The Alberta tar sands have been a target from environmentalists, First Nations groups, and nonprofit groups ever since it became financially feasible in the 1970s to produce oil from the sands. The process of removing the oil from the sand and bitumen is an expensive process that has meant sacrificing large quantities of fresh water (up to seven barrels of water are needed to produce one barrel of oil), air quality (three times the amount of emissions are released during tar sands production compared to traditional drilling), and our environment (the tar sands have left tailing ponds that can be seen from space where the boreal rainforest once grew) for profit.

Canadians have watched their government embarrass themselves on a global platform by disregarding the Kyoto Protocol and igniting rumours of being kicked out of the Commonwealth by refusing to take any worthy action against climate change. One need not look further than the profitable tar sands to learn why.

This, with the images of the recent oil spill still fresh in everyone’s mind, has prompted thousands of people to take a stand against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion. Stephen Harper has already approved the project, which would essentially be a pipeline that connects oil from the tar sands to existing pipelines in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico .

The pipeline would increase capacity by 500,000 barrels a day and many argue that the project is risky and will ensure that Canada never lives up to any international environmental targets.

However there is still hope, as President Barack Obama has not yet approved the proposal. Canadians and Americans alike are joining forces to demand that they be heard in the largest act of civil disobedience for climate change in history.

Environmental author Bill McKibben and 350.org have received pledges from over 2,000 people to meet in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., from August 19 to September 2, and risk arrest in an act of civil disobedience. All of these people are there to demand that the pipeline expansion be stopped. As of Tuesday (August 30), 595 people had been arrested.

On Saturday (August 27), in support of this civil disobedience, I joined the Wilderness Committee, the Council for Canadians, Greenpeace International cofounder Rex Weyler, and approximately 200 other people for a march to the gates of Kinder Morgan on Burrard Inlet in Burnaby to say no to the Keystone XL pipeline and the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. ‘No pipeline!’ was chanted loudly and everyone cheered as Ben West from the Wilderness Committee and Weyler gave passionate speeches. But it was 10-year-old activist Ta’Kaiya Blaney who performed “Shallow Waters”, a song she wrote about the pipeline, that left the crowd speechless.

However, in an ironic twist of fate, all scheduled acts of civil disobedience in Washington were suspended because of Hurricane Irene this past Saturday and protests resumed on Sunday (August 28).

Weyler said the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would mean that its capacity would increase from 300,000 barrels a day to 700,000 barrels a day, which would mean the “death of the inlet would be inevitable”.

Many people feel that such pipeline expansions would be a point of no return for Canada and the rest of the world, in terms of getting carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million in our atmosphere, which scientists have said is the safe limit for humanity (we’re currently at approximately 390). So it seems that once again Obama represents hope for a better tomorrow.

Lindsay O’Donnell is a cofounder of the Wake Project, an ocean conservation society.