Mni Wiconi=Aqua Vitae=Water is Life
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The Dakota Access Pipeline issue has come to a head as protesters and pipeline employees gather north of Standing Rock on grounds of the old Cannonball Ranch. Pipelines are more efficient, safer and better overall to ship oil. The "relative" danger of another pipeline among many built since the first during the Second World War is minimal among the many threats in our modern world. Still, a break may irrevocably pollute one of the cleanest environments anywhere, while industry tries its best to shirk their responsibility to rectify the situation. American industry is the wonder of the world when it comes to efficient completion of massive projects, but leaves something to be desired when it comes to reclamation and cleanup. Better to avoid problems altogether and eschew a pipeline altogether.
As a resident downstream in Fort Yates, my concern is twofold. First for the immediate threat of spill and secondly for the long term backwards trajectory that the pipeline compels us to follow by its need to pay for itself with oil. I stand with Standing Rock, because I live and work on Standing Rock and have possibly worked and lived here long enough to say that I am "of" Standing Rock. I am part of this eclectic and diverse mix of peoples that history has thrown together in this unique place. This is not just an tribal issue..it is a people issue and a future issue. Two views of the future now stand in opposition north of the Cannonball. Which one wins, may well decide the fate of more than just the future of a handful of people on the plains.
Pipelines like roads beget more pipelines and roads. A freeway that is widened, attracts more traffic, soon becoming an endless feedback loop until there is nothing more that can be developed. Dakota Access is just such a road. At a time when we need to be trimming our fossil fuel use, the pipeline will ensure the draining of an oil watershed for decades to come. Pipelines, like the railroads and reservoirs before them have always left a heavy burden on the people of Standing Rock.
The similarity between forging a pipeline and pushing an 1870s railroad through Lakota territory (I don't think) is lost on anyone. In 1873, a handful of "hostiles" held up a stretch of railroad between Bozeman, Montana and Bismarck, North Dakota. Custer, famously went out to handle the situation and economics eventually trumped self-determination. The railroad literally created an iron watershed by which the wealth of a continent could be drained. Most of the tributaries, like the one that once travelled near the pipeline route and protest site, have long been removed, while new gravel streams and paved rivers flow into the Missouri and Mississippi-like Interstate highways.
Later, came reservoirs that flooded some of the best land during the next iteration of industrialization for energy and flood control. Maybe reservoirs had to go somewhere, but, most of the land they flooded was on reservations like Standing Rock. An elder recently waxed nostalgic to me about good days in the thirties and forties living on the bottoms, a story I've often heard. Pointedly, I remember being told of those days as I paraphrase: "this was the lot we'd been given and we made the best of it". This is a direct reference to the massive changes endured by her parents and grandparents generations. Then came the Oahu reservoir.
For me, the fight against the pipeline is important as a "rage against the machine" (peaceful Gandhiesque rage) because most of us are powerless to change as individuals, while our state and national leaders don't lead. The people of Standing Rock are rightly upset about yet another industrialization of their landscape for which they may be forced to pay down the road. The rest of the world will be forced to pay in further delay toward escaping climate change. The line must be drawn somewhere and by someone.
Recently, I bought a little car that gets about 40 mpg.. It is a nice little car that drives and feels like a much bigger one. This small car is about as affordable, efficient and has about as small a carbon footprint as is possible. Still, it would be nice to do better and not everyone can afford or fit into a wee little car. Unfortunately, we are stuck without better choices. It is surprising that this little car hardly does better than a similar car from 40 years ago. Even the 70-year-old VW Beetle got mileage in the 30s. What happened to our American pace of innovation? Why am I still only able to drive a more digital version of a car that my grandfather could have driven? I'm stuck with what I have...or better yet, what I am offered by a system that defies change, because change is not profitable in the short term. If I could build my own car and plug it in to a solar panel, I would. Why do I have to depend on 19th century fuel to power my 21st century life?
Outside of radical changes to my life, I'm stuck with the little car as the absolute zero of transportation options for an extremely rural life. In fact, if I lived off highway it wouldn't be practical. It takes leadership to move us from where we are to where we need to be. An example of what is possible is the change being fomented by genius billionaire Elon Musk who is pushing us toward a better future. This one man is creating change across the auto and energy industries with the sheer momentum of his success. He has bucked all the critics by showing that another future is possible as he creates it. Just imagine what 100 billionaires could do ...or Congress? While Musk can spend billions to force change, the rest of us, powerless, pursue the only means we have in order to bring about a sustainable future where fossil fuels are once again relegated to a smaller more tenable role.
This protest, in the end, may be another good step on the road to change. This is my hope. Hopefully, for once, the voice of people will trump the momentum of industry. Based on past history, I am not optimistic, but maybe "the third time is a charm". Ultimately, national energy security and the sheer weight of the linked arms of finance and power may mean that the future will be very much like the past, driving us backward in more ways than one. Quite a lot of money has been spent already, so in the end, Manifest Destiny will more than likely be fulfilled and the railroad (I mean) pipeline will be finished.
The Dakota Access Pipeline issue has come to a head as protesters and pipeline employees gather north of Standing Rock on grounds of the old Cannonball Ranch. Pipelines are more efficient, safer and better overall to ship oil. The "relative" danger of another pipeline among many built since the first during the Second World War is minimal among the many threats in our modern world. Still, a break may irrevocably pollute one of the cleanest environments anywhere, while industry tries its best to shirk their responsibility to rectify the situation. American industry is the wonder of the world when it comes to efficient completion of massive projects, but leaves something to be desired when it comes to reclamation and cleanup. Better to avoid problems altogether and eschew a pipeline altogether.
As a resident downstream in Fort Yates, my concern is twofold. First for the immediate threat of spill and secondly for the long term backwards trajectory that the pipeline compels us to follow by its need to pay for itself with oil. I stand with Standing Rock, because I live and work on Standing Rock and have possibly worked and lived here long enough to say that I am "of" Standing Rock. I am part of this eclectic and diverse mix of peoples that history has thrown together in this unique place. This is not just an tribal issue..it is a people issue and a future issue. Two views of the future now stand in opposition north of the Cannonball. Which one wins, may well decide the fate of more than just the future of a handful of people on the plains.
Pipelines like roads beget more pipelines and roads. A freeway that is widened, attracts more traffic, soon becoming an endless feedback loop until there is nothing more that can be developed. Dakota Access is just such a road. At a time when we need to be trimming our fossil fuel use, the pipeline will ensure the draining of an oil watershed for decades to come. Pipelines, like the railroads and reservoirs before them have always left a heavy burden on the people of Standing Rock.
The similarity between forging a pipeline and pushing an 1870s railroad through Lakota territory (I don't think) is lost on anyone. In 1873, a handful of "hostiles" held up a stretch of railroad between Bozeman, Montana and Bismarck, North Dakota. Custer, famously went out to handle the situation and economics eventually trumped self-determination. The railroad literally created an iron watershed by which the wealth of a continent could be drained. Most of the tributaries, like the one that once travelled near the pipeline route and protest site, have long been removed, while new gravel streams and paved rivers flow into the Missouri and Mississippi-like Interstate highways.
Later, came reservoirs that flooded some of the best land during the next iteration of industrialization for energy and flood control. Maybe reservoirs had to go somewhere, but, most of the land they flooded was on reservations like Standing Rock. An elder recently waxed nostalgic to me about good days in the thirties and forties living on the bottoms, a story I've often heard. Pointedly, I remember being told of those days as I paraphrase: "this was the lot we'd been given and we made the best of it". This is a direct reference to the massive changes endured by her parents and grandparents generations. Then came the Oahu reservoir.
For me, the fight against the pipeline is important as a "rage against the machine" (peaceful Gandhiesque rage) because most of us are powerless to change as individuals, while our state and national leaders don't lead. The people of Standing Rock are rightly upset about yet another industrialization of their landscape for which they may be forced to pay down the road. The rest of the world will be forced to pay in further delay toward escaping climate change. The line must be drawn somewhere and by someone.
Recently, I bought a little car that gets about 40 mpg.. It is a nice little car that drives and feels like a much bigger one. This small car is about as affordable, efficient and has about as small a carbon footprint as is possible. Still, it would be nice to do better and not everyone can afford or fit into a wee little car. Unfortunately, we are stuck without better choices. It is surprising that this little car hardly does better than a similar car from 40 years ago. Even the 70-year-old VW Beetle got mileage in the 30s. What happened to our American pace of innovation? Why am I still only able to drive a more digital version of a car that my grandfather could have driven? I'm stuck with what I have...or better yet, what I am offered by a system that defies change, because change is not profitable in the short term. If I could build my own car and plug it in to a solar panel, I would. Why do I have to depend on 19th century fuel to power my 21st century life?
Outside of radical changes to my life, I'm stuck with the little car as the absolute zero of transportation options for an extremely rural life. In fact, if I lived off highway it wouldn't be practical. It takes leadership to move us from where we are to where we need to be. An example of what is possible is the change being fomented by genius billionaire Elon Musk who is pushing us toward a better future. This one man is creating change across the auto and energy industries with the sheer momentum of his success. He has bucked all the critics by showing that another future is possible as he creates it. Just imagine what 100 billionaires could do ...or Congress? While Musk can spend billions to force change, the rest of us, powerless, pursue the only means we have in order to bring about a sustainable future where fossil fuels are once again relegated to a smaller more tenable role.
This protest, in the end, may be another good step on the road to change. This is my hope. Hopefully, for once, the voice of people will trump the momentum of industry. Based on past history, I am not optimistic, but maybe "the third time is a charm". Ultimately, national energy security and the sheer weight of the linked arms of finance and power may mean that the future will be very much like the past, driving us backward in more ways than one. Quite a lot of money has been spent already, so in the end, Manifest Destiny will more than likely be fulfilled and the railroad (I mean) pipeline will be finished.
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