American Thanksgiving at 85 degrees. . .

Snowbird

My perception of the seasons has been played with over the past 7 months. From the day I began fieldwork in California last May, I’ve been blessed with sunshine and temperatures above 20 degrees almost everyday. Here in Houston it’s been 85 (that’s about 30 for us Canucks) for the past week, and American Thanksgiving today felt pretty funny as I tucked into stuffing and sweet potatoes in an air-conditioned dining room.

I keep saying that I miss Canadian winters, but I must admit that living the life of a snowbird down here has been nice. It makes you a bit lazy though – I have to make sure that I don’t go soft living down here. It’s supposed to go down to freezing tonight (I know – 85 to 32 in one day? That’s Houston weather for ya), so things should feel slightly more normal soon. Denver will certainly be a shock at any rate, but I can hardly wait for snow.

Houston almost feels tropical. The humidity is ever-present, and is only dissipated by the strong winds accompanying fast-moving fronts. The humidity exacerbates the air quality issues significantly. On the day of our press conference last week, the city was swimming in a pea soup of smog. As we drove in along the freeway we could only make out the tops of the office buildings. It was incredibly fitting for our press conference, in which Houston City Council Member Jolanda Jones called on the Council and the Mayor to request a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) from the Department of State for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Bryce and I were very proud of this accomplishment. We also got a media hit on a local news channel and NPR, which can be heard here: http://app1.kuhf.org/houston_public_radio-news-display.php?articles_id=1290208335  

In the short 3 weeks we’ve been here, we’ve also had almost 20 local organizations, physicians and academics sign on to our formal letter to Mayor Parker, collected over 500 petition signatures from community members, and built a small team that will continue this work once we leave in a week’s time. With an issue like this pipeline, we new from the beginning that it would be hard to make a splash in Houston, the energy capital of the world. The fact that no major news stations would pick up our story is testament to that fact. The industry owns this city, and it will take more than the efforts of our small group to change that. Houston is THE oil town, and will likely stay as it is, jumbo-sized and car-centric, until oil is not THE thing anymore – a transition many decades down the road.

Life Choices 

It’s fascinating living in a society so different from what I envision as ideal. The sense of community created by walkable streets and small businesses has been sacrificed here for the great American ideal of independence. You can live in perfect anonymity here, and drive to buy any worldly good you should desire. While I find the former existence much more appealing, the reality is that many find the latter extremely comfortable. While I do not think that the latter is sustainable or even healthy, there is a large contingent of society who sees it as the ideal way of life and will work hard to uphold it. This saddens me greatly. Although Houston is over 1,000 km from where I grew up, it feels incredibly familiar. The developments outside of my apartment could be the developments in Kingston’s West End. I suppose this is the comfort that people relish. The megahighways and megamalls of Houston have been exported across the world. It is a lifestyle so anthropocentric, so over-comfortable, and so sterile and safe, that it jeopardizes the ability of our planet to sustain life. When you’re inside it, you have blinders on, and even I’ve begun thinking that the suburban concrete jungle isn’t so bad. But then I catch myself, and remember all that I’ve learned and seen. I know that I can’t live like this when I have knowledge of the climate refugees, the water refugees, and the refugees of oil-fueled wars that are multiplying in numbers outside the insular walls of the United States.

With all of this said, I can now appreciate why suburban magadevelopment is economically favorable, and I do not immediately judge those who support and enjoy it, but I would hope that any worldly person can see its follies. I do fear however that there are not enough of us out there. Hence this somber quote I found in The Last of the Mohicans:

“Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared:

The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold:

Say, is my Kingdom lost?” 

-Shakespeare (Richard II)

Today, on American Thanksgiving, I am thankful to everything and everyone that has provided me with a broad perspective, as well as those who are broadening my perspective still further. This is a gift I hope to pay forward many times over. 

My 3rd coast in as many months. . .

We did it. We beat Texas oil barons and protected one of the strongest pieces of climate change legislation in the world. More Californians cast a vote for NO on 23 than voted on any other single proposition or candidate in the state.

During our Get Out the Vote (GOTV) push, my volunteers and I surpassed 10,000 voter contacts, and together with my fellow organizers we contacted over 110,000 voters in California. I would love to quantify how many percentage points our efforts over the last two months garnered, but I think it's substantial. CREDO's "Stop Texas Oil" messaging and imagery were adopted by countless other groups, and became the most recognized of the campaign.

Oh the irony. . . 

I was an outside agitator in California working to thwart Texas oil companies. I'm now an outside agitator in Texas working to thwart Canadian oil companies. I must admit that I didn't see this coming, but I'm very excited about it.

I was not so excited to leave Berkeley and come to Houston however. I had created a lovely little life for myself back in California and was just beginning to really enjoy it. The sad irony of it is that while I had no weekends off while there, here in Texas I have my evenings and weekends to myself like a normal person, but no one to share them with. Alas, such is the life of an intern.

My parents took me to Yosemite this past weekend which was absolutely fantastic and really helped me wind down. The short trip sparked my desire to take a lot of time off at some point and adventure through the Sierras.

Evening in Yosemite.

Morning in Houston.  

I couldn't resist juxtaposing these two landscapes, both of which I viewed within the past 72 hours. I feel incredibly lucky to have visited both locations; the former being responsible for inspiring the modern environmental movement, and the latter being the heart of the industry that is drastically altering our planet's chemistry. The latter is such an economic powerhouse that it is lucrative for TransCanada, a Canadian tar sands company, to ship crude oil from Fort McMurray to Houston to be refined. This is what I am now trying to prevent - the contruction of the Keystone pipeline extension, known as the Keystone XL. It will pump 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of tar sands oil to Gulf refineries, which will then be shipped primarily to the east coast and Asia. Effectively, it will open the international market to tar sands oil, and improve America's energy security. 

Environmental justice and Texan swears

So, how do you stop a pipeline from being built towards the energy capital of the world? In all likelihood, we won't, but it would be cowardly not to try. It would also be unfair to the marginalized Latino communities that live along the Shipping Channel in Houston, who live in houses shadowed by smokestacks, and who experience significantly higher rates of cancer, heart disease, and asthma than those living in similar communities with higher air quality. We were given a "toxic tour" of refinery row today by Juan Parras, who has been fighting the environmental justice issues in his community for years. He's off to DC tomorrow to meet with the EPA's Lisa Jackson. He said that the industry execs wonder why they won't just leave, and as he pointed out a 1950s-era bungalow surrounded by refinery fences on three sides, he said, "because we were here first - if this were a caucasian community, there's no way the city would let this kind of development happen." 

I've read and heard a lot about the environmental justice issues in refinery towns, and it's incredibly interesting to see it and speak to residents first hand. Obviously stopping the pipeline is primarily about stopping the global proliferation of tar sands oil use, but here in Texas the public health angle is the only angle that holds any sway with politicians. The words "environment" and "climate change" are practically swears down here, but Houston has the worst air quality of any city in the U.S., and violates the EPA's minimum standards for several criteria pollutants. Most recently, communities along the Shipping Channel were designated as non-attainment areas by the EPA for failing to meet EPA standards for ground-level ozone. Few politicians can say no to children with respiratory diseases, or pregnant mothers breathing in lead-laden air, so this is the way we must twist their arm.

Our role is to convince the Mayor Parker of Houston that the public health issue is significant enough to warrant a supplemental environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the pipeline extension. Our argument is that it would bring the most toxin-laden oil in the world to Houston refineries, and that further scrutiny of the plan is required to protect the health of Houston citizens. If a supplemental EIA is done, it will likely push construction back past the 2013 expiration date of TransCanada's permits and thus halt the pipeline. There are several other companies poised to build the connection should this one fall through, but as I eluded to before, admitting defeat means that you do not truly believe in the cause you are fighting for. If my country's ever going to intelligently handle tar sands development, the unbridled, unregulated petrochemical industry in the gulf needs to be wrangled. 

Mallrats

To me, Houston feels like a giant mall that you have to drive through. There aren't even sidewalks most places. You drive your car to giant restaurants, giant stores, giant hospitals, and giant refinery complexes. I'm living in an extended stay hotel, and so this very much feels like a 4 week business trip. It's somewhat relaxing, although I anticipate an intense case of cabin fever soon. There is quite literally nowhere to run here in the Galleria on account of the freeways, and I would have to drive to the closest park. I spent this evening having dinner with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign director and her partner, dogs, cats, and 2-year old (who was adorable and brilliant; he's learning English and Spanish and says everything in the former except for yes, which is always si instead); they promised me that there are some enjoyable parts to the city, and that they will show me around soon enough. As much as I'm out of my element, I am very glad that I am here. My perspective is ever-expanding.