Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Martin Papillon offers up some lessons for the NDP in Francois Hollande’s French presidential victory: Being ideological does not have to mean being radical. It means anchoring your platform in a clear, coherent set of ideas that will resonate with the electorate, including
Continue readingTag: Tar Sands
LeDaro: Has Harper Government declared war on environmental groups?
Ross McMillan of Tides Canada is interviewed by Evan Solomon. Tides Canada is one of the organizations targeted by the Harper government. It looks Harper is determined that nothing stands between him and the Tar Sands oil.
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Video: Yinka Dene Alliance Freedom Train Winnipeg News Conference
Winnipeg, May 4, 2012: Hereditary Chief Tsodih of the Nak’azdli First Nation speaking at a news conference at Circle of Life Thunderbird House. Photo: Paul S. Graham The Yinka Dene Alliance is on a cross country mission to tell Canadians why they have decided to refuse the construction of the
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: B.C. Protest This Saturday to Stop Warren Buffett’s BNSF Coal Trains
shutterstock_14976709.jpg Warren Buffett, the third wealthiest man on the planet (net worth: $44 billion), often referred to as the "Oracle of Omaha," is the target of a May 5 action called for by Stop Coal B.C. Well, not Buffett directly, but a rail company he owns through his massive holding company, Berkshire
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Comparing Territories: Tar Sands Blanket Caribou Habitat
Picture 3.png As the controversy surrounding Canada’s proposed wolf cull in Alberta grows, the provincial government is attempting to limit criticism directed at the country’s polluting Tar Sands – the prime driver behind the region’s rapid decline in caribou populations. Alberta’s Ministry of Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) is the government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Dead and buried
Others have already pointed out last week’s news that oil-sands operators are pulling out of a major carbon capture and storage project. But it’s worth taking a closer look at their explanation, and how it compares to the Cons’ claim to have the slightest interest in dealing with climate change.
Continue readingbastard.logic: Fun With Infographics (Ethical Oil Edition)
Via Matt Price @ HuffPo Canada:
Continue readingEthical Oil claims David Suzuki Foundation’s activities are un-ethical
Just like the title says, to illustrate the ridiculousness of the pro oil-sands lobbying group Ethical Oil and their request to the CRA to investigate Canada’s premier Environmental Protection Group, the David Suzuki Foundation, for “political and partisan activity” I will use a simple analogy: Say that you had a village full
Continue reading350 or bust: Grassroots Democracy Initiative Organized in Face of Federal Government’s Love Affair With Dirty Energy
The following is a re-post from Anthony Marr’s HomosapiensSaveYourEarth blog. Mr. Marr has a degree in physics and is a long-time advocate for living more sustainably and gently on our earth. In 1996, he led “the highest-profile anti-trophy-hunting campaign in Canada” (Globe and Mail), and went on to found Heal
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Must Read Muckrake on the Whistleblower Behind the Enbridge Tar Sands Pipeline Spill
feature_enbridgemain.jpg On a midsummer evening in July of 2010, heavy crude started gushing from a 30-inch pipeline into Talmadge Creek, near Marshall, Michigan. By the next morning, heavy globs of oil soon were coating the Kalamazoo River, into which the Talmadge flows, and the stench of petroleum filled the air. Enbridge,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Unethicull Oil: What Alberta’s Wolf Cull Plan Tells Us About Canada’s Oil Addiction
Picture 5.png DeSmog recently sent a team to the tar sands region of Alberta to investigate the proposed government plan to systematically kill off the province’s wild wolf population in a supposed effort to recover dwindling caribou herds. The proposed cull has been widely criticized internationally for placing the interests
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – When even free-trade warrior Barrie McKenna can only respond incredulously to a message campaign on behalf of the wealthy, you know it’s gone too far. So here’s McKenna answering the contrived outrage over the NDP’s proposal for a slight increase in income tax
Continue readingbastard.logic: On That Zombie Suzuki Resignation Story
The Globe: Canada’s most famous environmentalist, David Suzuki, says he left the board of his charitable foundation to avoid being a lightning rod for criticism and government attacks that would undermine its work. Still, Peter Robinson, who is the head of the David Suzuki Foundation, said the group is facing
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Cry Wolf: An Unethical Oil Story
Picture 4.png Over the last several months, Alberta has killed more than 500 wolves using aerial sharpshooters and poisoned bait in order to conceal the impact of rapid industrial development on Canada’s iconic woodland caribou. Independent scientists say that declining caribou health stems chiefly from habitat destruction caused by the encroachment
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Tar Sands in the United States: What You Need to Know
Think that that dirtiest oil on the planet is only found up in Alberta? You might be surprised then to hear that there are tar sands deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, much of which are on public lands. While none of the American tar sands deposits are actively being
Continue readingLeftist Jab: "If there was ever a Northern Alberta budget, this is it." Rona Ambrose
Symbolically, Parliament has already moved to Suncor’s plant in Fort McMurray. “The West wants in”! Substitute “West” by “Conservative Alberta” and this budget illustrates just how far “in” they are and how they’ve thrown everyone else out. As Rona Ambrose expresses quite clearly, there is very little relief for much
Continue readingArt Threat: Of Waves, Bears and Oil – Friday Film Pick: Tipping Barrels
Tipping Barrels (Ben Gulliver, 2012) is one part surfing movie, one part wildlife documentary, one part guy flick and one part political commentary. It’s for parts two and four that I include it as this week’s Friday Film Pick. The short doc, running at 18 minutes, gazes in on British
Continue readingfirst word, tree.: Organizing the Personal to the Structural
My personal motivations for participating in movement-building stem from a steady process of feeling empowered through collective action with climate justice organizers. I wish to share my experience to help illustrate the profound impact that I believe climate justice organizing is having in Canada and how it is developing a resilient, creative,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your day. – Carol Goar asked this weekend for a reasonable explanation as to how to allocate the pain in times of austerity. Not surprisingly, the McGuinty Libs came to the wrong answer – and the Harper Cons figure to do even worse. Meanwhile, Trish Hennessy
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Harper’s anti-science shame
Don’t miss Andrew Nikiforuk’s latest contribution at The Tyee: Understanding Harper’s Evangelical Mission “…While government and industry PR folk spin fabrications about Canada’s environmental record, Scott Vaughan, Federal Environment Commissioner in the office of the Auditor General, reports that there are only 12 water quality stations for Canada’s 3,000 First
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