By Celsias
Posted on Nov. 8, 2011. Listed in:
Anger about the possibility of a massive "carbon bomb' known as Keystone XL which will bring oil from the extremely dirty Canadian tarsands all the way into the US across many environmentally sensitive areas is growing stronger. And protesters from many groups joined together Sunday in the US to ring around the Whitehouse to make that opposition clear to Obama.
Several thousand protesters formed a massive human chain around the White House to try to convince Barack Obama to block the controversial Keystone XL project.
Organiser of the protest, Bill McKibben described it as subjecting Obama to symbolic house arrest.
"That is the second biggest pool of carbon on the planet. If the US government goes ahead and makes it easier to develop that oil-sands project, then there is no credible way to insist that they're working hard on climate change," McKibben told the crowd.
And Van Jones sent his message" Let the message be clear: We, the People, cannot accept this. If the White House lets the proposal go forward, there should be nonviolent civil disobedience and mass arrests along every mile, foot, and inch of the construction route — until it is impossible to complete. August was the beginning of the “people’s veto” of this whole proposal; we will never give up until the very idea of Keystone XL is dead and buried"
NRDC Founding Director John Adams called on President Obama to protect America’s environment, not the profits of oil interests, by rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline
“We’re here today to stand together and say, we believe in a brighter future,”
“Instead of building a pipeline to the past, it's time to draw a line in the sand. “And it’s time to draw the line on tar sands. That’s the line we’re drawing here today.” Adams said .
Some people had the blue signs that Obama had used in his election campaign which promised he would act on climate change and others chanted " Yes we can, stop the pipeline"
Protesters included the actor Mark Ruffalo, climate scientist James Hansen, and the Nobel peace prize winner Jody Williams.Estimates are around 12,000 people.
The fate of the pipeline , which Obama has the power to stop , will likely be decided by the end of this year. But there are some hints that deadline could slip.
The company building the pipeline, TransCanada , says the pipleine means thousands of jobs. "What these millionaire actors and professional activists don't seem to understand is that saying no to Keystone means saying yes to more conflict oil from the Middle East and Venezuela filling American gas tanks," James Millar, a spokesman for TransCanada said in an email."After the Washington protestors fly back home, they will forget about the millions of Americans who can't find work."
Obama seemingly was golfing in northern Virginia for most of the afternoon. His motorcade arrived back at the White House just before 5 p.m. without any interference from the protesters.
