Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Forests

Forests lose more trees and habitat to pipeline “right of way” cuts and tar pit building than to clearcuts. With minor variation, pipelines go the direct route. Through the strip mining of the land that contains tarsand petroleum and through pipeline construction to accomodate, only the Amazon Basin in Brazil would see larger rates of deforestation than the Boreal forest cover surrendered to the tarsands. Roads often accompany pipelines, as do various other developments. Hundreds of thousands of miles of forests, all combined, have been lost to infrastructure built to accommodate tarsands operations. Now the industry wants to build two approximately 1200 km long Mackenzie and Gateway pipelines as well as 2700 km's from Alaska's North Slope to accomodate tarsand oil production.

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ENGOs Do Not Speak for Carrier Sekani Tribal Council

ENGOs Do Not Speak for CSTC
May 20, 2010 07:01 ET

Attention: Assignment Editor, Business/Financial Editor, Environment Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor

TAR SANDS: The dilemma of the ponds

TAR SANDS: The dilemma of the ponds
Tar sands tailings ponds remain an environmental quagmire

Lewis Kelly / lewis@vueweekly.com

Last week a lawyer for Syncrude, Robert White, told provincial court Judge Ken Tjosvold that Syncrude can't be legally responsible for the birds that land in its tailings ponds as preventing all birds from touching the contaminated water is impossible. If Syncrude is guilty in the case of the 1600 ducks that died in its tailings pond in April 2008, White argued, so is every other company with a tailings pond.

Mainstream enviros, timber industry shut First Nations out of "historic" deal

Boreal Forest Conflicts Far From Over
Mainstream enviros, timber industry shut First Nations out of "historic" deal

by Dawn Paley
May 18, 2010
Vancouver.Mediacoop.ca

Timber companies and environmental organizations came together Tuesday to announce the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, which they say could protect a swath of boreal forest twice the size of Germany, and maintain forestry jobs across the country.

"This is an agreement between the two principle combatants over logging," said Steve Kallick, director of the Boreal Conservation campaign of the Pew Environment Group.

The Most Destructive Development on Earth: Coming to Trinidad and Tobago?

The Most Destructive Development on Earth: Coming to Trinidad and Tobago?
By Macdonald Stainsby
ZNet
Sunday, May 16, 2010

Greenpeace, ENGO's, Foundations cutting secret deals, greenwashing all forestry

The key quote in this article is here:

A spokesperson for Greenpeace said: "There is no agreement, but we will let you know when there is an agreement."

MS: Who gave them such authority? How on earth can they claim that the public-- or even their own sustainers-- gave them such a mandate? How can this possibly be a positive bent, when it essentially has the PR gain for industry of being "green" right when we should be ramping UP the fight against what is happening to our forests?

Speech by Evo Morales Ayma before the G77 + China at the United Nations

Speech by Evo Morales Ayma, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, before the G77 + China at the United Nations

May 7, 2010

I have come here to share the conclusions of the First World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, held last April 20th to 22nd in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I convened this Conference because in Copenhagen the voice of the peoples of the world was not listened to or attended to, nor were established procedures respected by all States.

Gulf spill hardens BC First Nations opposition to Enbridge tar sands pipeline

Gulf spill hardens BC First Nations opposition to Enbridge tar sands pipeline
By David Beers May 5, 2010
The Tyee

A press release issued by the Wet'suwet'en and the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council matter of factly declares “Enbridge's pipeline and tanker project to British Columbia's coast isn't going to happen” and says the oil rig spill in the Gulf of Mexico has fortified B.C. First Nations’ opposition to the project.

BC First Nations took that message into a meeting of Enbridge Inc. executives and shareholders today in Calgary.

Outgoing TransCanada CEO touts economic benefits of Alaska pipeline to Canada

Outgoing TransCanada CEO touts economic benefits of Alaska pipeline to Canada
By: Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press
30/04/2010

CALGARY - Economic benefits from TransCanada Corp.'s planned Alaska natural gas pipeline are Canada's to lose, the outgoing chief executive of North America's largest gas shipper said Friday.

I will not dance to your beat (a poem by Nnimmo Bassey)

Nnimo Bassey, from Friends of the Earth Nigeria

I will not dance to your beat (a poem by Nnimmo Bassey)

I will not dance to your beat
If you call plantations forests
I will not sing with you
If you privatise my water
I will confront you with my fists
If climate change means death to me but business to you
I will expose your evil greed
If you don’t leave crude oil in the soil
Coal in the hole and tar sands in the land
I will confront and denounce you
If you insist on carbon offsetting and other do-nothing false solutions
I will make you see red

Tar sands will shrug off enviro castigation

Oil sands will shrug off enviro castigation
By: Matthew Hill
23rd April 2010

Make no mistake about it, the Alberta oil sands development will roar on.

While shareholder groups of oil multinationals Shell and BP have recently tried to force those companies to pull out of Alberta, politicians like Sarah Palin are shouting slogans such as: "Ramp up development."

And looking at the bigger political picture, it is clear to see why.