Imagine a Canadian company having the right to put a pipeline through your property against your will? Would you like it? Do you think it's just?

I sure wouldn't and this 78 year old great grandmother, Eleanor Fairchild, doesn't like it either. But that is exactly what happened to her as TransCanada used eminent domain to get access to her land to put part of the Texas portion of the Keystone XL pipeline through her property. It was enough to turn this widow of a petroleum geologist into an environmental activist.

It bothered Eleanor enough to put herself in front of heavy equipment to prevent the company from doing what they intended to do. She and actress Darryl Hannah were arrested earlier this month and she has become a symbol of defiance against the pipeline.

Other activists have set themselves up in a network of tree stands to prevent the project from proceeding. Civil disobedience is an appropriate response to a project that is deemed to be for the "public good" but in actuality will mostly benefit the oil companies that export the tar sands oil abroad, which is the plan. How is that for the public good? Does anyone remember the oil spill into the Kalamazoo River? Or do we have short memories about the real danger oil spills pose to our environment?

And if the implications of the pipeline being ramrodded through our country isn't enough, don't forget the abominable environmental disaster that the tars sands has created in Alberta, Canada (see second photo). The destruction of land and water and the green house gas emissions make it the one of the dirtiest and most devastating environmental tragedies in the world today. Shame on Canada.

We need more people like Eleanor Fairchild standing up for what is right.

Photos from the LA Times.

Read more here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-pipeline-20121020,0,1638530.story

Thanks for reading!