“We Are All Downstream”: Tar Sands Protests Go Global

Yesterday, 144 protesters were taken away in police vans from the front of the White House, bringing the total number of people arrested for peacefully expressing their opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline to 843. Solidarity demonstrations sprang up yesterday at U.S. and Canadian embassies and consulates on six continents, including Durban, South Africa where visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to cross a picket line thrown up by climate justice campaigners. And speaking of Ms. Clinton, here’s a video via DeSmogBlog, featuring her and her “State Department Oil Services”. The animation is by Mark Fiore:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtr1kU0b_Gw&feature=player_embedded]

I’ve been extremely busy over the last few weeks with out-of-town guests, family celebrations (congratulations again on your 50th wedding anniversary, Mom and Dad!) and saying goodbye to our daughters as they head off to another year of university (you’ll be missed, girls). Here’s a few stories/websites that caught my eye yesterday as I surfed the Net to see what I had missed. Have a great Labour Day weekend (and yes, Canadians spell it with a “u”)!

  • From Daily Kos.com: Tar Sands Scam: 5,000 Jobs Over 3 Years Is Worth Risk To People, Economy, Wildlife & Water? (Although I do wish Daily Kos would stop posting ads featuring Tim Hudak, the Ontario PC Leader who is campaigning to cancel our province’s progressive Green Energy Act. It’s especially jarring to see him linked to articles about the importance of clean energy. Feel free to send them a note, as I have, asking them to remove these and stop promoting Hudak’s anti-renewables agenda)
  • Powering a Nation.org has put out an amazing interactive film. Check it out at Coal: A Love Story: It’s more than a rock. It’s power. It’s people. It’s a relationship.
  • A new report says that only 1 in 8 insurers are planning for climate change, despite the fact that insurers generally acknowledge the problem of climate change and the effect it can have on their business:

“Even those insurers with no formal climate policy, no climate risk management structure and a stated belief that the company is not vulnerable to the effects of climate change still name perils that may be affected by climate change 20 percent of the time,” Ceres said in its report. Read the full article on Reuters.com

More links:

DeSmogBlog’s Tar Sands Action Page


Pipeline Protestors to Obama: This Is Our Environmental Impact Statement

Photo by Milan Ilnyckyj

From TPM.com, Why Far-Off Canadian Tar Sands Have Become Make-or-Break Issue For Obama With Enviros:

For six days and counting now, hundreds of protesters have gathered outside the White House to demand President Obama intervene and stop the construction of an oil pipeline that will span the breadth of the United States — from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 300 of them have been arrested — and not just wild-eyed idealistic college students, but high-profile advocates including environmental leader Bill McKibben. Despite all this, the administration says this is a question for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

What the heck is this all about?

At issue isn’t just NIMBYism or standard concerns about oil spills, but the question of whether the United States should accelerate an extraction process that some environmental experts say will lose the fight against global warming forever. Click here to read full article.

Photo by Josh Easton

Meanwhile, here in Canada, there is an Ottawa day of action against the tar sands being organized for September 26th. The Indigenous Environmental Network, The Council of Canadians, and Greenpeace Canada, are calling for a day of sit-ins on Parliament Hill to show Canadians support a transition to a clean energy future:

There comes a time when you need to take a stand. When sending letters and signing petitions isn’t enough. When together we must say, “enough is enough — not on our watch”.

That time is now. We must act together for the health of our planet, our air, our water, our climate, and our children.

On September 26th we need you to come to Ottawa to join a historic action to oppose the tar sands. In a large peaceful protest, many will be risking arrest to tell the Harper government that we don’t support his reckless agenda; that we want to turn away from the toxic tar sands industry; and that we oppose the direction he’s taking this country.

For more information, go to Ottawa Action.ca.

More links:

Energy Protests Are In Martin Luther King’s Footsteps: Obama Should Heed Tar Sand Civil Disobedience

Big Oil-Funded Meeting of Canadian Energy Ministers Ends: Did They Get What They Paid For?

From CBC.ca:

Canada’s energy ministers ended two days of annual talks Tuesday in the Kananaskis resort in the Alberta Rockies announcing they have agreed to work together on opening up new markets to Canadian crude oil.

They also agreed to work on streamlining the process for approving energy projects.

In a communiqué, the ministers said they also aim to improve energy efficiency, energy information and electricity reliability.

In an admirable show of independence, Ontario’s energy minister refused to support the final communiqué issued, because it referred to the Alberta tar sands as “sustainable and responsible”. It appears that Big Oil money talks but not everybody listened this weekend.  The McGuinty government is responsible for the visionary Green Energy Act that focuses on jumpstarting renewable energy production in this province.  Ontario plans to keep up the focus on energy policy, particularly renewables, at the upcoming Premier’s meeting in B.C:

“For years, if not decades, governments in Ottawa of all political stripes have sought to find ways to transfer Ontario tax dollars into Western Canada to support the oil and gas industry,” said Mr. McGuinty, when asked in Oakville, Ont., about his views on the meeting.

“Well, how about using Canadian tax dollars to support clean energy industry that is taking place, that is developing – we’re at the forefront in North America, we’re creating thousands of jobs, we’re reducing our contribution to climate change. We’re shutting down coal-fired plants.”

Mr. McGuinty said these are “difficult things” to do. “What we’re saying to the feds is, ‘Hey, you want to help support energy superpowers, you’ve got to take a look at the entire country. Take a look at the contribution that each province is making, and I think we’re making a powerful contribution.’ ” Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Meanwhile, First Nations and environmental groups are dismayed at the official support of the energy ministers for the Alberta tar sands, the dirtiest project on earth. Ed Whittingham of the Alberta-based Pembina Institute wrote:

“While the ministers expressed interest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, their decision to call Canada’s oilsands a ‘sustainable’ source of energy for the world raises serious questions about that goal.

“Non-renewable, high-carbon sources of energy are by their very nature unsustainable. Canada needs to plan for a transition away from depending on exports of such sources, like the oilsands.

“A national energy framework needs to seize the economic opportunities offered by clean energy and achieve Canada’s climate targets. Unfortunately, the documents released today failed to make either addressing climate change or supporting renewable energy a priority.

“Before their next meeting, Canada’s energy ministers need to outline a national energy framework built on meaningful dialogue with citizens. An effective framework must also include a price on greenhouse gas pollution as a central feature.”

Meanwhile, while Canadian policy formally ignores the reality of climate change, the worst drought in half a century continues to kill Somalis by the tens of thousands,  the UN Security Council considers a proposal to form a climate change peacekeeping force, and the ongoing heat wave across much of North America kills at least 13 people in the American heartland.

More links:

Ontario Refuses To Call Alberta’s Oil Sands “Sustainable and Responsible”

Les écologistes pas convaincus

Pembina Reacts To the Outcome of Energy Ministers’ Meeting in Kananaskis

Ontario Tax Dollars Supporting Energy in the West, McGuinty Says

Energy Ministers to Seek New Oil Markets

White Water, Black Gold

You can’t practice abstinence while running a brothel. Yet politicians of almost all stripes talk simultaneously about developing the Alberta oil sands while getting serous about reducing carbon emissions. Sound like a crock? It is.

Mitchell Anderson, It’s the Tar Sands, Stupid

It’s not just the carbon emissions from the tar sands that are polluting our ecosystem and making our children’s future more precarious. The amount of fresh water contaminated by the Alberta tar sands boggles the mind.  The tailings pond (where 90% of the fresh water used ends up) are large enough to be seen from outer space. Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year.  White Water, Black Gold follows adventure filmmaker David Lavallee on his three-year quest across Western Canada for the truth about the impact of world’s thirstiest, and dirtiest, oil industry:

This is a journey of jarring contrasts, from the pristine mountain ice fields that are the source of the industry’s water, to the Tar Sands tailing ponds, where thousands of migrating birds have unwittingly landed and died.

Both government and industry spokespeople deny any cause for concern, but in the course of his journey Lavallee, backed by university scientists, makes a number of discoveries that challenge that assessment and raise serious concerns for Canada and the United States.

Native peoples living downstream are contracting unusual cancers; new science shows that water resources in an era of climate change will be increasingly scarce; the proposed upgrading of the oilfields could endanger multiple river systems across Canada that makeup about half of its water supply; and a planned oil pipeline across British Columbia brings fresh threats to rivers, salmon and the Pacific Ocean.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPiScQhecug]

This Saturday, June 18th, is  International Stop The Tar Sands Day, where events are taking place in front of Canadian embassies around the world to shine light on the terrible price the tar sands extract from our planet and the people living around it.  In anticipation of International Stop The Tar Sands Day, The Winnipeg Chapter of the Council of Canadians has organized a screening of White Water, Black Gold this Thursday, June 16, at 7 pm at the Unitarian Church, 603 Wellington Crescent.  Admission is by donation. I’ll see you there!

More links:

International Stop The Tar Sands Day

Tar Sands Vs. Clean Water: Eating the Earth For Cars

David Lavallee

The Pembina Institute: Water Impacts of Oil Sands

It’s The Tar Sands, Stupid

Rick Mercer On The Conservative Environmental Plan: Oil Rules

Although this video is nearly three years old, it is just as true now as it was then.  Rick Mercer considers the Harper government’s oil industry approved “environmental” strategy in “Oil Rules”:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs48KAJ_1pc&NR=1]

More links:

The Harper Government’s Record on Climate Change

Federal Election 2011: A Checklist For Clean Energy Success