Tar Sands, not just a national, but an international disgrace

Just how environment-destroying are the Alberta Tar Sands?

Who knows. But we do know now that they are at least 5 times more lethal than the industry is admitting, natch, and they are getting worse — directly covering an area of 450 sq kms today; 1,000 sq. kms in 30 years.

Alberta has just 15% of Canada’s population yet accounts for over 30% of the entire country’s greenhouse gases.

The Tar Sands are the major reason Canada failed to honour its Kyoto promise.

And as long as the Tar Sands continue to devastate the landscape, Canada will have no chance of meeting even minimum commitments it will pretend to agree to in Copenhagen.

The Tar Sands cannot be a provincial matter when its pollution impacts the entire country … and the entire globe.

Enabling the oil companies to act so recklessly is a provincial, national and international disgrace.

It’s kind of like American elections: if the US is going to so radically de-stabilize the world, everyone on the planet should have a vote on who will lead the superpower.

Ditto Alberta: if the province is going to so seriously impact the world’s climate people from Bangladesh to Bimini, from St John’s to Victoria should have the right to vote on who will lead the rogue province.