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.

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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.

Cap and Fade-- James Hansen

Cap and Fade
By JAMES HANSEN
Published: December 6, 2009
New York Times

AT the international climate talks in Copenhagen, President Obama is expected to announce that the United States wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. But at the heart of his plan is cap and trade, a market-based approach that has been widely praised but does little to slow global warming or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It merely allows polluters and Wall Street traders to fleece the public out of billions of dollars.

'Upsetting the Offset: The Political Economy of Carbon Markets'

'Upsetting the Offset: The Political Economy of Carbon Markets'
Steffen Böhm and Siddhartha Dabhi (eds)

The book can be downloaded for free at http://mayflybooks.org/?page_id=194

The book will be launched in Colchester, UK, and Lund, Sweden (near Copenhagen); at both events some free copies of the book will be available:

The Old Library at Colchester Town Hall, West Stockwell Street, Colchester, UK Wednesday 9 December 4-6pm The event is free and open to all http://mayflybooks.org/?p=313

Leaders from the Global South protest against WWF International in Geneva

First action of the Social and Climate Justice Caravan

In front of the international head quarters of WWF (World Wildlife Fund) in
Gland-Geneva, participants of the Social and Climate Justice Caravan made
their first protest action. Delegates from farming organisations, indigenous
and fisher folk from the South denounced the greenwashing carried out by WWF

Statoil chief discusses priorities in his first Canadian interview

Lars Christian Bacher: Statoil's oil sands pragmatist

Statoil chief discusses priorities in his first Canadian interview

Nathan Vanderklippe

CALGARY —
Globe and Mail
Saturday, Dec. 05, 2009

When Statoil ASA brought Lars Christian Bacher to Calgary, the company named him president of its Canadian operations and gave him a mandate to get bitumen out of the oil sands - and, when that's done, think about getting more of the land around Fort McMurray into the portfolio.

'EnCana bomber' has quit: locals

Last Updated: Wednesday, December 2, 2009
CBC News

A 1.8-metre-wide crater left after an explosion in October 2008, about 50 kilometres east of Dawson Creek in northern B.C.A 1.8-metre-wide crater left after an explosion in October 2008, about 50 kilometres east of Dawson Creek in northern B.C. (RCMP)After five months of quiet, people in northeastern B.C. seem to believe the so-called "EnCana bomber" won't strike again.

Jim Hansen Takes on NRDC and Bank of America

November 30th, 2009

Will the media and policy makers finally wake up and pay attention after the world’s leading global warming scientists takes the extraordinary and unprecedented step to publicly criticize US national environmental groups for their lax posture on global warming?

Or will the mighty Obama Administration, Democratic Washington DC beltway, and corporate PR Wurlitzer continue to dominate US public opinion?

Full article, with important and informative photos:

The Most Urgent Threat to World Peace Is … Canada

By George Monbiot, Monbiot.com. Posted December 2, 2009.

The harm this country could do in the next two weeks will outweigh all the good it has done in a century.

Activists Protest Natural Resources Defense Council for Collaborating With Polluters

By Joseph Huff-Hannon , Huffington Post. Posted December 1, 2009.

The protestors say that the environmental advocacy group has aligned itself with corporate interests whose goals for reducing emissions are far too limited.

IEN Statement prior to Copenhagen talks

Dear Indigenous Environmental Network Ally,

With just two weeks to go before world leaders meet in Copenhagen to deal
with climate change, we’ve run out of time for compromise. Indigenous
Environmental Network will be supporting a delegation of grassroots
community leaders from tar sands affected First Nations to attend and speak
out in Copenhagen. They will call out the Government of Canada and big oil
for their continuing failure to address the concerns of First Nations
Peoples whose Aboriginal and Treaty rights are being violated by the tar
sands and by runaway climate change.

North American Energy Integration: An insider perspective

Pipelines, Energy, Economy
DEREK BURNEY
WEB | November 17, 2009

Shortly after 9/11, a senior US official approached the Canadian embassy in Washington to ask whom in Ottawa he should contact regarding shared strategic infrastructure, such as pipelines and electricity grids. Presumably Canada is today better equipped now than it seemed to have been then to cope with the threat, however minimal. In any event, the issue of pipeline security needs to be placed in the larger context of energy security and economic resilience.