Social Impacts. Overnight injections of migrant workers will not build healthy communities and can have severely adverse impacts on existing communities, especially those of indigenous nations on their traditional lands. Such development brings vices and long term displacement too often. Drugs, alcohol and associated violence spreads. Hunting becomes difficult when the land is threatened, leading to a further loss of culture and tradition. In towns like Fort McMurray there is no planning for the future, but merely consumption in the present. However transient the individuals may be, the populations will not leave, as “development” takes on a logic all its own. All levels of run away development are subordinate to that development, not social need.
THE NEW SONG OF DAVID
The supreme prophet of Canada's environmental movement seems to be lowering his sights with a self-help book on how to reduce, reuse and recycle - even though 'I know we're heading straight over the cliff.' John Allemang asks David Suzuki what he's thinking.
JOHN ALLEMANG // September 6, 2008
High costs squeeze oil sands
Break-even price jumps 31%
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post // September 05, 2008
CALGARY -- As oil backpedalled again yesterday to a five-month low, oil sands projects are getting increasingly squeezed as soaring costs boost the break-even price.
A new report found the break-even oil price required by new mining projects in the oil sands has jumped to $85 a barrel, an increase of $20 or 31% in barely more than a year.
Warning: The author of this article is a well-known climate change denier, and advocate of wars of aggression around the planet. Nonetheless, it is interesting to read pro-war arguments for the West to use the tar sands as a weapon in their escalation of a new Cold War against Russia, which they actually claim is about "territorial integrity" and "Russian aggression". To hear advocates of the Empire (who just destroyed the "territorial integrity" of Yugoslavia and then Serbia itself? Who continues to wage war on the people of Iraq without provocation?
BLM sets environmental rules for shale energy
Utah Republicans praise the action, but actual development of the lands likely far in the future
By Christopher Smart
The Salt Lake Tribune 09/06/2008
Utah's Uinta Basin holds a lot of oil shale and some tar sands, but what it will take to turn that potential into petroleum remains a question with no easy answers or time frame.
by John Michael Greer
The Archdruid Report (September 03 2008)
Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society
The mismatch between the narratives of sudden apocalypse that shape so
much of today's debate about the future, on the one hand, and the
sluggish pace at which the predicament of industrial society unfolds in
the real world, on the other, found a poster child of sorts last
weekend. During the days of uncertainty before Hurricane Gustav's
arrival on the Louisiana coast, some enthusiastic soul posted claims to
Pipeline back on the radar
Published: September 03, 2008 5:00 AM
Black Press
Public consultation on Enbridge's Gateway pipeline project is set to begin in Smithers sometime in November.
Roger Harris, Enbridge vice-president of communications and aboriginal partnerships, was in Smithers Aug. 27 to discuss the project with Town Council and the Chamber of Commerce.
'Blood diamond' smugglers threaten Canada's northern industry
Andrew Mayeda , Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 04, 2008
OTTAWA - The diamond industry in Canada's Far North is vulnerable to smugglers looking to import "blood diamonds" or launder the proceeds of organized crime syndicates and terrorist organizations, newly released federal documents say.
MAN KILLED IN CNRL TAILINGS POND
September 4, 2008
Man killed in CNRL pond
Posted By By CAROL CHRISTIAN
Alberta’s shadow minister of employment wants a Canadian Natural Resources site shut down until the company can prove once and for all its Horizon site is safe.
Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald called for the closure Wednesday after a third fatality in less than 18 months at the site, about 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.
Northwest Passage's northern route open again
Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 04, 2008
The northerly route of the Northwest Passage has been declared navigable by the Canadian Ice Service.
It's just the second time in history -- and the second year in a row -- that the Parry Channel has opened enough to let regular ships safely through.
