Keystone+Pipeline+Leaks+210,000+Gallons+Of+Oil+In+South+Dakota

//Endangered American Wilderness Act of 1978// - This Act generally prohibits commercial activities, motorized access, and infrastructure developments in congressionally designated areas. //National Wildlife Refuge System Act of 1966// - To acquire, preserve, and protect over 500 parcels of land set aside as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. //National Environmental Policy Act of 1970// - Requires comprehensive evaluation of the environmental impact of an activity before it is undertaken by a federal agency.
 * 1) ** Article: ** This article was published on the New York Times on November 16, 2017. Discussing an issue of major controversy and environmental consequence, it is particularly relevant to American domestic affairs. Link: []
 * 2) ** Summary: ** The article briefly describes the debate surrounding the ethical validity of opening the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota in the context of the recent oil leak. As over 210,000 gallons of oil flood from the pipeline, the nation has resumed the battle against its commercial usage. The pipeline, which carries crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to several states in the Midwest, has blackened the surrounding fields of the spill. With consistent support from the Trump administration as well as the right-wing legislature, there seems to be only a bleak future for the lands around the pipeline and for the nation’s environmental activism.
 * 3)  **Relevance to APES:** The course’s stated objective is “ to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required [...] to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and human-made, to evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and to examine alternative solutions for resolving and/or preventing them.” Given this objective, provided by College Board, it is necessary that students are cognizant of the issues affecting thousands of citizens within our own nation. According to the Miller textbook, some of the qualifications of a hazardous chemical is being flammable or explosive, irritating or damaging to the skin or lungs, and interfering with the balance of oxygen in several environmental situations. Each of these three conditions are satisfied by the current situation in Dakota. Nevertheless, corporate influence over politics has masked the truly hazardous effects that are evident to the common man, and it is our duty, as students and as citizens of the world, to halt this. Although there are not many avenues for resolving this issue at a local level, active participation in lobbying, petitioning, or other forms of coercive action can perhaps bring change to the way America treats its own soil.   The first step, however, is to be aware of this atrocity upon the environment and to retain the conviction to change it. As a clear example of a human-made environmental issue with enormous risk for the international community, this is an issue that will continue to be pertinent to APES as long as it exists.
 * 4) **My Perspective:** Although I tend to take the neutral stance in regards to the validity of political and ethical decisions, this is one issue that I firmly believe is wrongly perpetrated by the current right-wing Congress and administration. I fully understand the immense economic value of the pipeline, but under no circumstances is it worth the risk it obviously poses. According to this article, and several others, the most recent spill is not the only one. There have been eight major spills, and although the recent one is the worst, each has been unimaginably destructive to surrounding communities of humans and other organisms alike. The security of human and ecological health is exponentially more important than any profit the pipeline could garner.
 * 5) ** Law: ** All three of the following environmental laws relate directly to the issue at hand, as they detail the restrictions that both governmental agencies and corporations must adhere when engaging in such practices.