Social Impacts

Changing your light bulbs may not be enough to save a single polar bear,
but there are things we can do collectively - and easily - that will
really make a measurable difference in the battle against global
warming. Mark Lynas has a three-part plan.

by Mark Lynas

New Statesman (November 08 2007)

We have about 100 months left. If global greenhouse gas emissions have
not begun to decline by the end of 2015, then our chances of restraining
climate change to within the two degrees "safety line" - the level of

November 16, 2007
Record year for Nunavut oil spills
Mishaps pour 225,000 litres of poisonous material in territory

CHRIS WINDEYER

One big oil mishap on Brevoort Island this past January was enough to make 2007 a record year for spills in Nunavut.

Nearly 225,000 litres of oil were spilled into Nunavut's environment last year, the highest total recorded for Nunavut since division. The figures are found in Ikummatiit, the Government of Nunavut's energy strategy, which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly late last month.

Impacts of tar sands under scrutiny
By Sara Constantineau
News Writer
McGill Daily

An independent publication is trying to shock the public into understanding the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the Alberta tar sands.

The Dominion, an independent news cooperative, has launched a special issue about the tar sands with presentations at universities across Canada. The lead editors of the issue were at Concordia on Thursday night presenting their research and exclusive footage.

Editorial: Reconsidering the tar sands
McGill Daily

Going by mainstream media coverage, the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta are like a 21st century Wild West: breathless reports speak about the “boom” economy, bushels of money being made, and about how everything is gigantic. But as the tar sands have become the centrepiece of a new energy corridor sending oil and gas to the U.S., scant attention has been paid to the profound economic, ecological, and social costs that are at stake.

Future of Alberta oil could be decided in B.C
Charles Frank , CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, November 18, 2007

The future of Western Canada's energy industry may well be defined by what happens far from Alberta's foothills in the quiet town of Kitimat on British Columbia's picturesque coast.

This article is interesting not only for the garbage it states, such as: "Environmental groups argue the massive tankers have no business travelling in the pristine and wildlife-rich waters, which they believe are protected by a more than three-decade-old moratorium on such traffic.

"The primary beneficiary of these projects is not British Columbians -- it's Albertans and Americans," says Will Horter, executive director of the Dogwood Initiative [...]"

Group opposed to pipeline runs out of money

The Associated Press - Saturday, November 17, 2007
BISMARCK, N.D.

A group that opposes a proposed eastern North Dakota oil pipeline has run out of money for legal fees and their attorneys have abandoned the case.

Some residents along the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline and the Dakota Resource Council, a Dickinson-based environmental and landowner group, had been are preparing for hearings Nov. 27-28 at the Public Service Commission.

TransCanada's lawyers opposed letting the Dakota Resource Council lawyers withdraw.

Suncor and Syncrude and Alberta’s royalty hike
SRJ Staff 07.NOV.07

Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada Ltd will be affected by Alberta’s new royalty hike, but not immediately.

“Those companies are under separate crown agreements,” said Bob McManus, assistant director, communications Alberta energy. “Suncor was negotiated in 1963 and Syncrude in 1975.”

Premier Ed Stelmach announced a new royalty regime for oil and gas on Thursday, Oct. 25. Royalties would increase by $1.4 billion in 2010, a 20-per-cent increase over currently projected revenues for that year.

Colorado soaks up Alberta's oil sands expertise
NORVAL SCOTT
November 16, 2007

CALGARY -- The U.S. is looking to companies now operating in Alberta for help in unlocking its own version of the oil sands, the massive oil shale deposits that lie underground in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

The hope is that the U.S. can "learn lessons" from Alberta's oil sands experience that will stand it in good stead when it comes to developing its own complex, unconventional crude resource, said Bill Ritter, the Governor of Colorado.

High costs trim forecast for oil sands production
NORVAL SCOTT

November 16, 2007

CALGARY -- Output from Alberta's oil sands will grow more slowly than was predicted last year as spiralling costs deter investment in the vast but difficult resource, Canada's national energy regulator says.

The National Energy Board forecast in a report released yesterday that by 2015 Canada's total oil output will be 4.05 million barrels of crude a day, 61 per cent greater than it was in 2005.