Ken Ilgunas
Trespassing Across America, by Ken Ilgunas is a memoir about Ilgunas' expedition of
walking the Keystone XL Pipeline. Ilgunas' Journey began with the issue of climate
change, an issue very near to his heart. He asked us, "What will you do about climate
change? How far will you go?" Ilgunas lived in Dead Horse, Alaska for a period of his
life which is a big area for the oil industry. It was there that he developed his big idea
of walking the Keystone XL Pipeline. Ilgunas stated in his presentation, "It's in our
worst days that our craziest ideas come".
Ilgunas began his journey in Alberta, Canada. He toured the oil refineries before he
began his journey to see exactly where the oil is being taken up from the Earth.
Ilgunas saw the beginning stages of the refinery process where the oil is still in the form
of bitumen, a mixture of things including oil, clay, water and sand which is also known
as oil sand or tar sand and is refined on-sight. Bitumen was harvested in the giant
black "coal" fields of Alberta. Alberta also housed many sulfur pyramids because sulfur
is a waste product in the refining of oil, as well as a very large and toxic man-made pond.
Ken Ilgunas noticed that there was a very different opinion of the pipeline than what he
assumed they'd say. Many Alberta natives believed that the pipeline boosted the local
economy, compensated greatly for the loss of property, and that the pipeline was not
controversial at all.
As Ilgunas made his way into the United States, he witness the beauty of nature
first-hand. He saw fields of gold, grasslands, and the Great Plains. He trespassed
through private property the entire journey until he got to Port Arthur, Texas. As
Ilgunas made his way into Nebraska, he realized that the pipeline was built on top of
water which could potentially contaminate water and nearby crops. Why would people
allow this to happen when it could do bodily harm? There is a lot of bias,
misinformation, and denial surrounding the topic of climate change because struggling
families see the Keystone XL Pipeline as a way to make the economy boom since
technology is taking away a lot of other jobs and people on the plains use an
exponentially greater amount of fossil fuels like oil for farming, ranching, and traveling.
We have the resources, man-power, brain-power and will-power to make something
better. Why don't we? We need to get to what comes next as quickly as possible
whether that be broader cultural awareness, greater structural pacts, better energy
efficiency, or decreasing our waste.