Wildfires and Spills in the Canadian Tar Sands; huge wildfires that gutted much of the town of Slave Lake, Alberta; two weeks before the fires, a massive spill from an oil pipeline sickened residents of the community of Little Buffalo, the traditional lands of the Lubicon Cree

Wildfires and Spills in the Canadian Tar Sands

by Jamie Henn, 350.org, May 19, 2011

We love hearing constantly from our friends and colleagues around the planet—but one of the tough parts of this work is that the news is often bad. That’s because we’ve managed to disrupt the planet in so many ways that some new disaster breaks out almost daily: this week, for instance, the president of Colombia has said that the country’s unprecedented rains have washed away a decade of development work in that nation.

If there’s one spot on earth that seems really snakebit this month, however, it’s the Canadian province of Alberta.  In the past week, a drought and strong winds have combined to produce huge wildfires that gutted much of the town of Slave Lake—all 7,000 residents had to evacuate, and the city hall and many other buildings were burned to the ground. Right now there are over a hundred wild fires raging in Alberta, with 36 of them still ‘out of control.’

Just two weeks before the fires, a massive spill from an oil pipeline sickened residents of the community of Little Buffalo, the traditional lands of the Lubicon Cree. It took the government six days to show up and begin monitoring the air, despite the fact that  local residents were suffering headaches, burning and nausea from the stench. Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a local Cree organizer, wrote 350.org board member Naomi Klein:

My heart hurts, not a day has gone by that I have not broken down crying, but I hope that I can expose this cover up for what it is. And hope that my community will not continue to be silenced like they have for decades. It is a sad time as you can imagine.

The reason the government doesn’t want to acknowledge the problem, of course, is that this region of Alberta is home to the giant tar sands project. Over the objections of many indigenous residents residents, they’ve made a moonscape of large swaths of the region, as they ramp up massive oil production. When that oil leaks, it’s bad—and it’s bad when it’s burnt too, because it pours carbon into the atmosphere. The carbon that raises the temperature, making wildfire and drought more likely and more devastating.

The Lubicon Cree have shown great courage in fighting to protect their home. The rest of us need to show not only our respect for their fight, but similar courage in fighting to protect our joint home, this rapidly warming planet. The only answer is to keep that carbon in the ground and end the tar sands project before it causes any more trouble.

In the meantime, emergency assistance for Alberta families can be sent via the Canadian Red Cross and you can read more from Melina, who’s done great work, here.

http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/wildfires-and-spills-canadian-tar-sands