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
Reports critical of tar sands keep piling up
Reports critical of oilsands keep piling up
'There needs to be an end to industry monitoring itself'
Published September 9, 2010 by Trevor Scott Howell in News
Alberta’s oilsands tailings ponds are killing birds at a rate 30 times higher than government and industry figures imply, according to a new study.
Ecologist Kevin Timoney, who co-authored the report, calls industry self-reporting of bird deaths “ad hoc” and says it consistently underestimates actual mortality.
Secret German analysis warns of peak oil and coming energy crisis
Secret German analysis warns of peak oil and coming energy crisis
By Stephanie Dearing.
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Recently economically dominant governments have been turning their attention to studying the future of energy, trying to calculate when there might be an energy crisis.
In an ideal state, any government would prefer to circumvent a potential energy crisis. But analysis leaked from a German Military think tank, the Bundeswehr Transformation Center, states a crisis in the near future is increasingly inevitable, according to Der Spiegel.
Canadian Natural Resources, subcontractor charged in 2008 tailings pond drowning
Canadian Natural Resources, subcontractor charged in 2008 oilsands drowning
By The Canadian Press
September 3, 2010
EDMONTON - Workplace safety charges have been filed against petroleum producer Canadian Natural Resources and one of its subcontractors in an oilsands death two years ago.
Rick Boughner, 47, died in September 2008 when an excavator he was using tipped over and sank into a tailings pond, causing him to drown.
Transcanada’s Keystone Pipeline Shut Down for Work
Transcanada’s Keystone Pipeline Shut Down for Work
By Aaron Clark and Samantha Zee - Sep 3, 2010
TransCanada Corp. shut its Keystone pipeline Sept. 1 for unscheduled maintenance work, Michael Barnes, a company spokesman said in a telephone interview. The line is expected to resume service by Sept. 8, he said.
TransCanada expects to make all September deliveries on time, Barnes said. The inline inspections will take place throughout the 2,151-mile (3,461-kilometer) pipeline.
Now it all becomes clear: Premier due on Pelosi's mat next week
Now it all becomes clear: Premier due on Pelosi's mat next week
Stelmach's measured response to recent petro-goofs seemed out of character until we learned of his plans to see U.S. Speaker
By Graham Thomson, edmontonjournal.com
September 4, 2010
Every week the Alberta government releases what's officially called the "public itinerary" of meetings for the premier, cabinet and caucus -- which means, of course, journalists are left wondering what's on the unofficial "private" itinerary that we don't get to see.
How much proof do the global warming deniers need?
Johann Hari: How much proof do the global warming deniers need?
Everything the climate scientists said would happen - with their pesky graphs and studies and computers - is coming to pass. This is proving the hottest year ever
Friday, 27 August 2010
West Moberly says Site C would power tar sands not homes
West Moberly says Site C would power tar sands not homes
Monday, 30 August 2010
Amid a bevy of resource projects in northeast B.C., the West Moberly First Nation claims the province is green-washing its Site C hydroelectric project.
“It’s not clean and it’s not green,” West Moberly Chief Roland Willson told BIV in a recent interview.
The First Nation community is a member of the Treaty 8 Tribal Association near Fort St. John where dozens of companies are snapping up land to build the next shale gas well, coal mine or renewable power project.
Protecting the Tar Sands, Protecting Capitalism
Whatever It Takes:
Protecting the Tar Sands, Protecting Capitalism
Ryan Katz-Rosene
Something is rotten in the province of Alberta! And it's not just the tar sands. It's the way political and corporate elites do whatever it takes to extinguish potential threats to the bituminous megaproject. The attempt to protect the tar sands from criticism can be framed as a part of a broader effort to protect the ‘rights’ of private interests to profit from bitumen production.
September 27, 1962: Tar Sand Project Approval Starts New Era For Canadian Oil
September 27, 1962
Tar Sand Project Approval Starts New Era For Canadian Oil
BY: CARL O. NICKLE, Publisher of the Daily Oil Bulletin & Oil In Canada
In recommending approval of the application of GREAT CANADIAN OIL SANDS LIMITED for the first commercialscale development of Alberta's famed Athabaska Tar Sands, the Alberta Oil & Gas Conservation Board has made a vital and far reaching decision.
