern with stories like North Dakota.
Anonymous: I agree wholeheartedly with everything you're saying. I'm just as horrified by this as you are. But, what's the solution? Do we try to bombard millions of people with these horrifying facts, and risk alienating most of them, or having them all go numb from information overload? Or is it better to work incrementally by pushing people's self-interest and NIMBY buttons to get them all worked up over a specific issue?
ReplyDeleteI have no answer.
Hi Tom,
ReplyDeleteA couple of things. First, most people have no clue. Most are so driven by self interest, they ACTIVELY avoid engaging. This translates into: "Don't make me responsible for the things that I do that perpetuate the very problems I readily complain about".
Incremental is clearly not working. Com'on. Any awake person, alone at night, knows it isn't working. Look at Price Ford's sales lot next time you drive by, and tell me they get the importance of Climate Change, their children's future, or anything other than immediate sales of PU trucks. What are we waiting for? The very purveyors of the demise of our survival to suddenly do what they have not done?
We are using more fossil fuels, now, than ever before. America, under Obama, is the single biggest problem on the planet.
Gee. Today's news is that the US blew up 60 some odd Syrian soldiers, and wounded another 100. Hello? Didn't the US just sign on to a peace accord with Russia? Like, only a few days ago? What were they doing flying bombing sorties over Syria, to begin with?
Tom, how long do we keep doing what we have been doing for weeks, months and years, and still expect different results? At what point to we acknowledge we are not effecting the changes we are working towards?
As a member of the area Democratic Party, when do you stand up, and demand better? Are they even capable of being part of the solution? Are they, along with the Repulsives and the mainstream media, just too entrenched to be valid anymore?
As you and I know, they only have the power we grant them. Walmart would close in a week, along with ARCO, if we did not patronize them, and give them our money. Politics are little different.
The game continues, because enough of us play along. WE are responsible for all this, not "THEM".
Change the dialogue, change the focus. It really is our country. If only we believed in ourselves.
Do you remember Mau Mau (Amerikon?)?
ReplyDeletePut your old ladies back into bed
Your old men back into their graves
Cover their ears so they can't hear us sing
Cover their eyes so that can't see us play
Get out of the way
Let the people play
We're gonna get down on you
Come alive all over you
Dancin' down into your town
Tyrannosaurus Rex was destroyed before
By a furry little ball that crawled along
The primeval jungle floor
And he stole the eggs of the dinosaur
CLOSE YOUR EYES & CREATE THE SOUND
OPEN YOUR HANDS & REBUILD THE GROUND
We are egg snatchers -
Flashin' sunshine children
Diamond thieves
You unlease the dogs
Of a grade-B movie star governor's war
While you sit in the dark -
Insane with the fear of dying
We'll ball in your parks
- insane with the flash of living
I AM ALIVE
I AM HUMAN
I WILL BE ALIVE AGAIN
So drop your fuckin' bombs
Burn your demon babies
I WILL BE AGAIN -
The rabid lover-feelin' the starch in your grin
Callin' for acid cocaine and grass
And receiving your homemade gin
PUSH THE BUTTON
PULL THE SWITCH
CUT THE BEAM
C'MON MAKE IT MARCH
Sign me up as a diplomat - my only office is the park
You need to be out before you come in
And after you come you go
In the midst of Yang is a smaller part of Yin
And when it happens you know -
THE DAWN COMES
HEY DICK
Whatever you think of us is totally irrelevant
Both to us now and to you
We are the present
We are the future
You are the past
Pay your dues and get outta the way
'Cause we're not the way you used to be
When you were very young
We're something new
We don't quite know what it is
Or particularly care
We just do it - You gotta do it
Open your eyes there's a new world a-comin'
Open your eyes there's a new world today
Open your hearts people are lovin'
Open it all we're here to stay
OPEN THAT DOOR
Cynical comments are easy. We see that politics, and what passes for campaigning these days are inane contrived "dog whistle" issues designed to get people distracted from demanding specifics. We need to hear about specifics.
ReplyDeleteBut the media just goes along, wholly complicit in keeping the discussions about knee-jerk reactionary responses to idiotic sound bites.
Locally, we can demand more. Stand up at the next appearance of a political candidate, and demand specifics, and not accept the usual empty rhetoric about "jobs, jobs, jobs".
We have to attend all the meeting of local governance, and go prepared. Be informed about the issues you want to have impact on. "Government" is you and me. Those occupying seats are there because we either elected them, or didn't work hard enough to be sure they were not elected. They represent us, either way.
It is like most anything. Sitting on the sidelines with clever comments doesn't get the house built.
Organize, get active. Take it over.