JIMMY CARTER, DESMOND TUTU ET AL OPPOSE KEYSTONE XL PROJECT – IS IT CASE OF SENILITY OR EFFECT OF SOME KIND OF CRAVING AND/OR MAMMON?

The Keystone XL pipeline project approval circus is getting more farcical with former US president Jimmy Carter weighing on this project. Carter joined some Nobel Laureates– Archbishop Desmond Tutu is one of them – in issuing an open letter to US President and Secretary of State seeking rejection of the pipeline.

Carter and the other writers have expressed their opposition in quite vehement terms; among other things saying that “Keystone XL project is the linchpin for tar sands expansion and the increased pollution that will follow, triggering more climate upheaval with impacts felt around the world.”

Let’s try to understand what these folks are trying to say. So, they are saying that this one pipeline – Keystone XL – which is supposed to transport 830,000 barrels of bitumen per day, will cause so much pollution that it will trigger climate upheaval with impact felt around the world?!!! Really?!!! Can anyone in right frame of mind make such a ludicrous, nonsensical, irrational statement?

Then why did Carter and others allowed their names to be used for such a ludicrous, nonsensical, irrational assertion? Seriously, why?

Is it senility or something else that has afflicted them? After all, one assumes that Carter et al should have this much of commonsense to realize that just one pipeline carrying less than a million barrels of crude per day which is just about one percent of current crude oil production worldwide cannot by any stretch of rational sense ‘trigger climate upheaval’. It is flat out nonsense. Yet, these so-called intellectuals have affixed their name to such gargantuan irrational, foolish statement.

Of all the persons whose names are listed in the open letter, Carter should know best the enormous advantage US stands to gain through STRATEGIC partnership with Canada of which Keystone is a major component. Advantage of being energy giants! Imagine the scenario wherein US and Canada can stand together as stable, dependable energy superpowers with massive amount of oil and gas at their disposal for export to the world in today’s global uncertainty – uncertainty in gas and oil supply from regions in Europe, Middle East, Africa. But Carter overlooks all this! Why?

Do the people who have written this letter really believe that by killing one pipeline they will make any meaningful impact in regard to the so-called pollution problem? If they do, they are dumb-asses. If these people had raised their voice against global use of fossil fuel that would have still made some sense at least. It is a different discussion though the theory propounded by some scientists, that the so-called CO₂ generated from combustion of crude oil is responsible for ‘climate change’, is total balderdash and piffle.

In the letter there is another assertion that is completely dubious. This is regarding the so-called impacts on First Nations of Northern Alberta – apparently their water, air, land and human rights are being ‘devastated’ by growth of oil sands. It appears that this kind of statement is drafted by someone who has no clue of the reality prevailing in Northern Alberta. Nothing but some sensational stuff meant to stir emotions of those unfamiliar with the ground realities!!

So, coming back to the question: what made these people to jump on this Keystone XL bandwagon? Do they also want to be included in the post-scripts of climate change ‘crusade’? Or, maybe they want to have their names included in the list of knights in shining armor who saved the world from some ‘climate change apocalypse’? On this point of climate change it must be mentioned that unfortunately the world is currently in the grip of a massive hoax predicated on climate change – a hoax similar to what history saw in Galileo’s time when people thought sun goes around earth.

So, if it’s true that the above cited letter writers are unable to control their inner cravings to have their names included in a so-called climate change crusade, well, then that can be said to be stemming from senility (or some psychological disorder) in some way or the other.  It is sad that these people failed to realize that campaigning against just one pipeline is totally meaningless – killing one pipeline will not make any dent whatsoever. If they had to really achieve anything substantive, they could have raised their voice against something on global scale, say, against all heavy oil – be it from Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or US or China, not just against Canadian heavy oil.

So, now the pressure is on President Obama. On one hand former president Clinton, Warren Buffet et al have reportedly supported Keystone XL pipeline apart from host of current Democrat Senators. As well, a former National Security Advisor of US testified before Senate recently that Keystone is INDEED in the national interests of US, rejection of Keystone would be playing in the hands of Putin.

People may be reminded that, unfortunately, Obama was ‘framed’ by the shrewd Europeans in his early days of presidency by very cleverly putting the albatross of Nobel Peace Prize around his neck. And, now Obama is continually getting crushed under its weight in the context of leaving behind a legacy.

Will Obama buckle down under the weight of misplaced phantom notion of legacy and reject the pipeline or think of larger long term interests of United States and approve the project? Perhaps Obama would care to remember that one of the signs of a person’s greatness and statesmanship is to subordinate one’s own hankering after greatness to the greater good of the people and the world. What greatness material is Obama made of?