To: President Donald Trump
Defuse the Tar Sands Time Bomb
Mr. President, please reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. The exceptionally dirty fuel of the Canada Tar Sands is a time bomb that would lead to more weather events like Hurricane Sandy, and constructing a pipeline to access this bomb would be like lighting a fuse to it.
Why is this important?
The President may be tempted to give in on an issue that must be championed – protecting the climate from the exceptionally dirty fuels of the Canada Tar Sands.
NASA’s James Hansen wrote, “If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, … when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now.…the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable.”
The teachable moment of Hurricane Sandy must not be forgotten.
NASA’s James Hansen wrote, “If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, … when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now.…the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable.”
The teachable moment of Hurricane Sandy must not be forgotten.