This week, the Senate is considering a highway bill with a rider attached to it that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline, the tar-sands project that just won’t die. Yesterday, 350.org led a charge to send 500,000 emails to the Senate asking elected leaders to “block any efforts to revive the dangerous Keystone XL pipeline.” The push started at noon and will end at noon today. The pile of emails hit the 500,000 mark after about seven hours, and this morning was closing in on 700,000.

350.org founder Bill McKibben appeared on The Colbert Report last night to discuss the campaign and explain to Stephen Colbert why his view that “everything we’re extracting from the ground is natural” isn’t quiiiiite right:

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Although Colbert ordered the audience to steer clear of this effort (and in fact threatened to deny the existence of Bill McKibben), he did ask, “If someone out there in the audience was foolish enough to want to sign your petition, where would they go?”

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McKibben directed would-be fools to 350.org.