Crude Profits
north america / mexico |
environment |
news report Sunday October 19, 2008 04:06 by Joshua Neuhouser - Common Action
A great environmental and social catastrophe has been brewing in northern
Alberta. As the price of oil skyrockets, drilling companies are trying new,
experimental methods for obtaining crude. One of these is the extraction of
crude from the tar sands lying beneath the Athabascan river basin. To
extract oil from the tar sands, forests must be leveled. Alberta's rate of
deforestation is now second only to the Amazon. In practices similar to the
Mountaintop Removal Mining of the Appalachians, the rich topsoil is carted
away to be disposed of. The oil-rich sands lying underneath are taken to
processing plants where they are boiled at extremely high temperatures
until crude oil can be separated from the sand.
Crude Profits
A great environmental and social catastrophe has been brewing in northern
Alberta. As the price of oil skyrockets, drilling companies are trying new,
experimental methods for obtaining crude. One of these is the extraction of
crude from the tar sands lying beneath the Athabascan river basin. To
extract oil from the tar sands, forests must be leveled. Alberta's rate of
deforestation is now second only to the Amazon. In practices similar to the
Mountaintop Removal Mining of the Appalachians, the rich topsoil is carted
away to be disposed of. The oil-rich sands lying underneath are taken to
processing plants where they are boiled at extremely high temperatures
until crude oil can be separated from the sand.
The process is very water intensive, and water used to extract tar sands is
contaminated forever. Already the water level in the Athabascan River has
dropped three meters, and production is expected to increase five times in
the upcoming years. Indigenous communities across Canada have already been
experiencing massive shortages of drinkable water, and the tar sand
developments will only make it worse. Nearby Fort Chipewyan provides a
tragic example of what is to come. Cancer and leukemia rates increased five
times since the developments began, and citizens are unanimously demanding
an end to the extraction of tar sands. Canada's government has refused,
because in their eyes public health is less important than "the market." Said
Chief Eli Moonias of the Nishnawbe, "I wonder how different the response
would be if the residents of Toronto were without access to water."
Pipelines are also a source of controversy among indigenous
groups, who assert that they do not reap the benefits of the pipeline, but
will be the ones to suffer the consequences of any ruptures. Chief Patrick
Mitchell of the Stellat'en stated that "I only speak for my own First Nation
here, (but)…we would look to physically stop any work being done" on the
proposed Gateway pipeline. The Trans-Mountain Pipeline, which runs down to
Ferndale and Anacortes in northern Washington, is also to be expanded.
The tar sands development is not providing needed jobs to the region. On
the contrary, Alberta's business community is terrified that there will not
be enough workers available to carry out their plans. To construct the
needed processing facilities, guest workers are being brought in from
overseas, and receive no protection from Canadian labor laws. These guest
workers, who now outnumber traditional immigrants, are kept segregated from
unionized workers and receive the most dangerous jobs. They do not have the
right to organize or apply for a work permit, which would give them
protection from their employers (as well as the ability to quit and find
work elsewhere in Canada), never mind citizenship. Already two Chinese men
have lost their lives in an easily preventable accident when a container
fell on them. No one knows their names.
Guest worker programs are becoming popular the world over, from Canada to
Dubai, and recently the US Congress has debated adopting one in our country
as well. However, these programs are little more than a new form of
indentured slavery, with one crucial difference – in colonial America, a
worker who had completed their term of servitude became a free citizen
afterwards. Modern guest workers are instead deported when their boss no
longer needs them. The Alberta Federation of Labor, which is actively
opposing the tar sands development, has stated that "we believe the labour
movement has a responsibility to defend these workers. We believe they
deserve the same rights as any Canadian worker…independent of the wishes of
the employer that brought them here."
Announcing INTERSECTIONS, Vol. 1, Issue 1
Newsletter of Common Action
Common Action is proud to announce the publication of our newsletter Intersections. Written with regular people in mind, the newsletter strives to connect community issues to anarchist ideas, serving as a paper that any neighbor might find interesting, informative, and reliable. It can be left in laundromats and bus seats just as easily as a radical bookstore.
This issue's contents include:
* Whose Streets? Gentrification in Seattle
by Andrew Hedden and Jacquelyn Hermer
* Northwest Anarchist People of Color Gathering: A Report-Back
by Brooke Stepp
* Hope, Change, and Direct Action
by GregA and Jeremy
* Crude Profits
by Joshua Neuhouser
* Advice Column by Sally Darity
Intersections is available as a PDF for reading and single page printing, and 11" x 17" printing.
Please visit our website to download it :
http://nwcommonaction.org
To get a hard copy, or to let us know what you think, hit us up at nwcommonaction@gmail.com