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.
Weekend Edition
November 24 / 25, 2007
The Origins of Neoliberal Environmentalism
Justice Stephen Breyer and Cancer Bonds
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Any man admired by both Senators Ted Kennedy and Orin Hatch can't be all good. And, in fact, Stephen Breyer's elevation to the highest bench illustrates concisely how, across the past twenty years, Kennedyesque liberalism and Hatchian conservatism have merged into a unified, pro-corporate posture.
Rise in tanker traffic sparks fear of spills
Concern about a crude spill has one councillor trying to slow the increase of exports from Burnaby terminal
DON WHITELEY
Special to The Globe and Mail
November 27, 2007
VANCOUVER -- The potential for large increases in exports of crude oil through the Port of Vancouver has local politicians concerned about the port's growing vulnerability to oil spills.
US foundations give millions to Canadian environmental groups
By Dru Oja Jay, the Dominion
Since major foundations in the US began funding environmental groups in the late 1980s, many grassroots environmental activists have sounded the alarm about the rise of the "Big Greens." Featuring six-figure salaries and foundation funding, critics say the large environmental NGOs coopt grassroots movements and excercise control over what issues are brought up.
"The system of slavery is like holding a wolf by its ears: you don't like
it, but you don't dare let go."
- Thomas Jefferson
The oil sands and slavery
By Frederick Douglass*
It was once the case that slaves were the most valuable asset in America. As the horrors of slavery began to be documented and a concern that this was a horrible practice spread, the justifications for continued slavery sound eerily familiar to the justifications for the continuation and massive expansion of the oil sands.
Warning: Depressing content.
Center for American Progress
AlterNet (September 29 2007)
Say Goodbye to French Wines. Wacky temperatures and rain cycles brought
on by global warming are threatening something very important: Wine.
Scientists believe global warming will "shift viticultural regions
toward the poles, cooler coastal zones and higher elevations". What that
means in regular language: Get ready to say bye-bye to French Bordeaux
and hello to British champagne. [LA Times]
Say Goodbye to Light and Dry Wines. Warmer temperatures mean grapes in
Chávez and Ahmadineyad agree that the dollar empire is collapsing
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/noviembre/mar20/47dolar.html
TEHRAN, November 19.— Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated today
in Teheran that “the dollar empire is collapsing,” according to ANSA.
“Soon we won’t be talking about dollars anymore because the value of
the dollar is in free fall and the dollar empire is collapsing,”
Chávez said to a group of journalists.
The Bolivarian leader visited Tehran, coming from Riyadh where he had
November 16, 2007
Record year for Nunavut oil spills
Mishaps pour 225,000 litres of poisonous material in territory
CHRIS WINDEYER
One big oil mishap on Brevoort Island this past January was enough to make 2007 a record year for spills in Nunavut.
Nearly 225,000 litres of oil were spilled into Nunavut's environment last year, the highest total recorded for Nunavut since division. The figures are found in Ikummatiit, the Government of Nunavut's energy strategy, which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly late last month.
Chavez threatens $200 oil
U.S. attack on Iran would double prices, OPEC summit told
Shaun Polczer
CanWest News Service
Sunday, November 18, 2007
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Oil prices could more than double to $200 US a barrel if the United States attacks Iran, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez told OPEC leaders in Saudi Arabia Saturday, urging the cartel to take a more active "revolutionary" role in world affairs.
Challenge Corporate Power, Embrace True Democracy
by Vandana Shiva
AlterNet (October 01 2007)
Editor's note: the following remarks were made this September at a
conference on "Confronting the Global Triple Crisis - Climate Change,
Peak Oil, Global Resource Depletion & Extinction", in Washington DC. For
more information, visit the International Forum on Globalization's website.
Before I came here I was very fortunate to join the group of scientists
and religious leaders who made a trip to the Arctic to witness the
Deh Cho bridge could impede barge route
By MIN HUN FONG, SRJ Reporter
Alberta proponents of the northern barge route said they were disappointed their project might be forced out by the Deh Cho bridge, but said they respected the NWT’s decision in any event.
Mammoet Canada, heavy lifting specialists and a proponent of the barge route, said it would be disappointing if the barge route is cancelled, especially since the economic spinoff from the route would benefit the NWT as a whole.
