Blame Canada For Overheating the Planet?

Alberta-Tar-Sands-long — Alberta's Tar Sands after mining

Welcome to the Royal PetroState of Canada

The past ~~five~~ six years Canada has been voted the most uncooperative country out of 193 at the annual UN international climate meetings.

Instead of curbing use of fossil fuels that are heating up the planet, Canada is pushing hard to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline through the middle of the USA and triple the size of Tar Sands (oil sands) — the world’s largest industrial project. Canada is also building some huge new coal power plants and has some of the largest gas fracking operations.

What has happened to Canada?

With nearly 20 years covering environmental issues, and as a Canadian, I’m in the middle of an investigative series of articles to dig out the truth about what is really going on in Canada.

IPS, the global news agency, is publishing these articles which means at least 200 million people will learn the truth.

Investigative journalism is rare today. It is difficult and costly to do and IPS cannot afford to fund it. But we can do this together.

If just 50 people each contribute a small amount in 2012 we can all learn more about what is happening, how it affects us, who is behind it and what can be done. (And why Canadians don’t really know what is going on.)

Articles published to the end of 2011:

There’s much more to come in 2012 if enough people chip in.

#1. Welcome to Bizarro World

Aug 10, 2011 (IPS) — Canada and the United States are now the centre of Bizarro World. This is where leaders promise to reduce carbon emissions but ensure a new, supersized oil pipeline called Keystone XL is built, guaranteeing further expansion of the Alberta tar sands that produce the world’s most carbon-laden oil.

#2. Keystone XL: A Pipeline to Europe?

Aug 23, 2011 (Tierramérica) — The promoters of Keystone XL, a huge new oil pipeline from northern Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, claim that it will reduce U.S. reliance on oil imports from unfriendly countries.

#3. Can Obama Take First Step to Breaking Oil Addiction?

Aug 31, 2011 (IPS) — The United States’ biggest environmental groups put aside their differences last week to make an urgent intervention on the country’s addiction to oil. The first step on the long road to recovery, they say, is to stop the proposed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that will “mainline” the world’s dirtiest oil from northern Canada into the U.S. heartland.

#4. U.S. Awash in Oil and Lies, Report Charges | More Oil Development Risks Catastrophe – Scientists Say

Sep 2, 2011 (IPS) — With four times as many oil rigs pumping domestic oil today than eight years ago and declining domestic demand, the United States is awash in oil.

#5. Jail Before Climate-Wrecking Tar Sands, Canadians Say

Sep 27, 2011 (IPS) – More than 200 Canadians engaged in civil disobedience, with 117 arrested in Canada’s quiet capital city on Monday. The reason? To protest the Stephen Harper right-wing government’s open support for the oil industry and expanding production in the climate-disrupting tar sands.

#6. Harper Government Guts Environment Programmes

Nov 9, 2011 (IPS) — Canada’s Stephen Harper government is spending more than 60 billion dollars on new military jets and warships while slashing more than 200 million dollars in funding for research and monitoring of the environment.

#7. In Unprecedented Move, Canada Withdraws from Kyoto Protocol

Dec 14, 2011 (IPS) — Barely 24 hours after it signed a new global climate change agreement in Durban, South Africa, Canada became on Monday the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding treaty to reduce emissions causing climate change.

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