Canada's Oil Sands Threaten To Speed Global Warming

http://www.care2.com/causes/global-warming/blog/oil-sands-threaten-to-speed-global-warming/

For over a week, the entire world has been focused on the snow covered peaks of Canada, as the best winter sport athletes compete in the 21st Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Despite getting a chance to showcase the natural beauty of their mountains to the world, Canada is pursuing an energy policy that could have a huge impact on winter sports by accelerating global warming - and the U.S. is following suit (Treehugger).

"The Canadian province of Alberta is home to a form of oil that's considered the dirtiest on earth. It's called the oil sands, also known as tar sands, and each barrel creates three times the global warming pollution as conventional oil. In fact, oil sands are now the fastest growing source of global warming pollution in Canada. They are also one of the most expensive forms of gasoline on the planet."

While thousands of pounds of artificial snow are hauled into Vancouver on a daily basis just so the Olympic Games can continue, the Canadian government and the oil industry are demanding that the United States join in this destructive practice and open up the border for a vast network of pipelines crossing through Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Texas.

This is a step that will put the future of winter sports, and the health of people all over North America, into jeopardy.

LoveWinter.org, a website that has been set up for Americans and Canadians alike to protest this latest threat from fossil fuels reports, "the oil sands extraction and production process requires clear-cutting giant swaths of ancient forest and leaving behind toxic lakes so large they can be seen from space—lakes that kill birds and other wildlife and threaten to poison drinking water in neighboring communities."

Take action today and tell the oil industry that you refuse to let them squash a local, homegrown clean energy industry that is just beginning to thrive.

Tell Big Oil and the Canadian Government that you demand they stop this environmentally toxic practice, and stop enabling North America's dangerous addiction to fossil fuels.

If not, this might be one of the last Winter Olympic Games we get to enjoy.

Join other Care2 Members in demanding "No New Approvals for Tar Sands Developments" and to "Make the Tar Sands accountable to Canadians."

Also, join the Sierra Club in telling the Obama administration America wants clean energy, not dirty oil.