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
Funder-driven outcomes: The structures and methods of ForestEthics
Funder-driven outcomes
The structures and methods of ForestEthics
from "Offsetting Resistance: The effects of foundation funding from the Great Bear Rainforest to the Athabasca River", a special report by Dru Oja Jay and Macdonald Stainsby. Released September, 2009.
ForestEthics is registered as a non-profit and is similar in appearance to most ENGOs. However, both in origin and structure, many who have worked with ForestEthics suggest that there is something qualitatively different about the group.
Husky predicted to do poorly
The Sunrise Project, along with a held lease in the southern Athabasca region called Kirby as well as a project to massively expand refineries in both Ohio and Indiana to take tar sands bitumen, are projects that involve BP (British Petroleum) and would signify a new level of depravity for the former "Beyond Petroleum" company headquartered in London near the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and others investing in these disastrous projects.
--M
Husky earnings 'surprise' affects shares
Analysts predict slow growth for energy firm
By Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald
"Suncor Energy seeks regulator's OK for new way to deal with tailings"
Suncor Energy seeks regulator's OK for new way to deal with oilsands waste
CP
Oct. 23, 2009
CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU) says it has a promising a new technology that will turn tailing ponds near its oilsands operations in Northern Alberta into a solid landscape in a matter of weeks, thereby speeding the reclamation process significantly.
Infrastructure takes centre stage [Mackenzie Gas Project]
While Corporate fronts like the CBI and others have promoted "trading" "permission" for the Mackenzie Gas Project as a way to get "more" protected areas in exchange for this development, the reality is that construction of this pipeline is not only awful in and of its own right, it is also development that pertains to the beginning-- not the end-- of development of the entire north in terms of industrialization. This polemic has been raised many times before-- but the fact that developers are speaking openly stating this fact is something to grasp immediately.
Enbridge opens terminal in Hardisty Alberta.
Enbridge opens oilsands terminal.
By Dave Cooper, Canwest News Service
October 20, 2009
HARDISTY, Alta. - Oil pipeline giant Enbridge officially opened its new contract terminal in Hardisty on Tuesday, a 19-tank facility capable of holding 7.5 million barrels of crude oil from the oilsands.
One of the largest in North America, the Hardisty terminal, is the starting place for two major pipelines that will initially carry one million barrels a day of bitumen to United States markets.
Greenwashing the globe
Greenwashing the globe
Adrian Parr believes that the sustainability movement has been hijacked
Mark Hopkins
Urban Living
October 15, 2009
Once upon a time, “sustainability” was a buzzword for hippies and
activists, shouted through megaphones with increasing frustration at an
SUV-driving, suburb-loving public. For a while, that uphill battle seemed
more like a downward spiral.
But things have changed: Now, sustainability is everywhere! Laundry
detergent comes in green bottles, leaf-patterns are plastered all over gas
Tar sands worker killed in accident
Oilsands worker killed in accident
By Ben Gelinas,
edmontonjournal.com
October 19, 2009
EDMONTON — A 22-year-old vacuum truck operator has been killed on a northeastern Alberta oilsands site.
Occupational Health and Safety said he had likely just finished cleaning out the tank of the truck, used to suck up drilling mud, at about 5 p.m. on Saturday when the door to the tank closed on his head. A driver was at the controls.
The man was working for Fehr Quality Contractors at the Statoil-Hydro plant near Conklin, about 300 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, OHS said.
Alberta delays upgrader plans
Alberta delays oil sands upgrader plans
Nathan VanderKlippe
Globe and Mail
Oct. 20, 2009
The Slow Road to Conservation: Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy
The Slow Road to Conservation:
Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy
from "Offsetting Resistance: The effects of foundation funding from the Great Bear Rainforest to the Athabasca River", a special report by Dru Oja Jay and Macdonald Stainsby. Released September, 2009.
Testimony from Petr Cizek:
On a cost basis, carbon-capture projects are madness
On a cost basis, carbon-capture projects are madness
The small reductions gained by staggering per-tonne costs illustrate what
every independent analyst knows: The Harper government's 20-per-cent
reduction target will not be met
Jeffrey Simpson
The Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 5:50PM EDT
Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes so many spending announcements, flying
like Mary Poppins on speed around the country to distribute billions of
dollars, that the news media have given up analyzing any of them.
