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
"It's war on city crime dens"-- The other side of the Alberta Boom
It's war on city crime dens
Houses of drugs and prostitution to be targeted in new enforcement program
By FRANK LANDRY, CITY HALL BUREAU
Thu, December 6, 2007
Edmonton's top drug-house-busting cop welcomes the province's plan to crack down on crime dens.
Sgt. Maurice Brodeur sees the initiative working hand in hand with the program he runs, the Edmonton Police Service's Report A Drug House program.
"Too long, these little disorder houses ... have caused a lot of grief in neighbourhoods," Brodeur told Sun Media.
Kinder Morgan announces the "Chinook Pipeline" proposal to export bitumen to Texas
Kinder joins Enbridge in race
DAVID EBNER
December 13, 2007
The Biggest Global Warming Crime in History
The Biggest Global Warming Crime in History
By Cahal Milmo, Independent UK. Posted December 13, 2007.
The Canadian wilderness is set to be invaded by BP in an oil
exploration project dubbed 'the biggest global warming crime' in
history.
BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by
finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of
abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract
oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which
environmentalists say are part of the "biggest global warming crime"
"B.C. shale gas set to be next generation's tar sands"
B.C. shale gas set to be next generation's oil sands
PATRICK BRETHOUR
December 14, 2007
VANCOUVER -- In the remote north of the province, there is a vast warehouse of hydrocarbons lurking in difficult geology, waiting for the right combination of technology, economics and entrepreneurial guts to free them.
A generation ago, that description applied to Alberta and its oil sands. Today, that scenario is playing out in British Columbia and its shale gas fields where trillions - yes, that is a T - of cubic feet of natural gas could be on their way to market.
Petro-Canada increases investment in tar sands
Petro-Canada increases investment in oil sands
But company plans to lower its financial outlay for natural gas production in Western Canada
NORVAL SCOTT
December 14, 2007
CALGARY -- Petro-Canada has joined the parade of Canadian companies that are raising their total spending next year, but also cutting exploration in Alberta's conventional oil and gas sector.
When $1.3-billion isn't that much
When $1.3-billion isn't that much
Dave Ebner, Globe and Mail
December 12, 2007 at 6:39 PM EST
The last sale of new oil and natural gas exploration rights in Alberta for the year was announced late Wednesday, with $68-million coming into the provincial treasury, boosting the total for the year to $1.29-billion.
That’s the third-highest annual haul in the province’s history — but it’s down more than 60 per cent from the record of $3.43-billion hit last year, and also lower than the $2.26-billion in 2005.
Notes for the presidential candidates (Peak Oil)
Notes for the presidential candidates
by Dave Cohen
The next president of the United States will have to confront the urgent problems attending rapid oil depletion in the OECD countries.
The world's liquid fuels supply can no longer meet demand and global exports levels are set to decline. Oil prices are high, volatile and rising each year, which is likely a permanent condition in the markets while demand remains strong.
Rigged
The climate talks are a stitch-up, as no one is talking about supply.
by George Monbiot
Published in the Guardian (December 11 2007)
Ladies and gentlemen, I have the answer! Incredible as it might seem, I
have stumbled across the single technology which will save us from
runaway climate change! From the goodness of my heart I offer it to you
for free. No patents, no small print, no hidden clauses. Already this
technology, a radical new kind of carbon capture and storage, is causing
a stir among scientists. It is cheap, it is efficient and it can be
Tar Sands vs. Clean Water: Eating the Earth for Cars
Tar Sands vs. Clean Water: Eating the Earth for Cars
by Mark Robinowitz
Global Research, December 11, 2007
oilempire.us
The tar sands production center in northern Alberta in Canada is one of the clearest signs that the easy-to-get oil is on the wane. Tar sands are a low grade hydrocarbon deposit that requires enormous energy input to process and convert it into something resembling petroleum.
CBC and more on the tar sands and Fort Chipewyan
from George Poitras
WELL. Below is a link of a documentary that was aired on this past Sunday's
CBC News Sunday. I think its an excellent documentary for a number of
reasons. The Fort Chipewyan residents including former Chief Archie Waquan,
Donna Cyprien (Director of Nunee Health Authority), Georg Macdonald (Head of
Nursing Station), Julie Mercredi (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Member)
and Pat Marcel (Elder, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation) did an awesome job
of portraying the reality of our current situation. Thanks also to Dr. John
