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
Burn a Tree to Save the Planet? The Crazy Logic Behind Biomass
Burn a Tree to Save the Planet? The Crazy Logic Behind Biomass
By Joshua Frank, AlterNet. Posted December 8, 2009.
It might seem crazy that anyone would think the incineration of wood and its byproducts are a green substitute for toxic fuels such as coal. Think again.
Fire up your chainsaw and cut down a tree. Not so you can decorate it for the Christmas holiday; so you can set it on fire to help combat global warming. That's right, burn a tree to save the planet. That's the notion behind biomass, the new (yet ancient) technology of burning wood to produce energy.
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol
* John Vidal in Copenhagen
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 December 2009
COP15: A Haitian delegation during second-day session at the Bella center in Copenhagen
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images
Big Greens Criticized for Climate Compromise
Big Greens Criticized for Climate Compromise
Tuesday 08 December 2009
by: Joshua Frank, t r u t h o u t |
All eyes are on the United Nations Climate Change conference talks that kick off in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week. Known as the COP15 summit, the international negotiations will center on cap-and-trade and offset schemes to combat global warming, not a global carbon tax or strict regulation that are being called for by some sectors of the climate change movement.
Cap and Fade-- James Hansen
Cap and Fade
By JAMES HANSEN
Published: December 6, 2009
New York Times
AT the international climate talks in Copenhagen, President Obama is expected to announce that the United States wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. But at the heart of his plan is cap and trade, a market-based approach that has been widely praised but does little to slow global warming or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It merely allows polluters and Wall Street traders to fleece the public out of billions of dollars.
Keystone Pipeline made an impact (Nebraska)
Pipeline made an impact
December 7, 2009
By Greg Wees
WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE
NORFOLK, Neb. — Crews who spent the summer here building part of one of the longest crude oil pipelines ever constructed have pulled up stakes.
It won’t be long before oil starts filling the 2,148-mile Keystone Pipeline.
“We expect to start to fill the line with oil this year. The fill process will take several months to complete,” said Jeff Rauh, a spokesman for pipeline owner TransCanada.
Toxic chemical levels higher in water downstream of Alberta tar sands plants
Toxic chemical levels higher in water downstream of Alberta oilsands plants
[This photo shows how at least one company is bulldozing right to the Athabasca River's edge.
Photograph by: Erin Kelly, University of Alberta , edmontonjournal.com]
By Hanneke Brooymans, edmontonjournal.com
December 7, 2009
EDMONTON — Levels of toxic chemicals in the Athabasca watershed are up to 50 times higher downstream of oilsands development, a new University of Alberta study has found.
'Upsetting the Offset: The Political Economy of Carbon Markets'
'Upsetting the Offset: The Political Economy of Carbon Markets'
Steffen Böhm and Siddhartha Dabhi (eds)
The book can be downloaded for free at http://mayflybooks.org/?page_id=194
The book will be launched in Colchester, UK, and Lund, Sweden (near Copenhagen); at both events some free copies of the book will be available:
The Old Library at Colchester Town Hall, West Stockwell Street, Colchester, UK Wednesday 9 December 4-6pm The event is free and open to all http://mayflybooks.org/?p=313
Leaders from the Global South protest against WWF International in Geneva
Leaders from the Global South protest against WWF International in Geneva
First action of the Social and Climate Justice Caravan
In front of the international head quarters of WWF (World Wildlife Fund) in
Gland-Geneva, participants of the Social and Climate Justice Caravan made
their first protest action. Delegates from farming organisations, indigenous
and fisher folk from the South denounced the greenwashing carried out by WWF
Art Manuel: The Olympic Torch Should Be Put Out
From: Arthur Manuel
Subject: RE: Olympic Torch in Kahnawake, QC URGENT
The Olympic Torch Should Be Put Out
Canada is using the Olympic Torch Relay to hide their terrible human rights
record in regard to Indigenous Peoples here in Canada and Internationally.
Canada voted against the United Nations Declaration on Rights of the
Indigenous Peoples on June 26, 2006 at the Human Rights Council and in
September 13, 2007 before United Nations General Assembly.
143 State Governments voted in favour of the Declaration of the Rights of
NAFTA paves U. S. route to energy from north
NAFTA paves U. S. route to energy from north
August 17, 2008
The Buffalo News, Jerry Zremski
Beneath the forests of Alberta, 2,300 miles miles northwest of Buffalo, you’ll find the latest black gold: a mix of sand and oil being mined as a new kind of gusher.
And Alberta’s Athabasca Oil Sands are just part of a petroleum boom that has made Canada the world’s top supplier of oil to the United States.
The boom could make its way to Buffalo through two proposed pipelines that would carry Canadian oil through Western New York to refineries in the Philadelphia area.
