Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice

by Joshua Kahn (Editor), Stephen D'Arcy (Editor), Tony Weis (Editor), Toban Black (Editor), Naomi Klein (Foreword by)

Overview

Tar sands “development” comes with an enormous environmental and human cost. In the tar sands of Alberta, the oil industry is using vast quantities of water and natural gas to produce synthetic crude oil, creating drastically high levels of greenhouse gas emissions and air and water pollution. But tar sands opponents—fighting a powerful international industry—are likened to terrorists, government environmental scientists are muzzled, and public hearings are concealed and rushed.

Yet, despite the formidable political and economic power behind the tar sands, many opponents are actively building international networks of resistance, challenging pipeline plans while resisting threats to Indigenous sovereignty and democratic participation. Including leading voices involved in the struggle against the tar sands, A Line in the Tar Sands offers a critical analysis of the impact of the tar sands and the challenges opponents face in their efforts to organize effective resistance.

Contributors include: Greg Albo, Sâkihitowin Awâsis, Toban Black, Rae Breaux, Jeremy Brecher, Linda Capato, Jesse Cardinal, Angela V. Carter, Emily Coats, Stephen D’Arcy, Yves Engler, Cherri Foytlin, Sonia Grant, Harjap Grewal, Randolph Haluza-DeLay, Ryan Katz-Rosene, Naomi Klein, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Winona LaDuke, Crystal Lameman, Christine Leclerc, Kerry Lemon, Matt Leonard, Martin Lukacs, Tyler McCreary, Bill McKibben, Yudith Nieto, Joshua Kahn Russell, Macdonald Stainsby, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Brian Tokar, Dave Vasey, Harsha Walia, Tony Weis, Rex Weyler, Will Wooten, Jess Worth, and Lilian Yap.

The editors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to frontline grassroots environmental justice groups and campaigns.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629630397
Publisher:	PM Press
Publication date:	10/15/2014
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Joshua Kahn is the U.S. actions coordinator and trainings program manager for 350.org, a trainer with the Ruckus Society, and coauthor of Organizing Cools the Planet (PM Press).

Stephen D’Arcy is an associate professor and chair in the Department of Philosophy at Huron UniversityCollege. He is the author of Languages of the Unheard: The Ethics of Militant Protest (Between the Lines). He is also a climate justice and economic democracy activist.

Tony Weis is an associate professor in Geography at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of The Global Food Economy: The Battle for the Future of Farming and The Ecological Hoofprint: The Global Burden of Industrial Livestock (both with Zed Books).

Toban Black is a community organizer and a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Western Ontario, with research focused on environmental justice, the political economy of energy systems, and theories of social change.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist, and author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Her first book, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, was also an international bestseller, translated into nearly thirty languages with more than a million copies in print.

Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book on climate change for a general audience. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated fifteen thousand rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time magazine called him “the planet's best green journalist,” and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was “probably the country's most important environmentalist.”

Table of Contents

List of Contributors xii

Foreword Naomi Klein Bill McKibben xvii

Introduction: Drawing a Line in the Tar Sands Tony Weis Toban Black Stephen D'arcy Joshua Kahn Russell 1

Part I Tar Sands Expansionism

1 Petro-Capitalism and the Tar Sands Angela V. Carter 23

2 Assembling Consent in Alberta: Hegemony and the Tar Sands Randolph Haluza-Delay 36

3 The Rise of Reactionary Environmentalism in the Tar Sands Ryan Katz-Rosene 45

4 Canadian Diplomatic Efforts to Sell the Tar Sands Yves Engler 55

5 The Environmental NGO Industry and Frontline Communities Dave Vasey 64

6 Canada's Eastward Pipelines: A Corporate Export Swindle, Confronted by Cross-Country Resistance Martin Lukacs 76

7 Migrant Justice and the Tar Sands Industry: Interview with Harsha Walia Joshua Kahn Russell 84

8 Responding to Chinese Investments in the Tar Sands Harjap Grewal 91

9 New Beginnings: Tar Sands Prospecting Abroad MacDonald Stainsby 99

Part II Communities and Resistance

10 Awaiting Justice: The Ceaseless Struggle of the Lubicon Cree Melina Laboucan-Massimo 113

11 P $$$ ΛP^∪$$$ ·Δ: Kihci Pikiskwewin-Speaking the Truth Crystal Lameman 118

12 The Tar Sands Healing Walk Jesse Cardinal 127

13 Petro-Chemical Legacies and Tar Sands Frontiers: Chemical Valley versus Environmental Justice Toban Black 134

14 Beyond Token Recognition: The Growing Movement against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Tyler McCreary 146

15 Culture Works Christine Leclerc Rex Weyler 160

16 Lessons from Direct Action at the White House to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Joshua Kahn Russell Linda Capato Matt Leonard Rae Breaux 166

17 Gulf Coast Resistance and the Southern Leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline Cherri Foytlin Yudith Nieto Kerry Lemon Will Wooten 181

18 The Enbridge Pipeline Disaster and Accidental Activism along the Kalamazoo River Sonia Grant 195

19 Getting Europe Out of the Tar Sands: The Rise of the UK Tar Sands Network Jess Worth 207

20 Labour Faces Keystone XL and Climate Change Jeremy Brecher 217

Part III Future Prospects

21 Ending the Age of Fossil Fuels and Building an Economics for the Seventh Generation Winona Laduke 229

22 The Rise of the Native Rights-Based Strategic Framework: Our Last Best Hope to Save Our Water, Air, and Earth Clayton Thomas-Muller 240

23 Pipelines and Resistance across Turtle Island Sâkihitowin Awâsis 253

24 What Does It Mean to Be a Movement?: A Proposal for a Coherent, Powerful, Indigenous-Led Movement Emily Coats 267

25 Expanding the Fossil Fuel Resistance Bill Mckibben 279

26 Secondary Targeting: A Strategic Approach to Tar Sands Resistance Stephen D'Arcy 286

27 From the Tar Sands to "Green Jobs"? Work and Ecological Justice Greg Albo Lilian Yap 297

28 Tar Sands, Extreme Energy, and the Future of the Climate Movement Brian Tokar 310

Acknowledgements 321

Notes 322

Index 357

Editorial Reviews

12/22/2014
Academics, environmental scientists, and climate-change activists from across North America rail against the extraction of tar sands in Alberta, Canada, and controversial developments such as the Keystone XL pipeline, in this collection of pointed essays. It’s a fight that Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben here call one of “the epic environmental and social justice battles of our time,” and the variety of perspectives gives the collection comprehensive insight and broad appeal. The book’s tone is intense and emphatic. Extracting tar sands from the Athabasca River Basin in western Canada, the authors say, destroys the environment, affecting huge portions of boreal forest and numerous animal habitats. The essays also make clear how extraction practices have the potential to create an ecological wasteland reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mordor, threatening “the homelands of Cree, Dene, and Metis peoples.” Similarly, transporting crude oil to faraway refineries through a network of pipelines also poses significant health risks: local communities see elevated rates of cancers and respiratory illnesses due to air-quality issues and water contamination. Though these sorts of projections seem stark, apocalyptic, and stomach-turning, the worries are legitimate and give this volume substance and urgency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Avoiding ‘game over for climate’ requires drawing a line in the tar sands sludge. A Line in the Tar Sands makes clear why and how this tar sands quagmire could be the beginning of the end for the mighty fossil fuel industry.”
—Dr. James Hansen, NASA

“From Indigenous people's sharing of prophecy, to lock-downs and blockades, from marches to hip-hop tours, from horseback rides to hunger strikes, and from mass arrests in front of the White House and Parliament to court battles, A Line in the Tar Sands examines the ongoing struggle to protect Sacred Water and Mother Earth through the voices and actions of the people who are living it. Read A Line in the Tar Sands and be heartbroken to learn the extent of the destruction of Mother Earth. Be inspired by the people working to stop the destruction.”
—Debra White Plume, Moccasins on the Ground, Owe Aku International

“The most important stories in the tar sands struggle are hidden by the media. This revelatory book tells of Canadian duplicity, Chinese capital, migrant workers, healing ceremonies, movement reflection and strategy, EU lobbying, the contradictions of NGO politics, Indigenous activism, and much more. The story of Greenhouse Goo is global. But so it its resistance: beautiful, complex, and rich. A Line in the Tar Sands is drawn with hope and righteous anger, celebrating the cosmologies that the tar sands industry—and its politicians—would destroy.”
—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

“This collaborative effort not only details the insanity of tar sands development, it also shines a light on the Indigenous-led resistance movement challenging the fundamentally exploitative paradigm underlying extreme energy extraction. It provides a model of genuine solidarity in the fight to replace oppression with a healthy and just world.”
—Tim Dechristopher, Bidder 70

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