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
Chávez asks leaders to introduce written proposal at Cancun Summit
Chávez asks leaders to introduce written proposal at Cancun Summit
April 22, 2010 in Press
EL UNIVERSAL-CARACAS, Thursday April 22, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez suggested the leaders participating in the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which is held in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, to submit a proposal to the meeting of the United Nations to be held in Cancun, Mexico. The move is intended to counter the Copenhagen Document that some governments led by the United States seek to impose at the Cancun Climate Change Summit.
Musings from Cochabamba and Tiquipaya, Bolivia
Musings from Cochabamba and Tiquipaya, Bolivia
April 21, 2010
Shareholder concerns won't affect Whiting, Indiana expansion, BP says
Shareholder concerns won't affect Whiting expansion, BP says
Comments
Chicago Post-Tribune
April 16, 2010
BY GITTE LAASBY
BP faced heat from shareholders this week over its involvement with Canadian oil sands -- the type that the BP Whiting refinery will be processing more of with its expansion.
RBS in battle with the Cree First Nation over dirty oil development project on tribal lands
RBS in battle with the Cree First Nation over dirty oil development project on tribal lands
18 Apr 2010
George Poitras has come a long way to make his point.
From his traditional Mikisew Cree homelands on the shores of Lake Athabasca in northern Alberta, he has journeyed to Murray Place in the centre of Stirling – to confront the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Oil Majors Under Shareholder Pressure For Canadian Tar Sands
Oil Majors Under Shareholder Pressure For Canadian Tar Sands
04/13/2010
SustainableBusiness.com News
As shareholders gather in London this week for BP’s (NYSE: BP) annual general meeting, American and British investors are coordinating an effort to put pressure on four major oil multinationals over their controversial investments in the Canadian oil sands.
See You in Cochabamba!
- 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
- Animals
- Climate Change / Emissions
- Energy
- Forests
- Gender
- Indigenous
- Land
- Peak Oil
- Social Impacts
- War and Security
- Water
See You in Cochabamba!
Evo Morales Plans Bolivian Alternative Climate Summit for April
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 01. 6.10
Not wasting any time, Bolvian president Evo Morales has announced that his nation will be hosting an alternative climate summit in the city of Cochabamba on April 20-22, the New York Times reports. Morales is calling on activists, scientists and government officials "who want to work with the people" to attend. Bolivia was one of five nations dissenting on the non-binding COP15 agreement:
EU yields to Canada over oil trade "barriers": sources
EU yields to Canada over oil trade "barriers": sources
Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:27pm EDT
Reuters
By Pete Harrison
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has yielded to Canadian demands it remove possible trade barriers to polluting oil sands to avoid further damage to ties, according to sources and leaked documents.
Relations are already strained after the European Union banned imports of seal products last July on animal welfare grounds, a move Canada is challenging at the World Trade Organization.
‘It's going to be bigger than Clayoquot Sound'
‘It's going to be bigger than Clayoquot Sound'
The looming fight over the Great Bear Rainforest will once again put B.C. at ground zero of the global environment movement
Mark Hume
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Mar. 27, 2010
When a deep ocean tug called the Pathfinder lost its way in Prince William Sound one day this winter, it ended up running aground on Bligh Reef, the same ragged line of rocks that 21 years earlier had gutted the Exxon Valdez.
Company seeks first U.S. tar sands project, in Utah
Company seeks first U.S. oil sands project, in Utah
The Associated Press
Updated: 03/28/2010 11:44:51 AM MDT
Salt Lake City - An energy company with government approvals to launch the first significant U.S. oil sands project is trying to raise money to build a plant in eastern Utah that would turn out 2,000 barrels of oil a day.
Earth Energy Resources Inc. has a state lease to work a 62-acre pit in Uintah County, where it has demonstrated technology that can extract oil out of sands using a proprietary solvent it calls environmentally friendly.
