Health

Environmentalists' report to call for Ottawa to act on tar sands

BILL CURRY
From Friday's Globe and Mail

February 15, 2008

OTTAWA - Alberta's oil sands are the most destructive project on Earth,
causing environmental damage well beyond provincial borders, a new report
says.

>From acid rain falling in Saskatchewan to toxic pollution spewing from
Ontario oil refineries, a report to be released this morning by
Toronto-based Environmental Defence calls on Ottawa to act where Alberta
will not.

The environmentalists will be joined by two Alberta native leaders, who will

Former chief won't give up uranium mine battle
Posted By Sue Yanagisawa

A former chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nations yesterday told Justice Douglas Cunningham that he will continue to resist uranium prospecting on lands claimed by Frontenac Ventures Corp. north of Sharbot Lake, even if it means disobeying an order of the court.

N.D. Oil Pipeline Should Be Rerouted
By DALE WETZEL 02.08.08, 1:55 PM ET

BISMARCK, N.D. -

Opponents of a proposed oil pipeline want North Dakota regulators to reroute it away from an aquifer, lake and forested river valley, saying the pipeline developer's efforts to safeguard against leaks are inadequate.

TransCanada Corp. (nyse: TRP - news - people ), which is developing the Keystone pipeline, has said it will install heavier pipe near the Fordville aquifer, which is six miles southwest of Park River in southern Walsh County, and close to Lake Ashtabula north of Valley City.

Strategic Petroleum Reserves
It's Not Nice to Let Eastern Canadians Freeze in the Dark

GORDON LAXER

The Globe and Mail
February 7, 2008 - Page A19

When Cape Bretoners were hit with a furnace-oil shortage in December as the
result of an early winter and late-arriving fuel tanker, it concentrated the
mind: With icy winter now gripping Canada, isn't it time to counter the
threat of longer and more widespread oil shortages in the near future?

Canada is usually an avid joiner of international conventions. But we're the

The temporary foreign worker programs, already a grotesque violation of the most basic, elementary labour (and human) rights, are being ramped up for the construction plans associated with Alberta's Tar Sands boom, and the Olympics set to cripple Vancouver and indigenous territories throughout BC. These TFW's are a *needed* component of all of this, thanks to the unprecedented size of the gigaproject/Tar Sands. Further, the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement [Tilma] is the facilitator of policy in Alberta being virtually the same in BC.

WBNP Officials and Native Leaders Address Water Quality in Peace-Athabasca Delta
By GABRIEL ZARATE, SRJ Reporter 23.JAN.08

Ongoing concerns about water quality and possible contamination brought officials from Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP) and regional native government representatives to Fort Chipewyan Wednesday, Jan. 16. The Peace-Athabasca Delta was the focus of talks, as it lies downstream from the oil sands extraction operations of Fort McMurray.

Saskatchewan uranium expert brings warning to eastern Ontario, western Quebec

Four city tour to reveal uranium's long-term ecological and health pain for short-term private economic gain

by Lynn Daniluk

OTTAWA - An expert on Saskatchewan's uranium mining industry will warn people against letting the industry establish itself in the Ottawa River watershed in a 5-day book tour Jan. 22-26, 2008.

This article, while interesting, has a major flaw: There is no sequestration program nor technology, and instead of dealing with the issues of Climate Change RIGHT NOW, with the means available before the next washes into the sea and hurricane hits New Orleans or elsewhere, this "plan" is precisely being taken up to *avoid* planning.

It's interesting, but the logic is not merely flawed, it's criminal.
--M

Looking for solutions to the carbon conundrum

Life on the cold side of the country's hottest economy
The oil sands dominate Alberta's wealth and growth, but not all parts of the province are taking part – including, surprisingly, the conventional oil industry
GORDON PITTS
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
January 30, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST

In the rolling farmland around Derwent, Alta., the fields are littered with what look like oversized pop cans. These stubby storage tanks contain heavy oil that has been pumped from the ground and is waiting to be trucked away – much of it to the big Husky Oil upgrader in Lloydminster.

Gnostic insights illuminate Alberta Tar Sands prosperity as an apparent Manipulative Extraterrestrial Virtual Reality illusion
by Peter Tremblay