SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
The Alberta wildfire forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray this month. (Photo: Premier of Alberta/flickr/cc)
A Hint of Hell: Fires in Canada and Pipeline Dishonesty
The firestorm in Alberta's Fort McMurray grew eight times as large in a couple of days--engulfing more than 600,000 acres.
Not just one fire, it was series of fires, and as the fire enlarged, it created its own storm systems.
The fire has not yet been put out, although it moved away from the city, ravaging the Wood Buffalo National Park and forests in the north.
May 23, 2016
The firestorm in Alberta's Fort McMurray grew eight times as large in a couple of days--engulfing more than 600,000 acres.
Not just one fire, it was series of fires, and as the fire enlarged, it created its own storm systems.
The fire has not yet been put out, although it moved away from the city, ravaging the Wood Buffalo National Park and forests in the north.
As the 80,000 people of Fort McMurray moved into refugee camps to the south or tar sands worker camps in the north, one cannot ignore the irony. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is holding court-ordered hearings on the scope of an environmental analysis necessary to approve two new pipelines - the Enbridge Sandpiper with 640,000 barrels per day will be matched with the Line 3- straight to us from those burning tar sands.
Total: l.4 million barrels of oil, considered by most climate scientists to be the dirtiest oil in the world.
Canada's economic woes seem concentrated thus far on the $9 billion early on estimate to rebuild Fort McMurray, but one may wonder at the math and what it means. Scientists at Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance agency predict that we will be spending 20 percent of world GDP on climate change related disasters within five years. In the meantime, scientists at Natural Resources Canada predict forest fires will dramatically increase in the next 50 to l00 years. Add to that, temperatures are steadily rising - January was the second warmest on record, April the same, and average global temperatures are the highest in l36 years.
Meanwhile, at the Minnesota PUC hearings on the pipelines coming from the tar sands, fewer people attended the Rice Lake Hearing. " We really don't believe the PUC anymore," one Rice Laker told me.
"Didn't they hear us the last two times we testified?" Tribal governments, and environmental groups have formally requested that the authority which would oversee environmental hearings would be the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, not the PUC, a part of the Department of Commerce. As Don Wedll, a former Natural Resources commissioner for Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe, and Honor the Earth Senior Policy Analyst points out, "Asking the Department of Commerce to create and complete an environmental impact statement is a lot like asking a professional baseball pitcher to conduct a brain surgery. It makes no sense. The state of Minnesota has spent billions of dollars creating the Minnesota PUC for this purpose, why would we not use the state resource?"
As Wedll continues, "the Department of Commerce is an expert at new business development, not environmental regulation." The Environmental Quality Board will hold hearings, regarding the requests of environmental organizations community members and tribal governments to move the review to the state MPCA, whom the intervenors consider an appropriately qualified agency.
In the meantime, the sun was blood red, three days in a row--a consequence of the Fort McMurray and northern Ontario wildfires. To me, that's what hell looks like.
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Winona Laduke
Winona LaDuke is Anishinaabe, a writer, an economist and a hemp farmer. LaDuke is a leader in cultural-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, sustainable food systems and Indigenous rights. She is the owner of Winona's Hemp, which can be found online at winonashemp.com.
The firestorm in Alberta's Fort McMurray grew eight times as large in a couple of days--engulfing more than 600,000 acres.
Not just one fire, it was series of fires, and as the fire enlarged, it created its own storm systems.
The fire has not yet been put out, although it moved away from the city, ravaging the Wood Buffalo National Park and forests in the north.
As the 80,000 people of Fort McMurray moved into refugee camps to the south or tar sands worker camps in the north, one cannot ignore the irony. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is holding court-ordered hearings on the scope of an environmental analysis necessary to approve two new pipelines - the Enbridge Sandpiper with 640,000 barrels per day will be matched with the Line 3- straight to us from those burning tar sands.
Total: l.4 million barrels of oil, considered by most climate scientists to be the dirtiest oil in the world.
Canada's economic woes seem concentrated thus far on the $9 billion early on estimate to rebuild Fort McMurray, but one may wonder at the math and what it means. Scientists at Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance agency predict that we will be spending 20 percent of world GDP on climate change related disasters within five years. In the meantime, scientists at Natural Resources Canada predict forest fires will dramatically increase in the next 50 to l00 years. Add to that, temperatures are steadily rising - January was the second warmest on record, April the same, and average global temperatures are the highest in l36 years.
Meanwhile, at the Minnesota PUC hearings on the pipelines coming from the tar sands, fewer people attended the Rice Lake Hearing. " We really don't believe the PUC anymore," one Rice Laker told me.
"Didn't they hear us the last two times we testified?" Tribal governments, and environmental groups have formally requested that the authority which would oversee environmental hearings would be the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, not the PUC, a part of the Department of Commerce. As Don Wedll, a former Natural Resources commissioner for Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe, and Honor the Earth Senior Policy Analyst points out, "Asking the Department of Commerce to create and complete an environmental impact statement is a lot like asking a professional baseball pitcher to conduct a brain surgery. It makes no sense. The state of Minnesota has spent billions of dollars creating the Minnesota PUC for this purpose, why would we not use the state resource?"
As Wedll continues, "the Department of Commerce is an expert at new business development, not environmental regulation." The Environmental Quality Board will hold hearings, regarding the requests of environmental organizations community members and tribal governments to move the review to the state MPCA, whom the intervenors consider an appropriately qualified agency.
In the meantime, the sun was blood red, three days in a row--a consequence of the Fort McMurray and northern Ontario wildfires. To me, that's what hell looks like.
Winona Laduke
Winona LaDuke is Anishinaabe, a writer, an economist and a hemp farmer. LaDuke is a leader in cultural-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, sustainable food systems and Indigenous rights. She is the owner of Winona's Hemp, which can be found online at winonashemp.com.
The firestorm in Alberta's Fort McMurray grew eight times as large in a couple of days--engulfing more than 600,000 acres.
Not just one fire, it was series of fires, and as the fire enlarged, it created its own storm systems.
The fire has not yet been put out, although it moved away from the city, ravaging the Wood Buffalo National Park and forests in the north.
As the 80,000 people of Fort McMurray moved into refugee camps to the south or tar sands worker camps in the north, one cannot ignore the irony. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is holding court-ordered hearings on the scope of an environmental analysis necessary to approve two new pipelines - the Enbridge Sandpiper with 640,000 barrels per day will be matched with the Line 3- straight to us from those burning tar sands.
Total: l.4 million barrels of oil, considered by most climate scientists to be the dirtiest oil in the world.
Canada's economic woes seem concentrated thus far on the $9 billion early on estimate to rebuild Fort McMurray, but one may wonder at the math and what it means. Scientists at Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance agency predict that we will be spending 20 percent of world GDP on climate change related disasters within five years. In the meantime, scientists at Natural Resources Canada predict forest fires will dramatically increase in the next 50 to l00 years. Add to that, temperatures are steadily rising - January was the second warmest on record, April the same, and average global temperatures are the highest in l36 years.
Meanwhile, at the Minnesota PUC hearings on the pipelines coming from the tar sands, fewer people attended the Rice Lake Hearing. " We really don't believe the PUC anymore," one Rice Laker told me.
"Didn't they hear us the last two times we testified?" Tribal governments, and environmental groups have formally requested that the authority which would oversee environmental hearings would be the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, not the PUC, a part of the Department of Commerce. As Don Wedll, a former Natural Resources commissioner for Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe, and Honor the Earth Senior Policy Analyst points out, "Asking the Department of Commerce to create and complete an environmental impact statement is a lot like asking a professional baseball pitcher to conduct a brain surgery. It makes no sense. The state of Minnesota has spent billions of dollars creating the Minnesota PUC for this purpose, why would we not use the state resource?"
As Wedll continues, "the Department of Commerce is an expert at new business development, not environmental regulation." The Environmental Quality Board will hold hearings, regarding the requests of environmental organizations community members and tribal governments to move the review to the state MPCA, whom the intervenors consider an appropriately qualified agency.
In the meantime, the sun was blood red, three days in a row--a consequence of the Fort McMurray and northern Ontario wildfires. To me, that's what hell looks like.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.