The Dirtiest Oil on Earth and Japan's ambitious aim
This is part of a series of short news updates beyond Greenpeace-specific news. World environmental events in a blurb:
The Dirtiest Oil on Earth
Canada's tar sands, located in the province of Alberta, are an oil reserve the size of England
On Thursday, Native American and environmental groups filed suit in federal court in San Francisco, challenging a proposed tar sands oil pipeline that would bring the dirtiest oil on Earth from Canada to the United States.
The Alberta tar sands have made headlines and television news for months but reached a high last month when the U.S. State Department approved the Enbridge Energy's Alberta Clipper pipeline, permitting 450,000 barrels of tar sand oil per day to be pumped from northern Alberta, Canada to Wisconsin, U.S. for refining.
The Canadian tar sand oil is the largest industrial project in the world, the largest capital investment in history, the world’s second largest oil field, and a major air polluter and destroyer of forests.
Buried below the Boreal Forest of northern Alberta, tar sand oil is dirty oil that emits more global-warming pollution than any other type of oil. Tar sands development in Alberta is creating an environmental catastrophe, with toxic ponds so large they can be seen from space!
Development will strip away forests and peat lands of an area the size of England.
We recently failed to persuade shareholders in Norway's state-controlled oil company to drop out of the oil sands, but the push hasn’t ended. At the Climate Talks in Copenhagen in December, Tar sands oil topic will likely be discussed.
Looking for a bigger role in Copenhagen, Japan's new gov't aims high:
Photograph: Itsuo Inouye/AP
Japanese Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama said Monday that Japan, the world's fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, will aim for a 25 percent cut in emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.
Japan has been under pressure for tougher climate policies after its emissions rose 2.3 percent in March 2008, putting the country 16 percent above its Kyoto Protocol target.
With this, Hatoyama, who will take office on September 16, sets a target that is far more ambitious than the outgoing government's of 8 percent.
The 25 percent target however, is premised on other major nations agreeing to similar emissions cuts.
"We can't stop climate change just with our country setting an emissions target," Hatoyama said. "We will also aim to create a fair and effective international framework by all major countries in the world."
Hatoyama's Democratic Party has said a tough 2020 target is needed for Japan to play a bigger role in U.N.-backed climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
"With such a target, Japan will take on the leadership role that industrialized countries have agreed to take in climate change abatement," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.
The Copenhagen talks will try to work out a new agreement on reducing emissions to succeed the current Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of which ends in 2012.
Japan has yet to state what it would do about its targets if an international deal including countries such as China and India, is not reached.
Therefore, we need to call on our leaders to make an international climate deal happen. SIGN THE PETITION
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Comments
There are 2 forces battling: the negative force, centered on Greed and destruction and the positive force, which is in harmony with God and the Greater Good.
Only about 5 years left until the Arctic summer sea ice is gone, at which time, temperatures will shoot up dramatically. STILL, all the majority of people care about is MONEY. Amazing!!!!
Posted by: Cynthia McPherson | September 9, 2009 2:35 AM
I agree with Cynthia McPherson
Posted by: pinoyapache | September 16, 2009 11:30 AM
Climate Change: Cause and Cure
8The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.
9Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.
Holy Bible book of Revelation 16: 8 - 9
Posted by: on2u | September 23, 2009 4:22 AM