Animals

Melting of Arctic ice 'fascinating ... alarming'
Remaining ice is in precarious shape, scientists say
Margaret Munro // Canwest News Service
Thursday, October 02, 2008

For scientists, this year's ice season was like the NHL playoffs.

They placed bets, pored over satellite images, and speculated endlessly on how much Arctic ice would survive the summer.

"Everyone was following it," said Louis Fortier, scientific director of the Arcticnet, which funds and co-ordinates much of Canada's polar research. "It was like the hockey final."

Ottawa keeps pipeline projects on hold, industry says

Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, October 01, 2008

CALGARY -- Pipeline projects in Canada need timely government decisions, said Brenda Kenny, the president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

In speech in Calgary Wednesday, she said the penalty for delays is cost overruns and uncertainty.

"We are poised at this critical juncture to build the infrastructure necessary to deliver clean, reliable and affordable energy to all Canadians," she said.

Oilsands: Fowl play
Andrew Nikiforuk
From the September 29, 2008 issue of Canadian Business magazine

On a late July morning, 11 members of Greenpeace did what entrepreneurial activists do best: bold ventures. Armed with bolt cutters, the green crew drove north of Fort McMurray, Alta., severed a chain lock and then broke into Syncrude Canada Ltd.’s Aurora North settling basin, now known to millions around the world as the infamous watery graveyard for 500 migrating ducks. (Locals just call the waste pond “Dead Duck Lake.”)

Mackenzie pipeline 'footprint' could threaten wildlife: report
Unique sanctuary established in 1961
ANDREW MAYEDA, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, August 19

The Harper government has been warned that the ecological "footprint" of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline on an Arctic bird sanctuary that protects migratory birds and at-risk species such as polar bears could exceed the threshold deemed acceptable by Environment Canada, newly released documents reveal.

Full Call Out Here:
http://lists.oilsandstruth.org/pipermail/ost-announce/2008-September/000...

No Games on Stolen Native Land! Panel on 2010, tar sands and call to disrupt the "Spirit Train" (September 27 & 29)

On September 29th, 2008 (Monday), the 2010 Olympic Winter Games "Spirit
Train" will be coming to Edmonton, Alberta. A call out has been issued
by the Olympics Resistance Network.

On September 27, 2008, several speakers from indigenous communities who
are being adversely effected on unceded territories in "British

Discussion Points on a Moratorium
No New Approvals-- of what?
July 29, 2008

Halt oilsands, chiefs say
Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 15, 2008

RADILIH KOE'/FORT GOOD HOPE - Some First Nations leaders are calling for a moratorium on tar sands expansion, and they made a promise to continue educating people living in the Mackenzie basin about threats to their water system.

They gathered in Fort Good Hope during the first week in September for a territorial water conference.

Oilsands firms balk at wetlands policy
'No net-loss' rule could cost oil producers billions
Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Two major industry associations representing oilsands producers are refusing to support key tenets of a long-awaited plan to protect Alberta's wetlands, citing concerns about rigid rules and restoration costs that could stretch to $1 billion and beyond.

Environmental groups say they have been blindsided by the decision.

Fort Chip to world: SOS

Posted on September 14, 2008 by zandernat

Climate change, water policy and aboriginal health. Three issues that should be atop the election agenda. Three issues that start with the oil sands.

Canadians are dying. Our government is doing nothing about it. Will it take world attention to end this injustice?

Natives push moratorium on Shell methane project
The Canadian Press

September 13, 2008

Prince Rupert -- Support is growing for a moratorium on drilling in an area called the Sacred Headwaters, say opponents of a coal-bed methane project near the Nass River in northern British Columbia.

More than 150 people attended an information meeting in New Aiyansh this week to discuss the project proposed by Shell Canada.

In 2004, Shell Canada was awarded a 400,000-hectare tenure for coal-bed methane development in the area, also known as the Klappan.