Tar Sands 101
The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change.
The tar sands are already slated to be the cause of up to the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will see 3 million barrels of tar sands mock crude produced daily by 2018; for each barrel of oil up to as high as five barrels of water are used.
Human health in many communities has seriously taken a turn for the worse with many causes alleged to be from tar sands production. Tar sands production has led to many serious social issues throughout Alberta, from housing crises to the vast expansion of temporary foreign worker programs that racialize and exploit so-called non-citizens. Infrastructure from pipelines to refineries to super tanker oil traffic on the seas crosses the continent in all directions to allthree major oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The mock oil produced primarily is consumed in the United States and helps to subsidize continued wars of aggression against other oil producing nations such as Iraq, Venezuela and Iran.
To understand the tar sands in more depth, continue to our Tar Sands 101 reading list
Nukes for Saskatchewan Tar Sands?
Hot issue = cool debate
A report that suggests Lake Diefenbaker might be a good location for a nuclear power plant does not mean such a facility will ever be built. It does, however, kickstart a welcome debate.
The Leader-Post
Published: Friday, May 09, 2008
Nuclear energy, we hope, is finally on the table for discussion in Saskatchewan.
Ducks Die to Oil Waste in Saskatchewan
Ducks die in oily Sask. pond
Province investigates deaths of 53 birds at waste retention site
Darren Bernhardt, The StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, May 15, 2008
The provincial government is scrambling to deal with the deaths of 53 ducks at an oil-extraction site west of Saskatoon.
"Guest Workers" bolting for freedom upon arrival
Foreign workers pull disappearing act: employer
Updated Thu. May. 15 2008 10:25 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The foreign worker program is causing big headaches, says one Calgary employer, who complains that 20 of his employees pulled a disappearing act soon after arriving in the country.
Calgary business owner, Owen Colbourne, has brought in 31 foreign labourers to work at his manufacturing and consulting company in the past 18 months.
It's not just about 500 dead ducks
It's not just about 500 dead ducks
May 11, 2008 04:30 AM
Gillian Steward
Who could have known that a flock of ducks on its way home for the summer was fated to become a powerful symbol of all that is wrong with Alberta's most vital industrial project – the tar sands?
As much of the world knows by now, about 500 of them died when they set down on a lake of oily goo, usually referred to by the petroleum industry and the government as a tailing pond – a much more neutral phrase than 22 square kilometres of toxic sludge produced when oil is extracted from the sandy soil.
Big Oil Strike in Brazil has Tongues Wagging, but We Continue Towards Peak Oil
Big Oil Strike in Brazil has Tongues Wagging, but We Continue Towards Peak Oil
By Pedro Prieto, Tlaxcala. Posted May 7, 2008.
Since the 1980's, the world has discovered less oil than it has consumed every year.
note: This was translated from the Spanish original by Miss Machetera, proprietor of the Machetera blog.
The world press, especially the Western press and specifically the financial press, has jumped all over the headlines of the discovery of a huge oil field in Brazil's continental shelf.
Oil hits record near $127 as Iran mulls output cut
Oil hits record near $127 as Iran mulls output cut
Reuters
May 13 2008
NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) - Oil surged to a record peak near $127 on Tuesday after OPEC producer Iran said it was studying a plan to cut output despite signs record-high prices are hurting consumer nations.
U.S. crude jumped $2.00 to $126.23 a barrel by 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT), after striking a record $126.98 earlier. London Brent crude rose $1.61 to $124.52 a barrel.
British Columbia: More Dollars for Gas and Oil Research
More Dollars for Gas and Oil Research
By 250 News
Monday, April 21, 2008 03:08 PM
The allocations for the $12 million dollars the Province promised in the latest budget for mineral and oil and gas research have been announced.
Geoscience BC will be getting $5.7 million for projects to enhance the exploration and development of oil and gas.
The money will be used for projects such as regional airborne geophysical surveys with a focus on the Horn River Basin, in thenorth east part of B.C. , one of the hottest areas in oil and gas rights sales.
Suncor Issues latest Greenwash report
For your daily Greenwash dose... Suncor sympathetic over ducks... and not a hint of sympathy for the loss of other human lives.
--M
Suncor CEO defends record on environment
Rick George sympathizes over duck loss
Dan Healing, with a file from Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008
A speech about the business outlook for Alberta's oilsands industry Friday morning turned into a defence of its environmental record for Suncor Energy Inc. CEO Rick George.
Across Alberta Work- place deaths up 24%
Work- place deaths up 24%
154 Alta. workers died on job last year, 30 more than in 2006
Archie McLean, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, April 18
EDMONTON - Alberta workplace deaths jumped 24 per cent in 2007, but injuries fell slightly during the same period, new provincial statistics show.
A total of 154 people died on the job or as a result of their work last year, which is up from 124 in 2006, which was a 15-year low. The government says the number of deaths last year is consistent with the rates from the past 10 years.
How to Deflect the Real Story: "Last surviving duck hangs in"
Last surviving duck hangs in
By Victoria Handysides
May 13, 2008
A female mallard duck is the only surviving creature that took a dip in Syncrude’s toxic tailings pond that will live to tell the tale.
In total, 18 birds have been brought to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton from different tailings ponds in the Fort McMurray area. Only six have survived.
