Nobel Laureates to Obama: No Keystone XL! | Common Dreams

Nobel Laureates to Obama: No Keystone XL! | Common Dreams

'Risks of tar sands oil and the threats of dangerous climate change have only become clearer'

- Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer

A group of Nobel Peace laureates called for the immediate rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline in a letter sent to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry Tuesday.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Copenhagen climate change conference. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images) "We are writing to urge you to once and for all reject the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline," begins the letter penned by 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners—including Mairead Maguire, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams, and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
"Since we first wrote you, in September of 2011, the risks of tar sands oil and the threats of dangerous climate change have only become clearer," the laureates write.
They continue:

Tragic extreme weather events, including hurricanes, drought and forest fires in your own country, have devastated hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Recent tar sands oil spills in Kalamazoo, MI and Mayflower, AR, have served as a harsh reminder that shipping the world’s dirtiest oil will never likely be safe enough for human health and the environment.

Alberta’s oil sands are Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution and emissions are projected to double over the next seven years. [...]
As leaders who have spoken out strongly on these issues, we urge you, once again, to be on the right side of history and send a clear message that you are serious about moving beyond dirty oil. [read the full text below]