An enormous crowd of people assembled outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 6 to protest the building of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. Over 10,000 people of countless ages and backgrounds came to together to form one cohesive voice as they raised chants, hoisted signs and formed one massive human chain, several people thick, around the White House property.

Brandeis was not without representation at the rally: 15 students made the trip to the nation's capital to show their firm opposition to the construction of the oil pipeline to President Barack Obama.

Over the past several months, protests against the construction of the Keystone XL, a pipeline that would transport crude oil from Canada to Texas, have dominated the efforts of environmentalists around the nation. Many fear that the pipeline, which would be built as an addition to the already existing Keystone Pipeline System, will have dramatic environmental consequences, while at the same time doing nothing to lessen the United States' dependence on fossil fuels.

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would carry 900,000 barrels of tar-like oil daily into the U.S., in addition to the 435,000 barrels that already run through the current Keystone system on a daily basis.

"The pipeline would go from Alberta, Canada all the way down to refineries in Texas on the gulf. This process of refining oil from tar sands causes way more CO2 to be released," said Carrie Watkins '12, an International and Global Studies major who attended the Nov. 6 rally. "We need to be getting away from that, not supporting it more," Watkins explained.

The new pipeline also threatens to leak crude oil on its proposed journey across the country. This could bring about virtually irreparable damage to any piece of land, but it has caused heightened unease because the Keystone XL would pass directly over the Ogallala Aquifer.

"If we know anything about oil, it's that it spills; we saw the BP oil spill, there was just one in Yellowstone, and there are smaller ones all the time that people never hear about," said Watkins. "If we want to create jobs, we can create them using clean energy and that will create far more jobs that will actually last," she said.

"The thing about these types of issues is they tend to have more than one thing that is really wrong with them. So much of this is caused by greed and corruption and large amounts of money in the wrong hands. … You just can't sit around and not do anything about it," Watkins continued.

It was to show Obama their opposition to the Keystone XL that Watkins, along with 14 other Brandeis students and over 100 other environmentally conscious students from universities in the Boston area, traveled to the White House to join the peaceful protest.

"This was something that the environmental movement could converge on. … Protesting this pipeline gave everyone something to rally around," said Lisa Purdy '14, an Environmental Studies major who also participated in the protest.

The day began with high-profile guest speakers, including climatologist James Hansen, social activist Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, a grassroots campaign dedicated to solving climate change. Protesters split up into groups and took turns marching around the White House with signs and ended the day by linking arms and forming an enormous human made chain around the White House.

While Purdy said she was worried that there would not be enough people to stretch around the entire White House, it turned out there were enough to form a human chain several people thick.

"It felt really beautiful. … Here I was, linking arms with a woman I didn't know, and in the midst of this really serious thing we were protesting, I looked around and realized that these people really get it," Purdy said. "It felt like something straight out of the '60s," she said.

Several days after the protest, the Obama administration announced that further review was needed before construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline can move forward. The decision will likely not be made until after the 2012 presidential election, but many experts believe that the pipeline's construction will not be approved in light of fervent protests on the part of civilians and federal and state politicians.

"[The protest] was incredible," said Watkins. "The most amazing thing about it was that we really accomplished something. Obama came out a few days later and said the issue needed to be reviewed further; we made [a] real change," she said.

Although the students have returned to campus, their efforts against the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline remain active. Last week, members of Students for Environmental Action set up a model Keystone XL Pipeline between the Shapiro Campus Center and the Goldfarb Library, with signs along the pipeline reminding the passersby of the potential devastation that the project could wreak.

Watkins said that while SEA was prepared to make calls to Senator John Kerry and continue participating in protests and rallies, the success of the Washington, D.C. protests has put all of their plans on hold.

According to Watkins, "everyone is waiting to see what will happen next," hoping that no further action to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline will be needed but prepared to resume action should Obama decide to move forward with the project.