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
Explorations pétrolières: Le danger est inévitable selon l’AVG [Madagascar]
Explorations pétrolières
Le danger est inévitable selon l’AVG
L’alliance « Voahary gasy » (AVG) a recommandé d’arrêter l’exploration et l’exploitation du pétrole con-conventionnel dans les sites de Bemolanga et de Tsimiroro. Toutes les activités liées à l’exploration ont actuellement des effets néfastes non seulement sur l’environnement et les richesses en biodiversité mais surtout sur la santé des communautés environnantes.
Harper miscalculated Keystone XL anger, opposition parties say
Harper miscalculated Keystone XL anger, opposition parties say
By Jessica Murphy ,Parliamentary Bureau
Monday, November 14, 2011
Bob Rae Liberal Leader Bob Rae speaks to the media following Question Period in the Foyer of the House of Commons at Parliament Hill in Ottawa Nov 14, 2011. (ANDRE FORGET /QMI AGENCY)
OTTAWA - The Harper government is underestimating the political weight the aversion to the Keystone XL pipeline and Alberta's oilsands has, opposition parties have charged.
Oil in the Desert
Oil in the Desert
Will water be sacrificed to oil in Jordan?
November 13, 2011
by Macdonald Stainsby
AMMAN, Jordan--In March of 2011, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan jumped headlong into unconventional oil extraction, and signed a deal with Karak International Oil (KIO), a subsidiary of Jordan Energy and Mining Limited (JEML--a British company) for the commercial mining of oil shale approximately one hour’s drive from the capital of Amman. Unlike most countries in the region, if you fill up your gas tank in Jordan, you are using imported oil— but the Kingdom is touting a future when extreme extraction will change that, and soon.
Apartheid Oil
Apartheid Oil
Crude trapped in shale could transform Israel into energy powerhouse
November 10, 2011
by Macdonald Stainsby
JERUSALEM-- Major offshore gas strikes in 2009 and 2010 may soon convert converted Israel into a gas exporting country with self-sufficient energy. But perhaps more important than the gas under the sea is the mock crude trapped in husk dry sands and rock hard shale, reserves which could push Israel into the upper echelons of recoverable oil on the planet. Israel has long had a weakness economically and militarily because of their reliance on others for energy supplies.
Could Israel be another Middle East oil giant?
Could Israel be another Middle East oil giant?
30 September 2011
By Daniel Estrin BBC co-production The World
Prospectors in Israel say hundreds of feet below the ground lies shale rock that can be converted into billions of barrels of oil. But environmentalists say it's a disaster waiting to happen.
"This is the distinct smell I'm talking about when I talk about oil shale."
Tar Sands Actions Escalate in Ottawa
Oil Sands Actions Escalate in Ottawa
Over 100 Arrested as Tensions Over Resource Heat Up
Sheridan Polinsky & Julian Ward — September 30, 2011
Volume 32 Issue 05 |
The Link
Hundreds of protesters gathered on Parliament Hill to demand a proposed pipeline between the US and Canada be put to rest once and for all.
Oppenheimer: "America's tar sands and shale will be world's oil source"
Oppenheimer: America's tar sands and shale will be world's oil source
By Andres Oppenheimer
JournalStar.com
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The turmoil for reform sweeping most Middle Eastern oil producers is grabbing big headlines today, but that region may lose some of its economic clout in the future: There are signs that the Americas will replace the Middle East as the world's biggest oil-producing region.
"Canadian crude under attack on two fronts"
Canadian crude under attack on two fronts
By Bill Mann, MarketWatch
September 29, 2011
VANCOUVER, B.C. (MarketWatch) — With the rancorous Keystone-XL pipeline debate currently raging across the United States and Canada, it seems we’re at a tipping point: Will Canada’s oil sands be seen as an “ethical” source of oil, or a polluting pariah?
Battlefield Nebraska: A pipeline plan stirs emotions
Battlefield Nebraska: A pipeline plan stirs emotions
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE - The Globe and Mail
October 1 2011
Next to a sun-stained red flag that marks the planned route of the Keystone XL pipeline, Leon Weichman kneels on his Nebraska hay field. Moisture spots his jeans. It has barely rained in 30 days in this arid part of the central U.S., yet the grasses are thick and green. The soil is black and damp.
The other Keystone debate
Canada’s oil industry
The other Keystone debate
The Economist
Oct 1st 2011
