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ISBN: 9781552770184

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Tar Sands Showdown

Canada and the New Politics of Oil in an Age of Climate Change

Canada’s oil patch is booming. The Alberta tar sands have become the next big oil source for the United States, replacing Saudi Arabia. Within the next 15 years, Canada will be pumping four times more crude than today from the tar pits of northern Alberta into the US market. The tar sands are key to the claim that Canada is the new "energy superpower."

As the new backbone of Canada’s economy, the tar sands are bound to define and shape Canada’s role and destiny as a nation in the 21st century.

What is lacking is independent, reliable information and thoughtful analysis on the host of questions raised by the tar sands. What is the real cost to Albertans and to Canadians? How far are we willing to go to fuel America’s oil addiction? What will the ecological and social impacts be? What can be done to build an alternative energy future in an age of global warming?

Tar Sands Showdown provides a tool for stimulating public discussion and debate about these important issues.

Contributors

Tony Clarke

TONY CLARKE is the founder and director of the Polaris Institute in Ottawa, an organization dedicated to developing tools and strategies for civic action on major public policy issues, including energy security, water rights, and free trade. He holds a doctorate from the University of Chicago, has written numerous books, and is the recipient of Sweden's Right Livelihood Award, the "alternative Nobel Prize." Among his most recent books is Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water with Maude Barlow.

Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

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Outlines the author’s fascination with the tar sands, the three trips that he has taken to them, why the third trip was exponential different due to the changes in Canada, outlines the … 6 $0.60

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This chapter covers the early development of the tar sands with the following subsections: (a) black gold: the pioneers who developed the technology to extract oil from the tar sands; (b) land … 38 $3.80

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This chapter discusses the convergence of three global and potentially deadly crises with implications for the development of the tar sands: (a) peak oil: the end of cheap, abundant supplies of … 38 $3.80

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This chapter concerns the promotion of Canada as “the world’s next energy superpower,” largely because of the development of the tar sands, with these themes: (a) corporate … 41 $4.10

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This chapter argues that the prime reason for the rapid development of the tar sands is to provide a secure source of oil supplies for the US. Its sections are (a) America’s oil addiction: … 41 $4.10

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This chapter discusses the multiple forms of environmental damage caused by the massive development of the tar sands for crude exports to the US: (a) global warming: the emergence of the tar … 41 $4.10

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Chapter 6 discusses the many ways in which the development of the tar sands has become a caldron that is brewing with social conflicts and tensions: (a) social conflicts: ranging from the … 39 $3.90

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Chapter 7 discusses the building of a social movement of resistance against the massive and rapid development of the tar sands for crude exports to the US: (a) campaign networks: the various … 35 $3.50

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This final chapter discusses the need to start changing the dream of the good life based on accumulating wealth and power, including our model of industrialization, and developing strategies for … 40 $4.00