Here at FGGAM we have been praying that the Keystone Pipeline would get the green light to help our economy and that common sense would prevail, that is to much to ask of the Obama Administration I know, but we keep praying. Here’s a great article: Keystone Pipeline a ‘Christmas Present’ for America: T. Boone Pickens told CNBC host Becky Quic…bit.ly/Oh5O6o
Christmas present for the Koch brothers, for sure.
There are many good reasons to say “no” to Keystone.
The IEA estimates that Keystone would harvest 3 times the carbon that would take us over 2 degrees C, the absolute limit for a catastrophe we might survive, if we’re lucky.
See: ”IEA acknowledges fossil fuel reserves climate crunch”
https://priceofoil.org/2012/11/…
We are of warned of a potential climate abyss by our most trusted messengers, such as NOAA, NASA, the Royal Academy of UK (SIr Isaac Newton was president), National Academy of Sciences (Einstein was a member) the very conservative World Bank, National Geographic, Scientific American, the IMF. We are told of current disastrous health effects by the American Academy of Pediatrics, World Health Organization and the AMA.
We cannot rely on State Department assessments, if made by employees of the carbon industries.
And Keystone would eventually strip forests the size of Florida, forests that might have absorbed enormous quantities of CO2 before they were removed as “overburden”.
Would Keystone “replace” those forests? They say they would repair any damage, right? Laughable.
Even 2 degrees itself may be too high – a “prescription for disaster” says Dr. James Hansen, chief climatologist at NASA (ret.), one who, early on, predicted many of the catastrophic effects that we have seen.
Many of us know the bitter taste of the weird weather out there, with just current warming of .8 deg C. Shall we roll the dice for our kids and grand kids, saying “let it ride!” beyond 2 degrees and more? More, and we might invite abrupt, irreversible changes.
No, taking your kids to to Disney World does not make up for that.
Keystone XL is not a smart gamble.