Continued Opposition (environment)

Continue Opposition to Tar Sands Pipelines (Keystone XL, Enbridge Northern Gateway)

(excerted from http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com and http://www.350.org)

On January 15, 2013, eighteen of the nation’s top climate scientists released a letter to President Obama today urging him to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.  Back in autumn, the $7 billion Keystone XL Pipeline raised its controversial head on the eve of the first presidential debate.

The pipeline would transect Native lands, primarily areas within original treaty boundaries, and it has been the subject of tribal dissent, including opposition from some Great Plains tribes and from the National Congress of American Indians.
Tom Poor Bear, Oglala Lakota vice president, stated on October 2 that the pipeline “has to be stopped at our treaty lands”.  

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council passed a resolution opposing the pipeline because it “involves accessing a 300-foot-wide corridor through unceded treaty lands of the Great Sioux Nation” as represented in the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868. 

Other native advocates have called it a violation of prior and informed consent provisions of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Of major concern to society at large is the exacerbation of climate change that the pipeline would enable. 

What You Can Do

1. Join Sierra Club, 350.org, and tens of thousands of Turtle Island citizens in Washington DC on Feb. 17
http://act.350.org/signup/presidentsday


2. Keep an eye on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline,
 which is in the approval/disapproval process and will become even more prominent as an end-run around Keystone XL in the face of successful Keystone protest. “We have great concern about Northern Gateway and tankers coming through our traditional waters,” Frank Brown, of Heiltsuk First Nation in Bella Bella, told Indian Country Today Media Network in January 2013.

As hearings opened on January 14 in Vancouver, at least 1,000 protesters converged outside, rallying against the risks of Enbridge's proposal. First Nations and environmental speakers warned that a tanker accident or pipeline rupture would threaten the coastline, rivers and lands, and hurt those dependent on them. 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/01/25/enbridge-faces-rising-opposition-northern-gateway-pipeline-protests-arrests-147227


For More Information:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/10/03/keystone-xl-pipeline-faces-tribal-opposition-ahead-of-first-presidential-debate-137465#ixzz28xZNwvxY