For the past few months, I've been peripherally following developments in the fight over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a pipeline stretching from North Dakota to Illinois with the purpose of transporting crude oil across the Great Plains. Protests against the pipeline by members of the Standing Rock Sioux indigenous tribe and their allies have been happening for months, as the pipeline goes under the Missouri River, and could pollute the water and deprive the Standing Rock tribe of their one source of clean water. Particularly in the past week or two, I've been deeply disheartened to see my news feed flooded with videos, articles, and status updates on the various ways that law enforcement have mistreated the protesters, in a situation that might epitomize environmental racism.

President Obama weighed in on the issue in a recent interview, in which he was asked what measures he would take to properly address the situation. The Obama administration already ordered a temporary halt on construction of the pipeline back in September, but far more needs to be done. Needless to say, the President's response was less than satisfactory, particularly this snippet:

“We’re monitoring this closely. My view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans. And I think that right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline. We’re going to let it play out for several more weeks and determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that I think is properly attentive to the traditions of First Americans.”

I generally have a lot of respect for President Obama, but I found his response incredibly tone-deaf, for a couple of reasons. First of all, allowing the situation to continue playing out is a bad idea. We have been watching it play out, some of us for months, and what we've seen is law enforcement, along with private security of Dakota Access, the company trying to build the pipeline, handle relatively peaceful protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, and attack dogs. Given that information, allowing the situation to play out, when human rights are being violated, seems like one of the worst things to do.

Furthermore, I'm not sure what Obama means when he talks about "rerouting" the pipeline, though it seems fairly self-explanatory: relocate the pipeline, or parts of the pipeline, where it cannot leak into people's drinking water or desecrate Native American burial grounds. I also wonder what his motive is, as it almost sounds like he's trying to compromise with Dakota Access.

Whatever his reasoning, "rerouting" the pipeline fails to consider that the problem with the pipeline isn't just its negative ramifications for the Standing Rock tribe, but also that it's simply destructive to the environment in general. The pipeline is about 75 percent done already, and is constructed underground. It is intended to be a cheaper and more efficient means to transport oil across the Midwest, as North Dakota has seen a surge in output of crude oil in recent years, but was unprepared to transport the sudden excess of oil. Their initial method of transporting oil by train is both expensive and risky, as trains carrying crude oil have been known to derail and explode.

Pipelines generally carry less risk, but still have a high propensity for leaks, with disastrous results. The concern with the Dakota Access Pipeline specifically is that leaks could flow directly into the Missouri River, the main water source for the Standing Rock tribe. Farmers have also raised concerns about how leaks could potentially deplete the quality of the soil; farmers in Iowa were among the first to complain about the pipeline, while farmers in North Dakota have had land rendered out of production as a result of oil and saltwater seeping into the soil since the oil boom.

There's a bigger issue behind this, which is the need to move away from reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source. Petroleum, in particular, is devastating for the environment in numerous ways; in addition to the risk of leaks and spills, the burning of petroleum emits large amounts of excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Transitioning to alternative energy sources would not be a walk in the park, but such a transition is urgent and necessary for the preservation of the Earth for future generations. In that regard, construction of new oil pipelines is the wrong way to go; with climate change happening faster than expected, and the fact that we are already experiencing the effects, humanity literally cannot afford to build more pipelines.

Then there's the other major issue at play, which is the many violations of the rights of the Standing Rock people, just in the mistreatment of them by law enforcement and Dakota Access security. It was probably a month or two ago that I came across reports of attack dogs being used against protesters, a tactic eerily reminiscent of those used by police against African-American protesters during the 1950s. Hundreds of protesters have also been arrested, including actress Shailene Woodley, and some have made alarming claims of being strip-searched and kept in dog kennels while detained. Meanwhile, a group of armed men who occupied a government building in Oregon, some explicitly voicing their intent to use guns on law enforcement if they deemed it necessary, were acquitted. It horrifies me to imagine how the police would have responded if just one of the indigenous DAPL protesters had a gun.

There's also the detail that the pipeline was originally routed under the city of Bismarck, which is North Dakota's capital, but was rerouted due to...wait for it...concerns about the pipeline polluting Bismarck's key source of drinking water. That is the epitome of environmental racism: minority communities being forced to live in or near degraded environments, because they statistically lack the power to be able to do anything about it. If it wasn't acceptable to pollute Bismarck's drinking water, why is it acceptable to pollute an indigenous tribe's drinking water?

This is why the pipeline needs to be stopped altogether: no matter where you "reroute" it to, it will pose a threat to the environment. The deeper issue behind that is transitioning to a different source of energy, but that's likely a long process, and not something that could happen overnight. However, there are some measures that can be taken now: 1) stop the pipeline, and 2) have better accountability in place for law enforcement handling the protesters.

President Obama's approach is insufficient, and unfortunately, his likely successor Hillary Clinton has been similarly lackluster in her response. And because Native American issues are routinely ignored in the political discourse, they can get away with ignoring the struggles of indigenous Americans. Many indigenous communities are plagued with problems such as high suicide rates, poverty, police brutality, and cultural appropriation, and now this situation with Dakota Access is, once again, breaking promises made to indigenous people by the U.S. government.

To President Obama: it's time to act.

To Hillary Clinton: it's time to take a stand.