TAR VERY MUCH

Some decided to keep it local in the fight against climate change last week. The Camp for Climate Action were active from their base at Trafalgar Square, established after the Climate Wave. Over Monday and Tuesday activists from the UK Tar Sands Network and the Camp for Climate Action pulled off a direct action and protest combo outside (and on top of) the Canadian High Commission in Pall Mall.

On Monday activists protested outside the entrance to Canada House before blockading the Pall Mall end of Trafalgar Square with banners reading “Shut Down the Tar Sands”
Day two, three activists scaled the side of the Canadian High Commission and cut lose the Canadian flag, dunking it in crude oil, before locking and glueing themselves to an upper floor balcony.

Over the last few years Canada has managed to fix its squeaky clean image with an industrial sized dose of oil from Alberta’s tar sands. For those who don’t already know (see SchNEWS 644), Canada’s Tar Sands represent the world’s latest and greatest threat to the climate.

Underneath layers of pristine, biodiverse, boreal forest (which locks carbon away from the atmosphere), underneath the permafrost (which, when melted is a huge source of climate-warming methane) and mixed in with the soil and sand, are deposits of oil almost equal in size to Saudi Arabia’s. Because the oil is so ‘dirty’ (mixed with debris) its costly to extract - taking around one barrel of oil to extract six from the sands. It needs a huge amount of water as well, which runs off the site and pollutes Canada’s lakes and groundwater.

These sands have become Canada’s largest industrial project and, dollar for dollar, a good contender for world’s most polluting industry.

Canada’s dirty tricks to protect the tar sands by scuppering any deal at Copenhagen have caused the country’s negotiators to win the ‘Fossil Award’ given out by environment campaigners at Copenhagen. Join the climate activists and indigenous communities fighting back.

* See tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/about