To say that rock legend Neil Young has been making waves on his ACFN Honour the Treaties tour would be an understatement. His comments about the horrors of the tar sands in Canada have made front-page headlines, set social media ablaze, and have brought out more thana few attacksmostly from stalwarts of the oil industry.
As the concerts get closer to Calgary the attacks are likely to increase. Heres 10 good statistics to remember, most of which came out this week, because you dont need to take Neils word for it:
- The Beaver Lake Cree have recorded more than20,000 treaty rights violationson their traditional territory due to tar sands development.
- Canada ranked dead lastin OECD countries this year when it comes to environmental protection.
- In order to avoid runaway climate change, UN Climate chief Christiana Figueres once again stated bluntly, Two-thirds of the fossil fuels we have will have to stay in the ground.” That means many tar sands projects can never be built if our world is going to have a chance.
- According to the Harper governments own numbers emissions from the tar sands areset to quadruple.
- Alberta, home to the tar sands, hasdisturbed the natural landscape more than any other provinceis Canada.
- Anew studyshows that when mixed with sediment bitumen sinks in salt water making a tanker spill almost impossible to clean up.
- Over 130 First Nations have signed the Save the Fraser declaration opposing tar sands development on their traditional territory.
- The oil industry literallyre-wrote Canadas environmental laws.
- Alberta enforcesless than 1%of tar sands environmental violations.
- After 8-monthsfour CNRL tar sands spillsare still spilling. This is supposed to be the environmentally friendly form of tar sands development.
At the end of the day, Ive heard more truth from Neil Young on the tar sands than I ever have from the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Add your name at:http://www.honourtheacfn.ca/
