An important message from Steve Crowley, Chairman of the the Vermont Sierra Club:
JOIN US IN CALLING FOR A TAR-SANDS-FREE VERMONT!!!
Sunday, July 29
Burlington, VT12:00 noon, City Hall Park, join the parade
2:00 gather at Battery Park
2:30 or so: Human Oil Spill
Fellow Vermonters,
Welcome to the summer of 2012. This may go down as the season in which there was no longer an excuse for ignorance, no longer an excuse for keeping our collective head in the sand.
*Record setting heat waves across the USA.
*Drought conditions covering 56% of the nation.
*A third to a half of the nation’s corn crop lost to the drought.
*A second year of unprecedented wildfires.
Sound familiar? If anyone’s paying attention, it should sound familiar. This is not just a list of this month’s headlines; it’s also straight out of the climate change playbook. These are the conditions that have been predicted for over a decade by government agencies and academics modeling most likely outcomes. They weren’t necessarily going to happen all at once, and they definitely weren’t going to happen this fast, but here we go.
The bad news, if that weren’t uncomfortable enough already, is that it gets worse. One of the hidden features in these models, the ones that have accurately predicted what’s happening now, is that when more greenhouse gases are first added to the atmosphere, it takes a while for the ocean/atmosphere system to heat up. Today’s heat, and drought, and fires, are the result of CO2 levels two decades ago. Increases since then have yet to show up in our climate.
The good news, if it can be called that, is that we do not have to just sit and let it happen. There are things we can do. Certainly, as many of us in Vermont are doing, we can and must look at our own energy use, and that in our communities, schools, and businesses, and work at getting our energy use of all kinds to a minimum. We can install and support renewable energy. I hope we’re all looking for those opportunities.
But there is something else that’s equally important. As many are aware, there are a number of relatively new sources of fossil fuels that are being developed. Mountain top removal in the Appalachians, oil shale, hydrofracturing to release natural gas. While some see these as a way to pave our energy future, they also pave a path towards an ever deepening climate crisis. And worst of all may be the Alberta tar sands. This is a huge deposit of potentially recoverable fossil fuel. Climate scientists have looked at what’s there, and have said, if this deposit is fully brought into the world’s energy system, the resulting carbon emissions would spell the end of anything useful we could do to avoid the worst climate scenarios. “Game over,” the much repeated quote from NASA’s James Hansen.
It happens that we in the Northeast have a chance to make a statement about this, and perhaps have a small impact on the outcome. To use the tar sand deposit to its capacity, there has to be a way to get the tar sands oil, a form known as bitumen, to its refineries and markets. Last year, the Keystone XL Pipeline, intended to serve this purpose, was much in the news as the subject of massive protests at the White House, and eventually delayed by President Obama. Now, another plan is in the works, to reconfigure the use and flow of several pipelines in Vermont and other states and provinces to bring the bitumen to the east coast. The Trailbreaker Pipeline, as it’s called, includes a pipeline that traverses Vermont from near Troy, runs close to Lake Willoughby, and crosses into New Hampshire near Guildhall. Just last year, a similar pipeline in Michigan, owned by the same company, ruptured, causing widespread damage that has still not been fully cleaned up. We don’t want this happening in Vermont. And we certainly do not want to add the carbon emissions.
As the New England Governors and eastern Canadian Premiers gather next weekend for their annual meeting in Burlington, we are taking the opportunity to speak out. While Governor Shumlin has expressed his opposition to this use of the pipeline, we want to be sure he and the other leaders know about how serious this is.
We ask you, as a caring and concerned Vermonter, to join us in making this statement. On Sunday, July 29, as the conferees gather at the Hilton in Burlington, we will be there. After gathering at noon at City Hall Park, we’ll be marching down to Battery Park. After words from a few speakers (here’s the fun part), hundreds of us, dressed in black t-shirts, will create the world’s largest “Human Oil Spill” alongside Battery Street, across from the conference.
So, please come join us, ready to have an afternoon of comraderie and purpose, as well as a bit of fun. Come join the crowd at City Hall Park, and look for the Sierra Club banner.
Let’s not wait until the Northeast Kingdome turns into the kind of tinderbox we saw last year in Texas, or this year in Colorado!
Steve Crowley
Chair, Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club
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If you are not already a member of the Vermont Sierra Club, now is the time to join!
You can become a member of the Vermont Sierra Club by going to the below link:
http://action.sierraclub.org/s…
SOLIDARITY!