Animals

Alberta oil spill kills hundreds of birds
NORVAL SCOTT AND DAWN WALTON
With a report from The Canadian Press
September 10, 2008

CALGARY -- Alberta's oil and gas industry is again in the environmental dock, as a spill at an oil well in the province has killed up to 500 ducks and swallows, according to reports from the scene.

The birds died after landing in the spill, which was found Monday at an out-of-service conventional oil well in the southwest corner of CFB Suffield, in southeastern Alberta. The well is operated by Calgary-based Harvest Energy Trust.

Will oilsands tar Winter Games?
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, August 19

Canadian officials surveying the Beijing Olympics must be paying special attention to the myriad protests and criticisms -- some overdrawn and overwrought -- that have dogged China before and during the Games. If they are wise, our observers should fight the temptation to feel smugly superior.

Call of the wild
By Sheila McNulty. Financial Times
September 5 2008

Issues - We’re in for a whale of a time
Lifting moratoria to create pipeline and tanker ‘energy corridor’
CHRIS GENOVALI / raincoast.org
Week of September 4, 2008

Northwest Passage's northern route open again
Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 04, 2008

The northerly route of the Northwest Passage has been declared navigable by the Canadian Ice Service.

It's just the second time in history -- and the second year in a row -- that the Parry Channel has opened enough to let regular ships safely through.

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Indian Uprising Radio: Price of tar sands oil
KFAI's Indian Uprising, August 24, 2008 from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. CDT #279
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/08/indian-uprising-radio-price-of-tar...

Daryl Sager (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), Energy Justice Program
Associate, Fresh Energy, Inc. Fresh Energy of St. Paul, Minnesota is
an organization leading the transition to a clean, efficient and fair
energy system. Its goals are: Healthy Economies, Healthy People,
Healthy Environment and Energy Independence. Fresh Energy focus areas

Rare cancer strikes
Small community near Alberta oilsands has disproportionate number of bile duct disease
By VIVIAN SONG

A mutated, two-mouthed fish caught downstream from the Alberta oilsands caught the attention of the Canadian public last week. Beneath its first mouth is a confusing aberration, a second, baby, jagged-toothed lower jaw that seems to grow timidly out of the fish-face.

Two boys fishing in Lake Athabasca caught the 2.5-kilo goldeye two weeks ago and handed it over to the Mikisew First Nation.

Two-Mouthed Fish Discovered Near Alberta Oil Sands, CBC Reports
By Jeremy van Loon

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A mutant fish with two mouths was caught in northern Alberta, near the Canadian province's Athabasca oil sands, stoking residents' concerns about pollution, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The fish was hooked from a dock at Lake Athabasca and handed over to park wardens, CBC said on its Web site today. Locals are fighting expansion of heavy oil production because of its impact on the environment, the Web site said.

Green groups quit oil sands forum
Protest move made as Industry Minister in U.S. to address concerns about environmental impact
PAUL HAAVARDSRUD AND SHAWN MCCARTHY
August 19, 2008

CALGARY AND OTTAWA -- Three groups have quit a government-sponsored forum for assessing environmental costs in the oil sands, a move that undercuts government efforts to burnish the image of the massive developments in U.S. markets.

Will Canada's oil boom be an environmental bust?
By ROB GILLIES – Aug 23, 2008

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) — The largest dump truck in the world is parked under a massive mechanical shovel waiting to transport 400 tons of oily sand at an open pit mine in the northern reaches of Alberta.

Each Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler — three-stories high, with tires twice as tall as the average man — carries the equivalent of 200 barrels of heavy oil worth $23,000 per haul at today's prices.