[Vision2020] Today's Letter From 350.org's McKibben on Keystone XL, His Recent Bill Maher Appearance

[Ted Moffett]

A link to content regarding McKibben's recent debate on the Maher show is
toward the bottom of this letter.  A must see, at least for me!
--------------------------------
Dear friends:

 We haven't written about the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline for a while,
except to try and rally support for the brave people blockading
construction along its southern portion. *After more than two weeks in the
trees of Texas, their dramatic action is drawing more and more attention,
as they reveal the recklessness and heartlessness of a company like
TransCanada* -- the kind that will call the cops to get a great grandmother
and arrest her for 'trespassing' on her own land when she protests the
pipeline crossing it.

*The larger part of the Keystone pipeline project -- the northern leg to
Canada -- has been on the political back-burner since last year's massive
protests.* Since that northern leg would have been a fuse to the biggest
carbon bomb on the planet, we counted that as a temporary victory.

The State Department is supposedly figuring out how to calculate the
climate risk from the tar sands, something they failed to do last time
round -- but so far there's no sign they have a real plan. *Neither
candidate for President has expressed any opposition to building the
pipeline, so it may be just a matter of weeks before we need your help
again, and in a big way.*

***And in the meantime, we have a piece of truly good news.* Our friends in
Canada have done a remarkable job of organizing opposition to the so-called
Northern Gateway pipeline that would carry tarsands gunk to the
Pacific. As this
article <http://act.350.org/go/2235?t=1&akid=2257.703294.L-VGSq> in
Canada's leading paper put it last week, that plan is effectively dead,
dashed against the rock-solid opposition of Indigenous groups, and canadian
climate activists both. With it goes the favorite talking point of Keystone
backers, that "they'll just send it to China anyway."

So the Keystone fight will continue, with the stakes raised again -- *now
Keystone is the last, best chance to export tar sands oil from Alberta.*

***I’ve taken two big lessons from this fight so far*. The first is that
when we band together, we're truly a match for the fossil fuel industry --
and however the battle comes out we've already done far more than almost
anyone thought possible. The second is that we can't stop global warming
one pipeline at a time -- even as we bottled up the tarsands, the amount of
carbon in the atmosphere just kept going up, bringing us the scorching,
drought plagued summer of 2012.

*We have to go at the industry as a whole and persuade our fellow residents
of this planet that coal and oil and gas must be kept in the
ground.*That's why I wrote the article for Rolling Stone about the new
climate math
that went viral this summer, and that's why we're turning that article into
a big new campaign -- the Do the Math Tour.

Some of the stops along our Do the Math tour are sold out already, but some
have tickets remaining, and we hope to see you there. But only, really, if
you're ready to go to work. Because we've got so much work to do. *Click
here to be a part of the Tour:
math.350.org<http://act.350.org/go/2148?t=2&akid=2257.703294.L-VGSq>
*

**Bill

P.S. *If you're a student on a college campus, we particularly need your
help* -- before you buy a ticket, please take a moment to sign up here so
that we can be in touch about what you can do with your school to
jump-start the movement:
act.350.org/survey/students-do-the-math<http://act.350.org/go/2140?t=3&akid=2257.703294.L-VGSq>

P.P.S. Last Friday night I found myself on the Bill Maher show, debating a
couple of diehard conservatives about climate change. It came out pretty
well--the very end of the enclosed clip is probably the best part. My sense
is that at this point only ideologues really doubt climate science; the
trick now is to turn people's understanding into action! *
350.org/en/bill-mckibben-vs-climate-deniers-bill-maher<http://act.350.org/go/2232?t=4&akid=2257.703294.L-VGSq>
*

**Sources:

*"*An Open Letter from Our Supporters" Tar Sands Blockade, Oct. 5
tarsandsblockade.org/opensupportletter/<http://act.350.org/go/2234?t=5&akid=2257.703294.L-VGSq>

"You heard it here: Northern Gateway’s dead" The Globe and Mail, Oct. 5.
www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/you-heard-it-here-northern-gateways-dead/article4589760/<http://act.350.org/go/2235?t=6&akid=2257.703294.L-VGSq>

"Global Warming's Terrifying New Math" Rolling Stone, July 19.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719<http://act.350.org/go/2118?t=7&akid=2257.703294.L-VGSq>

------------------------------
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**

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*
* *

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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