Unethical Oil: Alberta Tar Sands presentation with Andrew Nikiforuk, Elizabeth May, and Garth Lenz

Friday, March 11, 7-9 pm
University of Victoria
David Lam Auditorium, MacLaurin building

Join Andrew Nikiforuk, award-winning author of “Dirty Oil: The Future of a Continent” and Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May for an evening of presentations on the politics and environmental implications of the Alberta Tar Sands. Garth Lenz, world renowned environmental photographer, will give a spectacular slideshow of his images from the Alberta Tar Sands.

The Alberta Tar Sands are the largest point source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Producing a barrel of tar sands oil creates three times the greenhouse gas emissions from producing a barrel of conventional oil. Enough natural gas is used in processing the Tar Sands to heat over 3 million Canadian homes. The toxic tailing lakes that result from the water taken from the Athabasca River used to process the tar sands are considered one of the largest man-made structures on Earth and will have a catastrophic impact on the aquatic ecosystems of the Mackenzie River Basin should they fail. The Alberta Tar Sands are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

Bio’s of speakers:

Andrew Nikiforuk is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist who has written about melting glaciers, educational shams, peak oil, the destruction of the boreal forest and the Alberta tar sands. He has won seven National Magazine Awards, and his investigative writing has been honoured by the Association of Canadian Journalists. His dramatic book, Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, won the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction in 2002. In 2009, he became the first Canadian to win the prestigious Rachel Carson Environment Book Award from the U.S.-based Society of Environmental Journalists for his study of the oil sands in Northern Alberta, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent.

Elizabeth May is the national leader of Canada’s Green Party. She was the Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada for 15 years and is the author of 7 books, including “Climate Change for Dummies”, “At the Cutting Edge: Canada’s Forests at the Crossroads”, and “How to Save the World in Your Spare Time”. She also worked as the Senior Policy Advisor to the former federal Environment Minister, Tom McMillan in 1986, helping to save South Moresby (Gwaii Haanas) as a national park reserve. Elizabeth was recently recognized by Newsweek Magazine as one of the world’s most influential women, along with Michele Obama and Hilary Clinton. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005 and was recognized by the United Nations in 2006 as one of the world’s most leading woman conservationists.

Garth Lenz is recognized as one of the most outstanding conservation photographers in the world and was recently invited to be a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers. He started his career in Clayoquot Sound, photographing old growth forests and devastating clearcuts, traveling the world with his slideshow on the bad logging practices in BC. Garth is one of the top photographers for the Tar Sands campaign and the Boreal Forests campaign. His outstanding photography of the Alberta Tar Sands and Canada’s Boreal Forests is presently being featured at the LA gallery G2.

Sponsored by the Green Party of Canada and the UVic Greens. Info phone 778-426-4494