Tar Sands: Pipelines and Birds

Greenpeace and the Sierra Club recently held two major protests at Gazebo Park concerning the effects of the tar sands. The first was called "No Tar Sands, No Tankers, No Pipelines, No Problem" and took place on October 16. The event was concerning Enbridge's plans to run pipelines through indigenous land. Many speakers were Aboriginal and spoke about how the tar sands are destroying their communities. Here are photos and a video I put together of speakers and music.

On October 30, the Sierra Club organized the "Zombie Duck Rally." Syncrude was recently fined three million dollars for the deaths of 1600 ducks in their toxic tailings lakes. Less than two weeks later, more birds landed the tailings ponds of oil companies in northern Alberta. Participants dressed up as zombie ducks bemoaning the fate of their brothers and sisters. This was definitely one of the most creative environmental rallies I have participated in. I sang "Butterflies and Rainbows," a song I wrote over three years ago about the effects of the tar sands in Alberta. How said it is that little has changed. Here are photos from the event and the video playlist.

Alberta's Dirty Oil

I just finished reading Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent by Andrew Nikiforuk. It is a short book with some powerful messages, especially to people living in Alberta under the downstream of the tar sands in Fort Mac.

1) Less consumption makes for less of a need for oil. To me, this was the bottom line.
2) Alberta's "oil" is indeed dirty - it is actually bitumen, a sludgy substance.
3) It takes three barrels of water to make one barrel of sludge, I mean, oil.
4) The "boom" is causing drug use, prostitution, and all kinds of other social problems in Fort Mac.
5) The environmental and health consequences of the tar sands are horrific.

Written in an easy to follow style, this is an important book for Albertans to read.