{"id":29466,"date":"2011-08-16T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T11:56:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-05-14T18:41:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:41:40","slug":"4466-keep-it-in-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/energy\/4466-keep-it-in-the-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cKeep it in the ground\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span id=\"internal-source-marker_0.5569202075351161\">The  climate problem has moved from the abstract to the very real in the  last 18 months.&nbsp; Instead of charts and graphs about what will happen  someday, we&rsquo;ve got real-time video: first <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2011\/03\/110318091141.htm\">Russia<\/a> burning, then <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/romm\/2011\/05\/10\/208061\/hell-and-high-water-texas-drought-wildfires-deluge-mississippi-floods\/\">Texas<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/Environment\/2011\/0711\/Raging-wildfires-Climate-changes-to-blame-for-record-season\">Arizona<\/a> on fire. First <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomdispatch.com\/post\/175292\/tomgram:_juan_cole,_the_media_as_a_security_threat_to_america__\/\">Pakistan<\/a> suffered a deluge, then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/world\/australia\/4531356\/Worst-disaster-on-record-for-Queensland\">Queensland<\/a>, Australia, went underwater, and this spring and summer, it&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2011\/07\/07\/us-flooding-forecast-idUSTRE7657H020110707\">the US middle west<\/a> that&rsquo;s been flooding at historic levels.<\/p>\n<p>The year 2010 saw the <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/romm\/2010\/07\/06\/206368\/nsidc-arctic-sea-ice-extent-volume\/\">lowest volume<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/environment\/2011\/jul\/11\/arctic-ice-free\">Arctic ice<\/a> since scientists started to measure, more rainfall on land than any year in recorded history, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/romm\/2010\/10\/27\/206942\/strongest-storm-ever-recorded-in-the-midwest\/\">lowest barometric pressure<\/a> ever registered in the continental United States.&nbsp; Measured on a planetary scale, 2010 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2011\/01\/12\/AR2011011204692.html\">tied<\/a> 2005 as the warmest year in history. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wunderground.com\/about\/jmasters.asp\">Jeff Masters<\/a>, probably the world&rsquo;s most widely read meteorologist, <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/romm\/2011\/06\/24\/253299\/masters-driven-by-global-warming-it-is-quite-possible-that-2010-was-the-most-extreme-weather-year-globally-since-1816\/\">calculated<\/a> that the year featured the most extreme weather since at least 1816, when a giant volcano blew its top.<\/p>\n<p><span>Since  we&rsquo;re the volcano now, and likely to keep blowing, here&rsquo;s his  prognosis: &ldquo;The ever-increasing amounts of heat-trapping gases humans  are emitting into the air put tremendous pressure on the climate system  to shift to a new, radically different, warmer state, and the extreme  weather of 2010-2011 suggests that the transition is already well under  way.&quot;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There&rsquo;s  another shift, too, and that&rsquo;s in the response from climate-change  activists. For the first two decades of the global-warming era, the  suggested solutions<\/span> <span>to  the problem had been as abstract as the science that went with it:  complicated schemes like the Kyoto Protocol, or the cap-and-trade  agreement that died in the US Congress in 2010. These were attempts to  solve the problem of climate change via complicated backstage maneuvers  and manipulations of prices or regulations. They failed in large part  because the fossil-fuel industry managed, at every turn, to dilute or  defang them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Clearly  the current Congress is in no mood for real regulation, so &#8212; for the  moment anyway &#8212; the complicated planning is being replaced by a simpler  rallying cry. When it comes to coal, oil and natural gas, the new  mantra of activists is simple, straightforward and hard to defang: Keep  it in the ground!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Recently,  for instance, a few veteran environmentalists, myself included, issued a  call for protest against Canada&rsquo;s plans to massively expand oil imports  from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oil_sands\">tar-sands<\/a> regions of Alberta, Canada. We set up a new website, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarsandsaction.org\/\">tarsandsaction.org<\/a><span>,  and judging from the early response, it could result in the largest  civil disobedience actions in the climate-change movement&rsquo;s history on  the North American continent, as hundreds, possibly thousands, of  concerned activists converge on the White House in August. <\/p>\n<p>They&rsquo;ll risk arrest to demand something simple and concrete from President Barack Obama: that he refuse to grant a license for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/r\/pa\/prs\/ps\/2011\/07\/168957.htm\">Keystone XL<\/a><span>,  a new pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico that would vastly  increase the flow of tar-sands oil through the United States, ensuring  that the exploitation of Alberta&rsquo;s tar sands will only increase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Forget the abstract and consider the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourdictionary.com\/down-and-dirty\">down-and-dirty<\/a><span>  instead. You can undoubtedly guess some of the reasons for opposition  to such a pipeline. It&rsquo;s wrecking native lands in Canada, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/headline\/2011\/07\/11-5\">potential spills<\/a> from that pipeline could pollute some of the most important ranchlands and aquifers in America. (The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Yellowstone_River\">Yellowstone River<\/a> spill in early July was seen by many as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/gwire\/2011\/07\/07\/07greenwire-keystone-xl-pipeline-fight-flares-in-wake-of-y-82578.html\">sign<\/a> of what to <a href=\"https:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2011\/jul\/07\/opinion\/la-oe-klein-climate-oil-spill-20110707\">expect<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><span>There&rsquo;s  an even bigger reason to oppose the pipeline, one that should be on the  minds of even those of us who live thousands of kilometres away:  Alberta&rsquo;s tar sands are the North American continent&rsquo;s biggest carbon  bomb.&nbsp; Indeed, they&rsquo;re the second-largest pool of carbon on planet  Earth, following only Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s slowly dwindling oilfields.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If  you could burn all the oil in those tar sands, you&rsquo;d run the  atmosphere&rsquo;s concentration of carbon dioxide from its current 390 parts  per million (enough to cause the climate havoc we&rsquo;re currently seeing)  to nearly 600 parts per million, which would mean if not hell, then at  least a world with a similar temperature. It won&rsquo;t happen overnight,  thank God, but <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.columbia.edu\/%7Ejeh1\/mailings\/2011\/20110603_SilenceIsDeadly.pdf\">according<\/a> to the planet&rsquo;s most important climatologist, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.giss.nasa.gov\/staff\/jhansen.html\">James Hansen<\/a>, burning even a substantial portion of that oil would mean it was &ldquo;essentially game over&rdquo; for the climate of this planet.<\/p>\n<p><span>Halting  that pipeline wouldn&rsquo;t solve all tar-sands problems.&nbsp; The Canadians  will keep trying to get it out to market, but it would definitely ensure  that more of that oil will stay in the ground longer and that, at  least, would be a start.&nbsp; Even better, the politics of it are simple.  For once, the Republican party majority in the US House of  Representatives, the lower house of Congress, can&rsquo;t get in the way. The  president alone decides if the pipeline is &ldquo;in the national interest&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p>There  are, however, already worrisome signs within the Obama administration.  In mid-July, based on a US state department cable released by WikiLeaks,  Neela Banerjee of the <\/span>Los Angeles Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/nation\/la-na-pipeline-keystone-20110713,0,508267.story\">reported <\/a><span>that,  in 2009, the state department&rsquo;s &ldquo;energy envoy&rdquo; was already instructing  Alberta&rsquo;s fossil-fuel barons in how to improve their &ldquo;oil sands  messaging&rdquo;, including &ldquo;increasing visibility and accessibility of more  positive news stories&rdquo;. This is the government version of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/Commentary\/the-monitors-view\/2011\/0718\/Murdoch-hacking-scandal-A-lesson-for-news-consumers\">Murdochian-style<\/a> enviro-<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Phone_hacking\">hacking<\/a>, and it leads many to think that the new pipeline is already a done deal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Still, the president can say no. If he does, then there will be no pipeline &#8212; and in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/report-on-business\/industry-news\/energy-and-resources\/without-keystone-xl-oil-sands-face-choke-point\/article2052562\/\">words<\/a> of Alberta&rsquo;s oil minister, his province will be &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.edmontonjournal.com\/business\/Future+access+markets+biggest+threat+Alberta+energy+industry+Liepert\/4982089\/story.html?cid=megadrop_story\">landlocked in bitumen<\/a><span>&rdquo;  (the basic substance from which tar-sands oil is extracted). Even  energy-hungry China, eager as it is for new sources of fossil fuels, may  not be able to save the minister, since native tribes are doing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.albertasurfacerights.com\/articles\/?id=604\">a remarkable job<\/a><span>  of blocking another proposed pipeline to the Canadian Pacific. Oil, oil  everywhere, and nary a drop to sell. (Unfortunately that&rsquo;s not quite  true, but at least there won&rsquo;t be a big new drinking straw in this  milkshake.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>An  Obama thumbs-down on the pipeline could change the economics of the tar  sands in striking ways. &ldquo;Unless we get increased [market] access, like  with Keystone XL, we&rsquo;re going to be stuck,&rdquo; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/report-on-business\/industry-news\/energy-and-resources\/without-keystone-xl-oil-sands-face-choke-point\/article2052562\/\">said<\/a> Ralph Glass, an economist and vice-president at AJM Petroleum Consultants in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Calgary\">Calgary<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Faced with that prospect, Canada&rsquo;s oilmen are growing desperate. In early July, in a classic sleight of hand, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vancouversun.com\/business\/Feds+Alberta+commit+million+Shell+Scotford+carbon+capture+project\/5003331\/story.html\">announced<\/a><span>  plans for a giant &ldquo;carbon capture and sequestration&rdquo; scheme at the tar  sands. That&rsquo;s because when it comes to global warming, tar-sands oil is  even worse than, say, Saudi oil because it&rsquo;s a tarry muck, not a liquid,  and so you have to burn a lot of natural gas to make it flow in the  first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now,  the oil industry is proposing to capture some of the extra carbon from  that cooking process and store it underground. This is an untested  method, and the accounting scheme that Alberta has adopted for it may <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article.cfm?id=canada-makes-bet-on-carbon-capture-squestration\">actually increase<\/a><span>  the province&rsquo;s emissions. Even if it turns out to work perfectly and  captures the carbon from that natural gas that would have escaped into  the atmosphere, the oil they&rsquo;re proposing to ship south for use in  American petrol tanks would still be exactly as bad for the atmosphere  as Saudi crude. In other words, in the long run it would still be  &ldquo;essentially game over&rdquo; for the climate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The  Saudis, of course, built their oil empire long before we knew that  there was anything wrong with burning oil. The Canadians &#8212; with  American help, if Obama obliges the oil lobby &#8212; are building theirs in  the teeth of the greatest threat the world has ever faced. We can&rsquo;t  unbuild those Saudi Arabian fields, though happily their supplies are  starting to slowly dwindle. What we can still do, though, is prevent  North America from becoming the next Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>So  there will be a battle, and there will be nothing complicated or  abstract about it.&nbsp; It will be based on one question: does that carbon  stay in the earth, or does it pour into the atmosphere?&nbsp; Given the  trillions of dollars at stake, it will be a hard fight, and there&rsquo;s no  guarantee of victory. But at least there&rsquo;s no fog here, no maze of  technicalities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The  last climate bill, the one the US Senate abandoned, was thousands of  pages long. This time there&rsquo;s a single sheet of paper, which Obama signs  &hellip; or not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.billmckibben.com\/\"><em>Bill McKibben<\/em><\/a><em> is Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont, founder of&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.350.org\/\"><em>350.org<\/em><\/a><em>,&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomdispatch.com\/archive\/175399\/bill_mckibben_three_strikes_and_you%27re_hot\"><em>TomDispatch regular<\/em><\/a><em>. His most recent book, now out in paperback, is<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billmckibben.com\/eaarth\/eaarthbook.html\">Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright &copy; 2011 Bill McKibben<br \/>\nCopyright &copy; 2011 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomdispatch.com\/blog\/175417\">TomDispatch<\/a>. All rights reserved. Published by<em> chinadialogue<\/em> with permission.<\/p>\n<p>Homepage image of Syncrude oil sands mining operations in Canada by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pembina.org\/\">David Dodge\/The Pembina Institute<\/a>. <br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Environmentalists are urging Barack Obama to refuse permission for a tar-sands-oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. North America must not become the new middle east, argues Bill McKibben.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":55070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[757],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-29466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cKeep it in the ground\u201d | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Environmentalists are urging Barack Obama to refuse permission for a tar-sands-oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. 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