#oil sands

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Alberta's oilsands operations produce far more potentially harmful air pollutants than are officially reported, with the daily output on par with those from gridlocked megacities like Los Angeles, new research suggests.

The study, published today in the academic journal Science, measured concentrations of organic carbon emissions in the air by flying overhead and taking samples. Those numbers were compared to estimated amounts, prepared using ground-based data, reported by oilsands operations.

The researchers from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Yale University found levels that were between 20 and 64 times higher than those reported by industry, depending on the oilsands facility.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #canadian news #canadian #alberta #oilsands #oil sands #pollution #environment #climate crisis #climate change

[darksilvania]

Kroelian SANDYGAST & PALOSSAND (Ground/Poison)

They can be found on the northern shores of Kroel, in a zone known for their constant oil spills, where many other pokemons affected by this oil live and have adapted

They are based on Oil Sands, also known as "Tar sands" or "Bituminous sands", Oil rigs and Drilling towers

#pokemon #fakemon #fake pokemon #palossand #sandygast #regional form #regional variant #regional evolution #ground type #ground pokemon #ground fakemon #poison pokemon #poison type #poison fakemon #oil #sand #oil sands #tar #petroleum #bitumen #oil spill #oil rig

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Kate Beaton's "Ducks"

It’s been more than a decade since I began thrilling to Kate Beaton’s spectacular, hilarious snark-history webcomic “Hark! A Vagrant,” pioneering work that mixed deceptively simple lines, superb facial expressions, and devastating historical humor:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/03/23/hark-a-vagrant-the-book/

Beaton developed Hark! into a more explicit political allegory, managing the near-impossible trick of being trenchant and topical while still being explosively funny. Her second Hark! collection, Step Aside, Pops, remains essential reading, if only for her brilliant “straw feminists”:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/09/15/step-aside-pops-a-new-hark-a-vagrant-collection-that-delights-and-dazzles/

Beaton is nothing if not versatile. In 2015, she published The Princess and the Pony, a picture book that I read to my own daughter — and which inspired me to write my own first picture book, Poesy the Monster-Slayer:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/08/07/the-princess-and-the-pony-from-kate-hark-a-vagrant-beaton/

Beaton, then, has a long history of crossing genres in her graphic novels, so the fact that she published a memoir in graphic novel form is no surprise. But that memoir, Ducks: Two Years In the Oil Sands, still marks a departure for her, trading explosive laughs for subtle, keen observations about labor, climate and gender:

https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/ducks/

In 2005, Beaton was a newly minted art-school grad facing a crushing load of student debt, a debt she would never be able to manage in the crumbling, post-boom economy of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Like so many Maritimers, she left the home that meant everything for her to travel to Alberta, where the tar sands oil boom promised unmatched riches for anyone willing to take them.

Beaton’s memoir describes the following four years, as she works her way into a series of oil industry jobs in isolated company towns where men outnumber women 50:1 and where whole communities marinate in a literally toxic brew of carcinogens, misogyny, economic desperation and environmental degradation.

The story that follows is — naturally — wrenching, but it is also subtle and ambivalent. Beaton finds camaraderie with — and empathy for — the people she works alongside, even amidst unimaginable, grinding workplace harassment that manifests in both obvious and glancing ways.

Early reviews of Ducks rightly praised it for this subtlety and ambivalence. This is a book that makes no easy characterizations, and while it has villains — a content warning, the book depicts multiple sexual assaults — it carefully apportions blame in the mix of individual failings and a brutal system.

This is as true for the environmental tale as it is for the labor story: the tar sands are the world’s filthiest oil, an energy source that is only viable when oil prices peak, because extracting and refining that oil is so energy-intensive. The slow, implacable, irreversible impact that burning Canadian oil has on our shared planet is diffuse and takes place over long timescales, making it hard to measure and attribute.

But the impact of the tar sands on the bodies and minds of the workers in the oil patch, on the First Nations whose land is stolen and despoiled in service to oil, and on the politics of Canada are far more immediate. Beaton paints all this in with the subtlest of brushstrokes, a thousand delicate cuts that leave the reader bleeding in sympathy by the time the tale is told.

Beaton’s memoir is a political and social triumph, a subtle knife that cuts at our carefully cultivated blind-spots about industry, labor, energy, gender, and the climate. But it’s also — and not incidentally — a narrative and artistic triumph.

In other words, Beaton’s not just telling an important story, she’s also telling a fantastically engrossing story — a page-turner, filled with human drama, delicious tension, likable and complex characters, all the elements of a first-rate tale.

Likewise, Beaton’s art is perfectly on point. Hark!’s secret weapon was always Beaton’s gift for drawing deceptively simple human faces whose facial expressions were indescribably, superbly perfect, conveying irreducible mixtures of emotion and sentiment. If anything, Ducks does this even better. I think you could remix this book so that it’s just a series of facial expressions and you’d still convey all the major emotional beats of the story.

Graphic memoirs have emerged as a potent and important genre in this century. And women have led that genre, starting with books like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006):

https://cbldf.org/banned-challenged-comics/case-study-fun-home/

But also the increasingly autobiographical work of Lynda Barry, culminating in her 2008 One! Hundred! Demons!:

https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/one-hundred-demons/

(which should really be read alongside her masterwork on creativity, 2019’s Making Comics):

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/11/05/lynda-barrys-making-comics-is-one-of-the-best-most-practical-books-ever-written-about-creativity/

In 2014, we got Cece Bell’s wonderful El Deafo:

https://memex.craphound.com/2014/11/25/el-deafo-moving-fresh-ya-comic-book-memoir-about-growing-up-deaf/

Which was part of the lineage that includes the work of Lucy Knisley, especially later volumes like 2020’s Stepping Stones:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/09/enhanced-rock-weathering/#knisley

Along with Jen Wang’s 2019 Stargazing:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/25/stargazing-jen-wangs-semi-autobiographical-graphic-novel-for-young-readers-is-a-complex-tale-of-identity-talent-and-loyalty/

2019 was actually a bumper-crop year for stupendous graphic memoirs by women, rounded out by Ebony Flowers’s Hot Comb:

https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/hot-comb/

And don’t forget 2017’s dazzling My Favorite Thing is Monsters, by Emil Ferris:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/06/20/my-favorite-thing-is-monsters-a-haunting-diary-of-a-young-girl-as-a-dazzling-graphic-novel/

This rapidly expanding, enthralling canon is one of the most exciting literary trends of this century, and Ducks stands with the best of it.

[Image ID: The cover of the Drawn & Quarterly edition of Kate Beaton's 'Ducks.']

#pluralistic #kate beaton #hark a vagrant #tar sands #oil sands #big oil #carbon #climate emergency #memoir #books #graphic novels #alberta #fort mac #fort macmurray #misogyny #boomtowns #gift guide #drawn and quarterly #reviews

[walrusmagazine]

Kate Beaton’s New Book Grapples with the Human Cost of the Oil Sands

Ducks showcases how disorienting and vast the industry can be—and the trauma it inflicts on its workers

Though environmental impact is a big part of the story, the unspoken personal cost of this kind of labour is at its heart, with Beaton drawing parallels between the destruction of the land and its workers. Using stark, sprawling illustrations and casual dialogue, she reflects—as one of very few women in work sites dominated by men—on the loneliness, trauma, and sometimes violence that can accompany making a living.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Illustrations by Kate Beaton, courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly

#Kate Beaton #Ducks #Books #Nova Scotia #Alberta #Oil sands #November 2022 #Illustration #Fall Books 2022 #Gabrielle Drolet

[intellectualradical]

Celina Harpe

From Ducks: two years in the oil sands

by Kate Beaton

#kate Beaton #Alberta #oil sands #capitalism #Cree #indigenous #celina harpe #ducks: two years in the oil sands #capitalist hell #climate change #Canada #big oil

[feckcops]

‘They’re destroying us’: Indigenous communities fear toxic leaks from Canada oil industry

“In May, Calgary-based Imperial Oil notified Alberta’s energy regulator it had discovered discoloured water near its Kearl oil sands project. The regulator soon concluded the water had come from tailings ponds where the company stored the toxic sludge-like byproducts of bitumen mining. Environmental samples showed high levels of several toxic contaminants, including arsenic, iron, sulphate and hydrocarbon – all of which exceeded provincial guidelines.

“But the company failed to notify the federal government and nearby Indigenous communities. In February, there was another leak, in which 5.3m litres of tailings water escaped from an overflowing catchment pond. This time, the community was informed two days later …

“For residents who are forced to live in fear about the water they can’t drink or the food that could be tainted, environmental justice remains elusive.

“‘We’re not talking about compensation. I don’t want compensation. I want them off our traditional land. This is Treaty 8 territory, where my great-uncle signed that treaty. They’re using our land, and they’re destroying us,’ said Rigney. ‘This is a battle worth fighting for. I can’t say I see the light at the end of the tunnel. But as long as I have a voice, I will keep speaking.’”

#indigineous people #indiginous land #indigenous rights #indiginous #oil sands #oil drilling #oil projects #oil extraction #extraction #fossil capitalism #capitalism #extractivism #climate crisis #climate breakdown #climate change #climate justice #canadian politics #canada #north america

[scoliosisrick]

JUST CAME HOME TO FIND A SUCCULENT LITTLE SNACK AT MY FRONT DOOR

TURNS OUT THE "COKE" ISNT EVEN COKE, SOMEONE (@satanistrick666 ) HAD FILLED IT WITH UNCLEANSED CRUDE OIL STRAIGHT FROM THE SAUDI ARABIAN OIL SANDS I CAN TASTE THE OIL WHERE ITS FROM I HAVE AN ACUTE SENSE AND THIRTY FIVE YEARS OF EXPERIENCE DRINKING CRUDE OIL.

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #tw major character death #kpop icons #crude oil #oil sands #oil and gas industry #banana #minions

[dynamobooks]

Kate Beaton: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (2022)

#kate beaton #ducks #oil sands #comics #graphic novel #memoir #oil industry #canada #alberta #nova scotia #cape breton #fossil fuels #toxic masculinity #isolation #labour #environment

[survivingcapitalism]

“Ducks” takes its title from one of the few disasters in the oil sands to make international news: more than sixteen hundred ducks near the Syncrude mine landed in a pond filled with toxic waste, known as “tailings,” and died. The images of the disaster, which occurs near the end of her time in the mines, haunt Katie, both because the ducks’ fate seems intertwined with her own and because by working in the mine, she has contributed to their death. The workers at the mines, even in the offices, suffer bizarre and unexplained health problems; when environmentalists plug up a pipe that carries tailings, mine workers are the ones who have to unclog it. “Do I even want to know what kind of cancer we’ll have in twenty years?” Katie’s officemate asks.

In the afterword to “Ducks,” Beaton mentions that her sister Becky, who took a job in the oil sands at Long Lake and is a character in the book, was diagnosed with cancer that led to her death. Beaton wrote about her sister’s disease for New York magazine’s The Cut, emphasizing the failure of the medical establishment to take Becky’s symptoms seriously. “Ducks,” too, is a rebuttal to hierarchies of silence, an attempt to draw attention to forms of suffering that are easier to ignore. The punishing and lonely experiences of the people who perform the actual labor of the petroleum industry are often withheld and concealed—they are inconvenient for employers, shameful for the workers themselves, and difficult for outsiders to grasp. They are perhaps most readily available in metaphor. Under the dust jacket of her book, Beaton has hidden the silhouette of a duck, embossed into the cover with a pretty rainbow-wrapping-paper foil that shimmers like an oil slick.

#cdnpoli #Oil Sands #Alberta #Cape Breton

[lamajaoscura]

Kate Beaton's graphic memoir 'Ducks' is a dark look at the Canadian oil sands : NPR

#oil industry #oil and gas #oil sands #there's a human cost to our oil addiction #fossil fuels #kate beaton

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Alberta's energy regulator ruled Thursday that it won't reconsider approvals for Suncor to expand an oilsands mine into a wetland once considered for environmental protection. The decision opens the door for expansion of the company's Fort Hills mine that has been before the regulators for more than two decades. It unlocks an estimated billion barrels of bitumen. "This is part of Fort Hills moving forward," said Suncor spokesman Leithan Slade. But scientists say it's also likely to doom a unique patterned fen — a peat-producing wetland featuring long strings of trees and shrubs separated by narrow pools that is host to 20 rare or endangered plant species and more than 200 species of migratory birds, including endangered whooping cranes.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada @abpoli

#cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #alberta #oil sands #tar sands #wetlands #environmental destruction #environmental injustice

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"STRUCK OIL ON THE ATHABASCA," The Morning Leader (Regina). October 7, 1912. Page 2. --- GAS AS WELL AS OIL FOUND IN PAYING QUANTITIES NEAR FORT MCKAY ---- EDMONTON, Alta., Oct. 6. - Representatives of the Athabasca Oil Company, Ltd., with head offices in Vancouver, B.C., announce that oil in commercial quantities and of high grade and a flow of gas has been struck at a depth of 62 feet, eight miles south of Fort McKay on the Athabasca River, where the concern has 4,000 acres of land under lease. It is given out that thorough exploration will be made next year, beginning early in the spring. The company has had borers at work the last two years.

From observations made it is believed that the oil bearing strata at an average depth of 62 feet below the surface covers an unlimited area. the In estimation of the engineers in charge of the drills, and from tests made in which the slope of the land, the nature of the soil and the comparative value of the two samples taken from the hole of last year and that of this year, there is an oil bearing strata growing gradually farther from the surface toward the south as the land slopes toward the north. The hole sunk last year was not drilled to a greater depth than 100 feet. The samples taken at the same depth in the present test hole are said to be similar to that found last year, while when the hole was sunk to 140 feet the soil was said to be of a much thinner consistency and much more valuable

A strata of oil bearing sand, wider but less productive, was encountered at similar depth a few miles south of the present boring last year, but was abandoned and a new bore started and sunk 140 feet. Samples of sand obtained are exceptionally good and a test will be made at once to arrive at the exact percentage of oil. The actual strength of the flow has never been tested, but the drillers who are experts, declare the flow is sufficient to warrant development and will be of commercial value.

#edmonton #vancouver #fort mckay #athabasca oil sands #oil sands #athabasca river #drilling for oil #oil strike #resource extraction #resource capitalism #birth of the oil age #alberta history #capitalism in canada

[lookb4uleap]

Rational Dissent and Informed Consent Meet Cancel Culture over Climate

By Michelle Stirling ©2023 This is an independent work. I am not an academic, but from time to time I enjoy writing papers that are critical of various academic papers, simply as an exercise in critical thinking for myself.  I generally focus on debunking the alleged 97% ‘consensus’ and I post them to some pre-print sites to see if other people share or reject my findings.  I find the…

View On WordPress

#yyc #Alberta #Calgary flood 2013 #climate change #climate crisis #denial #Friends of Science Society #informed consent #Mount Royal University #oil sands #Tar Sands Campaign #Timothy Haney

[ademella]

Currently reading

#books #reading #ducks #memoir #comic #Kate Beaton #book cover #Alberta #oil sands

[aamithyy]

Ideological Analysis

Do Not Talk About Climate Change Poster by Franke James

Franke James is a Canadian author, artist and activist who created the advertisement Do Not Talk About Climate Change which discusses the issue about climate change. Oil sands are a mixture of sand, water, clay, and bitumen found beneath topsoil that are afterwards taken to a plant where oil can be extracted from which is a valuable product in today’s world. Though, bitumen gets separated in the process which emits global warming. Using their sense of sight to visualise the feel, texture is important as it allows the viewer to perceive the significance the poster is presenting. Additionally, movement of the path towards the parliament of Canada directs the viewer’s eyes regarding the plain-spoken message in the poster. The path also gives emphasis in the poster that catches the viewer’s attention, as it indicates an implicit declaration about the government.

The activist creatively uses reverse psychology in the poster as a part of operation to get Canada’s capital city speaking about climate change. Since it is opposing to the government’s policies, James met complications concerning bureaucrats trying to take away her rights of freedom of speech. The dominant-hegemonic reading of the advertisement influences the viewers to take position of the situation, in particularly hers, in contradiction of the authorities who are silencing whoever goes against their policy. In effect, the image is an important representation found in the poster, as it advocates people to talk about environmental problems in which we live in and encourages mindfulness of the effects humankind has in the world. However, James’ technique can be inefficient since climate change is a topic nobody really bothers talking about. This poster can be comprehended as an instruction to respect governments’ procedures for those who are not as interested and invested in environmental issues.

The Do Not Talk About Climate Change ad campaign is effectively communicating the problematic actions of the government and the dangers of global warming currently happening. This poster gives a positive impact on many citizens and stimulates numerous individuals to voice out their opinions about the situation. Franke James’ poster targets audience who are politically active, predominantly the oldest generation. The generation affected are more likely aware of the impacts of the world and are mature enough to understand the current conditions of climate change unlike juveniles who are not interested. The influence James’s has on the audience can help change the world for the better so that Canadian citizens can live in a clean environment. This advertisement is a shock because the author used reverse psychology not only on the government, but on the citizens as well to have the world speak about global warming. It is astonishing that Franke James had used her creativity to voice her rights of free expression in the poster that fooled the government. However, the advertisement is overwhelming due to the government refusing to save the planet. The oil sand mine shown in the poster conveys how the government does not care about the effects bitumen has on the earth.

#climate change #global warming is real #oil sands #government

[humblevictory]

#kate beaton #ducks #hark! a vagrant #comics #books #oil sands #alberta #biography #autobiography #empathy