Take Action against the Keystone Pipeline

As you may know, the Keystone Pipeline was recently made available for public comment.  I'd like to share a little information and hopefully encourage you to voice your opinion on this matter.

WHAT'S THE DEAL W/ #KXL

The proposed pipeline will carry crude oil and products of tar sands production from Canada through the U.S. for refining.  There's also been talk of shipping these refined products to Europe.

Aside from the mainstream environmental issues - its contribution to climate change and our government's continued resistance to move away from fossil fuels - Native Americans and First Nations of Canada have been extremely active and vocal about stopping Keystone.  All of the land the pipeline will traverse and will draw from were once native lands - and some still belong to native people.  Beyond that, burning these fossil fuels will affect us and generations to come, with unforeseen consequences of climate change.  This is a bleak picture that I'm sure you are familiar with.

However, there is good news!

The construction permit for this project has not issued yet - it's still a proposal.  That means, if we get our act together, we can prevent it.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

There are several things you can do to express your thoughts, feelings, and plans for the project.  Here are a few:

• Submit a comment online - http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=DOS-2014-0003 - before March 7
• Write and send in a letter to (more info http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/) - before March 7

U.S. Department of State

Bureau of Energy Resources, Room 4843

Attn: Keystone XL Public Comments

2201 C Street, NW

Washington, DC 20520

• Share this email with your friends and people who care about the health of the planet and its people.
• Attend or organize a protest - join others who feel similarly, feel solidarity in action - they're happening across the country.

The first two actions are often taken in isolation; you can't really *feel* that you're part of something bigger.  However, attending protests is often an inspiring way to show how I feel about something and also be joined by others who agree.  It's motivating and reminds me that tons of other people really care about these things and are willing to go out and do something about it.

CONCLUSION: DON'T SIT THIS ONE OUT

I recently saw Winona LaDuke (an Anishinaabe activist) speak - she made a point about how the extractive industry is becoming more extreme.  The Deepwater Horizon (drilling to depths of more than 30,000 ft) fracking, mountaintop removal, now tar sands extraction - the U.S. is becoming more and more desperate in our addiction to these toxic substances.  But more and more people are also standing up, realizing the truths about climate change, and taking action against the government's mindless trajectory toward climate destabilization.

I urge you to voice your own opinion about the Keystone Pipeline - we have the ability to slow, stop, and prevent it from happening.

I'd love to hear if this email has been motivating to you - and to hear if you decide to email or mail in a letter.

Go outside!

Awesome website to find outdoor events and spaces around you: http://www.nwf.org/naturefind/

Go outside and stop reading!

Fall!

The sugar maple leaves around here are beautiful!

Green Fire

Written September 22, 2006 near a small forest in Pennsylvania:

Sometimes when I go out, standing at the edge of the forest, I feel it. There's a warmth that wells in my chest, just below my sternum.. It's a warmth, the warmth, I think we spend our lives searching for but come upon only rarely. I think it's the warming of completeness, the warmth of entirety.

I feel it when I am truly happy. And when I am sad, my chest feels like an empty cupboard and I seek to fill it with food.

Sitting at the edge of the forest, surrounded by the all-encompassing hug of crickets, cardinals singly chirping, at the same time it is both within me as I am in it. It silently accepts me, and if I get quiet enough, sometimes I can hear it marvelling back at me. Our souls lying together in perfect unity on the forest floor.

Many times, though, this energy is dead set on spreading itself from me; it radiates and reverberates in others. It is an offering, complete in all its intricate, innocent beauty.

It is so disconcerting the many times I've set out searching for it, only to feel as if I am running after my own shadow. Sometimes I run so fast I fall and as I'm picking myself up I remember to be patient, stand still, and let it come out of its hiding place.

And it does. It winks at me if I pay enough attention.
"I'm still here," it beckons.

Sometimes it hides in the eyes of others, looking out at me. These days I am happy, we are complete.

I try to live my life with an absolute intention to one day come to see the peace beneath the war we so often delude and lose ourselves in, the busyness we put ourselves through, trying to ignore what we cannot avoid.

I long for the day when we can be open enough as a people to see it in ourselves, to accept it and embrace it. Sometimes when I go out, I can feel the promise.

A great quote

Imagine this design assignment: design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the seasons, and self-replicates.

Why don't we knock that down and write on it?

-William McDonough (Cradle to Cradle)