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
Tar sands flows to Europe set to surge
Tar sands flows to Europe set to surge
28 Jan, 2014
Reuters
New pipelines mean around 30 times more tar sands oil is likely to make its way to Europe than previously thought unless the European Union revives rules that would limit its use, figures showed on Friday.
The data from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a US environmental group, follows the publication of revised EU energy and environment policy for the next decade that drops specific goals on cutting the emissions of transport fuel.
Worker found dead at Suncor tar sands facility
Worker found dead at Suncor oilsands facility
Man had been missing for several hours before body found
CBC News Posted: Jan 19, 2014
A worker at the Suncor Energy oilsands facility near Fort McMurray, Alta., has died, the company reported Sunday.
In a press release, Suncor said the male employee had gone missing early Sunday. Emergency personnel with the company were called in around 7 a.m. to look for the worker. The worker was found dead on the scene a few hours later.
Suncor informed RCMP and Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.
Canada's carbon emissions projected to soar by 2030
- Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands
- Enbridge Gateway Pipeline/ Offshore Tanker Traffic [BC]
- Mackenzie Gas Project / Alaska Highway pipelines [NWT/AK]
- Tarsands Infrastructure: South/ East [US & Can]
- International oil & gas
- Climate Change / Emissions
- Economics
- Energy
- Forests
- Health
- Peak Oil
- Social Impacts
- War and Security
Canada's carbon emissions projected to soar by 2030
Tar sands expected to help drive 38% increase in emissions, Harper government admits in submission to the UN
Stephen Leahy
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 January 2014
The tailings pond at the Syncrude mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Tar sands could become a 'stranded asset', campaigners say The tailings pond at the Syncrude mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Tar sands could become a 'stranded asset', campaigners say Photograph: Ashley Cooper pics/Alamy
Toxic rocks and declining health: 3.5 years after Enbridge's tar sands pipeline disaster
Toxic rocks and declining health: 3.5 years after Enbridge's tar sands pipeline disaster
By
Sonia Grant
| January 14, 2014
As communities in Ontario and Quebec await the National Energy Board’s (NEB) decision on the Line 9 reversal, new details about the devastating impacts of Enbridge’s now infamous 2010 Kalamazoo River spill in Michigan raise a series of unanswered questions about the health impacts of exposure to spilled diluted bitumen (dilbit), and about Enbridge’s ability to manage potential pipeline incidents.
The Kalamazoo River’s toxic rocks
Neil Young renews push on treaty rights, tar sands development
Neil Young renews push on treaty rights, oil-sands development
BRAD WHEELER
The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Jan. 13 2014
On the day following his Honor the Treaties concert at Massey Hall, where he had lambasted the Canadian government’s handling of Alberta’s oil-sands development, Neil Young continued his campaign against the environmental policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration.
Climate change rattles mental health of Inuit in Labrador
Climate change rattles mental health of Inuit in Labrador
'Grief, mourning, anger, frustration' over environmental changes
CBC News Posted: Jan 10, 2014
Researchers studying the mental health and well-being of Inuit populations in coastal Labrador say rising temperatures are having damaging psychological effects on people in traditional communities.
'Many people said they also felt very depressed about not being able to get out there on the land'- Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, researcher for Inuit Mental Health Adaptation to Climate Change project
How Is Climate Change Reshaping Our Culture?
- Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands
- Enbridge Gateway Pipeline/ Offshore Tanker Traffic [BC]
- Mackenzie Gas Project / Alaska Highway pipelines [NWT/AK]
- Tarsands Infrastructure: South/ East [US & Can]
- International oil & gas
- Climate Change / Emissions
- Economics
- Energy
- Gender
- Health
- Indigenous
- Peak Oil
- Social Impacts
How Is Climate Change Reshaping Our Culture?
Tell us what you think. Then hear leading thinkers on shifts in tech, business, politics and nature at free Jan. 22 event.
By Geoff Dembicki, Today, TheTyee.ca
Jan 14, 2014
English Bay, Vancouver
Patent for refining heavier and heavier 'oil' ...
Patent Application Titled "Process for Prediciting the Stability of Crude Oil and Employing Same in Transporting And/Or Refining the Crude Oil"...
01/09/2014
Enbridge’s Expansion: The Flanagan South Pipeline
Enbridge’s Expansion: The Flanagan South Pipeline
The Cause:
To resist the construction of the KXL and the expansion of tar sands infrastructure and dedicated to stopping Tar Sands transportation and extraction infrastructure in the beautiful heartland of North America.
1: Opposition to all forms of Tar Sands exploitation
2. Opposition to Infrastructure Which Supports Further Tar Sands Exploitation
3: Explicit Support for Indigenous Peoples
4: Acknowledgement of Direct Action as A Legitimate and Necessary Tactic
5: No Condemnation of Resistance
A rant on the Federal attempted approval of Enbridge Gateway
(This was written in the hours after the Federal announcement of 209 conditions on Gateway approval, essentially a 'yes'.)
If anyone is surprised or disheartened by today's announcement about Gateway, you haven't been paying attention.
This government is the most rancidly reactionary, anti-democratic and pro-industry ever seen in Canada. That is not to let anyone else off the hook for their crimes, either.
It means you forgot the basic fact of how this works: They cannot be negotiated with. They must be stopped.
