ReturnToTheTarSands

It’s been almost a year since the Sierra Youth Coalition first set out to document and engage with Albertans about the Tar Sands; a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. The Alberta government is still pursuing unfettered industrial development of all kinds, including nine proposed new bitumen upgraders in the Industrial Heartland, nuclear reactors in Northern Alberta, and pipeline expansions into the United States. People, animals, and ecosystems are still feeling the brunt of the oil boom, while record oil prices propel industry into mad exploitation. The gears of the global economy are still greased with extinct species. Environmental and human rights groups are still pursuing real justice for the land and its people, genuine democratic participation in Alberta’s future and development, and accountability from industry and government for their decisions. And the stakes are as high as ever.

What has changed is an increasingly skeptical and empowered citizenry, across the world, that is turning up the heat on irresponsible government policies. The Alberta government, dogged by polar bears and No Tar Man, has received substantial and continuous criticism from around the world about the tar sands of late, making headlines as duck murderers, and feeling increased pressures from environmental groups. Government and industry are showing weakness as the hard work of activists to tarnish (ha!) their greenwash is paying off. With a new $25 million PR budget, Alberta’s Premier, Ed Stelmach is touring key places the world over to convince potential trade partners that taking massive amounts of tar soaked-oil out of open pit mines is a sustainable and environmentally friendly thing to do. Mayors in the United States made a statement against dirty oil in a resolution they passed at their recent convention, just as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers launched “a different conversation” about the tar sands. Is it public relations, panicked greenwashing, or a genuine attempt at democracy from Big Oil? You decide.

So in the midst of all this upheaval, the SYC is back in Alberta, planning another self-propelled tour of the province’s newest tourist attraction, the Alberta Tar Sands. This time we’re heading south, from the belly to the brains (or more fittingly, pockets) of the beast. Our tour this August from Fort McMurray to Calgary will take us through affected communities, across the prairies, and into the political and corporate centres of tar sands development, with bottles of polluted water for all the MLAs and CEOs we meet. We’ll also see the tar sands from many points of view: from the perspective of the Keepers of the Athabasca and the aboriginal communities who have lived downstream from the Tar Sands for millenia; from the workers, families, and labour activists who have flocked to Fort Mac in the boom; from the farmers in the Industrial Heartland who might soon be replaced by more industry; and from ordinary Albertans and Canadians all over, who are wondering where the benefits of this growth are going, and what other possibilities there are for the future.

What began last year as a journey of discovery and story-telling is carrying on as an exercise in solidarity, justice-seeking, and action. What the SYC has learned about the Tar Sands and their effects has shaped the message we’ll carry through Alberta this year, as we join in solidarity with the growing regional movement to ask;

• That we legislate that no new approvals be given to tar sands development until regional plans are democratically created by the communities involved in order for them to have a say in the nature of their economic growth and how the ecological and socio-economic impacts will be dealt with.
• That Aboriginal communities be respected and their treaty rights be honoured and upheld.
• That Canada reassess its national energy policy, calling into questions its energy-exporting obligations under the North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
• That environmental justice, the right to a healthy and productive environment, be enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If you’ve got a couple weeks to spare, and the will to propel yourself across this beautiful and threatened landscape, join the SYC as we ride for climate justice. Keep posted for more info about our events and actions before and during the ride, and please support youth activists who are reclaiming our future form corporate greed and government complicity!

Filed under: RTTTS on July 4th, 2008