Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Social Impacts

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.

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Exxon oil production struggles for growth

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

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.

Fund managers attack BP over tar sands plan

From The Times
April 18, 2008
Fund managers attack BP over tar sands plan
Robin Pagnamenta

A group of American and British shareholders in BP joined forces yesterday to protest over the oil company's decision to start extracting oil from Canadian tar sands.

Eleven fund managers, which together manage total assets worth more than $10 billion (£5 billion), said that BP's move into tar sands last year was “deeply disappointing” and represented a “disturbing step backwards” for the company.

Duck Deaths Confirm First Nations' Fears

Fort Chipewyan, May 2, 2008 -- Only one day after the 500 ducks were found dead in the tailings pond at Syncrude Canada in the Alberta tar sands, a local Mikisew Cree hunter killed a duck that was totally covered in oil. Community leaders have no doubt that the duck was a victim of the toxic tailings ponds near Fort McMurray, 300 kilometres south of Fort Chipewyan. The oil-drenched duck will be released to the Canadian Wildlife Service for further investigation.

Bolivian president proposes radical measures to save planet

Bolivian president proposes radical measures to save planet
Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Opponents line up against proposed Alberta Clipper tar sands oil pipeline (Minnesota)

Opponents line up against proposed Canada oil pipeline
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
April 22, 2008

A new oil pipeline proposed in northern Minnesota is getting resistance from an unusual direction. Opponents say the large pipeline would contribute significantly to global warming -- not so much from the oil itself, but for how the oil is extracted in Canada.

The hottest housing market in North America, driven by tar sands oil

The hottest housing market in North America, driven by oil
By Marshall Loeb, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:38 p.m. EDT April 21, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A boom of unprecedented dimensions is sweeping Canada's spectacularly scenic western province of Alberta, the Texas-sized territory with a population of 3 million that is home to a pair of world-class cities -- Calgary (population 1.2 million) and Edmonton (population 1.1 million).

"Foreign workers should ask boss for language help in order to file complaints: minister"

I swear I'm not making this up. It's real. Got a problem employer in the Temporary Foreign Worker program where they can send you home tomorrow? Having trouble with English? The Alberta Government wants you to ask your boss to help translate a complaint against him/her. Isn't that wonderful? Problem solved, now go back to bed you idiots!

I really, really wish I *were* making this up.

-- M

Foreign workers should ask boss for language help: minister
April 22, 2008 // Edmonton Sun

Downstream from tarsands, Fort Smith worries over water

Downstream from tarsands, Fort Smith worries over water
Monday, April 21, 2008
CBC News

Concerned residents in Fort Smith, N.W.T., met Saturday to talk about the water they drink, and how tarsands development south of the town may be affecting its quality.

"We don't know the answers. We don't know what's in our water," resident Keith Hartery said at Saturday night's public meeting in Fort Smith, located on the N.W.T.-Alberta border.

"Poor leadership nudged push for eminent domain" [Keystone Pipeline]

Poor leadership nudged push for eminent domain (S Dakota)
Apr 20, 2008
Eminent domain is now front and center in the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline project.

Eminent domain, according to library.findlaw.com, is sometimes called "condemnation," and is the legal process by which a public body (and certain private bodies, such as utility companies, railroads, redevelopment corporations and -- in this case -- a pipeline company) is given the legal power to acquire private property for a use that has been declared to be public by a constitution, statute or ordinance.