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.
Alberta aims to streamline permit process
Environmental hurdles under scrutiny
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
CALGARY — From Friday's Globe and Mail
Oct. 03, 2009
The Alberta government and Canada's oil sands industry are working on a controversial new plan to make it easier for companies to get environmental permission for certain types of projects.
Imperial probes Sarnia benzene leak
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 |
CBC News
Police in Sarnia have lifted a shelter order for parts of the city that began after a benzene leak at the Imperial Oil facility there.
Environmental Services — October 6, 2009
Prominent lawyer questions Stelmach's interference in judicial system
EDMONTON, Oct. 6 /CNW/ - Prominent Alberta lawyer Brian Beresh raised concerns today that Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is unconstitutionally using his position as premier to exert political influence over the judicial system and undermine the right to fair trials for Greenpeace activists.
Greenpeace activists occupy Alberta Shell site
By Richard Warnica and Laura Drake, Edmonton Journal
October 3, 2009 2:52 PM
Greenpeace activists occupy an exhaust stack at the Shell Scotford Upgrader Expansion near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. on October 3, 2009
Photograph by: Ryan Jackson, Edmonton Journal
FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alta. — Greenpeace protesters occupied an oilfield property outside Edmonton on Saturday, the third dramatic demonstration the group has staged against Alberta’s controversial oilsands development in recent weeks.
EnCana spinoff plans new oil sands project
By Carrie Tait, Financial Post, with files from Reuters
October 1, 2009
CALGARY -- A year after dreary news blanked the oil sands thanks to a rapid-fire procession of project delays, EnCana Corp. Thursday said it plans to kick off the process to launch a new multi-billion project with a technological twist.
Freighter damaged along proposed B.C. shipping lane
Ship sufferes severe damage, raising questions about safety of oil and gas supertanker taking route
Mark HumeVancouver— From Friday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Friday, Oct. 02, 2009 02:48AM EDT
Questions are being raised about the safety of a proposed shipping channel for oil and gas supertankers on British Columbia's central coast after a freighter struck rocks near Kitimat.
Oil exports to U.S. set record
Oilsands output helps fill shortfall from Venezuela, Mexico
By Lisa Schmidt, Calgary Herald
September 30, 2009
Canada --already the largest oil supplier to the U.S.--pumped out record exports south of the border this summer, as Alberta's oilsands crude fill the gaps left by competitors.
U.S. imports of crude oil from Canada rose 5.4 per cent in July to the highest monthly level in at least 36 years, according to figures released by the U.S. Energy Department.
As of this moment on September 30, 2009 there is a direct action taking place against Suncor by Greenpeace activists. Live feed below.
Delta residents must prepare for pipeline: senate committee
Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 28, 2009
INUVIK - The federal government needs to invest more money into the Canadian Coast Guard as the "first line of defence" for Arctic sovereignty, senators heard during meetings in Inuvik last week.
The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans was in Inuvik on Wednesday following public meetings in Yellowknife earlier in the week as part of a study of Arctic fisheries and ocean management.
Climate change threatens millions of children with hunger
Geoffrey York
Johannesburg — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2009
Malnutrition will strike another 25 million children in the world's poorest countries if climate change continues unabated, a new study says.
Africa and South Asia will be the hardest-hit regions as rising temperatures lead to lower crop yields and higher prices for basic food staples such as wheat, rice and maize, according to the study to be released Wednesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute.
