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.
Peak Oil And World Food Supplies
By Peter Goodchild
29 June, 2009
Countercurrents.org
Only about 10 percent of the world’s land surface is arable, whereas the other 90 percent is just rock, sand, or swamp, which can never be made to produce crops, whether we use “high” or “low” technology or something in the middle. In an age with diminishing supplies of oil and other fossil fuels, this 10:90 ratio may be creating two gigantic problems that have been largely ignored.
Tribal members fight Enbridge oil pipeline
Some members from Fond du Lac and Leech Lake bands will petition Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to block the Enbridge project.
By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune
Saying the environmental damage to their native brothers’ land in Canada is too great, tribal dissidents on two Minnesota Indian reservations are battling a major new oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.
Could tar sands be behind high rates of cancer in Fort Chipewyan?
By Stephanie Dearing.
Published June 29, 2009
Is the extraction of oil from Alberta's tar sands responsible for the disproportionate increase in cancers in a down-stream community?
A northern Alberta First Nations community, sited down river from the tar sands, is suffering from a higher-than-normal incidence of cancer. Dr. John O'Connor was instrumental in drawing attention to the cancer rate. So why is he seen as a bad guy?
Group Wants To Stop Planned Pipeline
Jun 26, 2009 at 6:14 PM CDT
Some members of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe have joined forces with members of the Fond Du Lac band in an effort to stop a planned Enbridge Energy oil pipeline from crossing their reservations.
Spokespeople with the groups say the pipeline will transport dirty oil and they fear a contaminating oil spill.
Enbridge spokespeople say they already have legal agreements with Fond du Lac and Leech Lake tribal councils to allow the Alberta Clipper pipeline to cross reservation land.
June 26, 2009
Tar sands "as they are" provoke negative press coverage
Here's an interesting admission from the first edition of the Canada West Foundation's Oil Sands Media Monitoring Report:
Issues: Learning from the present
Strong response to racist backlash against Six Nations in Ontario offers important lessons for Albertans
Macdonald Stainsby / oilsandstruth.org
Vue Weekly, Week of June 25, 2009
Canada's 'toxic secret' soon to be made public
Last Updated: Thursday, June 18, 2009 |
CBC News
Environmental groups have long called the tailings lakes in the Alberta oilsands Canada's toxic secret, but companies operating there will soon be required to disclose exactly what pollutants are there.
In April, a federal court ordered Ottawa to make the mining industry release a complete inventory of what material they release into the environment. Now companies in the oilsands will also have to comply, CBC News has learned.
Alberta tar sands, nuclear power proposals connected, says Calgary-based journalist
DAMIEN WOOD - Herald-Tribune staff
June 16, 2009
The issues surrounding oil production from the tar sands and nuclear power plants being proposed in Alberta are integrally woven together, says journalist Andrew Nikiforuk.
The Calgary-based business journalist was in Grande Prairie Thursday to give a presentation at the Golden Age Centre based on his latest book, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent.
Bin explodes near site of previous B.C. pipeline explosions
Explosion near the site of 4 previous still under investigation
Canwest News Service
June 12, 2009
Police probe the site of an earlier explosion targeting a sour-gas well in the B.C. Interior. RCMP confirmed Friday they are investigating an explosion in a large bear-proof garbage bin near Dawson Creek sometime overnight.
Oil and Indians Don't Mix
by Greg Palast
Friday, June 12, 2009
For Air America Radio's Ring of Fire
There's an easy way to find oil. Go to some remote and gorgeous natural sanctuary, say Alaska or the Amazon, find some Indians, then drill down under them.
If the indigenous folk complain, well, just shoo-them away. Shoo-ing methods include: bulldozers, bullets, crooked politicians and fake land sales.
