Animal habitats and health are affected by tar sands production, whether from loss of habitat to any of the infrastructure developments across the continent, or through changes in the atmosphere such as melting polar ice caps in the Arctic brought on by out of control C02 emissions. Poisoning waterways, the food supply and the air in the immediate and not-so immediate surroundings has led to drops and even disappearances of species near pipelines, platforms and other infrastructure of the tarsands.
Ducks die in oily Sask. pond
Province investigates deaths of 53 birds at waste retention site
Darren Bernhardt, The StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, May 15, 2008
The provincial government is scrambling to deal with the deaths of 53 ducks at an oil-extraction site west of Saskatoon.
It's not just about 500 dead ducks
May 11, 2008 04:30 AM
Gillian Steward
Who could have known that a flock of ducks on its way home for the summer was fated to become a powerful symbol of all that is wrong with Alberta's most vital industrial project – the tar sands?
As much of the world knows by now, about 500 of them died when they set down on a lake of oily goo, usually referred to by the petroleum industry and the government as a tailing pond – a much more neutral phrase than 22 square kilometres of toxic sludge produced when oil is extracted from the sandy soil.
For your daily Greenwash dose... Suncor sympathetic over ducks... and not a hint of sympathy for the loss of other human lives.
--M
Suncor CEO defends record on environment
Rick George sympathizes over duck loss
Dan Healing, with a file from Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008
A speech about the business outlook for Alberta's oilsands industry Friday morning turned into a defence of its environmental record for Suncor Energy Inc. CEO Rick George.
Last surviving duck hangs in
By Victoria Handysides
May 13, 2008
A female mallard duck is the only surviving creature that took a dip in Syncrude’s toxic tailings pond that will live to tell the tale.
In total, 18 birds have been brought to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton from different tailings ponds in the Fort McMurray area. Only six have survived.
Could it be because Syncrude donated $300,000 to Ducks Unlimited in 2001 and that Suncor recently donated another $1.5 million?? After all, Ducks Unlimited only wants to help industry to "soften" its impact on the environment. Never mind all the other cash donations from Weyerhaeuser, Alpac, and Enbridge....
- Tarpit Pete
DU Conservation Awards presented to Alberta Chamber of Resources Companies
More dead birds giving Oilsands a blackeye
May 05, 2008 - 7:25 am
Kevin Usselman & Bryce Kelley
The Alberta oilsands is coming under fire again after a loon was found dead
and two others in distress at the ConocoPhillips tar sands site over the
weekend.
A campaigner with Greenpeace says he received the tip about the loons on
Saturday. It's the second incident involving birds in the oilsands in about
a week.
Last week, 500 ducks were found dead on a tailings pond at the Syncrude
oilsands site. That's because the birds, were found in a pond that has high
Oilsands suck dollars from cleaner oil and gas
Dave Yager, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, May 04, 2008
There's a giant sucking noise emanating from northeast Alberta that gets louder as oil prices rise.
Called the Athabasca Tar Sands, its rapid development is draining imagination from the Stelmach government, flexibility from labour markets and diversification from Alberta's economy. It has also sucked Edmonton into a hopeless global environmental confrontation.
May 1st, 2008
Canada caught on its own tar baby. Tar sand investments now a dead duck?
Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:41 am
As one Canadian newspaper put it. Ducks in Alberta died a crude death. One of the species of ducks that died on a pond filled with crude oil polluted water: Bufflehead.
Duck Deaths Confirm First Nations' Fears
Fort Chipewyan, May 2, 2008 -- Only one day after the 500 ducks were found dead in the tailings pond at Syncrude Canada in the Alberta tar sands, a local Mikisew Cree hunter killed a duck that was totally covered in oil. Community leaders have no doubt that the duck was a victim of the toxic tailings ponds near Fort McMurray, 300 kilometres south of Fort Chipewyan. The oil-drenched duck will be released to the Canadian Wildlife Service for further investigation.
Dead ducks tar Canada's image, PM says
JOHN COTTER
The Canadian Press
May 2, 2008
EDMONTON -- Alberta is under heavy pressure to strengthen its environmental
standards as the fallout from the death of 500 ducks in a toxic wastewater pond
gets stickier than the province's oil sands.
Images and stories of the dying waterfowl have been appearing on news outlets and
blogs around the world, prompting Prime Minister Stephen Harper to suggest that
the dead ducks have tarred Alberta's and Canada's international image.
