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
Oil companies finalize pact to share tailings research
Here is a prediction that I hope is wrong. This 'coalition' of tar sands producers will finish their sharing of dry tailings technology, which is already being advertised by Suncor on the side bar of google.
Suncor, Total team up on tar sands
What a perfect combination! Now Total can join in a partnership with the Canadian Boreal Initiative and fund the Pembina Institute, while Suncor can help dig up huge swaths of land all over Africa! It's a win, win!
--M
Suncor, Total team up on oil sands
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
CALGARY— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 6:17AM EST
Suncor targets 1-M bbl/day with help from Total E&P Canada
Suncor targets 1-M bbl/day with help from Total E&P Canada
Canadian Mining Journal
December 20, 2010
ALBERTA - Calgary-based Suncor Energy has announced plans to increase production to more than one 1 million bbl of oil equivalent daily by 2020. The company says it will boost oil sands production by 10% per year and company-wide production by 8% in each of the next 10 years.
Pipeline concerns East Texans
Pipeline concerns East Texans
Posted: Dec 15, 2010
By Sara Story, KLTV
WOOD COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - Concerned East Texas land owners are speaking out against the massive pipeline that will pump tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. A large portion of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline will be laid in East Texas counties. Friday, an environmental organization will meet with members of the community to discuss the pipeline's hazardous impact.
It's a project that worries land owners like Eleanor Fairchild, 79.
Leaked cable reveals concerns over tar sands oil
Leaked cable reveals concerns over tar sands oil
By Ed Brayton | 12.08.10 |
The Michigan Messenger
One of the documents released by WikiLeaks, a diplomatic document sent to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton in advance of a presidential visit to Ottawa, Canada, reveals concerns about the higher environmental cost of Canadian tar sands oil compared to regular crude oil.
Madagascar Oil suspends share trading
Madagascar Oil suspends share trading
Madagascar Oil declares it would 'robustly defend its position' after the Madagascar government said it wants to acquire its licences
* Tim Webb
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 December 2010
The flotation of Madagascar Oil must go down as this year's most unfortunate. In a move which will be hailed as victory for the world's lemur-lovers, the oil sands developer, which listed on Aim a little more than two weeks ago, announced this morning that it had suspended trading in its shares.
The Return of Madagascar's Oil
The return of Madagascar’s oil
Posted on November 30, 2010
by Jeremy
Make Wealth History
This week Madagascar Oil was floated on London’s Alernative Investment Market (AIM), raising £50 million.
Tar Sands tailings poisons muskeg and nearby First Nations community
Tar Sands tailings poisons muskeg and nearby First Nations community
By Ben Powless
| November 26, 2010
Rabble
[photos in original linked at bottom]
The trip out to the tar sands tailings pond reminded me of other recent trips to places where indigenous people were trying to survive.
Dirty Oil, Dirty Money: Who is Funding the Tar Sands Resistance?
Dirty Oil, Dirty Money: Who is Funding the Tar Sands Resistance?
by Sandra Cuffe
November 26, 2010
Vancouver Media Co-op
After years of online discussion and personal debates, anti-tar sands activists and Indigenous community members are taking the controversy around the role of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) in resistance movements to a public forum.
Tertzakian: Tar sands being claimed by cash-rich and resource-hungry Asia
Tertzakian: Oilsands being claimed by cash-rich and resource-hungry Asia
By Peter Tertkzakian, Calgary Herald November 29, 2010
Alexander Dumas, 19th century French author of classics such as The Three Musketeers, offered a simple MBA formula, “Business? It’s quite simple. It’s other people’s money.”
