Forests and Climate Change

In this clip, James Cameron, director of "Avatar," speaks to MSNBC via Skype about his thoughts on his trip to get a first-hand glimpse of the controversial Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, Canada.

Cameron says that because the 142,000-square-kilometer deposit is the second largest in the world next to Saudi Arabia, it has triggered a gold rush of oil companies stampeding to reap the benefits, and that kind of expediency is extremely dangerous.

"The concerns are obvious," Cameron says, attesting that scientific evidence has found carcinogenic toxins from the enormous tailing ponds of the surface mining operations leaking into the water supply, and are most likely airborne as well.... Read more »

A pair of United States senators who recently visited Alberta are introducing legislation that would ensure U.S. government agencies can purchase fuel products made from the province's oilsands.

While still in its early stages, the arrival of the "Oil Sands Energy Security Act" should be seen as a vindication of Premier Ed Stelmach's strategy of promoting the oilsands message with key U.S. policy-makers, said Gary Mar, Alberta's top official at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. "We shouldn't take too much away from this at this point . . . but the result is now we have a bill that gives us a strong indication people are understanding our message of what the oilsands are and what they are not," Mar said in a phone interview Friday.... Read more »

EDMONTON — A pair of United States senators who recently visited Alberta are introducing legislation that would ensure U.S. government agencies can purchase fuel products made from the province's oilsands.

While still in its early stages, the arrival of the "Oilsands Energy Security Act" should be seen as a vindication of Premier Ed Stelmach's strategy of promoting the oilsands message with key U.S. policy-makers, said Gary Mar, Alberta's top official at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

"We shouldn't take too much away from this at this point ... but the result is, now we have a bill that gives us a strong indication people are understanding our message of what the oilsands are and what they are not," Mar said in a phone interview Friday.... Read more »

Edmonton - Greenpeace is asking provincial and federal governments to postpone hearings on Total's proposed new tar sands mine. The move follows the announcement this week of a federal scientific panel to study the tar sands effects on water, and calls by First Nation leaders and Hollywood Director James Cameron for a moratorium.

The Total hearing, which began last week, would add a 7000-hectare mine site and a massive tailings lake to the already stressed tar sands region.... Read more »

CALGARY - Alberta's environment minister says he was taken by surprise by a federal panel appointed to look into environmental monitoring of the oilsands.

Rob Renner says Alberta has led other jurisdictions when it comes to monitoring water quality in the oilsands region.

Last week, he announced the province was creating its own independent panel to determine the source of toxic metals and hydrocarbons in the land and water near the industry.

He says he has contacted his federal counterparts and made it clear that he doesn't want to see a duplication of efforts.

Renner says it's possible the two panels could end up working together in the future.

The federal panel is expected to complete its final report in 60 days, while the Alberta group has until Feb. 1.