The Feb. 29th forum was a huge success, with over 116 people in attendance.
You can now download the entire PowerPoint presentation here:
Also, the presentation is now available as a YouTube video! Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EBAdFe8198
For those of you who missed it, but are interested in the topic There are links below to help you learn more. Also below – is the excellent info sheet prepared for the forum by Ann Morris.
There are many brochures and much good information available.
here are some links:
http://friendsofwildsalmon.ca/images/uploads/resources/LOS_tankersfullwithtrouble.pdf
http://www.pembina.org/oil-sands
http://wildernesscommittee.org/publication/oil_tanker_ban_lets_keep_canadas_west_coast_oil_spill_free
A Comprehensive Guide to the Alberta Oil Sands (100 pages long!)
http://www.greenparty.ca/issues/alberta-oil-sands
The federal government’s Joint Review Panel is currently considering the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. You can make a written submission to the Review. To find out how:
http://gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/prtcptngprcss/lttrfcmmnt-eng.html
You can submit a letter to the panel through this website – deadline is August
Videos:
these were shown at the forum:
From Tar Sands to Tankers: the battle to stop Enbridge – about 15 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqQV596Qp-c
Greenpeace Petropolis “webisodes” (3 minutes each):
Marie Adam, Northern Alberta First Nation Elder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIQkFmKjgEU
Dr. John O’Conner, Fort McMurray Physician
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLHgUmNtj9g&feature=relmfu
Dr. Kevin Timony, Alberta water expert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nReBw5IzaCM
This one is good for a younger audience who have short attention spans:
The Tar Sands Blow (3 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KokiUgvlwc4
Info sheet:
The Alberta Tar Sands
The Alberta Tar Sands, also called Oil Sands, are the world’s last large remaining oil field, containing 173 billion barrels of recoverable oil (bitumen). Its operations cover 54,000 square miles of boreal forest equal to the size of England. It is the world’s largest energy project, the world’s largest construction project, and with over $200 billion invested, it is the world’s largest capital project. The Tar Sands produces about 1.9 million barrels of bitumen a day, most of it exported to the USA. Each barrel produced requires between 3 and 7 barrels of fresh water, which ends up in gigantic toxic tailings ponds that leak or seep into groundwater and the Athabasca River, negatively impacting the health of downstream communities, such as Fort Chipewyan.
Tar sands oil is extracted in two ways: open pit or ‘strip mining’, in which the entire ecosystem including boreal forest and peat marsh is removed, and ‘in situ’ mining, where the oil is melted out of the ground by injecting pressurized steam at high temperatures. Both extraction methods use vast amounts of natural gas, but ‘in situ’ uses about twice the energy and water that strip mining does. Canadian taxpayers subsidize the cost of this natural gas with $1.7 billion annually. The tar sands are Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and the reason that Canada has not met its binding commitments to GHG reductions under the international Kyoto Protocol. Canada has now withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol, the only country of the 184 that ratified the treaty to do so.
The Pembina Institute: ‘Alberta’s Oil Sands 101’ – http://www.pembina.org/oil-sands/os101
The Polaris Institute – ‘Tar Sands Watch -Fact Sheets’: http://www.tarsandswatch.org/tar-sands-watch-issue-factsheets
‘Weaver & Swart study shows oilsands emissions still a problem’ (Pembina Institute, Feb. 27/12) http://www.pembina.org/blog/612
Taxpayers Subsidize the Tar Sands industry with $1.7 Billion annually:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/11/09/GasBillForOilSands/
‘World Headed for Irreversible Climate Change in Five Years, International Energy Agency Warns’ Any fossil fuel infrastructure built in the next five years will mean the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change says the IEA, a branch of the UN Energy Program
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/09/fossil-fuel-infrastructure-climate-change
………….
The Proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline
The proposed Enbridge Pipeline is a $6.6 billion twin pipeline that would carry 525,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands bitumen daily from Bruderheim, AB to a marine terminal near Kitimat, BC, where it would be loaded onto supertankers as long as the Empire State Building is high, and shipped to Asian markets. The pipeline would cross 1,177 kilometres, most of it mountainous terrain, and more than 1000 streams and rivers. Because the bitumen has to be diluted with condensate for it to flow, a second pipeline is needed to return the condensate to Alberta for reuse.
The pipeline would require a 30 per cent increase in the production of tar sands oil. Over a year, this would produce greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to the annual emissions of 1.6 million cars; consume the amount of natural gas used by 1.3 million households in Canada each year; disturb 11.5 square kilometers of forest; use the amount of water consumed annually by a city of 250,000; and result in enough tailings leakage to fill 182 Olympic-size swimming pools. It would also require a further 74 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year, equivalent to 34 per cent of British Columbia’s annual natural gas consumption. (Source: ‘Opening the Door for Oil Sands Expansion – The Enbridge Oil Sands Pipeline’ (Pembina Institute): http://www.pembina.org/pub/1950
Indigenous Nations who inhabit the interior and coastal regions of Northern British Columbia strongly oppose this project, which they say threatens their rights and livelihoods through enormous ecological devastation in the event of an oil spill. Enbridge pipelines underwent 67 spills in 2006 and 65 more in 2007. 130 First Nations chiefs have now signed the ‘Save the Fraser Declaration,’ stating: “We will not allow the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, or similar Tar Sands projects, to cross our lands, territories and watersheds, or the ocean migration routes of Fraser River salmon.”
Save the Fraser Declaration: http://savethefraser.ca
Fundamental Justice Issues at Stake in Gateway Pipeline Debate (KAIROS Canada info)
http://www.kairoscanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/SUS_RE_KAIROSGatewayAnalysis.pdf
Does anyone in government really care about Canadian jobs? The Northern Gateway Pipeline and Canadian jobs – a look at Harper’s ‘diversification’ agenda. (Trevor Harrison, Canadian Dimension, Feb. 17, 2012) http://canadiandimension.com/articles/4512/
‘The Expert’s Report that Damns the Northern Gateway Pipeline’ – veteran energy analyst David Hughes calculates three reasons the project is bad for Canada. The Tyee, Jan. 12, 2012. http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/01/12/HughesReport/
‘Eleven Oily Questions for Every MP’, Andrew Nikiforuk in The Tyee Feb. 1, 2012 http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/02/01/Eleven-Oily-Questions/
Let the Harper government and Opposition Party critics know your views on the proposed Enbridge Gateway Pipeline and expansion of the Tar Sands:
Peter Kent, Minister of the Environment – E-mail: minister@ec.gc.ca
NDP Environment Critic – Megan Leslie – E-mail: megan.leslie@parl.gc.ca
Liberal Party Environment Critic – Kirsty Duncan – E-mail: kirsty.duncan@parl.gc.ca
Colin Mayes, MP for Okanagan-Shuswap – colin.mayes@parl.gc.ca
Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources: joe.oliver@parl.gc.ca
NDP Natural Resources Critic, Western Canada – Nathan Cullen – nathan.cullen@parl.gc.ca
Liberal Party Natural Resources Critic – David McGuinty – david.mcguinty@parl.gc.ca
Prime Minister Stephen Harper – E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
Letters can also be sent by post to all the above at: House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6 (free postage!)
This leaflet was prepared by Anne Morris, e-mail: willae@uleth.ca