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
Enbridge CEO Interview: Gateway, China, Canada and more
Enbridge CEO on what's wrong with Canada's DNA
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070611.RDANIEL11/TPSt...
GORDON PITTS
June 11, 2007
CALGARY -- Patrick Daniel has the classic CV of an energy CEO - prairie upbringing, strong engineering education, and a varied career amid the cycles of the oil patch. Now 60 and head of pipeline giant Enbridge Inc., he is a critical link in the supply chain between Canada's oil producers and major North American markets. Mr. Daniel talks about this role, and the challenges in pushing Canadian thinking beyond this continent.
Notes from the Tar Pits: From McMurray to MacKay
Notes from the Tarpits:
Between MacKay and McMurray, my run in with the Gigaproject
June 14, 2007
National Post doing Tar Sand Damage Control
Such damage control is very important to undertake, especially when sea-changes in public opinion are underway as they are. Many of the "inconvenient spew" of this articles "talking points" are ridiculous. The suggestion that "Americans" have asked for tarsands to be ramped up would convince me if I thought that the average American knew where the Tarsands even were, let alone that he or she wants more from them.
This is, bottom line, proof we are getting somewhere. Let's keep moving; where we are coming from holds nothing.
--M
Oilsands gain a dirty name
Mackenzie pipeline panel faces further delays
Mackenzie pipeline panel faces further delays
Last Updated: Thursday, June 14, 2007 | 11:06 AM CT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/06/14/panel-delays.html#skip30...
The panel reviewing the proposed Mackenzie gas project says it needs more time before it can finalize its hearing schedule.
The joint review panel, which is looking at the environmental and social impacts of the $16.2-billion project, has been criticized for taking much longer to do its job than originally anticipated.
It's Time for Albertans to Draw a line in the (Tar) Sand
IT'S TIME FOR ALBERTANS TO DRAW A LINE IN THE (TAR) SAND
http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=6589
BILL MOORE-KILGANNON / pialberta.org
There once was a thin red line on a map. That may sound like the start of a fairy tale, but in fact it is the real beginning of a critical debate about Alberta’s energy future.
Environmental cost of tar sands too high, U.S. report says
Globe and Mail June 8, 2007
Environmental cost of tar sands too high, U.S. report says
By Bob Weber
Edmonton -- One of the most influential environmental groups in the
United States is training its sights on Alberta's oil sands in an
attempt to persuade Americans to stop increasing their dependence on
"bottom-of-the-barrel" energy.
A report by the Natural Resources Defence Council to be released
Monday at a symposium in Washington, has been obtained by The Canadian
Press. The report potentially damages the market for oil sands oil by
Is Canada the latest emerging petro-tyranny?
Copyright 2007 The Globe and Mail
June 11, 2007 Monday
ANDREW NIKIFORUK
Calgary journalist and columnist for Canadian Business magazine
Is Canada the latest emerging petro-tyranny?
Every day, the First Law of Petropolitics quietly insinuates its way
into the nation's political blood like a rogue parasite. The law,
first coined by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, posits that
the price of oil and the quality of freedom invariably travel in
opposite directions.
As the price of crude oil goes higher in an oil-dominated kingdom,
Global warming is remap-ping the world: UN findings focus on meltdown at poles
Global warming is remap-ping the world
UN findings focus on meltdown at poles
By VIVIAN SONG -- Sun Media
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2007/06/05/4235901-sun.html
Global warming is remap-ping the world at a chilling pace, melting glaciers and permafrost and endangering hundreds of millions of lives, warns the latest UN report released yesterday on the eve of World Environment Day.
The report's findings coincide with this year's theme highlighting the world's poles as the first telltale signs of climate change: Melting Ice: Hot Topic?
"How Shell First Tripped Over Saskatchewan's Tarsands"
How Shell First Tripped Over Saskatchewan's Oilsands
Robert Gies //Market Commentary // June 4, 2007
http://www.dobmagazine.nickles.com/columns/column.asp?article=magazine%2...
