Tar sands is the dirtiest oil there is - Are you investing in it?

You probably won't be too shocked to hear that BP
and Shell are developing even dirtier ways to profit from oil extraction.

What you might not know is that our pension money is being invested in the companies that are developing 'tar sands' - the dirtiest oil available. But that's the surprising heads-up from top ethical investment campaigners FairPensions.

Getting oil from tar sands is staggeringly stupid for many different reasons. Extracting the oil requires massive environmental disruption. Forests are clear-cut, the landscape is strip-mined, watercourses and wildlife are poisoned, indigenous peoples are displaced.

On top of that, producing tar sands oil means up to three times the carbon emissions of normal oil extraction. BP and Shell's tar sands investments will accelerate and intensify changes in our climate that threaten us all.

Because of lax ethical investment criteria, many pension funds are investing our money into BP and Shell. In the next month both BP and Shell have their Annual General Meetings. It's time to kick up a fuss. 

Working with Fairpensions, we want pension fund managers to vote for a shareholders resolution which challenges BP and Shell over their tar sands investments.

You can tell your pension provider to support the resolution. You'll need to know who your pensions provider is, then just click here to be taken to the Fairpensions website.

They'll help you contact your pension fund manager and ask them to support the resolution.If you don't have a pension, you can take action by emailing BP and Shell's largest shareholders.

Don't let BP and Shell act with impunity. It's bad for Alberta, bad for the planet, and bad for those of us who like our money to be invested ethically.