Land, regardless of whether covered by forests, tundra or grasslands, is threatened by mining operations such as Alberta’s vast open tar pit operations, or through incredible networks of “right of way” cuts for pipelines that extend in the hundreds of thousands of miles, all told, and across the continent in four directions and to three oceans—either through feeding the tarsand operations with fossil fuel energy or through feeding energy markets from tarsand operations after production. In the case of pipeline right of ways, they can blast directly through mountains or be buried in permafrost if needed, to get the energy to move.
Oil giant Total pauses Madagascar tar sands plans – for now
7 July 2011
This Monday WDM campaigners came to the office with big smiles on their faces. Over the weekend, we’d heard that French Oil giant Total, subject to one of our latest online actions, had apparently cancelled its plans to mine tar sands in Madagascar.
High fives all around. Or?
Madagascar Oil and Total drop Africa’s biggest oil sands project
Frik Els | July 1, 2011
Madagascar Oil’s annual report released on Thursday shows the company is scuttling its project with French giant Total to develop a massive oil sand deposit on the island estimated to contain 1.2bn barrels of oil after three years of extensive work. The Bemolanga bitumen deposit adjacent the Tsingy de Bemaraha nature reserve (pictured) was first drilled in the late 1800s and would have cost upwards of $8bn to bring into operation.
Jordanian Senate endorses laws ratifying oil shale agreements
June 29, 2011
Jordan Times
Climate Change: It's bad and getting worse
Severe weather events are wracking the planet, and experts warn of even greater consequences to come.
Dahr Jamail
Al Jazeera, June 23, 2011
The rate of ice loss in two of Greenland's largest glaciers has increased so much in the last 10 years that the amount of melted water would be enough to completely fill Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes in North America.
Enviros, celebs plan W.H. protest
POLITICO [reprinted in the Seattle PI]
Published 03:41 a.m., Thursday, June 23, 2011
A group of environmentalists and liberal celebrities are organizing civil disobedience protests at the White House against a proposed oil pipeline - with the emphasis on "civil."
In an open letter, actor Danny Glover, activists Bill McKibben, James Hansen, David Suzuki and others ask for volunteers willing to risk arrest at the White House from mid-August to Labor Day.
But they don't want downtown Washington to look like Vancouver after the Stanley Cup Finals.
Oil sands activity, not wolves, threatens Canadian caribou
June 22, 2011
OilSandsLoader
Four years of research has found that exploration and mining of Canada's oil sands appear to pose a much greater threat to the remaining herds of Alberta's caribou than does being eaten by packs of wolves.
The findings, by a team of Canadian and U.S. researchers, caution Alberta authorities against pouncing on a proposed quick fix: killing off wolves to save the caribou from extinction.
Neighbors wary of tar sands refinery in Detroit
By Eartha Jane Melzer | 06.23.11
The Marathon refinery in southwest Detroit is expanding in order to process more Canadian tar sands crude oil, a move it admits will increase pollution in a neighborhood already burdened by industrial contamination.
The Detroit Free Press reports that many want to leave the neighborhood and that Marathon has bought up some of the homes around its 81 year-old factory for use as parking lots or green space.
June 27, 2011
Feds fund Shells CO2 project general newsCalgary, Alberta – Shell has secured $865 million in funding from the federal and Alberta governments for a project to store CO2 from its tar sands operations.
The Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project is intended to capture more than one million tonnes of CO2 per year from Shell’s Scotford Upgrader near Edmonton, which processes heavy oil from the Athabasca oil sands, and permanently store it deep underground. Quest would be the first application of CCS technology for an oil sands upgrading operation, the company said.
Alberta fires prompt Shell to pull workers from oilsands mine site
By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press –May 19, 2011
CALGARY — Shell Canada Ltd. said Thursday it was pulling non-essential workers from its vast oilsands mining operations north of Fort McMurray, Alta., as wildfire smoke drifted toward the site.
The winds had previously moved smoke north from the site, but overnight they changed direction and brought heavier smoke into the area.
Tar Sands development edging closer in Trinidad and Tobago?
RBC appears at Trinidad government forum extolling their record in Canada's tar sands
by Macdonald Stainsby
April 19, 2011
Mediacoop.ca
In December of 2010, Rainforest Action Network [RAN], issued a press release that was full of praise for the Royal Bank of Canada adopting a new framework around investments in companies involved in tar sands production.
