An extraordinary upwelling of activism in support of Indian land rights and expressing environmental concerns — focused on blocking the planned path of the multi-billion-dollar Dakota Access Pipeline — achieved a remarkable victory today.
Here’s The New York Times summary: “Federal officials announced on Sunday that they would not approve permits for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a dammed section of the Missouri River that tribes say sits near sacred burial sites.” [Read the rest.]
The headline on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers statement had no nuance: “Army will not grant easement for Dakota Access Pipeline crossing.”
The Standing Rock Sioux released a statement including this line:
“The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all of Indian Country will be forever grateful to the Obama Administration for this historic decision…. In a system that has continuously been stacked against us from every angle, it took tremendous courage to take a new approach to our nation-to-nation relationship, and we will be forever grateful.”
Activism matters. Social media in this case absolutely mattered. And maps matter.
In the coming months and years, much can change, particularly under a Trump administration. And, as I wrote a few weeks ago, oil is a global commodity and will find a path from wells to markets as long as demand persists. Too often that path is shaped by entrenched power more than community power.
I’m always reminded in such moments of something I was told decades ago by José Lutzenberger, a passionate defender of ecology and one-time minister of the environment in Brazil:
“In the environmental movement, our defeats are always final, our victories always provisional. What you save today can still be destroyed tomorrow, you see — and so often is.”
Postscript | Dot Earth’s 2,800-plus posts live on, but I’ve moved to ProPublica. Read the back story behind this blog at Times Insider, my reflection on 30 years of climate reporting and continue the conversation with me on Twitter or Facebook.