UU Ministry for Earth and the Unitarian Universalist Association both endorse the Promise to Protect call to action and encourage Unitarian Universalists to prepare for a potentially massive escalation to prevent TransCanada’s Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline.

A presidential permit for the pipeline was just issued on March 29, 2019, meaning that construction is likely to be fast-tracked despite recent court rulings calling for more environmental review.

Are you committed to stopping the KXL with UU Ministry for Earth?

Stay up to date with this campaign and support UU mobilization by joining the group titled “No KXL – Promise to Protect” on CreateClimateJustice.net. Here’s how:

1. Create an account or sign in to your account on CreateClimateJustice.net
2. Search for “KXL” in the search bar at the top of the left-side menu bar
3. Click on the group “No KXL – Promise to Protect” in the search results
4. Press the orange “Request Membership” button in the top-right of the group landing page and fill out the 1-question form. Your request will be reviewed by a group moderator shortly.

Here are some ways to engage:

1.  Read the #NoKXL Promise to Protect Call to Action and add your name if you feel called. If you want to join a coordinating circle of UUs committed to the Promise to Protect, join the “NO KXL – Promise to Protect” group on  Create Climate Justice Net.

2. Sign up for the Promise to Protect Training Tour

The Promise to Protect Training Tour kicked off on March 23^rd, and is taking place in 10 cities and 4 reservations, with a goal of training 2K+ people for direct action to stop the Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline. Despite numerous court rulings denying permits, the Trump administration has issued another presidential permit to fast track the project without further environmental review. Native and non-Native environmental justice activists will come together to take powerful collective action along the pipeline route and in our local areas. Our UU faith calls us to heal our relationship with the earth through action in solidarity with those resisting the fossil fuel industry’s extraction and exploitation of people, resources, and lands.

3. Individually, or in community, learn more about the opposition to the KXL pipeline and the environmental justice and climate impacts of Canadian tar sands (aka oil sands). Here are some resources to consider:

• “What is the Keystone Pipeline?” overview by National Resource Defense Council
• “Tar Sands: Canada’s First Nation Communities Are Paying the Price” (video)
• Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent by Andrew Nikiforuk (see also a video of the author delivering a lecture by the same name)
• The Pipeline and the Paradigm: Keystone XL, Tar Sands, and the Battle to Defuse the Carbon Bomb by Samuel Avery
•  Above All Else, a film about the beginning of a non-violent blockade of the construction of the southern leg of the KXL pipeline through Texas and Oklahoma in 2012-2013 (see also Wen Stephensen’s book What We Are Fighting For Now Is Each Other: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Climate Justice, which includes a chapter telling more of the story — use coupon code “climatejustice” for a 20% discount)
• A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice (a compilation of essays)

4. Individually, or in community, learn more about the historic events that took place at Standing Rock with the #NoDAPL Water Protectors movement, and reflect on (1) how these events have impacted lives, communities, and movements, and (2) what we might learn from these experiences and carry with us as we face yet another major pipeline as part of a broad coalition. Here are some resources to consider (content warning: graphic footage of private security and police violence):

• Mni Wiconi: The Stand at Standing Rock, an 8-minute video released by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
• Standing Rock Documentary: Who, What and Why of the DAPL Protests, a YouTube video by Protect Mother Earth
• Black Snake Killaz: A #NoDAPL Story, a documentary by UnicornRiot
• Awake, A Dream From Standing Rock, a documentary collab­oration between Indigenous filmmakers, Director Myron Dewey, Executive Producer Doug Good Feather, and environmental Oscar-nominated filmmakers Josh Fox and James Spione (viewable on Netflix)

5. Individually, or as a community, learn more about Indigenous Peoples histories and struggles, as it relates to environmental justice and to the place(s) where you live and feel connected to. Here are some resources to consider:

• An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• “All the Real Indians Died Off” & 20 Other Myths About Native Americans by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Beacon Press)
• As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock   by Dina Dilio-Whitaker
  
• All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land & Life by Winona La Duke
• “What Environmental Justice Means in Indian Country” by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
  
• EJScreen, a mapping tool by the EPA where you can analyze proximities of environmental pollution sources and social demographic factors (including EPA-recognized tribal areas)