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
A New Wave of Exploitation
October 24, 2007
A New Wave of Exploitation
Canada, Alberta defy UN, sell off rights to disputed Lubicon land
by Kevin Thomas
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Elder Reinie Jobin examines Lubicon land razed by oil companies. The Lubicon were not consulted or notified. Photo: Friends of the Lubicon
Alberta's tar sands to supply South Dakota's oil projects
Alberta's tar sands to supply South Dakota's oil projects
Pipeline, refinery would tap into Canadian crude
Oct 23, 2007 04:30 AM
Dirk Lammers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.
- Login to post comments
Harper's Index
- Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands
- Enbridge Gateway Pipeline/ Offshore Tanker Traffic [BC]
- Mackenzie Gas Project / Alaska Highway pipelines [NWT/AK]
- Tarsands Infrastructure: South/ East [US & Can]
- International oil & gas
- Climate Change / Emissions
- Economics
- Energy
- Forests
- Labour / Migration
- Land
- Peak Oil
- War and Security
October 21, 2007
Harper's Index
Stephen Harper introduces the tar sands issue
by Stephen Harper
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
We are currently the fifth largest energy producer in the world. We rank 3rd and 7th in global gas and oil production respectively. We generate more hydro-electric power than any other country on earth. And we are the world’s largest supplier of uranium. But that’s just the beginning.
Working Full-Time: The work camps of Fort McMurray
October 17, 2007
Working Full-Time
The work camps of Fort McMurray
by Lindsay Bird
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Two mechanics from site picked me up at the Fort McMurray Greyhound station at 2pm. I had spent the uncomfortable six-hour bus ride from Edmonton beside a large, sweating man from Bathurst, New Brunswick, who worked at the same site to which I was travelling. When this connection was discovered, he excitedly phoned his sons, also on-site, to tell them 'a girl was coming.' My introduction to the alternate society of work camps had begun.
Nuclear Smoke and Mirrors from Alberta to Australia
NUCLEAR SMOKE AND MIRRORS FROM ALBERTA TO AUSTRALIA:
The AECL’s Advanced Candu and Bush’s Global Nuclear Partnership
By Jim Harding
We Speak for Ourselves
Over the span of 38 years, Northern Alberta has changed from a pristine environment rich in cultural and biological diversity to a landscape resembling a war zone marked with 200-foot-deep pits and thousands of acres of destroyed boreal forests. Lakes and rivers have been contaminated and groundwater systems drained. The impact of the tar sands industry is what I am talking about. This industry has also resulted in the disruption to the Dene First Nations and their treaty rights, including the cultural disruption to the Cree and Metis communities.
Gil McGowan: A Union Vision For The Future Oilpatch
Gil McGowan: A Union Vision For The Future Oilpatch
By Mike Byfield
[from: Dob Magazine: "on online source for the oil and gas industry"
Non-OPEC Oil Production
Non-OPEC Oil Production
Toni Johnson, Staff Writer
October 19, 2007
Council on Foreign Relations
Introduction
Passing Out in Upgrader Alley
October 20, 2007
Passing Out in Upgrader Alley
In Alberta's "Industrial Heartland," massive developments rival those of the Athabasca tar sands region
by Lori Theresa Waller
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
Shell’s upgrader in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. [creative commons] Photo: Matthew Dance
Tar Sands and the American Automobile
October 18, 2007
Tar Sands and the American Automobile
Heavy crude largely heads south to fuel American cars
by Yves EnglerBianca Mugyenyi
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
A traffic jam during shift change, near Fort McMurray. The tar sands will primarily fuel North America's vast fleet of cars. Photo: Dru Oja Jay
The following is an edited excerpt from a forthcoming book by Bianca Mugyenyi and Yves Engler, tentatively titled Stop Signs: A road trip through the USA to explore the culture, politics and economics of the car.
