Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

International oil & gas

Stock markets and global oil interests (including war) would be included here, as would attempts to get oil out of high risk, low return areas from oil shale in Colorado, to natural gas and heavy oil in the high eastern Arctic. The tar sands are part of this trend and should be seen as such. What happens with the tar sands will have a tremendous impact on what kind of choices are made elsewhere, environmentally and socially.

warning: Creating default object from empty value in /var/www/drupal-6.28/modules/taxonomy/taxonomy.pages.inc on line 33.

International Oil & Gas is a category for stories relating to tar sand production or climate change but not in any of the projects already listed geographically. This includes other regions of the planet with horrible environmental and high energy costs that, like the tar sands, are only a "choice" because of high prices and the global depletion of easily recoverable oil reserves. Such issues as the threat of war on Iran, "instability" in Iraq and Venezuela or disasters like Katrina will all drive up oil prices, which in turn doubly encourages tar sand production-- by price demand and energy demand. Stock markets and global oil interests (including war) would be included here, as would attempts to get oil out of high risk, low return areas from oil shale in Colorado, to natural gas and heavy oil in the high eastern Arctic. The tar sands are part of this trend and should be seen as such. What happens with the tar sands will have a tremendous impact on what kind of choices are made elsewhere, environmentally and socially.

Copenhagen: Obama Guts Progressive Values

— By Bill McKibben
| Fri Dec. 18, 2009

The President of the United States did several things in his agreement today with China, India, and South Africa:

The Moment of Truth

* The Moment Of Truth*
*By Fidel Castro*

18 December, 2009

The news from the Danish capital gives a picture of chaos. After planning a conference with about 40 thousand people in attendance, the hosts find it impossible to honor their promise. Evo, the first of the two presidents of ALBA-member countries to arrive, stated some truths derived from the millennium-old culture of his people.

Tories mulled weaker oil-gas emission targets: documents

Tories mulled weaker oil-gas emission targets: documents
last Updated: Monday, December 14, 2009
CBC News

The Conservative government has considered abandoning some of the greenhouse gas reduction goals set out in its 2007 green plan and allowing weaker targets for the oil and gas sector, documents obtained by CBC News suggest.

The proposal raises questions on how the Tories could cut overall greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 — a target they insist they can reach — while weakening the targets in the oil and gas sector.

Scientists Sound Biomass Alarm; Is Copenhagen Listening?

Monday 14 December 2009

by: Joshua Frank, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

Current climate legislation and the Kyoto Protocol are undermining the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Or so contends a cautionary article that appeared in October's peer-reviewed journal of Science.

Conservation (or forestry or Boreal) Offsets: The biggest scam yet.

Since more and more this is likely to become the main "strategy" that countries like Canada and Australia are to "commit to", people should know what this lie is.

It behooves us all to speak to the elephant and call him a big grey liar, and stop pretending he's not there.

--M

Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, Australia)
December 14, 2009

Green pot of carbon gold lures politicians
GUY PEARSE AND GREGG BORSCHMANN

Canada ranks low on climate change report card

Canada ranks low on climate change report card
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
December 14, 2009

COPENHAGEN — Canada ranks just ahead of Saudi Arabia when it comes to progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says an annual climate change performance report looking at 57 high-emitting countries.

"Looking at the emissions level of the ranked countries, the United States, Canada and Russia place very poorly," says the report, to be officially released as global climate change talks resume in Copenhagen Monday.

Ontario, Quebec say they won’t shoulder tar sands burden

Ontario, Quebec say they won’t shoulder oilsands burden
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
December 13, 2009

COPENHAGEN — Delegations from Ontario and Quebec wasted no time before differentiating their position from the federal government’s after arriving Sunday at the climate change conference in Copenhagen — declaring they weren’t going to carry higher emission-reduction burdens for the sake of oilsands expansion in the Western provinces.

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

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

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.