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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Tar sands "as they are" provoke negative press coverage

June 26, 2009
Tar sands "as they are" provoke negative press coverage

Here's an interesting admission from the first edition of the Canada West Foundation's Oil Sands Media Monitoring Report:

Investment not worth the spills

Investment not worth the spills
Smithers Interior News
June 24, 2009

Editor:

Christine Ogryzlo, from the Smithers Exploration Group, suggests in her letter that we should allow Enbridge to bring tar sands pipelines and super crude oil tankers to our coast to show that we support development in this region, acknowledging that it won’t bring about many jobs. That’s a pretty high-risk way to send a message.

What’s the Real Story Behind the Alaska Pipeline?

What’s the Real Story Behind the Alaska Pipeline?
Written by Ruedigar Matthes
Published on June 18th, 2009
Posted in Climate Change, Editor's Choice, Natural Resources

With the spotlight shining on clean energy, the stage has been set for the U.S. to rid itself of a harmful addiction to foreign oil. The stars are aligned and the cards have been dealt. Soon we’ll have kicked the dirty habit, right?

"Exxon-TransCan Alaska gas line push sends tremor through Mackenzie ranks"

It should be noted that this article posits that the MGP and Alaska Highway gas lines are competing-- more blather aimed at garnering concessions and subsidies from governments, etc. The reality is that the goal of five million barrels a day of tar sands bitumen extraction-- now said to be in line to happen by 2035-- cannot take place without all the MGP gas and most of the Alaskan. Math is not a debatable point.

--M

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Who’s on first?

Exxon-TransCan Alaska gas line push sends tremor through Mackenzie ranks

By Gary Park
Week of June 21, 2009
For Petroleum News

The Politics of Bait and Switch

he Politics of Bait and Switch

by Jeffrey St Clair and Joshua Frank

CounterPunch (May 21 2009)

After little more than 100 days in office, the Democrats, under the leadership of Barack Obama, have unleashed a slew of anti-environmental policies that would have enraged any reasonable conservationist during the Bush years.

Defenders of the Land, Private Property Abolitionists

Defenders of the Land, Private Property Abolitionists-- By Shiri Pasternak

Indigenous peoples in Canada have marked the geographical limits of
capitalist expansion through more than five centuries of permanent
resistance. Due to the geography of residual Aboriginal lands, they form a
final frontier of capitalist penetration for natural resource extraction,
agribusiness, and urban/suburban development. While much of the focus of
the economic crisis has centred on foreclosures and job losses in the
manufacturing and service sectors, a renewed push for resources – e.g. tar

New Climate Report: From Bad to Worse

New Climate Report: From Bad to Worse
By Bryan Walsh
Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2009
Time

Even as Congress belatedly tackles legislation that would cut U.S. carbon emissions and international negotiators have bickered over a global climate deal in Bonn, a new report by several federal agencies underscores the truths that too often risk getting lost in politics: global warming is real, it's happening now and if we don't act soon, the consequences are likely to be catastrophic.

TransCanada, ExxonMobil commit to $26B US Alaska gas pipeline

Never believe this nonsense about the MGP being canceled by the Alaska Highway Pipeline or vice versa. With the projected/planned growth of the tar pits, plus peak gas, these pipelines are both "needed" by the industrial society controlling Turtle Island. THe math is fairly clear on the subject.

--M

TransCanada, ExxonMobil commit to $26B US Alaska gas pipeline
Last Updated: Thursday, June 11, 2009
CBC News

TransCanada Corporation said Thursday it has struck a deal with ExxonMobil to develop an Alaska gas pipeline at an initial projected cost of $26 billion US.

Government and Corporate ENGO's to use Nahanni Park as smokescreen to Industrialize the Northwest Territories

Let's just unpack some of this bullshit and put it out on the table, shall we?

Good!

Here's the point of all this. The Mackenzie Gas Project will devastate the Beaufort Delta, ravage the Colville Hills region of the Sahtu, begin a process of colonial settler population transfers to the Valley where up until this day there is still a majority of the population Dene. This will include a highway, and the "temporary" migration of 1000's of workers near small communities like Wrigley/Pedzheh Kí who currently have populations of about 200 people.