Hundreds of people from the Bristol area have complained to the oil company BP about its plans to extract oil from the ‘tar sands’ of Canada. Greenpeace Bristol East members will deliver messages from these people to a local BP petrol station on Monday 19th July.
Greenpeace has collected 200 ‘petals’ that members of the public in Bristol have peeled from a specially designed version of BP’s famous ‘sunflower’ logo. The petals were then stuck on a large sheet to spell out the message “NO TAR SANDS”.
Tar sands are the most polluting and destructive means of producing petrol in commercial production. Tar sands are a form of bitumen mixed with sand. It requires vast amounts of natural gas to be burnt, to create steam, just to get this tar like substance into a form that is liquid enough to be transported and refined. Extracting tar sands from the ground and getting it to the petrol pump creates three times as much greenhouse gas emissions as the same amount of conventional oil.
An area of Canadian boreal forest, the size of England, is under threat if this resource is fully exploited. The boreal forest is a globally important carbon sink and home to moose, wolves, bears and countless other vulnerable animals and plants.
This part of Canada is also home to First Nation communities who say because of tar sands developments their way of life is being destroyed and the health of their people compromised. They report high rates of cancers, which they relate to water and air pollution from tar sands extraction.
If you wish to help us deliver our messages to BP on Monday, please contact Carol on 07970 590070.
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