False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

[Rajiv]

False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

TONY CLARKE
Polaris Institute
False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making
PowerPoint Presentation

A long time political activist, Tony Clarke is the director of the Polaris Institute in Canada, which works with citizen movements to develop tools and strategies for challenging corporate power in public policy making on key issues, both nationally and internationally. At present, this work includes both energy and water issues. On energy, he is actively involved in developing national and U.S. related campaign work to stop the massive Canadian tar sands production which has become the number one source of foreign oil imports to the U.S. On water, he has done extensive campaign work on bottled water, water privatization and bulk water exports and is now working with partners in the global south in building regional movements to address the new water wars emerging between city and countryside. Tony is the author or co-author of several books including Blue Gold: The Battle Against the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water (with Maude Barlow) and Inside the Bottle: Exposing the Bottled Water Industry.

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[DemonD]

Re: False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

If the big oil companies are jumping in on the tar sands, then i'm super glad I've already got my investment staked out in suncor.

[metalman]

Re: False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

thanks, rajiv. just what i needed first thing in the am... pics of wrecking virgin forest for suvs. i think i'm gonna puke.

[metalman]

Re: False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

thanks, rajiv. just what i needed first thing in the am... pics of wrecking virgin forest for suvs. i think i'm gonna puke.

i wonder what my personal land raped per mile works out to? if this group wants more attention, the need to publish a report: how many acres of virgin boreal forest did i kill driving my suv to work this week? i bet if people knew, they'd change cars. some people might, anyway.

[Rajiv]

Re: False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

Metalman,

This is not an issue of SUV or no SUV -- it goes much deeper - to a question of stewardship -- whether or not we are managing our resources for the long term flourishing (perhaps I should say even surviving) of life on this planet. I deliberately use the term "life" as opposed to "human life"

[metalman]

Re: False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

Metalman,

This is not an issue of SUV or no SUV -- it goes much deeper - to a question of stewardship -- whether or not we are managing our resources for the long term flourishing (perhaps I should say even surviving) of life on this planet. I deliberately use the term "life" as opposed to "human life"

yeh, i know but you don't get action unless you make it coloring book simple.

it's marketing... you get to break it down into 3 ideas and give people 3 things they can do and the motive to do it.

create group they can belong to.

have benefits to belonging.

for example, i'd drive a smaller car and bet a lot of guys would except people who don' t know me will think i'm either poor or girlyman, both!

not fair, but there it is.

toyota pruis is a brand that says: i care about the environment and i can afford this car, not necessarily in that order. if those folks cared more about the environment than about getting mistaken for poor they'd buy a 2 year old corolla.

so create a service and a brand... make it high end. .. that says: i care about the environment and i'm no hippy dude (or chick). test products and put the brand on things, like certain models of cars, refrigerators, etc. kind of like consumer reports.

free idea. go for it. all yours, folks.

[LargoWinch]

Re: False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

Welcome to Canada. The best country on the planet; we do no harm, we loooveee everyone and we especially do not hold the BULLY's COAT.

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/wp-c...8/03/seals.jpg

[Starving Steve]

Re: False Solutions - The Canadian Tar Sands, A Nightmare In The Making

Welcome to Canada. The best country on the planet; we do no harm, we loooveee everyone and we especially do not hold the BULLY's COAT.

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/wp-c...8/03/seals.jpg

Please explain to me ( I am a slow learner ) exactly why the tar sands in North-east Alberta are a "nightmare in the making", to use your own words. Just who are the hidden "experts" at the Polaris Institute? Even a better question is who is funding, the Polaris Institute? Show me their work because I need transparency in so-called, "science".

Help me out here. I was the odd-ball in city planning who asked too many questions like: "Why is urban sprawl a bad thing? Why do homes in Canada cost a fortune? Why do cities need land speculators? Why can't planning departments lower the cost of living in cities? What is so bad about urban renewal projects?

Here on the outskirts of Victoria, I just led a revolt of my neighbours here in East Sooke against the Capitol Regional District. Some of the questions we asked were: "Why are connections to water trunklines being restricted by the CRD, and why do they cost up to $30,000 each?" Another question we asked in our revolt against the water planners was, "why can't we, the residents of Mt. Matheson, lay our own water pipe; why do we need the CRD?"