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.
Oilsands camps brimming despite cuts
By Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal
August 18, 2009
The number of staff in Fort Mc-Murray work camps and lodges has remained high despite the cutbacks of major projects last fall, according to a census released by the Oil Sands Developers Group.
Native Americans to join London climate camp protest over tar sands
Canadian First Nations seek to highlight UK's 'criminal' role in CO2-heavy oil schemes
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 23 August 2009
Native Americans are to join the Climate Camp protests in the City of London this week in an attempt to draw attention to corporate Britain's "criminal" involvement in the tar sands of Canada.
Five representatives from the Cree First Nations are coming to co-ordinate their campaign against key players in the carbon-heavy energy sector with British environmentalists.
Tar Sands protest comes to UK Climate Camp
Ecologist
18th August, 2009
Oil extraction from tar sands is causing large-scale environmental damage, say activists
The fight against the extraction of oil from the tar sands of Alberta in Canada will reach the UK later this month.
Representatives from First Nations, the group that speaks for Canada's aboriginal people, will join in the London Climate Camp protest from August 27th to 31st.
Search Narrows for Pipeline Bomber
Second threatening letter sets eyes on Tomslake community.
By Greg Amos, 17 Jul 2009, TheTyee.ca
The investigation related to the six northeast B.C. pipeline infrastructure bombings is narrowing in on a small community near the Alberta border, where bloodlines lead back to Sudeten Germans expelled from western Czechoslovakia after World War Two.
Alberta cuts funding for acid-rain tests
Edmonton — The Canadian Press
Aug. 18, 2009
Alberta has cut funding for tests to determine how much acid rain is falling in the oil sands region around Fort McMurray, according to a government document obtained by The Canadian Press.
The cut went ahead even though the briefing note for the province's Environment Minister dated Aug. 11 acknowledges acid rain is falling on the energy boomtown.
The note adds that precipitation falling in northeastern Alberta has a "similar" acidity to that falling downwind in Saskatchewan.
Marathon delays Detroit refinery expansion project
Aug 05, 2009
DETROIT -- Marathon Oil Corporation, an integrated energy company, has announced that it is delaying the completion of the expansion of its Detroit refinery.
The company had earlier set the deadline for completion of the venture by mid-2012. It has not announced its new timeline for project completion.
The firm is upgrading the refinery to process 80,000 barrels of heavy oil per day.
© 2009 Electronic News Publishing
http://www.heavyoilinfo.com/marathon-delays-detroit-refinery-expansion-p...
Nuclear power's sick legacy
By Helen Caldicott
The noted American writer Mary McCarthy once famously observed of the equally
noted but politically discredited playwright Lillian Hellman: "every word she
utters is a lie, including 'and' and 'but' ". As we have seen over the past
10 years, the same can be said of the Howard Government from the
children-overboard scandal to "there will never be a GST" to "yes, there are
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq". Now - joined by misguided and
misinformed members of the ALP and a few scientists who should know better -
The Rock's most precious resource
Gordon Pitts
Rushoon, Nfld. — Globe and Mail Aug. 12, 2009
As a 17-year-old with an adventurous spirit, Ann-Marie Cheeseman spent part of last summer driving 40-ton trucks in the Alberta oil sands. She made big money for a Newfoundland teenager, clearing close to $3,000 a week.
But she doesn't want to return to the oil sands, leaving her family and friends in the harbour village of Rushoon on the wild, beautiful Burin Peninsula. “I'd go back to Alberta only if I had to,” she says firmly.
Suncor’s Edmonton refinery suffers processing problem
David Finlayson, edmontonjournal.com
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Black smoke emitted from the Suncor refinery east of Edmonton on August 12, 2009.
EDMONTON - It will take “days not hours” to get Suncor’s Edmonton refinery back to full production after a problem at its hydrogen supplier caused the shutdown of some units for the second time in a month, the company said Thursday.
Alarm bells ring over acid rain
ANGELA HILL
The Prince Albert Daily Herald
The delicate ecosystems of the northern boreal forests are at risk of lasting damage due to acid rain from oilsands development, according to information compiled by the Saskatchewan Environmental Society.
