More Poison in the Pipeline

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

31 December 13

ans of our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline, come into the new year with the hope that the administration will be vewwwy, vewwwy quiet as it green-lights the death funnel that will bring the world's dirtiest fossil fuel from the environmental moonscape of northern Alberta to the refineries of Texas, trying (and likely failing) to avoid bringing permanent goopy desolation to the country's most valuable farmland along the way. Paul Ryan took a short break a couple of weeks ago from discovering poor people to try and make approval of the death-funnel part of his overall program of zombie-eyed granny starving.

It's important to remember that just producing this cancer juice is as deadly a process as shipping it down through Nebraska is.

Mercury wafting out of oilsands operations is impacting an area - or "bull's-eye" - that extends for about 19,000 square kilometres in northeast Alberta, according to federal scientists. Levels of the potent neurotoxin found near the massive industrial operation have been found to be up to 16 times higher than "background" levels for the region, says Environment Canada researcher Jane Kirk, who recently reported the findings at an international toxicology conference. Mercury can bioaccumulate in living creatures and chronic exposure can cause brain damage. It is such a concern that Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq signed an international treaty in October pledging Canada to further reduce releases to the environment.

The problem with this kind of thing is that we always catch up with the real damage after it already has occurred. Environmentalism has become a reactive matter of simply trying to keep up.