Dirty Oil - A Documentary on The Alberta Tar Sands

Dirty Oil - A Documentary on The Alberta Tar Sands, was recently taken off youtube because of a copyright claim by dogwoof . I guess money is more important to them than having this movie shown to as many people as possible. It would seem that enlightening people on the health dangers and unprecedented man-made environmental devastation of the tar sands takes a back seat to making a buck.

Ironically, even the Alberta government chipped in nearly $55,000 toward the total cost of $288,000 spent on production for the movie in the province. Being from Alberta, I helped pay for this movie with my tax dollars. The way I see it, that makes me part owner.

A film written and directed by Leslie Iwerks. This documentary from 2009 exposes the dishonesty and greed of the Canadian and Alberta governments as well as the oil companies, who make huge profits at the expense of the environment, the wildlife, and the native communities who live near the tar sands of northern Alberta.

here is an excerpt from, tar sands - dirty oil and the future of a continent, by andrew nikiforuk:

pollution from the tar sands has now created an acid rain problem in saskatchewan and manitoba.

with much help from 150,000 tonnes of acid-making air-borne pollution from the tar sands and local upgraders, alberta now produces one-quarter of canada's sulfur dioxide emissions and one-third of it's nitrogen oxide emissions.

in 2008, environment canada reported a first for the blue skies of the west: 'some areas of western canada in the vicinity of large so2 sources may in fact be in exceedance' of damaging pollution. according to the canadian council of ministers of the environment, 12 per cent of forest soils in the athabasca and cold lake regions are already acidifying.

rain as acidic as black coffee is now falling in the la loche region just west of fort mcmurray. a 2007 saskatchewan study looking at hundreds of lakes within a 186-mile radius of acid rain pollution from 'oil/tar sands mining and upgrading operations' found that the majority of these water bodies couldn't buffer much acidity. as a consequence, bitumen pollution could eventually kill all life in hundreds of saskatchewan lakes. yet, to save money, alberta has recently reduced its acid rain monitoring.

but the alberta government can manage to fund a public relations propaganda ad campaign, to the tune of $25 million, in an effort to convince people that the tar sands isn't that bad. shameful and despicable!

tell that joke of an environment minister in alberta, the (dis)honorable rob renner, to get on the stick and see to it that the tar sands stop polluting our land, air and water now; stop destroying the boreal forest and the wildlife that call it home; stop poisoning and killing the people who live downstream of this putrid project:

Hon. Rob Renner Minister of Environment
Phone: (780) 427-2391
Fax: (780) 422-6259
Email: env.infocent@gov.ab.ca

(the new environment minister for alberta is Diana McQueen. the contact information is still the same. the official title has changed however. it's now Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. that's rich, as if destroying the atmosphere, polluting the land and toxifying rivers and lakes with oil & gas exploration, extraction and combustion is sustainable).

please watch this series of talks by dr. kevin timoney, ecologist with treeline ecological research, on how the tar sands is responsible for pollutants found downstream in the athabasca river



and a paper he co-wrote with peter lee, Does the Alberta Tar Sands Industry Pollute? The Scientific Evidence

"bacteria that live within the tailings pond have changed recently. they are now producing very large volumes of methane, due to their metabolizing the hydrocarbons. it amounts to, in the case of syncrude's mildred lake facility, the equivalent methane production of 500,000 cattle...from just this one tailings pond." ~ Ecologist Kevin Timoney

(and there are about a dozen tailings ponds at the tar sands encompassing an area of more than 170 square kms, nearly 1.5 times the size of san francisco...and that's just the surface area, they average about 80 meters deep)

Stop Toxic Fuels Expansion Support the Beaver Lake Cree Nation vs the Tar Sands

stop the keystone xl pipeline join the peaceful protest in washington dc from august 20 - september 3, 2011
if you are canadian and cannot make it to washington, form a demonstration at your provincial/territorial legislature

One thing that may play a role in halting this massive assault on water quality and quantity, wildlife, the environment, and public health, is a class action lawsuit against the Alberta and Canadian governments and the companies responsible for bringing about this end of nature, by anyone and everyone who has suffered the consequences.