Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
The Lakota phrase, Mni Wiconi, Water is Life, has inspired a Native Nations protest against the recent approval and ongoing construction of the Dakota Access Fracked Oil Pipeline, that threatens all communities and ecosystems downstream. After military-style assaults on Native Water Protectors, construction has almost reached the Missouri River.
California communities are fighting back against the prospect of a 25-fold increase in the amount of crude-by-rail coming into the state soon. Ed Ruszel didn’t set out to be an environmental activist. Then Valero Energy announced a plan to bring 3 million gallons of tar sands crude—every day—within feet of his family business.
Last month, twenty-one people were arrested engaging in peaceful civil disobedience in protest of a proposed tar sands mine in northeastern Utah, which would threaten local land and water, as well as contributing to the global climate crisis. As the wheel of justice turn, national environmental organizations expressed their solidarity with the protesters who stood for our freedom from dirty fossil fuels and devastating climate impacts.
The boom in North Dakota shale oil and the growth in Alberta tar sands, as well as the political costs of building pipelines has encouraged a move to ship more oil by rail. The move comes after high-profile disasters and the threat of massive climate disruption has caused heightened scrutiny of unconventional oil shipped by train to the global market.