Green Oil Blog

Canada 2020 Symposium on Greening the Oilsands Via Science & Technology

In the face of growing oppostion and noise about the Alberta oilsands, there are some rays of hope for adult converstion about responsible and sustainable oilsands development shining through. For example, today in Ottawa there is a Canada 2020 Symposium happening on “Greening” the Oil Sands: Canadian Science and Clean Tech Leads the Way.

Environmental and Public Health Disaster: Canada's Tar-Sands Cesspool by Michael Werbowski

The Paris based, French monthly journal,"Le Monde Diplomatique", in it's April edition took a long, hard, and deep, look into the immense toxic cesspool which are the Alberta tar-sands today.

According to the in-depth report ( entitled in French: "Sous les sables bitumineux de l'Alberta") , around the Athabasca lake region, the cancer rate is becoming "alarming"; or 30% above the Albertain provincial average. The culprit is suspected to be the 230 Km2 toxic reservoirs where the effluence from the oil industry's operations is collected. The massive scale extraction of the "black oil," underway for years now, seeks to suck out the remaining 170 billion barrels of beneath the Boreal forest, of which huge swaths are by now cut and destroyed to get to the oil ( as the earth is transformed into toxic sludge) underneath. Massive quantities of fresh-water are used to "steam out" the viscous petrol from the tar-like sands. The process gives off vast amount of C02 gas as well. Read Michael Werbowski's full article here, on the Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG) website.

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Satya presenting at Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge

Watch all the Canada at 150 sessions with panelists and Q & A sessions here!

Future and current Canadian leaders and prominent thinkers will be gathering in Montreal March 26-28 to reflect on how we will resolve the challenges we face as we draw closer to the nation's 150th birthday in 2017.

Satya has been invited to add his input to how can Canada balance growth and responsibility with energy, environmental and economic concerns. As he explains in Green Oil, we can fill the gap that exists in the world for a nation that leads in low carbon clean – energy production. He will be part of the Saturday panel Energy, Environment, Economy and Responsibility in 2017 panel discussion from 2:15 pm to 3:00 pm Eastern time on Saturday March 27.

Both participants in Montreal and everyone across Canada is invited to participate online, by attending or hosting events in their communities and watching the live interactive webcast..

For more information on how to be part of the discussion on Canada in 2017 you can visit : http://can150.ca/participate-online/

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Guest blog by Robert MacGarvey Copenhagen, and the Age of Unreason

According to the press Alberta’s Environment Minister is going to get on his horse, ride into town and show them foreigners (in Copenhagen) a ‘thing or two’. “I’m going to Copenhagen as a proud Albertan…Alberta can hold its head high as a responsible major global energy producer already acting to make real greenhouse-gas reductions.” The Environment Minister is going to the Climate Change Summit armed – no doubt – with the latest policy initiatives of the Alberta Government, the latest scientific evidence and a cupboard full of rational arguments in support of the oil sands development being no more damaging to the planet than other less high profile developments. He is assuming that these rational arguments will win the day and save the oil sands as an economic development resource in Alberta.

Oil and terror mix all too well

How chilling that 19 (thankfully!) non-violent Greenpeace protesters scaled Canada’s Parliament with impunity to hang banners supporting their evangelical crusade against the oil sands.

Only weeks ago in a Toronto courtroom, Canadian justice dispensed with the cases of 18 Canadians charged with plotting to invade Parliament with intent to behead the prime minister and blow up the ultimate symbol of our democracy.

When arrests were first made in that plot, many of us thought these the absurd fantasy of deluded jihadists – who in their right mind could imagine that 18 armed miscreants could cavalierly saunter on to Parliament Hill and seize the buildings?

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