Alberta Tar Sands is a category limited to the location and production of tar sand bitumen, an area the size of the state of Florida in northern Alberta province. The giant processing plants near Fort McMurray where the land itself is strip mined as well as the primarily "in situ" in-ground steam separation/production and extraction plants in the Peace and Cold Lake Regions, all in Alberta, are the "Ground Zero" of the single largest industrial gigaproject ever proposed in human history.
The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities.
To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.
Green groups quit oil sands forum
Protest move made as Industry Minister in U.S. to address concerns about environmental impact
PAUL HAAVARDSRUD AND SHAWN MCCARTHY
August 19, 2008
CALGARY AND OTTAWA -- Three groups have quit a government-sponsored forum for assessing environmental costs in the oil sands, a move that undercuts government efforts to burnish the image of the massive developments in U.S. markets.
Will Canada's oil boom be an environmental bust?
By ROB GILLIES – Aug 23, 2008
FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) — The largest dump truck in the world is parked under a massive mechanical shovel waiting to transport 400 tons of oily sand at an open pit mine in the northern reaches of Alberta.
Each Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler — three-stories high, with tires twice as tall as the average man — carries the equivalent of 200 barrels of heavy oil worth $23,000 per haul at today's prices.
Boiling Point!
Polaris report finds water in First Nations communities a “violation of fundamental human rights”
by Kim Petersen
July 30, 2008
Neskantaga First Nation is one of the communities profiled in the Polaris report. It has been under a boil water advisory since 1995. “What other community do you know of in Canada that has been on boil water advisory for 13 years?"
In May, the Polaris Institute, a citizen-focused think tank, released Boiling Point!, a report about the “violation of fundamental human rights” occurring in First Nation communities across Canada.
Increase of Migrant Workers in Canada Opens Door to Abuses
By Am Johal, IPS News. Posted July 31, 2008.
Canada's construction boom has brought in thousands of foreign workers. They're being horribly exploited.
Tools
VANCOUVER, Jul 15 (IPS) -- Western Canada's construction boom, spurred on by the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and oil sands development in Alberta, has led to a massive increase in foreign temporary workers coming to the region.
Oil: Tar sands less damaging than coal, insists Shell
· Profits from controversial source increase by 74%
· Group makes $7.9bn as Exxon hits record $11.7bn
* Terry Macalister
* The Guardian,
* Friday August 1 2008
Shell warned environmentalists and ethical investors yesterday that failure to exploit tar sands and other unconventional oil products would worsen climate change because it would lead to the world burning even more carbon-heavy coal.
N.B. inmates training to be oil rig workers
Last Updated: Monday, July 7, 2008
CBC News
Inmates at the Westmoreland Institution in New Brunswick are being provided with the chance to train to be oil workers.
The Dorchester-based minimum-security penitentiary is offering a 20-day course to teach inmates the basics of becoming a roughneck on an oil rig.
A similar program has also been offered to inmates who are on parole and has had a high success rate, said Isabelle Leblanc-Gallant, who is setting up the job training at the institution.
LABOUR: AFL denounces “out of control” import of “disposable” foreign workers in Alberta
(AlbertaIndex, July 29, Tuesday) --- The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) has hit out at the provincial and federal governments as well as employers for letting the number of “disposable” foreign workers flooding into Alberta to reach “out of control” proportions.
City population growth to boost housing demand
Kathy McCormick, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, July 26, 2008
In spite of the lower number of housing construction starts this year, people are moving to Calgary -- and they're buying homes in the suburbs, says the latest city census.
Lessons in simplicity on warming
Jul 29, 2008 04:30 AM
Albert Koehl
The most useful lessons to be learned in the fight against global warming can probably be gleaned from grade-school problem-solving exercises – for example, that letting air out of the tires of a truck that doesn't quite fit under a bridge is easier than raising the bridge. In other words, difficult problems don't always call for complicated solutions.
