Tag Archives: Alberta

Air Pollution From Canadian Tar Sands Up to 6,300% Worse Than Industry Reports

“In quantifying the astonishing and largely unreported levels,” said a Greenpeace campaigner, “these scientists have validated what downwind Indigenous communities have been saying for decades.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 1-26-2024 by Common Dreams

*Tar sands extraction in northern Alberta. Photo: The Co-op Group/flickr/CC*

Aircraft measurements of pollutants over the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta, Canada show levels exceeding industry reports by 1,900% to more than 6,300%, scientists revealed Thursday, underscoring the need for humanity to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.

While the Canadian government requires air quality monitoring around oil sands operations, industry figures focus on certain compounds. For this research, published Thursday in the journal Science, experts from Yale University and Environment and Climate Change Canada, a department of the Canadian government, accounted for a wider range of emissions.

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‘We’re Staying’: Line 3 Opponents Camp at Minnesota Capitol to Protest Oil Pipeline

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“The cops are gathered here by the hundred and the governor’s brand new fence glimmers in the background, but our spirit is resolved.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 8-26-2021

Demonstrators protest the Line 3 pipeline on the grounds of the Minnesota capitol building on August 25, 2021. (Photo: RootsAction)

With Enbridge on the verge of completing its multibillion-dollar Line 3 pipeline, thousands of Indigenous leaders and environmentalists brought their protests against the sprawling tar sands project to the grounds of the Minnesota state capitol building on Wednesday to demand that lawmakers intervene before the dirty oil starts flowing.

Roughly 2,000 demonstrators—including Indigenous leaders who marched over 250 miles along the pipeline’s route—rallied at the capitol Wednesday afternoon and hundreds stayed through the night as Minnesota police officers guarded the building’s perimeter, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence installed in anticipation of the protest. Continue reading →

Water Protectors Gather for ‘Largest Resistance Yet’ to Line 3 as Enbridge Accelerates Pipeline Construction

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“We need to protect all that we have left of the sacred gifts and land.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-6-2021

Image: Indigenous Environmental Network/Twitter

Thousands of people from across the nation are traveling to northern Minnesota this weekend to join Indigenous leaders in what organizers described as the “largest resistance yet” to Line 3, an Enbridge-owned tar sands pipeline whose construction has accelerated in recent days as opponents warn the project poses a threat to waterways and the climate.

The Treaty People Gathering kicked off Saturday, the first of several expected days of action against Enbridge’s multi-billion-dollar project, which aims to replace and expand the Canadian company’s existing pipeline along a route that crosses more than 200 bodies of water and 800 wetlands. Continue reading →

Climate and Indigenous Protesters Across 4 Continents Pressure Banks to #DefundLine3

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“Those who financially back Enbridge are directly implicated in its crimes,” says a Red Lake Anishinaabe citizen and organizer. “To put it bluntly, blood is on their hands.”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-7-2021

Activists across four continents held protests on Friday calling on banks to stop backing the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. (Photo: Stop the Money Pipeline)

From fake oil spills in Washington, D.C. and New York City to a “people mural” in Seattle spelling out “Defund Line 3,” climate and Indigenous protesters in 50 U.S. cities and across seven other countries spanning four continents took to the streets on Friday for a day of action pushing 20 banks to ditch the controversial tar sands pipeline.

“Against the backdrop of rising climate chaos, the continued bankrolling of Line 3 and similar oil and gas infrastructure worldwide is fueling gross and systemic violations of human rights and Indigenous peoples’ rights at a global scale,” said Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law. Continue reading →

Indigenous Youth Take to DC Streets With Demands to #ShutDownDAPL and #StopLine3

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“Climate chaos is here. We cannot wait.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 4-1-2021

Indigenous activists gathered in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to demand to demand the Biden administration stop the Line 3 and Dakota Access pipelines. (Photo: Nadahness Greene)

A group of Indigenous youth activists rallied in the nation’s capital on Thursday to demand President Joe Biden reject fossil fuel pipelines including Line 3 and the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“We came to D.C. to give the fossil fuel snake back to the U.S. We don’t want the pipelines you snaked through our communities without our consent,” said organizers. Continue reading →

After ‘Bitterly Disappointing’ Court Ruling on Line 3, Biden Urged to Shut Down Pipeline Project ‘Once and for All’

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After a Minnesota court allowed construction to continue, Rep. Ilhan Omar appealed to President Joe Biden to stop the contentious project.

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-3-2021

On January 29, 2021, hundreds of people gathered in St. Paul, Minnesota to demand that President Joe Biden and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz take action to stop the Line 3 pipeline. (Photo: @ResistLine3/Twitter)

Amid a wave of direct actions that have at times stalled work on Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a request to shut down construction as legal battles continue, disappointing Indigenous and climate activists who have been fighting against the tar sands project.

A few weeks after construction began in December, the Red Lake and White Earth Bands of Ojibwe requested the stay. As MPR News reported at the time, “The bands, along with several nonprofit groups and the Minnesota Department of Commerce, have filed lawsuits challenging the project in both federal and state court.” Continue reading →

‘Strong Hearts to the Front!’: Indigenous Water Protectors Take Direct Action Against Minnesota Tar Sands Pipeline

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Construction on the Enbridge Line 3 extension—which will transport up to 760,000 barrels of the world’s dirtiest oil daily—began earlier this week, despite strong Native opposition.

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 12-4-2020

Hundreds of Indigenous and allied people gathered on the shore of Gichi-gami (Lake Superior) on September 27, 2019 to protest the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline. (Photo: Fibonacci Blue/Flickr/cc)

Indigenous-led water protectors on Friday engaged in multiple direct actions against Enbridge’s highly controversial Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota, on the same day that state regulators denied a request from two tribes to stop the Canadian company from proceeding with the project.

Water protectors blocked pipeline traffic and climbed and occupied trees as part of Friday’s actions. Urging other Indigenous peoples and allies to “take a stand,” the Anishinaabe activists at one of the protests told other Native Americans that “your ancestors are here too.” Continue reading →

Again Finding US Permit Invalid, Federal Court Upholds Block on ‘Climate-Busting’ Keystone XL Construction

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Again Finding US Permit Invalid, Federal Court Upholds Block on ‘Climate-Busting’ Keystone XL Construction

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-12-2020

“Bedrock laws that protect our water and the livelihoods of farmers, ranchers, tribal members, and rural communities cannot simply be ignored as the court recognized again today,” said Dena Hoff, a Northern Plains Resource Council member and a farmer in Montana. (Photo: Elvert Barnes/Flickr/cc)

A federal judge on Monday denied the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ request to amend his earlier ruling regarding TC Energy’s Keystone XL pipeline, reaffirming that a permit issued by the Army Corps was invalid.

Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled again that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) violated the Endangered Species Act when it issued Nationwide Permit 12, which allows companies to construct energy projects at water crossings. Continue reading →

Law Enforcement Crushing Pipeline Dissent in Minnesota at Water Protectors’ Blockade of Enbridge Terminal

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Police were about to saw off the leg of a tripod from which a protester was hanging, activists said.

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-25-2019

Water protectors on Monday blocked the entrance to an Enbridge terminal in Minnesota to display ongoing opposition to the proposed Line 3 tar sands project. (Photo: ResistLine3 via Twitter)

Police in Clearbrook, Minnesota were accused of putting the “profits of oil companies before human life” after activists said law enforcement on Monday began sawing the leg of a tripod from which a tar sands protester was suspended.

An estimated 30 protesters blockaded the entrance to Enbrige’s Clearbrook Terminal in a display of ongoing opposition to the oil company’s proposed Line 3 project, which would bring tar sands from Alberta to a Wisconsin shipping hub, passing through Minnesota. Continue reading →

Study Confirms Tar Sands Poisoning Air in First Nations Community

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The air quality has ‘been a cause for concern for the people of this community since 1966,’ says Fort McKay First Nation chief

By Nika Knight, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-22-2016

The toxins discovered in the air include “hydrogen sulphide and carcinogens like benzene,” writes the Canadian Press. “Ozone and sulphur dioxide were ‘frequently’ above long-term health thresholds.” (Photo: Kris Krüg/flickr/cc

Confirming what a First Nations community surrounded by tar sands development has claimed for decades, new research says the reserve in northern Alberta is suffering from air pollution that is sometimes “at levels above what is recommended for human health.”

That’s according to Alberta’s chief health minister, Karen Grimsrud, as reported by theCanadian Press.

The provincial health ministry, industry regulator (which is industry-funded), and the Fort McKay First Nation all cooperated on a study released Thursday that finally confirmed what those in Fort McKay had long asserted: air pollution from nearby tar sands mining and refining has been sickening members of their community. Continue reading →

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Tag Archives: Alberta