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
Urgent: Enbridge Line 9 Site has been occupied close to Burlington (May 20, 2014)
Urgent: Enbridge Line 9 Site has been occupied close to Burlington, Ontario this morning
Krystalline Kraus
| May 20, 2014
Early this morning, anti-tar sands activists are currently blockading the access road to an exposed section of Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline. They have pledged to remain on site for, “at least twelve hours, one hour for every thousand anomalies Enbridge has reported to exist on the line.”
The blockaders arrived on site at 7:00 am and began to turn Enbridge Oil employees as they began to arrive for their morning shift.
Canada’s $207,000 tar sands ad: Putting a price on deception
Canada’s $207,000 oil sands ad: Putting a price on deception
Eric Reguly
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, May. 09 2014
The ad in The New Yorker is pretty, if not quite arresting. The full-page photo on the inside back cover – prime real estate in the United States’ leading upmarket magazine – features a pristine river meandering through a lush mountain valley, untouched by humanity. It is not a tourism ad. It is designed to convince influential Americans that the Keystone XL pipeline is environmentally safe, even desirable.
Tar Sands for the week (April 1, 2014).
Tar Sands for the week (April 1, 2014).
Macdonald Stainsby,
MacdonaldStainsby.com
Not satisfied with controlling the Maritimes, how Irving wants to conquer tar sands
Special Report: A Canadian family's 'Plan B' to pump tar sands oil
Posted: March 27, 2014
"The genesis of this is really the Keystone XL pipeline, and the continuing political obstacles to getting approval for it," said Frank McKenna, former New Brunswick premier, Irving family friend and vocal advocate of the project.
By Richard Valdmanis and Dave Sherwood
Reuters
Tar Sands May Have Caused Sickness That Forced Families From Homes, Canadian Regulator Says
Tar Sands May Have Caused Sickness That Forced Families From Homes, Canadian Regulator Says
By Emily Atkin
April 1, 2014
Karla and Alain’s Labrecque's children, now living happily and healthily in British Columbia after a year of unexplained sickness in Peace River, Alberta.
Published with permission of Karla and Alain Labrecque
Karla and Alain’s Labrecque’s children, now living happily and healthily in British Columbia after a year of unexplained sickness in Peace River, Alberta. Published with permission of Karla and Alain Labrecque
BP Lake Michigan Oil Spill: Did Tar Sands Spill into the Great Lakes?
BP Lake Michigan Oil Spill: Did Tar Sands Spill into the Great Lakes?
By Steve Horn
Global Research, March 28, 2014
Is it conventional crude or tar sands? That is the question. And it’s one with high stakes, to boot.
The BP Whiting refinery in Indiana spilled between 470 and 1228 gallons of oil (or is it tar sands?) into Lake Michigan on March 24 and four days later no one really knows for sure what type of crude it was. Most signs, however, point to tar sands.
New York Times writer credits Vancouver Observer investigation into tar sands spying
New York Times writer credits Vancouver Observer investigation into oil sands spying
In an op/ed piece "Is Canada Tarring Itself?" - a famed US author links to Vancouver Observer's work exposing the Harper government's extensive spying of groups opposed to the oil sands.
Mychaylo Prystupa
Posted: Apr 1st, 2014
Plagued With High Cancer Rates, One Tar Sands Community’s Eight Year Quest For Answers
Plagued With High Cancer Rates, One Tar Sands Community’s Eight Year Quest For Answers
By Emily Atkin on April 2, 2014
The global Transition tipping point has arrived - vive la révolution
The global Transition tipping point has arrived - vive la révolution
Nafeez Ahmed, The Guardian, Mar 18, 2014
A new post-carbon era dawns as the old fossil fuel system dies. It's time to step up.
Last Friday, I posted an exclusive report about a new NASA-backed scientific research project at the US National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (Sesync) to model the risks of civilisational collapse, based on analysis of the key factors involved in the rise and fall of past civilisations.
Energy East no boon for refiners: report
Energy East no boon for refiners: report
By Lauren Krugel — CP — Mar 18 2014
CALGARY - The proposed Energy East pipeline won't be the boon to Eastern Canadian refineries that supporters claim because the vast majority of the oil in it would be bound for export markets, environmental groups argued in a report released Tuesday.
