Feb. 8, 2011 -- Canadian Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent:
 

"...we have a plan, and the plan is working."

"...Canadians are proud of uh, of the uh, Canadian oil sands as a natural resource that
is well regulated and it is responsibly administered, uh, in a, in a uh, environmentally
sensitive and sustainable manor."

If "Canadians" have ever characterized their collective feeling about Alberta's Athabasca tar sands, we doubt that "proud" would have been near the top of the list.  Contrary to Mr. Kent's statements, tar sands development and extraction is NOT "well regulated and responsibly administered...in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable manor.", but it IS very well encouraged and subsidized by the federal government.

This matters because, at present, the world's atmosphere is on an accelerating course to reach a state of potentially unsurvivable, runaway global heating and climate breakdown extremes DURING THE LIVES OF TODAY'S CHILDREN and only EMERGENCY international action at EMERGENCY (world-war time) speed *may be* proportional enough to confront the scale, scope and urgency of this unprecedented threat.

Given the lack of government and corporate action to address the convergent impacts of the climate, energy and population crises despite the clear, present and known dangers they pose RIGHT NOW, we are all witness to the greatest crime against humanity, most life and most future life -- EVER.

Since Mr. Kent's utterances could not be much further from the truth, we find his comments to be more than a little offensive and feel that it is our moral obligation to characterize him as the bald-faced, rat bastard LIAR and shill for big oil (and Stephen Harper) that he is.

Please find more details about how tar sands KILL in the resources below.
 

MORE

• Articles - Collected articles focused on Canada's climate inaction, CAN Canada
• Campaign - End fossil fuel tax breaks, Climate Action Network Canada
• Letters - Collected letters from Canadian citizens to help new envir(oil)ment criminal, Peter Kent, understand ethics and tar sands, Environmental Defence
• Article - What those who killed the tar sands pollution report don't want you to know, Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee
• Article - The fallacy of "ethical oil", Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee
• Suzuki - Will take more than rebranding to make tar sands oil "ethical", David Suzuki Fdn
• Article - Does Peter Kent even care about emissions? Jeffrey Simpson, Globe and Mail
• Greenpeace - PolluterHarmony.ca
• ecoSanity Video - Canada: Petro state and obstruction, George Monbiot
• ecoSanity - Action campaign: Tar Sands KILL!
• ecoSanity - Category: Tar sands
• ecoSanity - Compilation: Tar Sands Kill! Essential facts & resources
• Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) - Tar sands
• Greenpeace - Tar sands
• Pembina Institute - OilSandsWatch.org
• Polaris Institute - TarSandsWatch.org
  The Dominion - Tar Sands Special Issue
• Wikipedia - Athabasca tar sands
• Wikipedia - Peter Kent
• Website - Peter Kent