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
INAC “no” to UR-Energy uranium drilling in the Thelon (NWT)
INAC “no” to UR-Energy uranium drilling in the Thelon
By LEA STORRY, SRJ Editor 31.OCT.07
The beauty of the NWT’s Upper Thelon is safe...for now. Chuck Strahl, the minister of Indian and northern affairs Canada (INAC), formally accepted the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (Review Board) recommendation that exploration work proposed by UR-Energy be rejected without an environmental impact review.
TransCanada Doubles Estimated Cost of Keystone Pipeline
Keystone pipeline demand doubles cost
Wed, October 31, 2007
By FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES
CALGARY -- TransCanada Corp. has more than doubled the estimated cost of its Keystone crude oil pipeline to US$5.2 billion to meet rising demand for the Canada-U.S. project, the company said yesterday while reporting higher third-quarter earnings.
TransCanada Talking about Huge Role in MGP
Quote:
“I think we look forward a little more optimistically because I don’t think anyone would be more aware than us of the challenges of sustaining gas production in Alberta,” he said.
It is arrogant when I see this, and mentally put it along side what MGP proponents in their office in Inuvik explained about the gas going to fuel the tar sands: "It is not up to our control as producers to determine who buys it on a free market".
Sublime Tar Sands?
October 31, 2007
Sublime Tar Sands?
Edward Burtynsky's photography and Canada's extractive industries
by Sylvia Nickerson
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Some of Burtynsky's photographs of the tar sands.
Biofuel moratorium proposed to prevent starvation among the poor: UN Rapporteur
October 11, 2007 - 9:30 PM
UN rapporteur calls for biofuel moratorium
More and more corn is being used for biofuel at the expense of food, according to Jean Ziegler.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food is demanding an international five-year ban on producing biofuels to combat soaring food prices.
Switzerland's Jean Ziegler said the conversion of arable land for plants used for green fuel had led to an explosion of agricultural prices which was punishing poor countries forced to import their food at a greater cost.
Mud, sweat and tears (The fall of Fort McMurray)
Mud, sweat and tears
The vast tar sands of Alberta in Canada hold oil reserves six times the size of Saudi Arabia's. But this 'black gold' is proving a mixed blessing for the frontier town of Fort McMurray, fuelling both prosperity and misery. As the social and environmental toll mounts, Aida Edemariam reports on the dark side of a boom town.
Aida Edemariam
The Guardian// UK
Tuesday October 30 2007
Anthem-- Comic
October 28, 2007
Anthem (click on the image)
by Katie Beaton
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
anthem.jpg
- Login to post comments
Drugs? -- Comic
October 30, 2007
Drugs
by Katie Beaton
(click on the image)
- Login to post comments
Environmentalism in Alberta?
October 30, 2007
Environmentalism in Alberta?
Activists say communities are beginning to stand up to tar sands
by Samantha Power
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
"Stop the tar sands man" and other demonstrators appeared outside a stampede breakfast hosted by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. Activists say Albertans are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of oil development.
The dirty truth about Canada's tar-sands baby
The dirty truth about Canada's tar-sands baby
Joshua Keating
Tue, 10/30/2007
