Catastrophe times Five

The U.S. Department of Energy wants Canadian companies to increase production in Alberta's Oil Sands at five times its current rate.

In his State of the Union Address, George Bush said he wanted to reduce America's dependence on oil from the Middle East. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean reducing America's oil consumption, it means that Canada pays for America's oil addiction with our environment and our sovereignty. Currently the Oil Sands produce a million barrels of oil a day, and a barrel of oil produces about 80 kg of Greenhouse gases. The Oil Sands also razed the Northern Alberta where this page grew up into a barren, toxic sewer, and the volume of water required to extract the bitumen (four barrels of water for a barrel of oil) creates ongoing shortages for Alberta farms, families, and communities. Imagine what those shortages will be like for Albertans if the Oil Sands demands 20 million barrels of water a day.

If the Harper government abandons its recently discovered environmental foothold (out of political convenience) to cater to the whims of Big Oil (and its Conservative puppet regime in Alberta), 400,000 metric tonnes of Greenhouse gases a day will make it too late for any Tory Greenwashing, or for that matter, anything else. Remember the Conservatives' campaign slogan from a year ago "Stand up for Canada"? Either they do it on this one, or there may not be a Canada left to stand up for.