Youth Mobilize Against the Tar Sands

Youth mobilize against tar sands TheStar.com – comment – Youth mobilize against tar sands

July 04, 2008

Carol Goar

While Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this week, defending his province’s environmental practices, a spot of trouble was brewing back home.

Young people from across the country were gathering in Edmonton for a national summit on the Alberta tar sands.

“Oil is making us a lot of money right now, but it’s destroying our future, our environment,” said Nicole McDonal, one of the 100 delegates attending the three-day conference.

The Edmonton student used to be proud of her Alberta roots, but now she’s not sure. “A lot of people my age feel this way. Why are we allowing this to happen to Alberta?”

This is the not the kind of publicity Stelmach needs.

Canadian Youth Set To Tackle Tar Sands at 3-Day Conference

CYCC National Youth Climate Summit

Young people fucking (with the tar sands)

SCOTT HARRIS / scott@vueweekly.com

A war of words is shaping up south of the border over the future of the Alberta tar sands, adding even more voices to the acrimonious debate already raging in Alberta and across Canada.

The annual meeting of the US Conference of Mayors recently passed a non-binding resolution calling on cities to reject oil derived from the tar sands, prompting the governors of Montana and Idaho to defend oil coming from their northern neighbour. Environmental groups took out full-page ads and wrote letters warning of the environmental impact of the tar sands to the western governors as they met with the western premiers to discuss energy and climate change. Greenpeace has launched a satirical provincial tourism website—travelingalberta.com—encouraging visitors to “experience an Oil Sands vacation in beautiful northern Alberta.” Premier Ed Stelmach continues to strike back, calling criticisms of the tar sands “disgusting” and pledging to “get the correct information out there.”

But a coalition of Canada’s youth environmental groups say that despite all the recent debate about the future of the oil trapped in the sand of northern Alberta, the voices of young people still aren’t being heard on the issue. It’s a situation that organizers of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition’s National Youth Climate Summit hope to remedy when they meet in Edmonton Jul 4 – 6.