--- title: Show us the Science date: 2018-02-14T19:09:18Z modified: 2018-03-07T09:09:48Z permalink: "https://350.org/show-us-the-science/" type: super_pages status: publish excerpt: "" wpid: 65919 author: Matthew Anderson --- # \#ShowustheScience: ### On March 5th 2018, a team of Ottawa residents searched the Prime Minister’s Office for evidence proving that Kinder Morgan is spill proof, climate safe, and compatible with Indigenous rights. Here’s what they found: **Everyone who has ever taken a math class knows one thing: the answer isn’t enough. To pass the test, you have to show you’ve done your work.** Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline is safe for BC’s coastline, compatible with Canada’s commitments to limit global warming to 2°C, and in line with his government’s commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples. But he’s never shown us evidence to back these claims. **Now, Trudeau has run out time to show us the science. And it’s time for people to take action.** [Join the historic stand to stop Kinder Morgan on March 10th](https://protecttheinlet.ca/?sourceid=1030938) ## Latest Updates [\#ShowUsTheScience Tweets](https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShowUsTheScience) ## Here’s what we do know. **1. Kinder Morgan and associated tanker traffic pose a huge risk to BC’s coast.** - There is an [87% chance](https://twnsacredtrust.ca/concerns/likelihood-oil-spills/) of an oil spill in the Pacific Ocean if the Kinder Morgan pipeline and its tanker terminal are built. - If a spill does occur, there’s simply not [enough information out there](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09122015/unique-hazards-tar-sands-oil-spills-dilbit-diluted-bitumen-confirmed-national-academies-of-science-kalamazoo-river-enbridge) about effectively responding to a tar sands spill. - Kinder Morgan would increase tanker traffic 7 times in the Pacific NorthWest which could wipe out [the entire population of endangered Orca whales](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/canada-oil-pipeline-expansion-killer-whales-kinder-morgan) - Kinder Morgan already [has a dirty track record ](https://twnsacredtrust.ca/concerns/spill-record/)of building unsafe pipelines. **Learn more about threats to the water** - [Oil sands and the marine environment: current knowledge and future challenges](https://cmeclab.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/green-et-al-2016-frontiers.pdf), Green et al, 2016 - [The Behavior and Environmental Impacts of Crude Oil Released into Aqueous Environments](https://rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/OIW%20Report_1.pdf), Royal Society of Canada, 2015 - [Raincoast Conservation Foundation NEB Submissions on threats to Orca Whales and Fish](https://www.raincoast.org/trans-mountain-pipeline/), 2015 - [Tsleil-Waututh on threats to endangered Orcas](https://twnsacredtrust.ca/concerns/orcas/) - [City of Vancouver’s Evidence Library on the Kinder Morgan pipeline](https://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/neb-evidence-library.aspx), 2015 (links to multiple expert reports) - [Existing Trans-Mountain Pipeline has Spilled 82 times – Kinder Morgan’s Own Spill History](https://www.transmountain.com/spill-history) **2. Kinder Morgan does not fits within Canada’s commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement.** - Under the Paris Climate Agreement Canada has committed to limiting global warming to 2°C — with simple math, it’s easy to see that [building Kinder Morgan would take us well past this limit.](https://priceofoil.org/2017/01/19/climate-on-the-line-why-new-tar-sands-pipelines-are-incompatible-with-the-paris-goals/) - Kinder Morgan drastically takes Canada beyond its share of the global “carbon budget” that we need to adhere to in order to stay within the 2°C threshold. **Learn more about threats to the climate** - - [The Sky’s the Limit: Why the Paris Climate Goals Require a Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Production](https://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2016/09/OCI_the_skys_limit_2016_FINAL_2.pdf), Oil Change International, 2016 - [The Geographical Distribution of Fossil Fuels unused when limiting Global Warming to 2°C](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1blxklp-YO9MRTji2n80F2l6d571YEDK6/view?usp=sharing), McGlade & Ekins, Nature, 2015 - [Climate on the Line: Why New Tar Sands Pipelines Are Incompatible With the Paris Goals](https://priceofoil.org/2017/01/19/climate-on-the-line-why-new-tar-sands-pipelines-are-incompatible-with-the-paris-goals/), Price of Oil, 2017 - [How the Oil Sands Make our GHG targets unreachable](https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/january-2018/how-the-oil-sands-make-our-ghg-targets-unachievable/), Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2018 - [Over 100 leading scientists give 10 reasons to call for an Oil Sands Moratorium](https://www.oilsandsmoratorium.org/), 2015 **3. The approval of Kinder Morgan does not square with Canada’s commitment to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.** - A central aspect of UNDRIP is the measure of Free Prior and Informed Consent for projects like Kinder Morgan, [recent reports that Justin Trudeau made his decision on Kinder Morgan in 2015](https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/02/14/news/inside-interview-trudeau-spills-kinder-morgan-pipeline), before completing his government’s additional consultation measures, would suggest that his government outright failed to meet this measure. - By the logic of UNDRIP, if even one Indigenous nation is opposed to a project, it does not have consent. - In Kinder Morgan’s case, multiple Indigenous communities oppose the Trudeau government’s approval of Kinder Morgan — and [many are fighting the decision in courts](https://www.wcel.org/blog/saw-you-in-court-kinder-morgan-federal-court-appeal-hearing-explained-in-road-signs). **Learn more about dangers to Indigenous rights** - [Assessment of the TransMountain Pipeline and Tanker Expansion Proposal](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/2551008/TWN%20Assessment%20Report%2011x17.pdf), Tsleil-Waututh Nation, 2015 - [The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Secwepemc Risk Assessment](https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/934d11_6d9408803da54d24a2d6b650f14e6125.pdf), Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, 2017 - [About the Lawsuits](https://pull-together.ca/background/), Pull Together (for Tsleil-Wautuh Nation, Coldwater Nation, Squamish Nation) - [15 Consolidated Challenges to the federal approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker expansion project](https://www.wcel.org/blog/saw-you-in-court-kinder-morgan-federal-court-appeal-hearing-explained-in-road-signs), West Coast Environmental Law, 2017 - [United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples](https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf), 2008 - [What is Free Prior & Informed Consent](https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-and-informed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-local-communities-fao/), United Nations, 2016 - [Inside Justin Trudeau’s Kinder Morgan Approval](https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/02/14/news/inside-interview-trudeau-spills-kinder-morgan-pipeline): Points to Kinder Morgan Decision Made Before Completing Indigenous Consultations, National Observer, 2018 **4. The government’s hasn’t given us any evidence effectively refuting the points above.** The publicly-available documents on Kinder Morgan cited by the federal government as the sources weighing in the final decision to approve the pipeline don’t provide the evidence we need to confirm that Kinder Morgan is a spill-proof, climate safe and Indigenous rights-compatible pipeline. **List of documents** - [NEB Report Recommending approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline](https://apps.neb-one.gc.ca/REGDOCS/Item/Filing/A77045) in May 2016 - In addition to this, the federal government produced these further reports [Interim Measures for the Trans Mountain Expansion Review](https://mpmo.gc.ca/measures/256), all finalized in November 2016 right before the approval was announced: [Crown (Joint Federal/Provincial) Consultation and Accommodation Report](https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/energy/pdf/TMX_Final_report_en.pdf), [Report for Ministerial Panel for TransMountain Expansion](https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/files/pdf/16-011_TMX%20Full%20Report-en_nov2-11-30am.pdf), [Online Questionnaire Report](https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/energy/pdf/Questionnaire-Nielsen_reportTMX_en.pdf), [Review of Related Upstream GHG Emissions Estimates by Environment Canada](https://www.ceaa.gc.ca/050/documents/p80061/116524E.pdf)