According to a New York Times article describing the
event, Mekasi Horinek of the Ponca Tribe lined up alongside fellow protestors,
arms linked, with a singular goal in mind: to stop the construction of the
potentially disastrous Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline would span over a
thousand miles from North Dakota to Illinois and transport 470,000 barrels of
crude oil daily— straight across a section of Standing Rock land and over
numerous sources of water. Horinek pleaded with police officers, “We’re here to
protect water, not only for our families and our children, but for your
families and your children. For every ranch and for every farm alongside the
Missouri River.” Shortly after, he and his 68-year-old mother sat zip tied,
arrested alongside 49 other protesters. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated
incident. Private security companies alongside law enforcement would eventually
use both teargas, rubber bullets, and attack dogs in an attempt to quell
protests.
To understand why protesters felt so deeply about the
pipeline—especially to the point of subjecting themselves to teargas for months
on end—one must also understand the risks pipelines pose to the environment. To
begin, oil has a tendency to cling to its environment: it will coat the rocks,
sand, plants, and animals it comes in contact with, making potential clean-up
efforts a daunting and costly task. Plants caught in an oil spill soak up the
product, often damaging the plants before the environment can properly be
cleaned. Likewise, when an oil spill occurs on water, the toxins temporarily
rest on the surface before sinking below, contaminating the marine life it
comes into contact with. When this occurs, it inevitably does one of two
things: it either pollutes local drinking water or damages the local ecosystem—and
in some cases, it does both. For every fish that has not been yet affected is
another contaminated fish below it on the food chain, ready to contaminate its
prey—including humans.
In short, stakes were high for the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe. The pipeline, which was set to cross tribal land and—perhaps, even
worse—multiple sources of drinking water, posed a threat to the environment
that they deemed deeply sacred. However, after months of protest, things
finally began to look up for the tribe and its protestors. Under the Obama
administration, on December 4th of 2016, The U.S. Army Corps. Of
Engineers denied an easement allowing the pipeline to built under Lake Oahe,
but unfortunately, this victory was short lived. Within the first month of his
presidency, President Trump reversed this policy, and construction of the
pipeline was once again underway.
Since this decision was made, a nearby pipeline by the
name of Keystone has leaked 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota, just miles
from the Standing Rock reservation. The North Dakota Access Pipeline itself, as
of May of 2017, has leaked more than 100 gallons of oil in North Dakota. In one
of these two instances, the leak occurred before the pipeline was yet
functional. The call to action in this circumstance is not simply to
care—judging the massive size of the movement, both on the scene and online,
people do care, immensely. Often, the most difficult aspect of mobilizing for a
cause is convincing others that your cause is worthy. We as a society had the
numbers, so what went wrong? Overall, progress in the field of science will
only have momentum if the society it lives within will allow it. If we continue
to elect officials who do not care about our environment—or better yet—if we
continue to stay complacent on election day, we will not see progress. When it
comes to protecting our environment, half of the battle is convincing our
society to care, and the other is ensuring that we as a society elect officials
who adequately represent us.
Works Cited:
Etkin, Dagmar Schmidt.
"Analysis of oil spill trends in the United States and worldwide." International
Oil Spill Conference. Vol. 2001. No. 2. American Petroleum Institute, 2001.
Healy, Jack. “The View
From Two Sides of the Standing Rock Front Lines.”The
New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Nov. 2016,
www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/us/standing-rock-front-lines.html.
Parfomak, Paul W., et al.
"Keystone XL pipeline project: key issues." (2013).
Whyte, Kyle. "The Dakota
access pipeline, environmental injustice, and US colonialism." (2017).
Sydney Truxillo
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