[View the story "The World's Dirtiest Oil? - Canada's Tar Sands" on Storify ]The World's Dirtiest Oil? - Canada's Tar Sands Controversial mining operations threaten the lives and livelihood of Canada's indigenous people, who have organised a global response to take on oil companies and the Canadian government itself. Storified by The Stream · Wed, Oct 26 2011 21:59:36
Activists are flocking to the web to organize a multi-location protest against oil sands extraction operations currently underway in Alberta, Canada. The protest is scheduled to happen June 18 across Canada and in front of Canadian embassies around the world.
Stop Tar Sandsstoptarsands.yolasite.com
INTERNATIONAL STOP THE TAR SANDS DAY: On 18 June the biggest ever international demonstration against the TarSands will take place!climatecamp
Participants are gathering to oppose continuing extraction happening in the bitumen mining operations in the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River regions of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
File:Athabasca Oil Sands map.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaupload.wikimedia.org
First Nations efforts to stop mining projects have been ongoing for years, and have included international street protests and visits to foreign governments.
This video shows a First Nations-led protest that took place in London in 2009.
Climate Camp: Tar Sands Protestvisionontv
Leaders of First Nations bands and communities (Canada's indigenous people) accuse the government of racing to develop the mines at dire cost to land, fisheries, and essential sources of drinking water in the region.
Other Fort Chipewyan residents, too afraid to drink from their taps at all, are paying to have bottled water flown in.commondreams.org
An independent scientific study by the Athabasca First Nation confirms the presence of elevated levels of arsenic and mercury in the water and wildlife. Twelve residents of the tiny community of Fort Chip have died so far in 2008 alone.thetyee.ca
Cancer rates have skyrocketed in communities reliant on tainted water.
New scientific research has found increased levels of some carcinogenic chemicals linked to oil sands mining in the Athabasca River, refuting long-held industry and government claims that natural sources are responsible for the pollutants.reuters.com
Local food sources are also tainted by the carcinogenic runoff.
Mutated fish alarms delegates at northern Alberta water gathering - Edmonton - CBC Newscbc.ca
Mining opponents also claim that indigenous communities have not been compensated for land use, and that such government infringement violates several long-standing treaties between First Nations and the Canadian Crown, which leases land to oil companies.
Ending Investment in Tar Sandsfacebook.com
Runoff from these operations is so damaging because of the difficulty of the extraction process: the earth is stripped of topsoil or deforested, then the sand is either scraped away and boiled or heated with steam in situ to separate the thick, tar-like oil from sand and other impurities.
Harper and Tar Sands Emissions Make Canada A Carbon Bully « One Blue Marble Blogone-blue-marble.com
The process places a very high demand on local fresh water sources.
This video, filmed in 2009 in an unidentified part of Alberta's oil sands region, shows the size of a typical mine and the kind of surface damage often found in a mined area.
YouTube - Oil Sandsmikhantube
The bitumen deposits cover an area of about 140,000 square kilometers, or a region about the size of England.
Erich Pica: The Attempted Corporate Greenwash of Canada's Dirty Tar Sandsimages.huffingtonpost.com
Stop Tar Sandsstoptarsands.yolasite.com
Currently, almost half of all oil produced in Canada comes from these kinds of bitumen deposits, which contain the world's second-largest petroleum reserve, behind Saudi Arabia.
Canada confirms it will reject new Kyoto Protocol | Reuterss1.reutersmedia.net
Defenders of the mining operations claim that the embattled oil companies are on the losing side of a PR game, and that Canadian oil has a better human rights record than crude extracted from countries like Libya, Saudi Arabia, or Sudan.
Levant dismissed concerns raised by First Nations leaders as coming from, "a few, paid spokespeople," who are paid to, "advocate against the interests of their own people."princegeorgecitizen.com
There are some indications that years of increasingly vocal and visible dissent from affected communities has moved the needle: the Alberta government has made some concessions to oil sands opponents.
Canada's Alberta province has announced plans to reclaim 20% of public land from the oil sands industry for conservation purposes—a move that would affect operations and financials of a number of oil sands producers in Canada and potentially deter future investments.ihs.com
However, Canada recently joined Russia and Japan in rejecting a proposal to extend emissions controls under the current Kyoto Protocol past 2012. This eliminates any ceilings on carbon emissions, allowing tar sands extraction to move forward.
Canada blasted for record on #tarsands by foreign diplomats at UN Climate Change session http://is.gd/NNziqO #Indigenous #cpc11 #cdnpolHarshaWalia
