TOW #1 – Article: ‘The Fight Over the Next Dakota Access Pipeline Could Be the Next Keystone’ by Justin Worland

In 2014, it was announced that a 1,200-mile oil pipeline would be built, it would cross through North Dakota and end up at the Gulf Coast. Indigenous people, climate activists, and landowners have been protesting at the build site in North Dakota since earlier this week.

 The protests started because the pipeline proposed a threat to the Standing Rock Sioux, a tribe located less than a mile away from the pipeline. The pipeline would be crossing a dammed section of the Missouri River that is a main source of water for the tribe, the leaders worry that effects of an accident or spill from the pipeline could ruin their water supply. As the protest began to gather more media coverage more indigenous people started to travel across the country to show their support against the project. They wanted to use the Dakota Access Pipeline to bring attention to other types of infrastructure projects that wreak havoc in their communities. Then other protesters are voicing their concerns about how the pipeline will contribute more damage to climate change. Justin Worland is a writer for Time Magazine, he focuses on covering stories that involve energy conservation and environment issues.

Worland’s purpose in writing this article is to inform people on the local issue. He aims to give the protesters’ a voice that they can use to share their issues with the project. He achieves his purpose by thoroughly explaining to the reader the protesters’ motivation behind protesting the pipeline. The main ‘narrator’ of the article is the protesters. By making them the main narrator he doesn’t allow any of his own personal opinions on the pipeline come into his retelling of the issue. This makes the article seem like it is purely the protesters’ point of view.

The intended audience for this article is people who are in the age range of people in high school and above. The audience is shown through Worland’s diction. Throughout the article Worland describes some of the protesters as ‘indigenous’, this is a word that generally is not learned till people enter high school and start to learn the more gruesome details about American history.

By effectively giving the protesters a chance to share their concerns about the pipeline Worland completes his purpose.