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The Road to Athabasca: Why I’m Biking To the Tar Sands

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The Road to Athabasca: Why I’m Biking To the Tar Sands
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Six months ago, my friend Phil Jones announced that he was making a bicycle pilgrimage to the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, and asked if anyone wanted to join him.<br />
As he spoke, I nodded and listened, thinking Wait. Where is that? At the time I was working as a barista in Downtown Seattle, pouring espresso shots, pinging between freelance writing jobs and playing music in my band. It took me a while to make the connection in my mind that this place, one of the biggest and most devastating oil extraction projects in the world, was close enough to my home in Seattle that I, too, could ride my bicycle there – all 1,100 miles along the route of the Trans Mountain pipeline through Canada.<br />
Over time, the idea of that ride has grown from one person to a motley crew of passionate artists and storytellers in what is now the <a href="http://www.tarsandsride.org/" rel="nofollow">The Road to Athabasca</a>. I didn't arrive lightly at my decision to go. But the scope of this journey hooked my imagination, and as I read up on the tar sands, spoke to others with firsthand knowledge of the issue, and trained physically for the ride, I began to feel its true gravity and urgency. I, along with others, am now <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tarsandsride/the-road-to-athabasca" rel="nofollow">asking you to support us</a> as we embark on this two-wheeled journey for the climate.<br />
<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/TarSands_3.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="tar sands, tar sands bikeride, carbon emissions, bitumen, The Road to Athabasca, Trans Mountain Pipeline" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/TarSands_3.jpg" title="tar sands, tar sands bikeride, carbon emissions, bitumen, The Road to Athabasca, Trans Mountain Pipeline" /></a><br />
<strong>How dirty is it?</strong><br />
The term “tar sands” refers to a substance of sand, clay and tar bitumen that with intense processing can become oil (for more, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/08/16/158907708/infographic-how-tar-sands-oil-is-produced" rel="nofollow">see this great NPR infographic</a>). After being extracted, the tar is mixed with a mega-cocktail of hot water, heavy chemicals, natural gas and light crude oil, thus generating a new substance: "dilbit," or diluted bitumen. The stuff then gets pumped south through oil pipelines from Alberta, reaching tankers where it gets delivered internationally. It’s a substance that The National Resource Defense Council <a href="http://atrium.occupy.com/read/node/www.nrdc.org/energy/tarsandssafetyrisks.asp" rel="nofollow">has called</a> a "highly corrosive, acidic, and potentially unstable blend of thick raw bitumen and volatile natural gas liquid condensate – raising risks of spills and damage to communities along their paths."<br />
The largest field of tar sands in the world is located in Northern Alberta – a distance only marginally longer than San Francisco is from my hometown Seattle. To bring it to the local level for Northwesterners: the Trans Mountain Pipeline, one of these dilbit channels, runs right through our backyard and ends in Anacortes, Washington, after starting its journey in Edmonton, Alberta. The Trans Mountain currently transports 300,000 barrels of dilbit per day, and <a href="http://www.kindermorgan.com/business/canada/tmx_expansion.aspx" rel="nofollow">is expected to triple to an expected 890,000 barrels per day</a>.<br />
But the number that exists on paper is not something I can grasp or experience. This psychic and physical distance is my reason for making the journey. I have led a relatively privileged life amid the bountiful resources of the Northwest, a region built on an oil-driven economy, but I've never been certain of the exact costs of that privileged existence on the land and its people. The metaphor of the frog in boiling water feels appropriate here – because when we speak of our changing climate, what’s at stake is nothing less than life itself.<br />
To fight for those stakes, I must understand them. And I cannot truly understand something I cannot see or feel. Back in April, I attended one of my first climate protests against the Shell oil rig that had anchored in Seattle’s Puget Sound. Reuben George, a leader of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, addressed some thousands of people saying, “When something comes along that will negatively impact the people I love, I am going to stop it.” The statement hit home for me. I love my family, and I love my friends, and like most anyone else I long for a healthy planet for future generations.<br />
But I also love this land, my home. I grew up in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the conclusion of the Oregon Trail, which is some of the most fertile land for agriculture and a place that instilled in me a love of good food, big mountains and towering trees. In Washington state, I feel that extension of my original home.<br />
Some may call it an overstatement to say that the oil industry has brought the war to our doorstep with the tar sands. I do not agree. I see the issue as a battle for this place on earth, home to humans and sea otters and gulls and deer and killer whales, threatened with destruction by an industry whose currency is oil and whose values are chained to profits. The same is true for the northern Albertans, whose land has been stolen, their groundwater polluted, and who have seen cancer rates skyrocket as a result of the oil industry’s activities in their region. In the end, we humans all depend on the land; to destroy it is to destroy ourselves.<br />
<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/route-map_June26_FINAL.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="tar sands, tar sands bikeride, carbon emissions, bitumen, The Road to Athabasca, Trans Mountain Pipeline" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/route-map_June26_FINAL.jpg" title="tar sands, tar sands bikeride, carbon emissions, bitumen, The Road to Athabasca, Trans Mountain Pipeline" /></a><br />
<strong>Preparing for the journey</strong><br />
Two weeks ago, I biked 68 miles with three other cyclists, which was five times the longest distance I had ever traveled without a car. Beginning on South Whidbey Island’s pastoral hills and roadside organic gardens, we rode north over beautiful Deception Pass and west to the Tesoro and Shell oil refinery in Anacortes, seated directly on the edgewaters of the Samish First Nation.<br />
On the way we encountered pristine water, soaring gulls and bobbing harbor seals. But when we finally arrived at the gate to the refinery, we felt like we were witness to a fearsome monolith. The high buildings, surrounded by tall gates and barbed wire, spewed plumes of black smoke into an already gray sky. To be in the presence of that weight felt like a grave reminder of the seriousness of this fight, and the damage caused by the most powerful substance on Earth. That evening at the water’s edge, I saw the brute physicality of the oil refinery rub up against the large geography of this journey that we as a group have chosen to undertake.<br />
We call this trip a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is any long journey, especially one traveled as a quest with a spiritual purpose. Though the tar sands are across the northern border many miles away from home, they not only play an urgent role in the politics, economy and communities of the Northwest; they are also a place on which our collective future depends. The riders participating in The Road to Athabasca believe that preserving this future necessitates a spirit of humility and witness.<br />
Through discovery of place, through story, and through personal connection with people along the way, we want to bear witness and tell the story of the people and places that span the space between Seattle and the tar sands of Alberta. Along the way we will be challenged and pushed to limits we didn’t know we were capable of reaching physically, emotionally, spiritually. We will be hallowed and humbled as we embrace our personal power and agency to change the false narrative that our existence as a species must depend on the earth’s destruction. And we hope, in the process, to encourage others to do the same.<br />
Please support us on this journey by <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tarsandsride/the-road-to-athabasca" rel="nofollow">donating to our Kickstarter campaign</a> and helping spread the word.<br />
<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Team_Bios5.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" height="231" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Team_Bios5.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/RTA_Tesoro_Banner.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="tar sands, tar sands bikeride, carbon emissions, bitumen, The Road to Athabasca, Trans Mountain Pipeline" height="232" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/RTA_Tesoro_Banner.jpg" title="tar sands, tar sands bikeride, carbon emissions, bitumen, The Road to Athabasca, Trans Mountain Pipeline" width="640" /></a></div>
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Through discovery of place, through story, and through personal connection with people along the way, we are journeying 1,100 miles to the tar sands of Alberta – and are asking for your support in our venture.</div>
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Dozens of kayaktivists took to the water to block Shell's Fennica ice breaker from leaving port, while a group of 13 climbers rappelled off a bridge in Portland, Oregon, with enough supplies to last days if needed.</div>
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"The system is largely gamed, broken and corrupted by money, influence peddling and a revolving door."</div>
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armageddon news revolution The Road to Athabasca: Why I’m Biking To the Tar Sands

The Road to Athabasca: Why I’m Biking To the Tar Sands Six months ago, my friend Phil Jones announced that he was making a bicycle pilg...

The Media Wants US To Focus On A Hunted Lion, But Ignore The Current Holocaust Of Millions Of Babies Killed In Abortion

anonymous armageddon isis islam war The Media Wants US To Focus On A Hunted Lion, But Ignore The Current Holocaust Of Millions Of Babies Killed In Abortion

The frantic frenzy the media is expressing to get our attention on a lion, is a distraction to keep out focus away from the current ho...

Germany Just Got 78 Percent Of Its Electricity From Renewable Sources

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Image: Jürgen from Sandesneben, Germany – Flickr</div>
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On July 25th, Germany set a new record for renewable energy by meeting 78% of the day’s electricity requirements from renewables, exceeding the previous record of 74% set in May 2014.  This is a huge achievement and proves that renewable energy is the answer to our future energy needs.  According to the federal Energy Information Administration, the U.S. only gets around 10% of its electricity from renewable sources.<br />
We’ve also recently <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/denmark-just-produced-140-of-its-electricity-needs-via-wind-power/">reported that Denmark</a> found itself producing 140% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines.<br />
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/29/3685555/germany-sets-new-renewable-energy-record/" target="_blank">Thinkprogress.org</a> reported:<br />
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According to an <a href="http://energytransition.de/2015/07/renewables-covered-78percent-of-german-electricity/">analysis</a> by German energy expert Craig Morris at the Energiewende blog, a stormy day across northern Europe combined with sunny conditions in southern Germany led to the new record, the exact figures of which are still preliminary. Morris writes that most of Germany’s wind turbines are installed in the north and most of its solar panels are in the south.<br />
If the figures hold, it will turn out that wind and solar generated 40.65 gigawatts (GW) of power on July 25. When this is combined with other forms of renewables, including 4.85 GW from biomass and 2.4 GW from hydropower, the total reaches 47.9 GW of renewable power — occurring at a time when peak power demand was 61.1 GW on Saturday afternoon. To bolster his analysis, Morris points to <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilippLitz/status/625576425534439424">early figures</a> from Agora Energiewende, a Germany energy policy firm, that have renewables making up 79 percent of domestic power consumption that day.</blockquote>
It was due to an unusual weather pattern that brought heavy winds where most of the nation’s wind turbines are located. As these turbines generated more power, utilities ramped down coal- and gas-fired power plants. This just proves that yet again that renewable energy has the potential to replace our old ways of generating energy rapidly.

activism knowledge news Germany Just Got 78 Percent Of Its Electricity From Renewable Sources

Image: Jürgen from Sandesneben, Germany – Flickr On July 25th, Germany set a new record for renewable energy by meeting 78% of the day’...

US-Coalition Air Force Slaughters 15,000 ISIS Terrorists

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The US-Coalition air force has slaughtered 15,000 ISIS terrorists since 2014. According to <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/07/30/Islamic-State-negates-killed-with-new-recruits-weakened-strategically/4521438252831/?spt=sec&or=tn" target="_blank">the report:</a><br />
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Over 15,000 Islamic State members have been killed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes since the campaign began nearly a year ago, as the militant Islamist group displays a dichotomy of weakened resilience.<br />
The U.S.-led coalition conducted more than 30 airstrikes on the Islamic State within 24 hours, destroying more than five IS vehicles, six tactical units and a tunnel near Mosul, Iraq, that the militant group used to move members to fight against opposing Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, officials announced Wednesday.<br />
More than 5,500 airstrikes have been carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq since Aug. 8, 2014. The CIA estimated the militant group’s membership last year to be in a range between 20,000 and 31,500.<br />
The membership estimates remain about the same this year, according to USA Today — meaning the Islamic State has been able to successfully replace its fallen fighters.<br />
Due to the airstrikes, the Islamic State has been forced to disperse into smaller groups, making them less likely to seize large territories. The U.S. military has previously warned that casualty numbers do not accurately measure progress in the conflict against the militant group.</blockquote>
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anonymous armageddon isis islam war US-Coalition Air Force Slaughters 15,000 ISIS Terrorists

The US-Coalition air force has slaughtered 15,000 ISIS terrorists since 2014. According to the report: Over 15,000 Islamic State mem...

Two Christian Pastors Send A Letter To A Church To Encourage Them, They Get Accused Of Being Spies And Are Now Sentenced...

<img alt="Presbyterian pastors Yat Michael Ruot (left) and Peter Yein Reith face the death penalty in Sudan." class="attachment-large wp-post-image" height="417" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Two-Sudanese-Pastors-Yat-Michael-and-Peter-Yein-Reith-are-facing-the-death-penalty-for-preaching-the-Gospel-in-Sudan.png" width="640" />
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<strong>By Theodore Shoebat</strong><br />
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Presbyterian pastors Yat Michael Ruot (left) and Peter Yein Reith face the death penalty in Sudan.</div>
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Two Christian pastors in South Sudan (a secular and traditionally Christian nation) sent a letter to a church in North Sudan (a Muslim nation) to encourage them. The pastors, due to tensions between the two nations, were accused of being spies and are now face a death sentence by South Sudan. Here is the report:<br />
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The lawyers representing the two South Sudanese pastors facing the death penalty made their closing arguments on July 23 in Khartoum before a judge who, sources said, appeared to be favouring the prosecution, according to Christian News.<br />
A verdict is expected at a hearing on Aug. 5.<br />
Speaking before the judge at the Khartoum Bari Court, the defence lawyers of Yat Michael and Peter Yein Reith maintained that agents of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) illegally apprehended 49-year-old Michael on Dec. 14 last year and 36-year-old Reith on Jan. 11.<br />
“Justice requires that you don’t judge [arrest] simply because you doubt [suspect] them without any concrete evidence,” one of the lawyers said.<br />
Michael was arrested by authorities after he delivered a message of encouragement to a North Khartoum church amid a looming state-aided takeover of the congregation’s property.<br />
Reith was taken by security agents after he submitted a letter from the leaders of the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church which requested for information on the whereabouts of Michael.<br />
A national intelligence agent accused the two of gathering information for a human rights group.<br />
However, the charges, which include espionage and promotion of hatred against or among sects, were created months after their arrest.<br />
Spying under the Sudanese Penal Code is punishable by death while inciting hatred is punishable by up to two years in jail.<br />
“The judge in the last hearing seemed to be supporting the prosecution,” said the source who asked not to be named. “The whole issue is politically motivated, and the two pastors are innocent, but the lawyers asked the judge to respect laws and the constitution and not aid NISS in violation of the Constitution.”<br />
The pastors are also accused of undermining the constitutional system—which is punishable by death—life imprisonment, and confiscation of property.<br />
Disclosure and obtaining information and official documents is punishable by a year in prison while blasphemy or insulting religious creeds is punishable also by a year in jail or a fine or a maximum of 40 lashes.<br />
The national intelligence agency used as evidence maps and easily accessible documents said to have been taken from the pastors’ confiscated laptops.<br />
A NISS study guide, which the pastors said was not in their computers before their arrest, was also presented as evidence.</blockquote>
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Two Christian Pastors Send A Letter To A Church To Encourage Them, They Get Accused Of Being Spies And Are Now Sentenced...

anonymous armageddon isis islam war Two Christian Pastors Send A Letter To A Church To Encourage Them, They Get Accused Of Being Spies And Are Now Sentenced...

By Theodore Shoebat Presbyterian pastors Yat Michael Ruot (left) and Peter Yein Reith face the death penalty in Sudan. Two Christ...

Muslim Man Kidnaps Christian Woman Who Has Three Children And Forces Her To Be His Sex Slave And “Property”

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A Muslim man named Muhammad Nazir kidnapped a Christian woman who is a mother of three, named Fouzia Sadiq, and she is now his sex slave and “property.” According to the <a href="http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.mother.of.three.abducted.and.forced.into.islamic.marriage/60484.htm" target="_blank">report</a>:<br />
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A Christian mother of three has been kidnapped and forced into an Islamic marriage in Pakistan, campaigners say.<br />
Fouzia Sadiq was abducted from the field where she worked as a bonded labourer on July 23. Her family say that she was taken by her Muslim landlord – Muhammed Nazir – who’s brother promised at the time that Sadiq would be returned shortly.<br />
However, after returning for their daughter on July 24, they were told that Sadiq had converted to Islam and was now the property of Nazir, whom she had married.<br />
An officer for the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), has met the family and they will now be moved to a safe house. They say police are refusing to register the incident.<br />
“My sister has been missing for five days and police are refusing to register an FIR [First Incident Report], my heart is broken,” Sadiq’s sister, Iqra, said.<br />
“Our landlord is a cruel man and we have been starving since he stopped the little payment that was due to us. We have no power and have to face such injustice.”</blockquote>
This is the type of evil that we at Rescue Christians are fighting against every day. We have rescued many women who have been raped and kidnapped to be sex slaves. One of the most tragic examples was that of Tania Rebecca, a young Christian girl who was kidnapped and sexually tortured for many days. We ended up supporting her and getting her medicated for the brutal injuries that she received.<br />
God is Love, and He created human beings to not only be partakers in His love, but to be expanders of His love. And I ask you to expand God’s love today; let your light shine forth before men so that they may worship their Father in Heaven. Please help us rescue more Christians in Pakistan.</div>

anonymous armageddon isis islam war Muslim Man Kidnaps Christian Woman Who Has Three Children And Forces Her To Be His Sex Slave And “Property”

A Muslim man named Muhammad Nazir kidnapped a Christian woman who is a mother of three, named Fouzia Sadiq, and she is now his sex sla...