Spirit Bears & Tar Sands

So, what do these photographs have in common?  The Canadian Tar Sands debacle!  The bear is spirit bear, not a polar bear.  And yes it is a real bear, a sub-species of the black bear that lives only on the northwest coast of Canada.  The crude oil extracted from the tar sands, which is extracted by strip mining, is made to flow using steam or solvents and the Canadian government has approved the Enbridge Northern gateway pipeline to the coast.  This pipeline goes through the spirit bear territory and First Nations lands.  Tankers will come in through tortuous channels among numerous islands to ship off the oil.  But they insist there will be no problems with leaks or spills...Do You Believe Them?  I for one Do Not.  Check out the history for yourself.

Another project is the Keystone XL pipeline which will transport the oil from Canada to Texas over    the Ogallala aquifer.  Many, many reasons why all this is a bad idea...I won't go into them here but I will encourage those who read this to learn more.  My background is in geology and I worked as a  professional hydrogeologist for 17 years.  I do feel I have the knowledge to know this is not the direction to go and feel the need to educate folks about it.

50,000 people came from all over the country yesterday on buses and trains to Washington D.C. to urge President Obama to not allow the Keystone XL pipeline project.  He has the power to stop it. Chief Jackie Thomas, of the Siak'uz First Nation, Yinka Dene Alliance of Nations (“People of the Earth”):, spoke last at the  rally.   "The Yinka Dene Alliance of British Columbia is seeing the harm from climate change to our peoples and our waters.  We see the threat of taking tar sands out of the Earth and bringing it through our territories and over our rivers. The harm being done to people in the tar sands region can no longer be Canada’s dirty secret. We don’t have the billions of dollars that industry has. But we do have our faith that people will do the right thing to protect Mother Earth. The Forward on Climate Rally shows that we are not alone in the fight to stop tar sands expansion and tackle climate change." 

She affected me deeply when she ended with the statement that she is prepared to stop the bulldozers and put her life on the line to stop them.

So, the spirit bear mosaic is my way of bringing some attention to the issue.  You can see the spirit bear mosaic in person at the Diving Cat Studio in Phoenixville, PA!