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| DAPL route |
It appears
that the Army Corp of Engineers has denied the easement that was to allow
Energy Transfer Partners to drill under Lake Oahe. Lake Oahe being a lake that’s in existence
due to the damning of the Missouri river by the Army Corp of Engineers. The Dakota Access Pipeline is a 3.7 billion
dollar project that was to cover 1172 miles of which something like 80-90% of
the work has already been completed.
This pipeline will be moving 470,000 barrels of fracked Bakken oil per
day. To give you some idea of what
470,000 barrels of oil per day means consider this: the world produces about 97 million barrels
per day (MMb/d) of oi which comes out to about 35 billion barrels per
year. Of that the U.S. uses about 19
MMb/d of which 9.4 MMb/d are imported.
The U.S. uses 7 billion barrels per year which equals out to about 20%
of the total world production. It’s
estimated that the Bakken oil region has 4.3 billion barrels of oil which is
slightly more than half of what we use here in the U.S. in one year. The Bakken oil field is considered the
largest oil find in U.S. history. Of
course just because it is estimated that 4.3 billion barrels exist under the
ground locked up in shale does not mean that there actually is that much. Even if there is there’s nothing that says
that all of that oil is actually recoverable and able to be brought to
market. However, as of 2014 the Bakken
has been producing 1 mmb/d of oil.
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| U.S. Pipelines |
470,000 barrels of oil per day is a
lot of oil, all of which will be used in the South East of the U.S. which is
where I reside. Without a pipeline, all
of that oil must be transported via rail and truck which costs more, and
according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is not as safe as a pipeline. Using the rails for the transfer of this
energy means less rail cars left for transport of agricultural products. I’m not sure how it is that using pipelines
are safer than rail and truck transport considering that since 2010 there have
been 3,300 incidents of leak and rupture on crude and natural gas pipelines in
the U.S. Those leaks released 7 million
gallons of crude into the environment and represent a cost of 2.8 billion
dollars in clean up. Given all of that
it’s still more cost efficient to transport via pipeline which equates to lower
cost for gasoline at the pump for consumers.
How much can you afford to pay for gasoline?
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| Pipeline ruptures |
The Lakota tribe, in consolidarity
with many other tribes from all over the U.S., was able to stop the DAPL pipeline
from crossing the Missouri river...at least temporarily. According to an ancient Native American
prophecy, the crossing of the “Black Snake” would have signaled the end of the
world. In this case the “Black Snake”
being the DAPL pipeline. I have been on
the side of the Natives during this entire protest. At one point, about a month ago, I decided
that I would go to North Dakota and stand at Standing Rock to help stop the “Black
Snake.” I did not go because of my
family and cognizant dissonance, which is the reason I’m writing this essay
now. I say that this is a temporary
victory for the Natives because of what the Assistant Secretary for Civil Works
at the Army Corp of Engineers, Jo-Ellen Darcy, said about her decision to halt
the DAPL from crossing the Missouri at this time. She said that they need to “explore alternate
routes” for the crossing, and that she could not rule out a crossing under Lake
Oahe or even potentially North of Bismark.
Originally the crossing was to happen in Bismark ND, but it was rerouted
through the Native land after Bismark protested the crossing in their back
yard.
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| Native American Boarding School |
It was decided that the crossing
would happen at Lake Oahe, where it would disrupt sacred native sites including
burial grounds. According to some
sources, I have read that the Army Corp of Engineers attempted to talk with the
Lakota elders and leaders hundreds of times, and that they did not show up
to the talks. I can’t say that I blame
them for not showing up if this is true.
A casual glance at the history of the abuses that the Native Americans
have suffered at the hands of the U.S. government is really all that is
necessary to understand why they likely decided that they would be wasting
their time to show up at such meetings.
Really, have we forgotten about the small pocks blankets and the Trail
of Tears? It is historical fact that for
hundreds of years the Native Americans have suffered genocide due to the
American Government. Their children were
taken from them by the thousands, had their hair cut, and were placed in
boarding schools to learn how to be white.
Buffalo was hunted damn near to extinction to eviscerate Native American sovereignty
and independence. It is past time that
we stop abusing what is left of the Native Americans. Now imagine that the pipeline will actually
cross north of Bismark. Now when there
is a rupture in the pipeline there will be even more people downstream,
including the Lakota, who will suffer the environmental consequences of
polluted water.
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| Native American Land |
There is a much larger problem at
work here. As horrible as the U.S.
Government’s treatment of the Native Americans has been, and apparently
continues to be, humanities treatment of our environment is of more
concern. What the Lakota “Water
Protectors” have hopefully done is to bring more attention to the issue of how
we are treating the natural world that sustains us. What can be more important to humans than a
human supporting biosphere? If we
continue destroying the biome that sustains us with noxious chemicals than how
can we expect to have any type of future for our children? What kind of future will they have if the
biosphere is full of cancer causing chemicals?
The one thing that the pollution of our environment has in common is
energy usage which is mostly fossil energy based. Nuclear is even worse because it produces
nuclear waste that we have no safe means of disposal for. Nuclear generates waste that remains toxic to
our DNA for millions of years.
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| Pile of Buffalo heads |
What are we to do about this
problem? Is there any solution? Our entire built environment, our entire way
of inhabiting our landscapes, the methods by which we get what we need from our
civilization to maintain ourselves is all 100% dependent on fossil energy. The renewable energy that we have can only be
a temporary measure at best, and will likely not be able to sustain all 7.2
billion of us in the manner we have become accustomed. Granted, a large percentage of that 7.2 billion
are not kept up anywhere near the manner even the poorest in the U.S. are
accustomed to. Solar panels require
fossil energy to come into existence, as does all of the other renewable energy
schemes. How are the materials necessary
for the creation of a solar panel or wind turbine acquired? They are acquired via fossil energy powered
machinery, and then they are shipped around and manufactured and packaged using
fossil energy. They are maintained using
fossil energy. Nuclear energy is no
different…well aside from the DNA damaging waste that is generated that has
filled the entire pacific ocean at this point thanks to Fukushima Daiichi.
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| Historic World Population |
Aside from the pollution that is
wrought on the environment via the extraction, transport, and refinement of
fossil energy there is also the end result of burning that energy. It adds carbon dioxide among other greenhouse
gasses to the atmosphere. Considering
that the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil per year we are creating a lot of
greenhouse gas. Anthropogenic Global
Warming (AGW) is not a conspiracy theory, nor is Peak Oil. It is really quite simple, and I’m sure I couldget my 6 year old to understand how greenhouse gases work to raise the overall heat that is trapped in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of said gases. Not only do we burn 35 billion barrels of oil
per year, but we are also steadily cutting down all of the trees to make more
room for yet more industrial monocultured agriculture in an attempt to make
more food for more people. More people
are really only possible due to the fossil energy in the first place. What makes industrial agriculture
possible? Fossil energy. The herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, and
fertilizers that we spray onto the ever decreasing top soil of our gargantuan
monocultured fields are all petroleum and natural gas derived chemicals. These chemicals then make their way to the
ocean where they create dead zones.
Industry creates more pollution that makes its way into our water tables
and oceans. Due to all of the added
carbon, the oceans are acidifying and destroying fisheries and corals. Our topsoil is being eroded and blown
away. Yet still the juggernaut of
industrial agriculture continues removing the trees that breath a mammal, and
therefore human, supporting biosphere out.
We have created a positive feedback loop that is resulting in
devastation. All of this is business as
usual (BAU).
What are we to do about it? Should we get in our cars and drive to
Standing Rock using the very petroleum energy that’s intended to travel along
the DAPL that we should stop? What is the
alternative to using fossil energy in our society? How can I support my family in this society
without using fossil energy? Our cars,
our houses, our food, and our jobs all require the use of fossil energy. The best solutions that we have come up with
are at best temporary and require fossil energy to begin with. Is there any way out of this mess?
I have a landscaping business for many
reasons. It’s one of the few businesses
that one can still boot strap oneself into because it requires very little in
terms of capital to get started. My
constitution is such that I am happiest working outside while self-employed. People pay good money and a decent living can
be made with landscaping. However, like
all other jobs in our society it requires fossil fuels. It just happens to be more in your face and
obvious in my case. I need a large truck
to pull around equipment on a trailer, and that means a large motor that uses a
lot of gasoline. All of the machinery I
use uses gasoline, so I am all of the time filling up jerry cans and topping
off gas tanks during the course of my work.
The truth is that I am no more, or less, dependent on petroleum than
anyone else in our society…including someone who may make their living
installing solar panels.
Should we stop the Black Snake from
crossing the Missouri river to bring us another half million barrels of
petroleum per day for our gas tanks? If
we are to do that, than should we not have some type of plan in place to
sustain ourselves? What options do we
have outside of the fossil fueled BAU? I
want clean water and healthy soil capable of producing healthy food for my
children. I want healthy oceans teaming with
healthy fish to eat. It stands to reason
that I should stop contributing to the pollution that is removing those
things. How can I do that? My children need a house to live in, and they
need food to eat. Our new President is a
AGW and Peak Oil denier. He’s not going
to do anything in an attempt to fix any of this. He’s invested with his money in DAPL.
Permaculture has all of the answers to fix
all of these problems. In fact,
Permaculture was created to address the worldview that created all of these
problems. Permaculture is the answer to
all of these problems. I wonder if Trump
will help create a Department of Permaculture?
What do you think?
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