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.
Li Ka-shing May Tap Israel for Oil-Sands Technology (For use in BP/Husky's Sunrise Project)
May 04, 2010
By Alisa Odenheimer and Mark Lee
May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing may invest in Israeli oil-sands companies to expand his interests in energy production.
Li’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. is keen to invest in oil-sands technology that limits environmental pollution, the billionaire told Israel’s Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in a meeting in Hong Kong today.
Nnimo Bassey, from Friends of the Earth Nigeria
I will not dance to your beat (a poem by Nnimmo Bassey)
I will not dance to your beat
If you call plantations forests
I will not sing with you
If you privatise my water
I will confront you with my fists
If climate change means death to me but business to you
I will expose your evil greed
If you don’t leave crude oil in the soil
Coal in the hole and tar sands in the land
I will confront and denounce you
If you insist on carbon offsetting and other do-nothing false solutions
I will make you see red
Combating climate change: lessons from the world’s indigenous peoples
Bolivia’s president says developing nations must not be shut out of international negotiations for combating the greatest environmental issue of our time.
Evo Morales
LA Times. April 23, 2010
Cochabamba, the water wars and climate change
April 23, 2010
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — Here in this small Andean nation of 10 million people, the glaciers are melting, threatening the water supply of the largest urban area in the country, El Alto and La Paz, with 3.5 million people living at altitudes over 10,000 feet. I flew from El Alto International, the world’s highest commercial airport, to the city of Cochabamba.
China’s move on oil sands is about more than money
China's Sinopec is seeking to buy a 9-per-cent stake in the Syncrude oil sands facility near Fort McMurray, Alta.
Campbell Clark
Ottawa —Globe and Mail
Apr. 15, 2010
This is a test. Chinese oil company Sinopec’s move to buy a piece of Alberta oil sands producer Syncrude is the latest move in Beijing’s step-by-step gauging of the investment waters in Canada.
China is watching to see if the deal sets off alarm bells in Canada, particularly in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative caucus.
Chávez asks leaders to introduce written proposal at Cancun Summit
April 22, 2010 in Press
EL UNIVERSAL-CARACAS, Thursday April 22, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez suggested the leaders participating in the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which is held in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, to submit a proposal to the meeting of the United Nations to be held in Cancun, Mexico. The move is intended to counter the Copenhagen Document that some governments led by the United States seek to impose at the Cancun Climate Change Summit.
Musings from Cochabamba and Tiquipaya, Bolivia
April 21, 2010
RBS in battle with the Cree First Nation over dirty oil development project on tribal lands
18 Apr 2010
George Poitras has come a long way to make his point.
From his traditional Mikisew Cree homelands on the shores of Lake Athabasca in northern Alberta, he has journeyed to Murray Place in the centre of Stirling – to confront the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Oil Majors Under Shareholder Pressure For Canadian Tar Sands
04/13/2010
SustainableBusiness.com News
As shareholders gather in London this week for BP’s (NYSE: BP) annual general meeting, American and British investors are coordinating an effort to put pressure on four major oil multinationals over their controversial investments in the Canadian oil sands.
See You in Cochabamba!
Evo Morales Plans Bolivian Alternative Climate Summit for April
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 01. 6.10
Not wasting any time, Bolvian president Evo Morales has announced that his nation will be hosting an alternative climate summit in the city of Cochabamba on April 20-22, the New York Times reports. Morales is calling on activists, scientists and government officials "who want to work with the people" to attend. Bolivia was one of five nations dissenting on the non-binding COP15 agreement:
