Anti-pipeline activists are fighting to stop Line 3. Will they succeed? | Bill McKibben

The oil industry is building yet another pipeline - but Native American groups and progressive activists are fighting back

American democracy appears to have had at least a little success this week: steadily mounting pressure - including everything from marches to tweets to phone calls to Congress - seems to have convinced President Trump that his approval ratings were in danger unless he back-pedaled on his administration's abusive immigration policies on the US-Mexican border. So now we have an executive order allowing children to be stored in cages alongside their parents - an admittedly mixed victory, but at least Trump was forced to retreat. And now we have a motivated army of progressive Americans ready to keep on fighting.

We'll need them, because another fierce political battle is about to boil over - this time on the US's northern border, with Canada. Local citizens there are mobilizing against another controversial project to pump oil from the Canadian "tar sands" to the US. Like the infamous Keystone pipeline through Nebraska or the Kinder Morgan pipeline through British Columbia, this pipeline - known by the innocuous name "Line 3" - has roused grassroots resistance from local citizens concerned about the project's environmental and cultural impact.