Action Alert: Urge President Obama to Say No to Canada's Filthy Tar Sands
The Canadian government wants special treatment for the world's dirtiest oil. President Obama must stand strong on clean energy and sufficient climate policies.
By
Climate Ark, a project of Ecological Internet
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February 14, 2009
1.) Inform Yourself
NOTE: This is a protest, not a petition, sending emails to many real decision makers on matters vital to the Earth.
Caption:
Filthy tar sands will further destroy the atmosphere and North America's ecological sustainability (link)
President Obama recently traveled to Canada on his first presidential international trip, where he faced pressure from the Government of Canada to support production of Alberta tar sands oil. Called oil sands by proponents, tar sands are the very dirtiest of fossil fuels. Producing oil from tar sands emits three times the global warming pollution as conventional oil, requires excessive amounts of energy and fresh water, and destroys huge swaths of ancient boreal forest.
Tar sands development is the most ecologically destructive project in the world. When fully developed, along with its vast proposed pipeline network, tar sands will indefinitely continue North America's addiction to climate destroying fossil fuels, ensuring abrupt and runaway climate change exceeds safe levels. There is virtually no chance of maintaining an operable atmosphere and achieving global ecological sustainability should tar sands production continue or expand.
"Tar sands oil is the dirtiest form of energy in the world. It has no place in President Obama's plans for a clean energy economy," said Sierra Club Dirty Fuels Campaign Coordinator Pat Gallagher. "Tar sands oil accelerates global warming. It destroys forests. It endangers public health. Instead of importing this expensive, dirty oil, we can invest in clean energy that will create millions of much-needed, sustainable jobs."
President Barack Obama must be strongly encouraged to stand strong on his new energy economy agenda and commitment to urgently address climate change, and reject entreaties from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to shelter the dirtiest oil on Earth from global warming regulation. Join a broad network of organizations from across Canada and the United States telling President Obama that the Tar Sands do not fit in the new energy economy.
Let the President know how seriously you take climate change, urging him to reject tar sands and support further immediate urgent action in pursuit of sufficient climate change policies. He can immediately start regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. His administration can invest trillions in renewable energy, efficiency and conservation; provide incentives for small family size; tax carbon and consumption; and decisively commit to ending coal and old growth logging. And President Obama must commit the full political might of America and his office to a comprehensive international treaty of shared yet differentiated national responsibilities to reign in emissions, to be finalized at the Copenhagen climate summit by the end of the year.
More information:
obama2canada -- a broad network of organizations from across Canada and the United States telling President Obama that the Tar Sands do not fit in the new energy economy
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