‘[T]ar sands oil should be among the first fossil fuels we decide to leave alone’

The New York Times editorial board says President Obama should say no to the Keystone XL Pipeline, meant to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast:

A president who has repeatedly identified climate change as one of humanity’s most pressing dangers cannot in good conscience approve a project that — even by the State Department’s most cautious calculations — can only add to the problem…

Mainstream scientists are virtually unanimous in stating that the one sure way to avert the worst consequences of climate change is to decarbonize the world economy by finding cleaner sources of energy while leaving more fossil fuels in the ground. Given its carbon content, tar sands oil should be among the first fossil fuels we decide to leave alone. 

As a political question, Keystone seems almost impervious to dissent or protest. Today a couple dozen protesters got themselves arrested at the Massachusetts office of Transcanada, which wants to build the pipeline. Below, telling the story for themselves at Moccasins on the Ground, in Wounded Knee, South Dakota.