The Health implications in terms of these projects are vast, and not just the deadly explosions and industrial accidents that happen in production-—from reported increases in rare forms of cancer downstream from tar sands production to the pollution of fresh water leading to poisoned diets (fish, moose and plant toxicity)—-direct links are hard to establish but impossible to either rule out or ignore, especially where tarsand operations constitute overwhelmingly the greatest change to the environment in most corners of the continent effected directly by tarsand infrastructure.
Protesters filmed at Alberta upgrader hearing
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 |
CBC News
(CBC)Private landowners who protested outside a public hearing into an bitumen upgrader northeast of Edmonton Tuesday were filmed by security guards hired by the project proponent, French energy giant Total S.A., CBC News has learned.
"What are they so afraid of?" landowner Anne Brown asked on Wednesday. "Why are they taping us?"
Aging Chevron oil refinery must clean up or shut down
By Peter Cech, The Province June 1, 2010
I am appalled that oil leaks are still happening in Burrard Inlet in the heart of the Lower Mainland.
There's a long string of "events" related to Chevron's operations in North Burnaby. "Unplanned discharges" of particulate and toxic fumes in the air we breathe are an annual event.
We've even been subjected to leaks of methyl tertiary butyl ether. This goes beyond the "nuisance odours" we've been subjected to for decades.
First Nations and Tar Sands Industry Clash in the Courts and the Hague
Reactions to Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement
Officials, First Nations, activists offer praise, criticism
May 26, 2010
The announcement of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement has sparked a mix of sweeping pronouncements and passionate reactions. Below, we have compiled a small sampling.
Readers are invited to post additions in the comments sections at the bottom of the page.
"The Ontario government is encouraged to see environmental groups and forest companies working together to help develop a plan that would lead to both a healthy and a prosperous Canadian forest."
ENGOs Do Not Speak for CSTC
May 20, 2010 07:01 ET
Attention: Assignment Editor, Business/Financial Editor, Environment Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor
Environmentalists join ranchers in opposing Keystone XL oil pipeline
Andrea J. Cook Journal staff | May 13, 2010
U.S. Department of State
Environmentalists did most of the talking at a public hearing on the Keystone XL Pipeline in Faith Thursday.
Muddy roads and calving season may have kept area landowners from attending, but a couple landowners stood to comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Keystone XL, while others preferred to sit and watch.
TAR SANDS: The dilemma of the ponds
Tar sands tailings ponds remain an environmental quagmire
Lewis Kelly / lewis@vueweekly.com
Last week a lawyer for Syncrude, Robert White, told provincial court Judge Ken Tjosvold that Syncrude can't be legally responsible for the birds that land in its tailings ponds as preventing all birds from touching the contaminated water is impossible. If Syncrude is guilty in the case of the 1600 ducks that died in its tailings pond in April 2008, White argued, so is every other company with a tailings pond.
New report slams oil sands
BP process in Whiting called 'destructive'
May 20, 2010
BY GITTE LAASBY,
When BP Whiting starts processing more Canadian oil sands, residents near the refinery will experience more pollution and health effects from it, according to a new report by a coalition of environmental groups.
The Most Destructive Development on Earth: Coming to Trinidad and Tobago?
By Macdonald Stainsby
ZNet
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The key quote in this article is here:
A spokesperson for Greenpeace said: "There is no agreement, but we will let you know when there is an agreement."
MS: Who gave them such authority? How on earth can they claim that the public-- or even their own sustainers-- gave them such a mandate? How can this possibly be a positive bent, when it essentially has the PR gain for industry of being "green" right when we should be ramping UP the fight against what is happening to our forests?
