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URGENT: Farmers tell President Obama: Stop Keystone to save the Planet!

This Earth Day the stakes couldn’t be higher, Obama has a choice: climate redemption or permanent climate chaos.

Tomorrow is Earth Day, the day that millions of Americans pause to celebrate the wonders and natural beauty of our planet and the movement that has grown in the past 40 plus years to protect it.

Ironically, April 22, 2013, is also the final day of a final public comment period on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the proposed massive 1,700 mile long experiment in pumping dirty oil from the Tar Sands in Canada to the Gulf Coast in Texas.

Along the way, the proposed Keystone pipeline will crisscross some of the most productive farmland and on the planet, putting the livelihoods of America’s farmers and ranchers and our food supply at risk.

James Hansen, America’s leading climate scientist has already called Keystone “game over for the climate” if approved.

Don’t let President Obama make this tragic mistake of bowing to corporate special interests once again. Stand with America’s family farmers in protecting our farmland and the environment. Every voice counts.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/828?t=7&akid=829.218993.L1da72

According to the Sierra Club, the Keystone XL pipeline “would be a disaster, from start to finish. Tar sands oil is toxic for our climate, and mining the tar sands destroys pristine forests and threatens First Nation peoples.”

But despite all common sense assessments by America’s leading environmental and climate scientists, the U.S. government has continued to try to find ways to promote building the pipeline over realistic concerns that this pipeline will be a pending disaster for farmers, their farmland and our climate.

A recent State Department review of the Keystone XL pipeline was found to have been written by firms with deep ties to the oil industry and goes out of its way to ignore the catastrophic impacts to our climate, ignoring the clear consensus among financial analysts and oil executives who agree that the approval of Keystone will be the determining factor over the continued development of the toxic Canadian tar sands. Once again, corporate America is attempting to right the rules and regulations behind the scenes that put their profits over the health and safety of the public.

Tell President Obama it’s time to say no to the Keystone XL pipeline and put America’s farmers, their land and our children’s future above short-term profits for dirty oil. Remember, comments are due at COB tomorrow – Earth Day 41! Every voice counts!

This past week, more than 1,000 citizens travelled to Grand Island, Nebraska to tell the U.S. State Department to stop the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to keep the oil industry from ruining their land and destroying the environment.

More than a hundred farmers from across the Midwest traveled to express their concerns about how Keystone XL would negatively impact their family’s farms and livelihoods.

According to the New York Times, one young rancher, Ben Gotschall made the case pretty clear for stopping the Keystone XL pipeline.

“The Keystone ‘Export’ pipeline is not in the national interest, and it is most certainly not in Nebraska’s interest,” said Gotschall. “Our landowners have been left to fend for themselves against an onslaught of dishonest land agents and corporate bullies.”

This Earth Day stand with America’s family farmers in telling President Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.  It’s time to put farmers and the environment over profits for dirty oil.

Click on the link below to tell President Obama to Stop the Keystone XL pipeline on Twitter.

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Click on the link below to to tell President Obama to Stop the Keystone XL pipelines on Facebook.

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Spread the word and share this with your friends!

If you don’t think there’s a potential problem with the impending pipeline, consider the recent oil pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas that dumped thousands of barrels of Canadian crude oil in a residential neighborhood, forcing neighbors to evacuate their homes. Already, critics of the Keystone XL pipeline have found glaring holes in the pipes already laid for the proposed pipeline, which is 9 times larger than that pipeline that leaked in Arkansas.

This Earth Day, stand with America’s family farmers and the environment! Stope the Keystone XL pipeline! Every voice counts!

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/828?t=14&akid=829.218993.L1da72

Thanks for participating in food democracy,

Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! team

Background:

1. “Game Over for the Climate” James Hansen, The New York Times, May 9, 2012

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/823?t=16&akid=829.218993.L1da72

2. “Keystone Pipeline Foes Vent in Nebraska”, The New York Times, April 18, 2013

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/824?t=18&akid=829.218993.L1da72

3. "Critical Part of Keystone Report Done by Firms with Deep Oil Industry Ties", Inside Climate, March, 6, 2013

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/825?t=20&akid=829.218993.L1da72

4. “Keystone XL opponents dominate raucous Nebraska hearing” Grist, April 19, 2013,

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/826?t=22&akid=829.218993.L1da72

5. “Hundreds of Mayflower residents demanding answers after major oil spill”, KATV.com, March 29, 2013

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/827?t=24&akid=829.218993.L1da72