PLANET IN PERIL

The Globe and Mail A quickly expanding wildfire in northeastern Alberta has forced Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. to shut down more oil sands production, pushing total volumes offline owing to the blaze to more than 8 per cent of the province’s oil output. Story here.

De Smog Canada Three Manitoba-based environmental groups — Manitoba Wildlands , Wilderness Committee , and Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition — held a press conference Thursday in Winnipeg demanding the Manitoba government “acknowledge the magnitude” of TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline project, which would see oilsands (also called tar sands) bitumen shipped through the province. Story here.

FOSSIL FREE Amazing news! The Church of England has announced that it will divest its holdings of £12m in thermal coal and tar sands. This is a good step in the right direction and a huge win for the divestment campaign. A special shout-out to our faith campaigners in the UK! Story here.

Common Dreams In historic shake-up, Canadian voters overwhelming back party that promised higher corporate taxes and less support for pipelines. Story here.

Below are some samples of comments submitted to the Guardian by Canadians. Among Canadian family physicians, there is a growing recognition that climate change is a medical issue, both locally (with increasing heat waves and severe winter weather in Canada), and for those of us involved in international healthcare projects abroad. Dr Chetan Mehta physician in Toronto, Canada ========= Pollinators are indicator species to the health status of the environment. Their decline in abundance and species diversity are warning signals of the environment being under stress. To deny that the release of billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere has no impact on climate borders on the absurd. The true impact of our collective failure will be experienced by those not yet born. Paul van Westendorp provincial apiculturist at British Columbia, Canada ========= Too much pseudo-science funded by vested industrial interests; too few governments able to think for themselves

theguardian New analysis reveals funding of over $3bn for fossil fuel-related projects last year, despite repeated calls by bank’s president to scrap such ‘harmful’ global subsidies. Story here.

Oil sands    Keep it in the ground - campaign updates   theguardian Oil spills are threatening our way of life. But indigenous people – with help from the international climate movement – can curtail the industry’s expansion. Story here.  

(Reuters) - After six years battling bitter opposition to its Keystone XL pipeline project in the United States, TransCanada Corp has learned where and when to pick its fights, to consult early and often - and to retreat when prudent. Story here.

Common Dreams TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has been front and center in a heated continental energy and climate debate for over four years now – and President Obama is sounding more and more like he is poised to make the right decision and reject the pipeline that would carry high carbon, high risk, high cost bitumen through North America’s heartland. Story here.

The Canadian Press Alberta tar sands. Photo credit - Beautiful Destruction. EDMONTON - Here a few facts about Alberta's oilsands tailings ponds: Story here.

The Guardian Harper government organized private meetings between oil firms and Indigenous chiefs to try and gain support for oil and gas pipelines and other investments located on their lands, documents reveal. Story here.

fuel fix The (US) federal government predicts that trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year over the next two decades, causing more than $4 billion in damage and possibly killing hundreds of people if an accident happens in a densely populated part of the U.S. Story here.

theguardian P in P  publisher Larry Powell shows his support.  (Does this put him on the RCMP's "extremist" list? ) Landmark EU fuel quality directive gets a reprieve, opening the way for more-polluting tar sands oil to be taxed at a higher rate effectively pricing it out of the market. Story here.

Common Dreams Oil cars on a Manitoba siding. PinP photo. 'Time and again we’ve seen these oil trails catch fire, spill oil, take lives and leave behind huge messes.' Story here.

The Canadian Press Unexpected visitors have been dropping in on anti-oil activists in the United States — knocking on doors, calling, texting, contacting family members. The visitors are federal agents. Story here.

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PinP; Any similarity this commentator bears to David Attenborough, the famous naturalist of BBC TV fame, is purely intentional!

The Council of Canadians The Enbridge Line 4 pipeline, a 796,000 barrels per day pipeline from Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin, has spilled 1,350 barrels of oil at a pumping station in Regina. Story here.

Winnipeg Free Press A Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. tarsands operation that has contaminated a groundwater aquifer is renewing questions about a technology that has already been linked to another serious leak in northern Alberta. Story here.