Episode 38 Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues, Part 8 – Tar Sands: 29 May 2013 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past38.mp3][01:38:37] The northern Alberta tar sands (or bitumen) resource is the most well-known environmental issue in Canada today. Representing both a significant component of the nation’s resource economy, and the single greatest threat to […]
Climate Change
Episode 31 Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues, Part 1 – Global Warming: 26 September 2012 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past31.mp3][01:17:52] Since the World Conference on Changing Atmosphere was held in Toronto in 1988, Canadians have participated in discussions of climate change prevention and adaptation. The UN-established and Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate […]
On Tuesday July 10, 2012, the US National Transportation Safety Board released its report on the July 2010 oil spill near Marshall, Michigan on a pipeline operated by Enbridge. The rupture leaked an estimated 20,083 barrels of crude oil (3,193 cubic metres) onto surrounding wetlands and drained into Talmadge Creek […]
It seems like oil spill history is playing an especially important role in the current debate over the Keystone XL pipeline and Northern Gateway pipeline projects. I recently wrote up a short piece on oil pipeline spills in Alberta’s history. This history of recent oil pipeline spills associated with Enbridge […]
Dean Bavington recently posted a link to a broadcast on Al Jazeera that focused on Canada’s tar sands industry in northern Alberta. Broken into two parts, the documentary, “To the Last Drop”, succinctly surveys the numerous adverse environmental effects of tar sands development, especially the infusion of carcinogenic toxins into […]
As representatives from Canada and nearly 200 other nation-states meet in Copenhagen to negotiate the terms of a new international climate change and greenhouse gas emissions agreement, those of us with a predilection for a historical perspective might want to take a moment to reflect on our not too distant […]