The Pipeline to Hell -- that's an appropriate name for the Keystone XL Pipeline, planned to bring 830,000 barrels a day to the US. It really is one step on the path to thermal hell-on-earth in the long run.  The local clearcutting and poisoning rape of the boreal forests of Alberta is well documented along with the profound risks of spills from the pipeline contaminating crucial watersheds.  Those regional hells are reason enough to reject tar sands and a huge pipeline to transport acidic crude. The Hell I'm referring to is global: Climate Change.

We know the tar sands ("unconventional fossil fuel") is a massive step, perhaps THE step in the wrong direction, with James Hansen's now famous "Game Over" condemnation. But what is the scope of how this one tar sands pipeline contributes to CO2 pollution and its end result? My estimate is that this one pipeline alone is on the order of 1% of the way to climate disaster hell. If the planned $125 billion investments in Canadian tar sands does produce its target 5 million barrels a day,