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
Return to Tarmageddon
Return to Tarmageddon
An Italian company's plan to develop tar sands in the Congo has activists worried
by Ben Powless
The Dominion
August 28, 2009
IGLESIAS, ITALY—You’ve likely heard about the tar sands in northern Alberta. You’re probably familiar with the devastation—environmental and social—this megaproject has brought to the land. Maybe you even have a relative who lives or works there.
Why we are all climate camp followers now
August 30, 2009
Why we are all climate camp followers now
The atmosphere at the Climate Camp in Blackheath, southeast London, last week was resolutely good-natured
Giles Hattersley
It is the Thursday morning rush hour in Blackheath, southeast London. The roads around the park are clogged with commuters, and, overhead, planes are ascending from nearby City airport at an alarming rate.
Beneath a cloud of transport fumes lies Camp Climate, home to 1,000 slightly smelly, resolutely cheerful, mostly middle-class do-gooders who plan to save the world.
Climate Camp: Wat Tyler would have felt at home among the 'fluffys' in Blackheath
Climate Camp: Wat Tyler would have felt at home among the 'fluffys' in Blackheath
The green activists might be posh, says Ed West, but even the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt were "middle-class" by today's standards
By Ed West
29 Aug 2009
History records that in the year 2009, the peasants of England rose up in protest, marching on Blackheath to demand change in the kingdom. They came from up and down the land – from Crouch End and Hampstead, from Chiswick, Richmond and Notting Hill, and some even from Gstaad and Verbier.
From margin to mainstream-- Climate Protesters in the UK
From margin to mainstream
Once seen as outsiders, green protest groups now have a big influence on government policy
Jonathan Leake
The Sunday Times
August 30, 2009
For Ed Miliband it was a moment of acute embarrassment. What he needed, the environment secretary had told a recent press conference, was a “mass mobilisation”, with green activists taking to the streets to put pressure on the government. This, he said, would give ministers the political space they needed to get tough on climate change.
BMO helped lift BP's tar sands skepticism
BMO helped lift BP's oilsands skepticism
Husky Partnership
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008
CALGARY - The oilsands reached a new level of respect when BPPLC announced a basin-entry, US$11.7-billion partnership with Husky Energy Inc. in December.
The transaction surprised many because of BP's historic skepticism, under former CEO John Browne, towards Alberta's massive oilsands deposits.
First Nations take tar sands concerns to U. K.
First Nations take oilsands concerns to U. K.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/First+Nations+take+oilsands+conc...
<>By Hanneke Brooymans, Edmonton JournalAugust 28, 2009
Three First Nations people from northern Alberta are in London,
protesting the involvement of United Kingdom companies in oilsands
development.
Residents of Fort Chipewyan are especially concerned about some types of
cancer in their communities.
"Because of the people in my community dying and being sick, that's not
Mystery location of the Climate Camp
Mystery location of the Climate Camp
Updated on 26 August 2009
By Tom Clarke
Organisers of the annual Camp for Climate Action are taking the secrecy of the London location for this summer's protest very seriously, as Tom Clarke finds out.
Police plan for Climate camp (credit:Getty Images)
"Can you give us ANY idea where climate camp is going to be?" I ask my contact for this year's anti-emissions protest. "Anywhere inside the M25, but it will be on open ground" they tell me. Well that helps.
Enbridge protester strong-armed (Gateway pipeline)
Enbridge protester strong-armed
Written by Sonja Ostertag
Prince George
Friday, 31 July 2009
I am a student at UNBC and I attended the Enbridge-sponsored World Baseball Challenge in Prince George on July 25 and 26 to protest the proposed Enbridge pipeline and tanker project.
The peaceful and legal protest was organized by the Dogwood Initiative and our goal was to inform baseball fans that Enbridge is planning to build a pipeline in northern B.C. that could lead to oil spills on the B.C. coast.
Head in the Tar Sands? The New York Times Runs Anti-Peak Oil Op-Ed
Head in the Tar Sands? The New York Times Runs Anti-Peak Oil Op-Ed
BY Anya Kamenetz
Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Earlier this month, the world's chief energy economist told the UK Independent that global oil production was likely to peak in 10 years, with a "global energy crunch" starting as soon as next year.
Canada's bloody oil
Canada's bloody oil
UK companies are extracting oil from our traditional lands. We believe it's killing us – and that's why I'm attending Climate Camp
o George Poitras
o guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 August 2009
