The Stench of Money: Canada's Environment Succumbs to Oil Sands

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from Der Spiegel:





Canada is home to the world's third largest oil reserves. But extracting the black gold is difficult, and threatens to destroy both the surrounding environment and the homeland of native tribes. With protests growing against a planned US pipeline, the oil sands controversy threatens to spread south.

Celina Harpe holds up the map like an indictment. "The oil companies are into Moose Lake now," she says, angrily tapping the paper. Workers have apparently already begun surveying the land.

"I cried when I heard that," says Harpe, the elder of the Cree First Nation community based in Fort MacKay in the Canadian province of Alberta. "That's where I was born."

Her feet are shod in moose-leather moccasins decorated with brightly-colored beads. Over her neatly-pressed trousers she wears a checked lumberjack shirt. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,791008,00.html

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