Tar Sands 101
The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change.
The tar sands are already slated to be the cause of up to the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will see 3 million barrels of tar sands mock crude produced daily by 2018; for each barrel of oil up to as high as five barrels of water are used.
Human health in many communities has seriously taken a turn for the worse with many causes alleged to be from tar sands production. Tar sands production has led to many serious social issues throughout Alberta, from housing crises to the vast expansion of temporary foreign worker programs that racialize and exploit so-called non-citizens. Infrastructure from pipelines to refineries to super tanker oil traffic on the seas crosses the continent in all directions to allthree major oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The mock oil produced primarily is consumed in the United States and helps to subsidize continued wars of aggression against other oil producing nations such as Iraq, Venezuela and Iran.
To understand the tar sands in more depth, continue to our Tar Sands 101 reading list
Canadian Natural's tar sands plant off line
Canadian Natural's oil sands plant off line-source
Factbox: Keystone XL dominates energy, environment agenda
Tue Feb 7, 2012
By Jeffrey Jones and Scott Haggett
CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's Horizon oil sands plant in northern Alberta is shut down for unplanned repairs and could be off line for two to three weeks, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday.
The outage pushed up U.S. oil prices and pressured Canadian Natural shares, which fell as much as 5.2 percent. By early afternoon they were down C$1.69, or 4.2 percent, at C$38.59 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Magical thinking
Magical thinking
Salt Lake Tribune
Updated Feb 8, 2012
It’s appropriate that Gov. Gary Herbert, in attacking a federal proposal to restrict the amount of public land available for oil shale and tar sands mining, should accuse the Bureau of Land Management of waving a “bureaucratic magic wand.” Because all the proposed rule would do is cut back on the amount of land where people would be allowed to carry out some magical alchemy that no one yet knows how to do.
Talk about hocus-pocus.
Tar Sands Represents Bonus and Risk to Great Lakes
Connected by Pipeline from Canada, Tar Sands Represents Bonus and Risk to Great Lakes
Tuesday, 07 February 2012
Circle of Blue
Jacob Wheeler
Transporting and processing corrosive crude raise new questions about consequences
BP is spending nearly $4 billion to expand and modernize its Whiting, Indiana refinery to process tar sands oil from Canada - an investment that has helped to make the Great Lakes Basin both a center of commerce in the two nation’s oil production boom and a target of rising environmental risks to the largest system of fresh surface water in the world.
Tar Sands Destroying Wolf & Caribou Populations In Canada
Tar Sands Destroying Wolf & Caribou Populations In Canada
by Beth Buczynski
February 7, 2012
Extracting oil from tar sands (aka oil sands) is detrimental to human health in a number of ways. It drastically increases greenhouse gas emissions, continues our society’s addiction to fossil fuels, and puts soil and water quality at risk.
But these aren’t the only threats posed by tar sands projects like the Keystone XL pipeline.
Possible tar sands pipeline to Portland worries environmental groups [Maine]
Possible tar sands pipeline to Portland worries environmental groups
By Matthew Arco
Feb 08, 2012
Portland Daily Sun (Maine)
Environmental groups fearing that talks to pump "incredibly destructive" crude oil from Canada to Greater Portland are once again resurfacing, are opposing the project even before one is officially put in writing.
Too Much Energy Used to Mine, Move Bitumen Says BC Firm
Too Much Energy Used to Mine, Move Bitumen Says BC Firm
'Energy Return on Investment' hard to justify says P.G.-based engineering
analyst.
By: By Geoff Dembicki 6 February
2012, TheTyee.ca
A B.C. engineering consulting firm claims it has hard numerical proof that
Enbridge's Northern Gateway proposal augurs poorly for the future of modern
society.
The Prince George-based C.J. Peter Associates
Engineeringcame to this conclusion after
performing an EROI analysis on the
$5.5-billion project.
Huge BC rally in Prince Rupert protests Northern Gateway pipeline
Huge BC rally in Prince Rupert protests Northern Gateway pipeline
By Lynn Herrmann
Feb 5, 2012
Digital Journal
Prince Rupert - A huge rally took to the streets on Saturday in British Columbia’s Prince Rupert, opposing Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline which would transport Alberta tar sands to Kitimat, primary access point along the province’s northwest coast.
Canada's tar sands emerging as an energy heavyweight
Canada's tar sands emerging as an energy heavyweight
By SYED RASHID HUSAIN
Published: Feb 5, 2012
ARAB NEWS.
The energy world is in a transition. It is undergoing a major metamorphosis. New energy frontiers are cropping up and the global energy map is changing fast. Of these new emerging global energy centers, the landlocked province of Alberta in Canada, with its rich resource base, stands out in more than one ways. Many say Calgary, its most important city, is the Dhahran of tomorrow or at least the equivalent of it.
Is Canada’s tar sands monitoring program a ‘PR stunt’?
Op-Ed: Is Canada’s oil sands monitoring program a ‘PR stunt’?
By Kathleen Blanchard
Feb 5, 2012
Digital Journal
Environment Canada announces they are taking steps to monitor the effects of development of oil sands in the area. The plan is designed to gauge the cumulative effects on the environment from oil production from tar sands.
Enter the Four Degrees Celsius World
South Africa: Enter the Four Degrees Celsius World - the Failings of Climate Negotiations
By Saliem Fakir
12 December 2011
All Africa
Fourteen days of climate change negotiations started off with much scepticism and ended with a sense of despair despite the COP 17 outcome being declared "landmark" and "historic". COP 17 was painted, at once, as a victory for the world -- but such statements belie the real truth.
