Keystone has impact

The Feb. 1 article stating that the U.S. State Department assessment of the Keystone XL pipeline found it would not affect the environment or increase climate change was deceitful corporate propaganda. The assessment clearly indicated an extreme environmental impact: 1.3 million to 27.4 million metric tons more CO2 will be added to the atmosphere by burning tar sands compared with normal crude. It said smaller tar sand pipelines had over 1,600 leaks in the past 10 years – 4 percent were major – and we can expect more and larger leaks by Keystone.

The public will soon realize that if we don’t expose corporate lies that serve systems of death, catastrophic climate change is virtually certain. Disintegration of the false hope that “all will be well” will come hard. It means those we love, including our children, are almost certainly doomed to insecurity, misery and suffering within a few decades, if not years.

To emotionally accept impending disaster, to understand the power elite will not respond rationally but will continue to spread falsehoods, is gut-wrenching. Our most terrifying task will be to understand the awful truth and rise up to resist the forces that are destroying our and our children’s futures.

David Randall

Spokane