The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil extracted from Canada’s tar sands through the United States down to the Gulf of Mexico, has become a national concern after almost two weeks of the largest civil disobedience that the environmental movement has seen in decades. In addition to the hundreds who have been arrested in Washington, DC, solidarity protests and picket lines have begun outside of American and Canadian embassies in Egypt and South Africa. President Obama has the power to simply say no to the pipeline, and the many activists involved in the protests these past two weeks are hoping the new attention will make him do just that.

Bill McKibben, one of the organizers of the protests in DC who was arrested at its start last week, spoke with The Nation and On The Earth Productions via Skyp last night to give an update on the most recent actions and the international solidarity that has sprung up around it. 

—Anna Lekas Miller