science

Tar Sands Blockade

Tar Sands Blockade is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tar Sands Blockade rather than just read about it. In short: Tar Sands Blockade is a grassroots coalition of affected Texas and Oklahoma people and climate justice organizers who use peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Tar Sands Blockade used nonviolent direct action to stop construction of the pipeline throughout East Texas including banner drops, lockdowns, and tree sits.

Key takeaways

Tar Sands Blockade belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tar Sands Blockade to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tar Sands Blockade from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tar Sands Blockade is a grassroots coalition of affected Texas and Oklahoma people and climate justice organizers who use peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Tar Sands Blockade used nonviolent direct action to stop construction of the pipeline throughout East Texas including banner drops, lockdowns, and tree sits. They are best known for a large scale tree sit outside Winnsboro, Texas. Naomi Klein attributes the origin of the term Blockadia, which describes a global anti-extractivist movement to the hour-long documentary Blockadia Rising (2013) that Tar Sands Blockade produced to describe the dangers of tar sands extraction and highlight their direct actions. The group occupied blockades for 86 days in 2012, forcing TransCanada to reroute the pipeline.

Political and environmental issues TransCanada, a multinational corporation, was building the Gulf Coast Project section of the Keystone XL with the go ahead from the Obama administration in 2012. This section of the pipeline passed from Oklahoma through East Texas into the Gulf. Anti-pipeline activists and environmental organizations claimed that probable pipe spillage would threaten groundwater, ecosystems, surrounding lands, employment, and the economy. The pipeline would cross 631 streams and wetlands in Texas, including not the Sulphur River and the entire Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which is the water supply for 12 million homes in East Texas. A whistleblower, Evan Vokes, came forward about TransCanada in mid-October 2012, to confirm allegations of regulatory non-compliance.

See also Keystone XL pipeline Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer Tree sitting Line 3 Pipeline

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tar Sands Blockade

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tar Sands Blockade claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tar Sands Blockade before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tar Sands Blockade ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tar Sands Blockade

In research: Tar Sands Blockade appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tar Sands Blockade in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tar Sands Blockade is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2012 establishments in the United States, Bituminous sands, Environmental movements, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tar Sands Blockade outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tar Sands Blockade in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tar Sands Blockade means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tar Sands Blockade out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tar Sands Blockade in simple terms?

Why does Tar Sands Blockade matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tar Sands Blockade?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tar Sands Blockade.