The Tar Sands Oilympics

The London Tar Sands Network and London Rising Tide hold the inaugural Tar Sands Oilympics in Trafalgar Square, London.

Corporate contenders RBS, Shell and newcomer BP compete for the chance to wreak environmental havoc in their scramble for Canada's tar sands.

In the process they will lay waste to vast areas of boreal forest, poison First Nations communities and push the planet towards catastrophic climate change.

The race for the most polluting fossil fuel resource on the planet is on. Forget the Winter Olympics in Canada, the real competition for the future of the planet is here.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• tar
• sands
• oilympics
• canada
• canadian
• winter
• olympics
• alberta
• athabasca
• oil
• fossil
• fuel
• co2
• carbon
• emissions
• climate
• change
• global
• warming
• runaway
• mining
• excavation
• extraction
• pollution
• bitumen
• heavy
• crude
• shell
• bp
• rbs
• royal
• bank
• scotland
• vancouver
• 2010
• da
• nvda
• nonviolent
• direct
• action
• trafalgar
• square
• london
• uk
• catastrophic
• first
• nations
• indigenous
• boreal
• forest
• ecosystem
• green
• greenwash
• beyond
• petroleum
• burning
• planet
• capitalism
• anticapitalism
• grassroots
• free
• market
• community
• devastation

[CatapillarQueen]

I fight it offensive sometimes that there blaming Canada because I hate to tar sands. They even put the Canadian flag in oil once which I found very offensive, but I know it's a good cause they should just try to be less offensive.

[phemefilms]

@CatapillarQueen

For this protest to be effective don't we need to cause some offence to those institutions involved in the environmental disaster of the tar sands?

Dipping a piece of cloth in oil seems fairly polite in comparison to the Canadian government's destruction of vast areas of your country.

[tarsansbro]

What does tar sands have to do with the Olympics???? And is your group so desperate for attention, you need to highjack a stage that young athletes from around the world have sweated buckets and given blood and tears to achieve. How arrogant! How utterly vile!

[phemefilms]

@tarsansbro this video isn't criticising the sweating/bleeding/weeping athletes. check out the Indigenous Environmental Network for info about the corporate greenwashing of the Olympics by companies also involved in the environmental disaster of the tar sands.

[CatapillarQueen]

@phemefilms Guys please don't get angry. I don't think you got exactly what I meant, I hate the tar sands there a shame on Canada. I live in Albert which makes it even more close to home. I guess I was being defensive because I'm so ashamed that one of the world's biggest polluters is in my country. I wish and could go and help you guys and I'm all for your cause, the tarsands MUST be stopped.

[NowSmileForMe]

@CatapillarQueen Dont you find it more offensive that billion dollar companies are RAPING canadian land? dipping a peice of fabric in oil is not worse than destroying an area of canada the size of england, the fact that you just claimed that dipping a flag in oil is offensive is insane, if you looked at the tar sands, and how our government has supported it, you might just change your stance. the fact that you care about the idea of canada than canada is messed up.

[domrowland]

Yeah, except that Lord Monckton isn't a climate scientist. He doesn't even have a science degree. He studied classics. And he's never had a peer reviewed paper published, even though he's tried and claims he has.

[skasnotdead77]

Yes, I agree with you to some degree about the clowning around. I was just really replying to you saying we might aswell dig it up. But awareness is the main issue and in alot of cases even if they were making new technologies no one would buy them while oil is readily available from sources such as tar sands.

[eonuk]

Absolutely. Which is why these people should not be clowning around on the street, but they should be in a garden shed or workshop working on new energy making technologies.

This clowning around is helping no-one. Its like listening to a bunch of people complain about a broken lightbulb and not actually doing anything about it.

If they are that bothered, they go and get education in engineering and find a solution