Photo courtesy Ben Block. Daniel T'seleie protests oil sands operations, which he says could threaten his nation's waterways.
Indigenous Environmental Network demonstrators protested the growing greenhouse gas emissions caused by oil sands development in Canada on Wednesday in front of the main negotiation hall at COP15.
Oil sands, also known as “tar sands,” pose numerous environmental threats for nearby communities, including First Nations.
“Tar sands are an infringement on indigenous rights and human rights,” shouted Daniel T’seleie, a K’asho Got’ine from Ft. Good Hope in Northwest Territories, who said he lives downstream operations. “We need an immediate moratorium on tar sand development in Canada.”
Clayton Thomas-Müller, a member of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Pukatawagan, Northern Manitoba, chanted to the crowds (see video) that gathered to watch the demonstration. Thomas-Müller leads the oil sand campaign with the indigenous network, which brought 21 delegates to the negotiations.
A barrel of crude from oil sands emits as much as three times more carbon dioxide than is released from conventional oil wells. Oil sands account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, yet the fuel source has become Canada’s fastest growing contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
Growing Canadian emissions have led the historically environmentally aware nation to fail its Kyoto obligations — emissions have increased 26 percent between 1990 and 2007. In response, Prime Minister Steven Harper’s government has proposed not to measure the country’s emissions from a 1990 baseline and instead base emission reductions from 2006, a year when emissions were much higher.
Oil sands also contribute to significant habitat destruction, water depletion, and air pollution across Canada’s boreal forests. “Carcinogenic chemicals will eventually make it downstream to Ft. Good Hope,” T’seleie said.
