said John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, one of the groups that backed the ad: "Avatar is about industrialists wanting to take every last resource and use it without regard for the future, or for those who live nearby. That's very synonymous with what's happening with the tar sands."

spread of the oilsands from Dirty Oil Sands

from Sierra Club
First Nations respond to CAPP:

                 "We used to be able to drink water directly from Beaver Lake and it didn't hurt us. We can no longer do that, and we can no longer make a traditional way of life in our home territory because of the tar sands developments. The oil companies can phrase it any way they like but no one has ever not dug for oil because of us and we don't find the consultation process meaningful."
Ron Lameman, Beaver Lake Cree Nation

                 "While First Nations have been in the region for more than 10,000 years, major tarsands companies like Syncrude and Suncor have been leasees in our traditional homelands for only a fraction of that time, 40 years to be exact, I would question CAPP's take on characterizing us as "their" neighbours. I am a member and former Chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, the largest First Nation in the Athabasca tarsands and today our First Nation has no "formal" relationship with Syncrude or Suncor, that after 40 years is not something I would characterize as good corporate responsibility. They actually have both recently been applying pressure to the First Nations in our community of Fort Chipewyan for speaking out publicly about environmental, health and other issues that we have observed with the unrelenting pace of tarsands development in the past few years.
                 While we do have First Nations members employed in the industry and First Nation owned companies as contractors to tarsands companies, there is a growing concerns by First Nations in the region who question our involvement in the industry.
                 First Nations especially the Mikisew Cree have recently intervened in several hearings for the multibillion dollar project applications and have recommended a moratorium on many of these applications until many of our issues were mitigated or science has caught up to the multitude of questions. So I would question CAPP and other oil companies suggesting that we are their "full partners and stakeholders" endorsing their actions.
                 Having productive relationships with the oil and gas sector and endorsing their licences to operate is far from the truth from a First Nation perspective."
George Poitras, Mikisiew Cree

                 "CAPP does not speak for aboriginal people; we will speak for ourselves. More and more of us are saying we don't want your tar sands, we don't want your pipelines, and we don't want your oil tankers.
                 We aren't interested in being partners with an industry association that has shown such blatant disregard for our basic human rights. CAPP claims to address our "economic, social and cultural needs," but when our need is for them to stay out of our territories, it's only their own economic needs that get addressed."
David Luggi, Chief of the Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council
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                 Gracie Thacker, 72 years of age, 'recalls looking down from the sky after boarding a plane bound for Fort Chipewayan from Fort McMurray recently. "It was night time and it looked like the city went on and on, but it was new plants. And I thought, OK you can quit now. It's enough."'

Robert Engler The Politics of Oil: a study of private power and democratic directions (Chicago University Press 1961 out of print but still available on the net):
                 "The petroleum industry has harnessed public law, governmental machinery, and opinion to ends that directly challenge public rule. In the name of prosperity and technology, the industry has been able to destroy competition and limit abundance. In the name of national interest it has received privileges beyond those accorded to other industries. In the name of national security, oil has influenced and profited from a foreign policy that has supported the chauvinism of a few rather than generosity to the aspirations of the many in underdeveloped areas. In the name of private enterprise, it has contributed to the attenuation of vital portions of democratic life, from education to civic morality. In the name of the right of representation, it has so entrenched itself within the political processes that it becomes impossible to distinguish public from private actions. In the name of freedom, the oil industry has received substantial immunity from public accountability."
Chapter 4, "Toward World Government" at Mount Holyoke College Massachusetts

Pollution increase a direct result of oilsands, says researcher
by Brian Murphy in ExpressNews.  

A U of A research team says pollution levels have increased as a direct result of nearby oilsands operations
(Dec 7, 2009) - (Edmonton) After an exhaustive study of air and water pollution along the Athabasca River from Fort McMurray to Lake Athabasca, researchers say pollution levels have increased as a direct result of nearby oilsands operations.  

                University of Alberta biological sciences professor David Schindler was part of the team that conducted a long-term air and water study and found high levels of polycyclic aromatic compounds, a group of organic contaminants containing several known carcinogens, cancer-causing agents, mutagens, which can change the genetic composition of a material, and teratogens, chemicals that can disrupt the development of an embryo or fetus.
                "We found PACs in parts per trillion, which are toxic at [those levels]," said Schindler.
                "We found concentrations that can cause death, mutations and deformities in fish embryos."
                The highest levels of PACs were found within 50 kilometres of two major oilsands upgraders.
                Schindler and the others report that levels have reached a point where the airborne particulates left oil slicks on top of melted snow.
                The research was carried out in the winter and summer of 2008 at 60 locations along the Athabasca River and its tributaries.
                "We sampled every tributary to the Athabasca that had development on it," said Schindler. Air quality was measured by taking samples of snow. "We actually had people leaning out of helicopters taking samples from the snow covering the ice on the river."
                The snow was melted down and gave researchers a look at a four-month record of air quality in the area. For the water samples, the researchers borrowed some technology from a government team that had spent 20 years analyzing water quality in Alaska in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
                Schindler describes current government monitoring of the Athabasca's water and air quality as underwhelming. "Environment Canada has cut back and back to where they sample from one site downstream from the oilsands," said Schindler.
                Schindler is hoping that government and industry will follow up this research with testing of their own.
                "We're alerting people to PAC levels and now something has to be done."
                The research will be published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Erin Kelly is a post-doctoral fellow in the U of A Department of Biological Sciences and was the lead researcher on the paper. Other U of A contributors are Mingsheng Ma, Alvin Kwan and Barbra Fortin.