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Health & Fitness

Political Cartooning in the Shadow of the Apocalypse

A cartoon about the Keystone XL Tar sands Pipeline controversy .

We Humans of Earth are at the Verge (a point beyond which something else begins) were a decision could mean how humanity might live or not live based on how those in power decide. In a way it is quite simple, to trust in the worlds greatest scientist or trust a group of people who make an absolutely unbelievable amount of money keeping up what, for them, is business a usual, like burning up the last of the earths fossil fuels so they can become richer. We have a President, like him or not, who is empowered by the nature of the presidency to make the hard decisions that will, at this point in history, effect civilization as we know it for the rest of the perceivable future.

The Republican Party is touting how The Keystone Pipeline will be Americas salvation to give us the cheap gas that we so crave and also the boost to our flagging economy that all of America is crying out to our leaders for.

So, I guess this Pipeline is the new magic, latest and greatest thing that will  supply Americans with oodles of new jobs that only will happen if we can get this Pipeline built and under way. Well, it will not be the Messiah of job creation that they are praising and shouting from their ivory tower roof tops. Most of the oil from this pipeline will be exported to China, and at best will create only about 5,000 to 6,000 new jobs, but that is only for it's construction after that far, far less so.

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Tar sands are bound up in a viscous gooey sand. It has to be cooked or steamed out which is highly energy intensive. This enables it to be piped out across the American heartland over hill and dale rivers and streams for about 1,500 miles. The Pipeline will cross over our great rivers such as the Yellowstone and over one of our greatest Aquifers, the Ogallala. Pipe lines leak. Plus, they are built by company's that produce the lowest, cheapest bid. That alone should scare the hell out of you. My last thought, and this is by NASA Climatologist Dr. James Hanson who said:

"If this Pipeline goes through, it is essentially game over for our climate to be anywhere near a normal we grew up with and we have not evolved as a species to handle such  a radically different climate."

Find out what's happening in Fox Point-Baysidewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Since this is my first blog for patch as well as my first Cartoon on it, please comment. I would greatly like the feedback  

Check out this link and you will see what a horrible idea this Pipeline is.

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