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
Tar sands proposal draws protest
Oilsands proposal draws protest
Joslyn North mine. Total E&P makes green promises
By MIKE DE SOUZA, Postmedia News August 24, 2010
A battle is brewing over a proposed oilsands project by a French-based company that has drawn more than two dozen opponents from Canada, the U.S. and France at today's deadline for submissions to a joint federal-provincial environmental review panel.
[Madagascar] Exploitation pétrolière : Le projet Bemolanga met en danger l’environnement
Exploitation pétrolière : Le projet Bemolanga met en danger l’environnement
20 août 2010
MATV-- Madagascar
[Madagascar] Exploitation pétrolière de Bemolanga : Un danger inévitable pour la population locale
Exploitation pétrolière de Bemolanga : Un danger inévitable pour la population locale
Vendredi, 20 Août 2010
Midi Madagasikara
12 arrested in Camp for Climate Action protests in Edinburgh
12 arrested in Camp for Climate Action protests in Edinburgh
By Gemma Fox.
Digital Journal
August 23, 2010
Edinburgh - Protesting against one particular bank and their investments in the oil, coal and gas industries, Camp for Climate Action arrived in Edinburgh on August 19 to begin training and protesting against the actions of RBS, the Royal Bank of Scotland.
How the Tar Sands Threaten Canada's Economic Fate
How the Tar Sands Threaten Canada's Economic Fate
A short course in Dutch Disease, deindustrialization and the Bitumen Curse.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 13 Aug 2010, TheTyee.ca
Every week Canada's least favorite Emir, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, earnestly lectures Canadians that the mighty tar sands are a boon to the national economy because "Alberta's engine drives Canada."
Protesters march against Quebec pipeline project
Protesters march against Quebec pipeline project
Aug. 15 2010
The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — A group of environmentalists protesting a planned oil pipeline project that would crisscross Quebec's bucolic countryside has set up camp to voice its opposition.
On Sunday, about 100 protesters attended a rally in the province's Eastern Townships to decry a project by Calgary-based oil giant Enbridge that would carry 200,000 barrels of Canadian crude per day from Alberta's oil patch to Portland, Maine.
First ever 'Tar Sands Healing Walk' voices of concerned citizens
First ever 'Tar Sands Healing Walk' voices of concerned citizens
By Kyle Ashmead.
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Fort Mcmurray - A "Tar Sand Healing Walk" was held in Fort MacMurray, AB, Canada. On August 14th, 2010.
The first of its kind in the tar sands region of Alberta.
Hunger strikers seek money for women’s shelter in Fort McMurray
Hunger strikers seek money for women’s shelter in Fort McMurray
Victims of domestic violence in the oil-sands boomtown have few places to go, forcing many to return home to their abusers
Josh Wingrove Edmonton— From Monday's Globe and Mail
Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010
When Fort McMurray’s only women’s shelter was built nearly 30 years ago, the city had a population of about 30,000 and oil sands production was in its infancy.
"Knocking tar sands bolsters Northern Gateway"
Unfortunately for all of us and not just the venerable Ms Yaffe, this is not in fact, true. The plans of Kinder Morgan, et al to pump more and more tar sands bitumen via a pipeline through the Rocky Mountains and down into Vancouver (Burnaby) to both bolster a Chevron and perhaps a Shell refinery there, while loading up tankers in the Vancouver Burrard Inlet to ship out to places both near (California) and far (Asia) has been touted as "making Gateway redundant". Tar Sands bitumen shipments from the Burrard Inlet is not a victory.
Michigan Oil Spill: The Tar Sands Name Game (and Why It Matters)
Michigan Oil Spill: The Tar Sands Name Game (and Why It Matters)
* by Kari Lydersen August 13, 2010
Michigan oil spill on Kalamazoo River
After up to a million gallons of oil spilled into Michigan's Kalamazoo River from an underground pipeline late last month, investigators and local residents focused on concerns about where and when the spill started and what should have been done to prevent it.
