Last year in our April edition, we invited individuals from several environmental organizations to write about the important environmental issues facing BC and Canada. Their collective list included Independent Power Projects (IPPs) in BC, the proposed Enbridge Pipeline and the Alberta Tar Sands. This year, we asked the same organizations to provide updates on these issues. In some cases, the power of the people prevented some environmentally harmful projects from going ahead. In others, the fight continues. In all cases, we commend the organizations’ commitment to keeping these issues in the forefront of people’s consciousness throughout the year – Editor.

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These environmental issues are worth revisiting…

A thin border separates the Boreal Forest from an open-pit mine. Clear cutting and deforestation in Alberta’s Tar Sands region releases, on average, 8.7 megatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a yearly basis. Photo © Greenpeace / John Woods http://photo.greenpeace.org

Alberta Tar Sands

by Jason Hjalmarson, Greenpeace Canada

We know unequivocally that Earth’s climate is changing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPDD) tells us that the global surface temperature has already increased by .7 °C. NASA says that 2010 tied with 2005 as the hottest year on record. Increased temperatures mean melting polar ice caps and less sea ice. The melting of Greenland’s ice sheet could cause the world’s sea levels to increase by 23 feet.

In 2009, the Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization headed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, released a report that found climate change already causes more than 300,000 deaths per year and has displaced 26 million people. “Climate Change is the greatest humanitarian challenge facing mankind today,” Annan said.

We know with an equal amount of certainty what is causing these changes: we, the human race, are releasing massive quantities of toxic greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. We are so certain of this fact that many of the world’s governments have already taken action to avert catastrophe. But here in Canada, despite the fact the federal [As of our press date, we still have a Conservative federal government] government has spent over $7 billion on various programs aimed at reducing emissions, we are responsible for the largest increase of GHGs of any industrialized country on Earth, thanks in large part to the Alberta Tar Sands, the largest industrial project on the planet.

This is the reality. In order to best preserve the planet for our children, we must act globally to reduce GHG emissions. There is no future for the Tar Sands in this reality. Greenpeace works on climate issues around the world, but in Canada, stopping the Tar Sands and building a truly green economy is the top priority. Greenpeace has launched a vocal and dramatic campaign to try to bring attention and action to a horror show that has been compared to Tolkein’s Mordor.

In 2008, the Tar Sands produced 37.2 megatonnes of GHG emissions. That’s roughly equivalent to the annual GHG emissions of nine million cars. The Tar Sands are Canada’s fastest growing source of GHG emissions and the projections for future development are staggering. The Alberta government has given away thousands of leases for an area of land roughly the size of Scotland for mining Tar Sands deposits both by strip mining and by in situ operations. Think of the size of the city of Vancouver, multiply it by five times and you have an idea of the scale of the strip mining operations currently going on in Alberta. The total land area currently approved for strip mining is 12 times larger than the city of Vancouver. If all mining development continues unabated, by 2020, the Tar Sands will produce over 100 megatonnes of GHG emissions annually, more than all the cars and trucks in Canada.

The amount of fresh water used in the Tar Sands is equally shocking. The Tar Sands currently produce more than a million barrels of oil a day. On average, for every barrel of oil produced, three barrels of fresh water are used. This has devastating consequences for the Athabasca river systems and for downstream First Nations communities.

A report released in December by the Mikisew Cree and the Fort Chipewyan First Nation, two First Nations downstream of the Tar Sands, shows that, at times, water levels are so low it renders over 80 percent of their traditional territory inaccessible for weeks in the spring and summer.

Much of the water taken from the river system ends up in one of many toxic tailings “ponds” associated with Tar Sands operations. These toxic lakes cover roughly 170 square kilometres of Alberta with wastewater that has been used in the extraction process and is now contaminated with carcinogens and petrochemicals. Every day, because these lakes are not properly secured or monitored, an estimated 11 million litres of toxic tailings water leak into the groundwater or back into the Athabasca River. Downstream communities are experiencing rising health problems; there are fears about the drinking water and they have been warned not to eat fish – 80 percent of their traditional diet.

What is the world going to look like by 2020? Or in 30 or 40 years’ time? The human race stands at a crossroads. The decisions we make now will have dramatic impacts on what our future holds.

If we, as a civilization, have any hope of solving the climate crisis, surely it starts with the Tar Sands. If we are going to rise to “the greatest humanitarian challenge” of our time, Canada must cease its blind defence of the Tar Sands and become part of the global solution.

www.greenpeace.org

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Closing the Northern Gateway on Enbridge

by Nikki Skuce, senior energy campaigner, ForestEthics

In January of this year, I attended a presentation in Vancouver by a woman named Beth from Battle Creek, Michigan. This was the second time I had heard her speak. As Beth showed slides of Enbridge’s massive oil spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River last July, the threat of a spill in the Fraser or Skeena watersheds became all the more real. You will recall Enbridge is the same company that wants to build the Northern Gateway pipeline across more than 1,000 rivers and streams, from Alberta to Kitimat, BC.

Beth talked about how Enbridge was slow to react to the spill. There was a high volume of 911 calls because of the stench of gas, but it took Enbridge more than 18 hours to report the oil spill. Residents soon discovered four million litres of Tar Sands oil had spilled into a creek that flows into the Kalamazoo River. Within days, a state of emergency was declared, as oil coated 40 miles of river and shorelines, saturated wetlands and put residents at risk from exposure to benzene’s carcinogenic effects.

Initially, Enbridge claimed full responsibility for the spill, with CEO Pat Daniel solemnly pledging, in front of TV cameras, the company would “help the families involved.” Then in a startling about-face, Enbridge hired a law firm to challenge the claims once media attention subsided. And Enbridge expects us to trust its promises with regard to its high-risk Northern Gateway project?

Enbridge has admitted it can’t promise there will be no spills, but the company tries to minimize the risks by touting technology and safety. Its massive oil spill in Michigan – and oil spills every week across all of its pipelines – reveals its promises are as toxic as the oil it transports.

What really struck me about Beth’s slides was a photo of a wetland covered in oil. And the high-tech mechanism Enbridge was using to prevent wildlife from entering this area turned out to be a plastic owl on a stick. A plastic owl on a stick? Is this the kind of oil spill clean-up and management we can expect?
As Beth looked around at the beautiful BC mountain view before heading out, she turned to me and sighed, saying she wouldn’t trust Enbridge to build pipelines safely in this dramatic Northern landscape. And we don’t.
Opposition to the Enbridge BC pipeline project that would introduce more than 225 oil tankers to BC’s north coast is strong and growing. Over 70 First Nations, a majority of BC municipalities and all Federal opposition parties have declared to support a tanker ban to stop the project. A tanker ban will not only prevent Enbridge’s project from going ahead but it will also prevent similar threats, such as CN’s “Pipeline on Rails” proposal.
All British Columbians need to ask their MP or their election candidates where they stand on the tanker ban. We must all vote for the coast.

www.forestethics.org

addiction photo by Allan Lissner, Praxis Pictures, www.Allan.Lissner.net

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People power can save BC’s wild rivers

by Joe Foy, national campaign director, Wilderness Committee

I love donuts, but I wrote this article at home because I was worried it might be too hard to get a seat at my local Tim Hortons. That’s because on some days our hospital in New Westminster is so overcrowded the coffee shop doubles as an emergency ward. Such are the cash-strapped times we live in.

Meanwhile, the BC government continues to shovel money out the back of a dump truck to their friends in the private hydropower industry to dam and divert our province’s wild rivers. Our Liberal government’s generosity comes in the form of long-term energy purchase contracts granted to the private power companies at rates far above market rates for electrical energy BC doesn’t need and that we can only sell at a loss.

Does this sound like a recipe for disaster for folks like you and me? You bet it is. Just ask the guy in the bed next to you in line at your favourite donut shop.

People across the province are beginning to catch on to how badly they’ve been hosed by Victoria’s river privatization policies. A recent headline in Whistler’s Pique magazine reads, “IPP’s [Independent Power Producers] to cost BC Hydro almost $1 billion annually by 2014.” A billion dollars is a big bite out of the province’s healthcare budget. The line up at Timmy’s is about to get longer.

How did we get into this mess?

It all goes back to 2002 when then new Premier Campbell brought in the so-called Clean Energy Act. This law forces BC Hydro to buy unneeded electrical power at exorbitant prices in long-term, multi-decade contracts from the private power guys. Predictably, it sparked a gold rush on BC’s wild rivers. Today, BC Hydro is on the hook for about $30 billion dollars in long-term energy purchase contracts and over 800 rivers and streams are staked across the province. Yikes!

How do we get out of this mess? People power! This past year, people from many communities and walks of life, standing together, have stopped some pretty big private hydro projects dead in their tracks.

The Klinaklini River project would have required a three-story diversion tunnel carved through a mountain for 17 kilometres and would have backed up the river into a protected area. Thankfully, as a result of public opposition, the BC government pulled the plug on this nightmare project.

The proposed project on Glacier and Howser Creeks in the Kootenays pretty much sank this year under a tidal wave of public opposition and news the project would have toasted endangered bull trout habitat.

And then there was the biggest of them all, General Electric’s humungous Bute Inlet project, which aimed to dam and divert 17 rivers. GE’s behemoth has been stalled, thanks to a relentless campaign by thousands of people working to save the area’s world-renowned salmon and grizzly populations.

So that’s the good news; if we raise our voices together, we can save BC’s wild rivers and public power system.

For more information, see 2011_rivers_newspaper.pdf