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By Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 21, 2009

An exceprt from Tar Sands: "A business-as-usual case for the tar sands will change Canada forever. It will enrich a few powerful companies, hollow out the economy, destroy the world's third-largest watershed, industrialize nearly one-quarter of Alberta's landscape, consume the last of the nation's natural gas supplies, and erode Canadian sovereignty. The destructiveness of the tar sands is not inevitable. But Canadians and Albertans have become too tolerant of the politicians who compromise the nation's energy security as well as the next generation's future. Instead of liquidating the tar sands for global interests, Canada can use the resource for transition to a lowcarbon economy. Every Canadian who drives a car is part of this political emergency. And every Canadian can be part of the solution."

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - As the world watches Barack Obama take over the white house this week, some Canadian environmental advocates are anticipating a green shift on the continent.

Last night Ecology North and Alternative North scheduled a lecture by Calgary journalist Andrew Nikiforuk, author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and The Future of a Continent.

His book examines the environmental impacts of the massive industrial project ongoing in Fort McMurray, Alta.

On the eve of his scheduled visit to Yellowknife, Nikiforuk suggested the new Obama administration in the U.S. will put pressure on the Canadian government to rethink its energy priorities.

"Obama comes from Illinois and Illinois is part of the number-one petroleum district that receives the bulk of oil from the tar sands," Nikiforuk said. "Obama has made a point of saying that this project is dangerous and dirty."

Nikiforuk was referring to an energy policy speech Obama made in Las Vegas last summer, in which the president called oil "a 19th-century fossil fuel that is dirty, dwindling, and dangerously expensive."

Nikiforuk suggested that the recent drop in oil prices offers a window for action.

"When oil is high you can't have good democratic debate about the resources because all the momentum is toward development," he said.

"When the price is low you can have a debate about where you truly want to go. That has importance for Northerners because the North has to make a decision – does the North really want to get on the oil bandwagon in a big way or does it want to seek alternative energy?"

Nikiforuk's book is available at the Yellowknife Book Cellar and through the Yellowknife public library.