shutterstock_48011344.jpg How do you sell a rotten bag of goods? Rule number one of effective propaganda: repackage it into something seemingly less grotesque. In that spirit, the Houston Chronicle recently reported the American Petroleum Institute (API) has created yet another front group, this one to promote tar sands crude, one of the dirtiest sources of fuel in the world, as a
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DeSmogBlog: New Documentary "Rational Middle": Oil and Gas Advertising in Disguise
Rational Middle Logo.jpeg The "Rational Middle Energy Series," directed and produced by Gregory Kallenberg, is hot off the film rolls and has already been screened at an influential venue: the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival. Kallenberg also directed and produced the documentary film "Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for An Energy Future,"
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Maps Show Tar Sands Sprawl in Caribou Habitat: Could Resolve Problem with 1% of Industry Profits, says Scientist
alberta-caribou.jpg Alberta’s threatened caribou herds will stand a significantly better chance of surviving the province’s development of the Tar Sands, according to a group of scientists, if the oil and gas industry is willing to spare 1 percent of its potential development profits to make it happen. According to a
Continue reading350 or bust: Enbridge’s Slick New Ad Campaign Flounders
I spent last week taking an intensive course in citizen advocacy at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding in Winnipeg. It was a great week – I learned a lot and met some wonderful people. I’m home now, but brought home a souvenir that I’d rather do without – a very
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: I Love You Huffpo but What’s Going On?
I have been writing on environmental issues on the popular news blog Huffington Post going on five years now but I am not sure if I will continue. read more
Continue readingearthgauge: And now a few comments on The Tyee’s new sustainable energy project…
In my post below, I recommended following a new investigative reporting series being produced by The Tyee. I commend this initiative as it is important, timely and deserves our attention. Now for some thoughts on what The Tyee is hoping to achieve with this project. First, a few words of caution
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Terror is in the Eye of the Beholder: Alberta’s Counterterrorism Unit to Protect Oil and Gas Industry
Picture 2.png In January, during the week before Canada’s federal hearing on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, the Harper government and Ethical Oil Institute launched an unprecedented attack on environmental organizations opposed to the pipeline and accelerated expansion of the tar sands. Resurrecting Cold War-style ‘terrorist’ rhetoric, conservative politicians like
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: Al Jazeera Reports On The Enbridge Pipeline
It would be great if we could get some in-depth reporting on the issues surrounding the Alberta tar/bitumen sands from the Canadian media (from some place other than the completely terrific Tyee that is). For now however, we have to rely on organ…
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: Al Jazeera Reports On The Enbridge Pipeline
It would be great if we could get some in-depth reporting on the issues surrounding the Alberta tar/bitumen sands from the Canadian media (from some place other than the completely terrific Tyee that is). For now however, we have to rely on organizations like Al Jazeera to provide us with
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: Al Jazeera Reports On The Enbridge Pipeline
It would be great if we could get some in-depth reporting on the issues surrounding the Alberta tar/bitumen sands from the Canadian media (from some place other than the completely terrific Tyee that is). For now however, we have to rely on organizations like Al Jazeera to provide us with
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: TransCanada’s Latest Extreme Energy Export Pipelines in the U.S. and Canada
shutterstock_48011347.jpg TransCanada was once in the limelight and targeted for its Keystone XL pipeline project. Now, with few eyes watching, it is pushing along two key pipeline projects that would bring two respective forms of what energy geopolitics scholar Michael Klare calls "extreme energy" to lucrative export markets. Pipeline one: the southern
Continue reading350 or bust: Hey Mister Prime Minister, Why Are You So Afraid Of Canadians?
Courageous and talented Canadian artist Franke James, whose 2011 European art tour was cancelled after interference from the Harper government, has recently published an illustrated essay on the current overlap of oil and state (with a large dose of anti-science, anti-democratic polemic) in Canadian politics. You can find Franke’s essay,
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: Cons vs. NDP on Dutch Disease shows marginalization of Liberal Party
I remarked last week on Twitter about how NDP leader Tom Mulcair has been dominating my daily news clip package lately, as his comments about an alleged Canadian case of “Dutch Disease” and subsequent trip to the Alberta oil sands spark a heated debate about the Canadian resource sector and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Mordor found in Northern Alberta
Following up on an article I wrote last week for Huffington Post Canada, a commenter suggested that the Alberta tar sands looked like a real-life version of Mordor, the home of the evil Sauran in J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. read more
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Tom Mulcair and the Tarry Bubbly
Whew. I see Tom Mulcair managed to gallop into Alberta today, cast his eyes upon the darkness of the Oil Sands, and make his getaway without dropping the dreaded T word. In his first-ever visit to the Alberta oilsands as NDP leader, Mulcair was about to substitute “tar” for
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Calming Down – Putting Down Roots
The move is over. Let the unpacking begin. Thank you, my committed readership, for staying with us here at DWR during the transition to our new home. It has been a wild and hectic couple of weeks. I should be able to commit a little more time to blogging and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Tar Sands Oil Companies 71 Percent Foreign-Owned – Cue Ezra Levant’s Outrage
Foreign Control of Tar Sands.png ForestEthics released a game-changing research brief today documenting the massive foreign control of Alberta's tar sands oil industry. Publicly traded oil companies with active tar sands operations have a very high level of foreign ownership – 71 per cent. Some supposedly "Canadian" oil companies including
Continue readingLeDaro: Oil Sands in Alberta: Who owns them?
More than two-thirds of all oilsands production in Canada is owned by foreign entities, sending a majority of the industry’s profits out of the country, says a new analysis released Thursday by a British Columbia-based conservation group. Photograph by: MARK RALSTON , AFP/Getty Images “More than two-thirds of all oilsands
Continue readingLeDaro: Brad Wall: Oil Sands is a great stuff
Thomas Mulcair of NDP calls oil sands Dutch disease. Premier of Saskatchewan Brad Wall is very upset. His interview with Evan Solomon of CBC:
Continue reading350 or bust: Freedom Train to Canadians: Our Democratic Process Is Being Lost
Yinka Dene Alliance Freedom Train arrived in Winnipeg last night. The Alliance is on a cross Canada trip that will end in Toronto, on Bay Street, at the Enbridge AGM. Their goal is to spread the word to Canadians about the dangers posed by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline
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