For 37 years the coastal waters of northern British Columbia have been protected from oil tanker traffic. Now, plans to build pipelines and a supertanker port in BC are moving forward, posing an unacceptable risk to the coast of the Great Bear Rainforest. The proposed projects would service Alberta’s Tar Sands: Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. If Tar Sands Tankers are allowed on BC’s north coast, oil spills would be inevitable, and could devastate the fragile marine ecosystem and the First Nations and coastal communities that depend on it. SIGN THE PETITION
The above footage was shot by my buddy Ian McLeod when he volunteered for Raincoast Conservation!
“…Nowhere on Earth is more earth being moved these days than in the Athabasca Valley. To extract each barrel of oil from a surface mine, the industry must first cut down the forest, then remove an average of two tons of peat and dirt that lie above the oil sands layer, then two tons of the sand itself. It must heat several barrels of water to strip the bitumen from the sand and upgrade it, and afterward it discharges contaminated water into tailings ponds like the one near Mildred Lake. They now cover around 50 square miles. Last April some 500 migrating ducks mistook one of those ponds, at a newer Syncrude mine north of Fort McKay, for a hospitable stopover, landed on its oily surface, and died. The incident stirred international attention—Greenpeace broke into the Syncrude facility and hoisted a banner of a skull over the pipe discharging tailings, along with a sign that read “World’s Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands.
…”Oil sands represent a decision point for North America and the world,” says Simon Dyer of the Pembina Institute, a moderate and widely respected Canadian environmental group. “Are we going to get serious about alternative energy, or are we going to go down the unconventional-oil track? The fact that we’re willing to move four tons of earth for a single barrel really shows that the world is running out of easy oil.”
In reality, there is no such thing as “clean” coal in America today. Coal cannot be called ‘clean’ until its CO2 emissions are captured and stored safely.
Let’s be clear: there are no US homes, factories, shopping centers or churches powered by coal plants that capture and store their global warming pollution.
Today, coal power plants emit carbon dioxide (CO2), the pollutant causing the climate crisis. A third of the America’s carbon pollution now comes from about 600 coal-fired power plants. And of the more than 70 proposed new coal power plants, barely a handful have plans to capture and store their CO2 emissions. If these dirty plants are allowed to be built, this will mean an additional 200 million tons of global warming pollution will be emitted in America each year. Until coal power plants no longer release CO2 to the atmosphere, coal will remain a major contributor to the climate crisis.
Scientists indicate that we can avoid the worst climate impacts if we turn CO2 emissions around in the next few years. The Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, in 2007, said, “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.” For coal to maintain a role in America’s energy mix, the industry must act quickly to stop emitting CO2.
Looking forward to seeing this. Hopefully it will be coming to a theater in Van.
FUEL is an insightful portrait of America’s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry—from Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney’s petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation — and reveals a gamut of available solutions to “repower America” —from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it’s imperative.
Up the Yangtze is a shocking and deeply moving documentary about the lives of individual Chinese people affected by the massive Three Gorges Dam project. I was completely blown away by this film. It is absolutely one of the best documentaries ever made.
“A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze — navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as “The River.” The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. At the river’s edge — a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. The Three Gorges Dam — contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle — provides the epic backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic feature documentary on life inside modern China.
I just saw this documentary. Its absolutely breathtaking. One of the best I’ve ever seen. Amazing that they were able to shoot a film under such extreme conditions!
For 430 days, a crew of scientists, sailors and filmmakers live on a schooner in the Antarctic to study the impact of global warming in this gloriously cinematic adventure, full of awe, joy and life-threatening danger. Gale-force winds threaten to dash the crew on the rocks in one of the most nail-biting scenes ever seen in a non-fiction film. Abnormally warm temperatures prevent the formation of the deep pack ice needed to stabilize the schooner and provide a birthing ground for seals. When desperately needed winter arrives at last, the camera goes overland to scenes of unbearable beauty and beneath the ice to a magical undersea world of never-before-photographed species. A marine biologist by training, Jean Lemire’s acclaimed 2006 feature The White Planet focused on the Arctic. The massive devastation from climate change he shows at this, the other polar extreme, is a powerful reminder of the fragility of our world.
“…So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun….”
