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
As Calif. aims at carbon, Canada sees itself in bull's-eye
As Calif. aims at carbon, Canada sees itself in bull's-eye
By COLIN SULLIVAN AND DEBRA KAHN, Greenwire
New York Times
Published: April 30, 2009
Canadian oil exporters fear that a low-carbon fuel standard adopted by California last week threatens to upset a thriving North American trade in petroleum if the regulation spreads throughout the United States.
Greenpeace Canada heads to Scandinavia to tackle Statoil investments in tar sands
Greenpeace Canada heads to Scandinavia to tackle Statoil investments in tar sands
May 12th, 2009
The stench of reality
The stench of reality
The Gazette
Saturday, April 25 2009
The tar sands suddenly are a root metaphor for every pressing issue we face both as Canadians and as members of the human species, writes The Gazette's William Marsden in his essay The Perfect Moment. Here is an excerpt:
Suncor Posts Second Straight Loss After Oil Plunges
Apparently buying out Petro Can wasn't enough...!
--M
Suncor Posts Second Straight Loss After Oil Plunges
04/ 23/ 2009
By Gene Laverty
April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Suncor Energy Inc., the oil-sands producer that agreed last month to buy Petro-Canada, posted a second straight quarterly loss after the global recession dragged down crude prices.
Leech Lake, Say No to Tar Sands Pipeline ( Indigenous nations in Minnesota)
Leech Lake, Say No to Tar Sands Pipeline
April 29, 2009
By Nellis Kennedy and Winona LaDuke
Keep your children close, your inhalers in hand and don't forget to stock up on drinking water, as a new pipeline is proposed for northern Minnesota.
Warning: Corporate Redwash
Kitimat project worth $1 billion to First Nations
Scott Simpson,
Canwest News Service
Victoria Times Colonist
April 30, 2009
Some First Nations stand to gain more than $1 billion in profits, taxes
and business opportunities from a proposed liquid natural gas project in
northern British Columbia, Canwest News Service has learned.
Proponents of a $4-billion project that includes a 463-kilometre gas
pipeline and a liquefied natural gas plant at Kitimat are still ironing
out final details of a landmark agreement among aboriginal groups,
CNRL (operators of Horizon) charged in foreign slave-labour deaths
EDMONTON — The Alberta government announced Tuesday that 53 charges have
been laid in the deaths of two foreign workers at an oilsands site two years
ago.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd.,
and SSEC Canada Ltd., have been charged under the Occupational Health and
Safety Act.
A breakdown of the charges was not immediately available.
Alberta Employment Minister Hector Goudreau said the charges signal to the
world that Alberta's oilsands remain a safe place to work.
Meeting set in Lindsay on Keystone XL pipeline project
Meeting set in Lindsay on pipeline project
Published on Tuesday, April 21, 2009.
By The Gazette Staff
Property owners and others along the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline are invited to hear from experts on landowner alliances and pipeline safety Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Lindsay Community Hall in Lindsay.
Lindsay is halfway between Glendive and Circle on Montana 200.
Do you know where your oil comes from?
Do you know where your oil comes from?
Canadians most certainly do. But it's not a pretty sight.
April 16, 2009
By Sandro Contenta
TORONTO — When President Barack Obama vowed this week to reverse U.S. dependence on "foreign oil," did he also mean Canada's? It's a question Americans might want to consider.
Council approves call to halt tar sands
Council approves call to halt tar sands
Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Friday, April 17, 2009
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A motion to stop new tar sands approvals in Alberta until certain measures are put in place was passed on Tuesday.
