Indigenous nations have protected the earth on their territories for thousands of years. With the government of Canada ignoring their sovereignty, nations not only see massive theft of resources that could help alleviate social problems, but their exacerbation through their further alienation from their own lands, often accompanying being overrun by development and southern workers, while having no self-determination during this process. In the south of Canada industrial farming displaced many nations with often genocidal results. In the north, a modern equivalent of that fate is only just beginning, wrought on by industrial oil and gas drilling schemes (among many industrial plans) that are condemning entire societies, languages and cultures to a precarious future, becoming minorities in their lands for the first time.
Canada's tar sands: a dangerous solution to offshore oil
Alberta is the 'safe' option for US oil needs – but its tar sands are far more environmentally damaging than Deep Horizon
o Heather McRobie
o guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 May 2010
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
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.
BP investors must urge transparency
Catherin Howarth
guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 May 2010
We are going to the ends of the earth to find the next barrel of oil – but at what price?
The as yet unstoppable oil spill gushing from a deepwater rig drilling for BP in the Gulf of Mexico looks set to have dire environmental and social consequences – for fragile ecosystems and wildlife, and for local residents and businesses. And let us not forget the 11 people who lost their lives in the explosion.
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.
Li Ka-shing May Tap Israel for Oil-Sands Technology (For use in BP/Husky's Sunrise Project)
May 04, 2010
By Alisa Odenheimer and Mark Lee
May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing may invest in Israeli oil-sands companies to expand his interests in energy production.
Li’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. is keen to invest in oil-sands technology that limits environmental pollution, the billionaire told Israel’s Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in a meeting in Hong Kong today.
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
Combating climate change: lessons from the world’s indigenous peoples
Bolivia’s president says developing nations must not be shut out of international negotiations for combating the greatest environmental issue of our time.
Evo Morales
LA Times. April 23, 2010
Cochabamba, the water wars and climate change
April 23, 2010
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — Here in this small Andean nation of 10 million people, the glaciers are melting, threatening the water supply of the largest urban area in the country, El Alto and La Paz, with 3.5 million people living at altitudes over 10,000 feet. I flew from El Alto International, the world’s highest commercial airport, to the city of Cochabamba.
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.
