Keystone XL Construction Begins, Met by Protests

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Monday August 20, 2012 · 6:14 AM PDT

2012/08/20 · 06:14

There was no official ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate construction of the Keystone XL in Texas. TransCanada’s careful PR control and political pressures led to a virtual media blackout on the subject. But our movement, the Tar Sands Blockade, exposed what was happening on the ground.

“We just wanted to demonstrate that although they might be ready to begin, we would be ready to meet them,” said Ron Seifert, spokesman for Tar Sands Blockade, to the LA Times on our day of action.

kxlblockade

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Tuesday July 17, 2012 · 8:30 AM PDT

2012/07/17 · 08:30

First posted by Ethan Nuss at WeArePowerShift.org and TarSandsBlockade.org

Sitting cross-legged on scalding concrete in front of the White House, under the blaze of an August sun, I silently awaited my turn to be handcuffed for civil disobedience along with the other 1,252 brave people who participated in the Tar Sands Action.

I was reminded of that day four months later while sweating profusely under an equally oppressive Cambodian sun and squinting to see the fields of cracked, dry rice paddies. The farmer standing at my side managed a weak smile as we peered hopefully into the empty sky awaiting the rainy season that would water his crops and nourish his family. Over 80% of Cambodians survive on subsistence farming, and for them climate change is not a political abstraction but it’s a matter of life and death. No rain, no crops, no food for his children.

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Keystone XL Construction Begins, Met by Protests

Putting Our Bodies on the Pipeline