It is a sad reality that environmental concerns fly out the window as soon as people can make a quick cash grab. Greedy people making short term gains for other’s long-term losses are at least as old as the concept of currency itself…but then greed may very well be the original sin.
Up here, in The Great White North, most people are proud of our pristine lakes and forests. Our great swaths of untamed wilderness, but the reality is, the worst among us love money just as much as anyone else and you need to look no further than the recently renamed Oil Sands Project in Northern Alberta.
In an area roughly the size of the state of Florida, there is a massive oil-extracting project that is a boon to the Canadian economy (one of the factors keeping it strong and steady against the US dollar) and lining the pockets of fat cats both here and abroad…but there are questions that need to be answered like, “At what expense?” and “Where did all that oil come from in the first place?”
For some insight into the environmental and health hazards that directly linked to the Tar, er, Oil Sands Project, here are a couple of interesting links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/30/energy.oilandpetrolhttp://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/?p=451
http://www.tarsandswatch.org/speakers-aim-put-human-face-oil-sands-debate
http://www.tarsandswatch.org/files/Polaris_Tarsands_Moratorium_Declaration.pdf
As for where it came from, well, that’s easy…dead dinosaurs, most likely. The better question is, why now? Well, in an article from last summer, Naomi Klein succinctly explains the timing for all of this as well as the link between the Iraq War and Canada’s new oil boom…check it out here.
In short, what used to be considered a very pricey oil extraction process has now become a relatively cheap oil extraction process thanks to (drum roll please) The Iraq War!
As the war contributes heavily to the rising price of crude, Tar, er, Oil Sands oil, once considered too costly and environmentally hazardous to extract has magically become relatively cheap and well, “less” environmentally hazardous to extract. Pretty neat, huh?
Due to heightened oil demand caused by the Iraq War as well as the generally acknowledged fact that we have reached peak oil production, and the constant rising crude oil prices, what used to be called “tar” magically gets renamed, “oil” and what used to be considered “environmentally hazardous and too expensive” suddenly becomes “just too damn tempting to resist”.
When you get right down to it, this is a filthy, environmentally dangerous cash grab by The Alberta and Federal governments as well as a handful of fact cat oil tycoons that have been waiting for decades exploit this opportunity – with little or no regard for the consequences of their actions.
This is not a proud moment for Canadians. We need to rally together and start acting like we care about our precious natural resources, our once pristine land, as well as our health and the health of future of future generations…
Call your MP, sign a petition, give to those on the front lines of this thing, but most of all, do not turn a blind eye to what is becoming a very common trend – selling off our land and our natural resources to foreign interests for a quick buck.
To lobby your local MP, go here. Put together a petition and send it to them – let them hear your voice.
As usual, Green Peace is at the fore front of this critical battle, to make a donation and learn more about what GP is doing to fight The Oil Sands project go here.
-EK.
