Land, regardless of whether covered by forests, tundra or grasslands, is threatened by mining operations such as Alberta’s vast open tar pit operations, or through incredible networks of “right of way” cuts for pipelines that extend in the hundreds of thousands of miles, all told, and across the continent in four directions and to three oceans—either through feeding the tarsand operations with fossil fuel energy or through feeding energy markets from tarsand operations after production. In the case of pipeline right of ways, they can blast directly through mountains or be buried in permafrost if needed, to get the energy to move.
Last surviving duck hangs in
By Victoria Handysides
May 13, 2008
A female mallard duck is the only surviving creature that took a dip in Syncrude’s toxic tailings pond that will live to tell the tale.
In total, 18 birds have been brought to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton from different tailings ponds in the Fort McMurray area. Only six have survived.
Imperial fears year delay to Kearl oilsands project
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Thursday, May 08, 2008
CALGARY -- Imperial Oil Ltd. said in Federal Court Thursday its $8-billion Kearl oilsands project faces a delay of a year or more if a key water permit pulled by the federal government isn't quickly re-instated.
"It took nine months to get this piece of paper," lawyer Munaf Mohamed, of Fraser, Milner Casgrain LLP, argued before Justice Douglas Campbell. "What
is sufficient in terms of the sting of the lash?
Scenes From the Tar Wars
NEWS: As Canada scrambles to dig up some of the world's dirtiest oil, a bush doctor
tracks mysterious diseases, poisoned rivers, and shattered lives.
By Josh Harkinson
May/June 2008 Issue
At a small airport in the northern Alberta town of Fort McMurray, a rickety,
single-engine Cessna hurtles off the ground with a roar. Dr. John O'Connor ignores
the shuddering fuselage, the tail wiggle, the steep climb above the spruce trees at
the end of the runway. For O'Connor, a bush doctor who has tended to some of
Dehcho Land Use Plan revisions increase development
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, May 01, 2008
DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE - A revised Dehcho Land Use Plan could be completed as early as this fall, according to members of the Dehcho Land Use Planning Committee.
The planning committee has been working steadily since last fall to resolve the differences over the plan between the Dehcho First Nations (DFN) and the territorial and federal governments, said Michael Nadli, the chair of the committee.
Dehcho Process at crossroads
Paul Bickford and John Curran
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, April 10, 2008
K'ATLODEECHE/HAY RIVER RESERVE - There was not a lot of optimism about the Dehcho Process coming out of last week's leadership meeting on the Hay River Reserve.
Deh Cho leaders were disheartened following a report on the negotiations with the federal government.
"I feel that Canada is negotiating in bad faith," said Jerry Antoine, interim grand chief of Dehcho First Nations (DFN), following the meeting.
One key area of concern is land selection.
From the article below: "Experts on agro-economics say biofuels production is
largely responsible for the current food shortages and soaring prices. The crisis,
according to them, is not going to end unless the rich countries change their energy
consumption patterns.
If rich nations stopped biofuels production this year, it would lead to a price
decline in corn by about 20 percent and wheat by about 10 percent within the next
two years, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think
tank in Washington."
________________________
Save Our Soil (SOS) is a group of North Dakota people who are resisting the
Keystone pipeline by means of a ballot initiative that would let the voters
decide. More information: www.saveoursoil.net or www.saveoursoil.info.
Change in activists' tactics poses serious threat to 2010 Games: analyst
By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Changing tactics by Canadian activists pose a serious threat to security
at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, security analysts say.
The usually fragmented, single-issue groups are converging and organizing in ways
never seen before in Canada, said Tom Quiggan, a former security consultant with the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Where there's usually a lull in protest activity in the years leading up to
Exxon oil production struggles for growth
By Sheila McNulty in Houston and Carola Hoyos in London
Published: May 1 2008 14:55 | Last updated: May 1 2008 23:09
ExxonMobil, long regarded by its peers and investors as the most
successful interational oil company, is beginning to show signs of
weakness, revealing on Thursday that it is struggling to increase oil
production and to squeeze profit out of its refining business.
The world's biggest energy group announced a first-quarter record
profit of $10.9bn but its oil production fell almost 10 per cent in
Uncomfortable truths about global oil depletion
By David Strahan
Telegraph UK
Polishing the portholes on the Titanic hardly does it justice. This week saw ministers giving an uncanny impersonation of Corporal Jones urging calm over the Grangemouth refinery strike; lorry drivers protesting in Park Lane over a two pence rise in fuel duty; and much righteous indignation over the level of profits reported by Shell and BP. All of which entirely misses the point.
