| Oilsands development creating major environmental challenges
The Pembina Institute is calling on the federal and provincial government to take action to reduce environmental damage caused by rapid development of the oilsands.
The non-profit environmental group has released a report called Oil Sands Fever: The Environmental Implications of Canada’s Oil Sands Rush, in which it made a number of recommendations.
"As Alberta’s northern boreal forest is torn up for oilsands development, the environmental impacts to air, land and water in Alberta are increasing rapidly. Not surprisingly, Alberta is now Canada’s pollution capital for industrial air pollutants. And the oilsands are the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission growth in Canada," says the report. "The expansion now before us risks squandering a publicly owned resource and creating a legacy of environmental degradation and long-term environmental liabilities."
The institute says oilsands companies should be required to be carbon-neutral (no net increase in GHG emissions) by 2020 through reducing emissions and purchasing carbon credits elsewhere. The institute also says the government should protect an area of intact boreal forest "of high conservation value" in order to compensate for the large chunk of boreal forest that will be lost.
The institute points out that oilsands projects are being approved before environmental thresholds are established, which could result in irreparable damage to the ecosystem. It says limits must be established to protect human health and environmental integrity before projects are approved. The report is also critical of current reclamation efforts, and calls on the provincial government to establish clear reclamation expectations "that ensure the long-term ecological sustainability of the region" before allowing any new oilsands development.
The report also argues that the country needs to start moving towards renewable energy. The institute is calling on the federal government to develop a national energy framework by 2006 with targets and supporting policies for energy efficiency, energy conservation and renewable energy.
The Pembina Institute says provincial and federal governments should stop subsidizing the oilsands sector and redirect the funding towards renewable energy sources, and the provincial government should increase royalty payments. Oilsands companies currently provide one per cent of profits in royalty payments until all their initial project costs are paid off. The report says the favourable royalty rate is "a powerful incentive" for companies to reinvest profits into expansion and avoid a higher royalty rate . It points out that while oilsands projects have expanded by 133 per cent between 1995 and 2004, royalty rates have gone down by 30 per cent in the same time period. The report can be found on the institute’s website at www.pembina.org.
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is on December 1 and AIDS Calgary says increasing awareness about the disease and promoting prevention is more pressing than ever.
The number of HIV infections in Canada has increased by 20 per cent over the past five years and women between the ages of 15 to 29 now make up 42 per cent of all new diagnoses, according to statistics from the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
Young women in that age bracket represented 13 per cent of new HIV infections between 1985 and 1994, but that shot up to 42 per cent in 2004. HIV rates are also rising among aboriginal and black Canadians. Infection rates for black Canadians increased to 15.5 per cent from 8.3 per cent of new diagnoses and aboriginal HIV diagnoses increased to 14.8 per cent from 2.3 per cent between 1994 and 2004.
Kristi Baron, team leader of communication and development of AIDS Calgary, says that aboriginal Canadians are five times more likely to be infected with HIV than the average Canadian.
"The big, big thing right now is we’re not seeing numbers go down," says Baron. "Knowledge and prevention is really, really key right now."
Baron says there are drugs that are helping people with HIV or AIDS live longer, but she says it’s still important that people realize there is no cure.
She adds that people living with HIV and AIDS still experience widespread discrimination and struggle financially.
"When you’re taking the litany of drugs, they really are hard on the body and sometimes they do keep you from being able to hold down a full-time job. They either drain you of energy or they make you sick and it can be very difficult to keep that job, and therefore it puts you at a greater risk of ending up in poverty or having to go to affordable housing or what not," she says.
Worldwide, there were five million new HIV infections in 2005 and 40.3 million people are living with HIV. More than three million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2005 including 500,000 children. Sixty-four per cent of new HIV infections occurred in Africa.
AIDS Calgary is holding a memorial service to commemorate World AIDS Day on December 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. at its office (200-1509 Centre St.). |
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