The Pipeline and the Paradigm
Book

The Pipeline and the Paradigm

Keystone XL, Tar Sands, and the Battle to Defuse the Carbon Bomb

Samuel Avery
Ruka Press, 2013
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Background
  • Hot Topic

Recommendation

Passionate environmentalist Samuel Avery sets out to raise awareness about Keystone, the world’s largest energy project. He makes a compelling case for opposing it. Avery does include arguments from Keystone proponents, but he distills the debate – and the paradigm – down to environmentalism versus economics. He states that burning Canadian tar sands would release a great deal more carbon dioxide into the already polluted atmosphere. His polemic presents a fraught environmental scenario, but also proves informative, inspiring and compelling. Avery misunderstands where his audience’s interests lie; he spends too many pages reproducing conversations with fellow activists, even though the facts alone are far more convincing. A rigorous edit would have produced a more satisfying read. While always remaining politically neutral, getAbstract recommends this heartfelt side of the debate to those concerned about energy and climate change and to anyone who wants to learn more about the extraction of oil from tar sands and Keystone itself. Presidential approval or disapproval is pending.

Summary

Mountaintop Removal

The hunt for new fossil fuels has turned to mountaintop removal and tar sands extraction, methods that the mining industry uses to eliminate the “overburden” – industry terminology for natural impediments sitting above the coal seam. Both methods create pollution, disrupt communities, destroy forests, cause health problems and wreak havoc on the environment.

Mountaintop removal involves reaching the coal by bulldozing vegetation and dynamiting bedrock to expose the seam. Those actions bury streambeds, send out shock waves and dust, and release potentially toxic substances – selenium, arsenic, copper, sulfur and iron – into the groundwater. Once the coal is extracted, only empty mines, lost jobs, ruined forests and flattened mountaintops remain.

Tar Sands Extraction

Similar destruction occurs in tar sands extraction. At Fort McMurray, Alberta – the focal point of tar sands extraction and the northernmost outpost of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline project – the land is barren. The destruction, marked by mines and tailings ponds, is the aftermath of the extraction of tar sand bitumen, a hydrocarbon containing sulfur, nitrogen and heavy...

About the Author

Samuel Avery is a solar installer, social activist and trainer in nonviolent resistance techniques. His other books include The Globalist Papers and Buddha and the Quantum.

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