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The world is teetering on the brinkof climate crisis. Butattempts to avert it arebeing threatened by amassive industry inthe Canadianwilderness.

Major oilcompanies,banks andinvestors arepouringbillions ofdollars into thedevelopment ofthe Alberta TarSands.

The Tar Sands are the dirtiest and most desperateattempt yet to profit from - and prolong -

humanity’s crippling addiction to oil. TarSands development is turning once-

pristine stretches of ancient forest intodesolate, post-apocalyptic

landscapes and producing toxicpollution that is harming thehealth and quality of life of theregion’s Indigenous FirstNations communities.

Until recently, BP was theonly major oil company not tobe in the Tar Sands. But all this

has changed. The company,which used to boast that it was

'Beyond Petroleum', has decided itwants a piece of the dirty oil action.

Only a powerful popular campaigncan stop it now.

“The Tar Sands is the largest industrial project in the world. It is also the dirtiest. Tar Sands produce

three to five times as much CO2 per barrel as conventional oil. There'senough under the ground to push us over the edge into runaway

climate change. It should be everyone's concern.” Lionel Lepine, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

What are Tar Sands?Tar Sands are basically oily soil. They are sticky deposits of bitumenmixed with sand and clay, which require enormous quantities ofenergy and water, and several stages of industrial processing, toextract and turn into useable crude oil.

Tarmageddon

BP's involvement in the mostdestructive project on earth

Much of the water used in Tar Sandsproduction ends up in toxic 'tailings ponds',so vast they are visible from space. Theseponds leak 11 million litres a day of toxicwaste into local water supplies. A generationago, the Athabasca River was clear anddrinking from it was common. Now, thosethat live alongside the river consider itpoisonous and off-limits.

Trampling Indigenous Rights Indigenous First Nations in Canada have hada sacred relationship with Mother Earth forthousands of years. But now the Tar Sandsdevelopment has been imposed on their land.

Local communities are seeing highrates of rare forms of cancer, auto-immune and respiratory disease.Contamination of groundwater hasled to arsenic and other heavy metalsin moose meat—a dietary staple forFirst Nations peoples—up to 300times acceptable levels, and deformedfish have been found in nearby LakeAthabasca.

First Nations have experienced ablatant disregard for their rights inboth the management of existing TarSands projects, and in the approval ofnew projects in their territories. In2008, chiefs from across Alberta andthe neighbouring provinces ofSaskatchewan and British Columbiacame together to call for a

moratorium on all new Tar Sandsdevelopments, and threatened to back thisup with legal action. While the governmentcontinues to approve new projects, severalFirst Nations are fighting them with lawsuits.

From dirt into oilTar Sands oil is extracted in two ways:

1. Open-pit mining: first the‘overburden’ is removed – this is theentire ecosystem including boreal forestand peat marsh (both major carbonsinks). Then giant electric shovels andthe biggest trucks in the world dig upthe deposits, going down 75m into theground. It takes four tonnes of earth toproduce 1 barrel of oil this way.

2. ‘In situ’ mining: 80 per cent ofAlberta’s deposits are too deep for stripmining. They are melted out of theground by injecting pressurised steam athigh temperatures. This resource-intensive method uses roughly twicethe water and energy of strip mining.

“We are seeing a terrifyingly

high rate of cancer in FortChipewyan where I live. We areconvinced that these cancers are

linked to the Tar Sandsdevelopment on our doorstep. It is

shortening our lives. That's whywe no longer call it 'dirty oil' but

'bloody oil'. The blood of FortChipewyan people is on these

companies' hands.” George Poitras

a former chief of Mikisew Cree First Nation

Canada’s Tar Sands are the biggestenergy project in the world,currently producing 1.3 millionbarrels of oil a day. Largely located in Alberta, the Tar Sandsdeposits are distributed over an area of140,000 km2 – an area larger than England.

• Canada has the second largest oil reservesin the world, after Saudi Arabia.

• Canada is the biggest supplier ofoil to the US, the world’s largest oilconsumer.

Future expansion:$86 billion has been invested since2000 in the construction of mines,upgraders, pipelines, refineries andsteam plants, with a further $125bnin developments that are underwayor planned.

• By 2020 Canada’s Tar Sands couldproduce more greenhouse gasesthan Austria, Portugal, Ireland orDenmark.

• The plan is for production to increase to 3-5 million barrels per day by 2030.

Resource-intensiveTar Sands are the most energy-intensive fossilfuel in commercial production:

• The extraction process emits three to fivetimes more CO2 per barrel thanconventional oil.

• Enough natural gas is used in the TarSands every day to heat 3.2 millionCanadian homes for 24 hours. Thedevelopment will be using enough gas toheat all 11.5 million Canadian homes by2012.

• Giant toxic ‘tailings ponds’ of wasteproduced by some of the projects cover130 km2.

Poisoning precious water

"The river used to be blue. Now it's brown.

Nobody can fish or drink from it.The air is bad. This has all

happened so fast." Elsie Fabian, 63, an elder in a Native

community along the AthabascaRiver.

Water is needed in huge amounts in TarSands production and infrastructure. It takes3 to 7 barrels of water to produce a singlebarrel of oil. That’s between 230 and 530million cubic metres a year. By comparison,the city of Toronto, with 2.5 millionresidents, uses 450 million cubic metres ayear.

This water is being diverted from rivers,lakes, farms and cities throughout Canada.The water levels in the Athabasca River havealready dropped several metres.

Canada’s Tar Sands

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BP: a BigPlayer

Suncor Tarsands processing plant on Athabasca River Photo: David Dodge / oilsandswatch.org

In recent years, BP has spent a lotof money trying to convince theworld it had moved 'BeyondPetroleum'. But following thecatastrophic Deepwater Horizonoil spill, the only thing left that'sgreen about this huge corporationis its famous logo. With itsentrance into the Tar Sands, it's safeto say that Beyond Petroleum hasgone Back to Petroleum...

The Sunrise ProjectIn 2007, BP took the decision to move intoTar Sands in a big way. In partnership withHusky Energy, a Canadian company, itannounced the 'Sunrise Project', anextraction project that could produce200,000 barrels per day.

Sunrise will use so-called SAG-D (SteamAssisted Gravity Drainage), where water issuperheated into steam with vast amounts ofnatural gas, then injected deep into the earthto “melt" the oil from the sand and clay.

When the financial crisis hit and the priceof oil crashed in 2008, BP put the project onhold. Then in December 2010 BPannounced it intended to go ahead with theproject, and invested £1.6 billion in the'development phase'. But it will be anotherfour years before the oil flows - so there is stilltime to stop it.

Other potential BPprojectsIn February 2010 it emerged that Sunrisewasn't the only filthy card up BP's sleeve. Thecompany was in talks to pay about $1.2billion for a majority stake in Value Creation,a failing Canadian company that has massiveTar Sands reserves. Then, in March, BPsealed a deal with Devon Energy, whichwould involve the US company coming inand running a Tar Sands extraction projecton BP's behalf. A week later, it emerged thatBP had won the bid for Value Creation.

The final investment decision has not beenmade on these two projects yet. There is stilltime for BP to back down.

Pipelines and refineries BP already operates many pipelines andprocessing facilities vital to the Tar Sandsinfrastructure. Sunrise will involve piping TarSands bitumen to BP's Toledo refinery, inOhio, USA. This refinery has been opposedby local communities for excessive flaring,emissions and concerns about health. InWhiting, Indiana, BP owns theoldest refinery in the US. Thecompany is applying toupgrade it to take on TarSands bitumen. BP itselfpredicts that thisexpansion would entaila 21 percent increasein fine particulatematter, which isknown to cause cancerand aggravate asthma.As a result, localcommunities are stronglyagainst it.

BP fights back – with greenwashSince the campaign to stop BP going into theTar Sands started to grow, BP has beentreating investors, NGOs and the media to acharm offensive, claiming that the SunriseProject won't be like all those other nasty TarSands projects – that it will be clean, green,and that local First Nations are perfectlyhappy about it.

In fact, there’s plenty of evidence to suggestthe Sunrise method of mining deeperdeposits, known as ‘in situ’, is even moreenergy- and water-intensive than the muchuglier surface mines, and its greenhouse gasemissions will be up to three times higher.

Solemn promises to introduce carboncapture and storage (CCS) sometime in thefuture have been branded a ‘dangerous myth’by WWF and The Co-operative, whoconclude that this unproven technology isunlikely to significantly reduce emissionsfrom the Tar Sands until at least 2050. AndCCS, even if it worked, would do nothing to

prevent the toxic by-products thatare killing people in Indigenous

communities downstream.BP claims that becauseSunrise is not a surface-

mining operation therewill be no tailingsponds and minimaldamage to theecosystem. This is alsojust plain wrong. Thefragmentation of the

boreal forest by well-pads, pipelines and

processing facilities for thistype of operation devastates

bird and animal habitats.Alberta’s caribou herds, according to

the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society,are ‘almost doomed’ as a result.

Furthermore, there is still a serious risk ofwater pollution. Sunrise, like many ‘in situ’projects, is right on top of Canada’s biggestaquifer. BP cannot guarantee it won’t becontaminated, given that accidental steamblowouts keep occurring in similardevelopments. Rick Boucher, vice-presidentof the local Métis Nation, fears that ‘it’s just amatter of time before an accident causesinjury or death, and pollution of this massiveunderground freshwater system.’There is no way to ‘green’ the Tar Sands –we have to leave them in the ground.

There is no way to ‘green’

the Tar Sands – wehave to leave them in

the ground.

Take Action! A powerful movement campaigning to shutdown the Tar Sands has emerged. It is beingled by affected First Nations communities and grassroots activists who reject claims thatthe Tar Sands can be ‘green’ and demandClimate Justice!

Here in the UK we have a vital role to play in thisinternational struggle. We have to force BP to dropits plans for Sunrise. If we succeed, it would notsimply mean that one potential project amongstmany had been thwarted. It would send shock-wavesthrough the entire oil industry and investmentcommunity, and could even spell the beginning ofthe end for this particularly filthy source of fuel.

How you can get involved: A coalition of networks and organisations is mobilising to targetBP, including the Indigenous Environmental Network, UK TarSands Network, Camp for Climate Action, Rising Tide UK, &Platform. Join us on Facebook: UK Tar Sands CampaignFind out how you can get involved at: www.no-tar-sands.org

Find out more: Indigenous Environmental Network:www.ienearth.org/tarsandsUK Tar Sands Network: http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/Camp for Climate Action: www.climatecamp.org.ukRising Tide: http://risingtide.org.uk/Art Not Oil: www.artnotoil.org.ukPlatform: www.platformlondon.org/carbonweb/New Internationalist issue 431:www.newint.org

"Aboriginal peoples in Canada are being

pushed….to economic, culturaland political extinction.”

1996 Canadian federal Royal Commission on

Aboriginal Peoples www.no-tar-sands.org

UK Tar Sands Network

Protesters hang a banner in Trafalgar Squareduring December's Copenhagen climate summit

Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paperwith VOC-free ink & renewable energ y

First Nations representatives address a crowd of climate campers outside BP HQ in September 2009 Photo: Alex Lee