Our schools are awash in dirty energy.
In Alberta, the tar sands threaten the lives and livelihoods of downstream communities each day. Their carbon intensive operations continue to drive climate change, and their expansion represents what NASA scientist James Hanson calls a potential “game over” for the climate. They suck up immense amounts of energy and water to produce one of the dirtiest energy sources on the planet. As they expand, networks of pipelines across the continent threaten even more ecosystems with the inevitability of devastating spills.
Syncrude Tailings Pond, www.dirtyoilsands.org
It isn’t just the tar sands. Across Canada, the extraction of coal and natural gas also threatens our future. The dangerous process of natural gas fracking is a rising menace across the country, and Canada continues to expand the oldest, most carbon intensive fossil fuel energy on the planet – coal.
But the impacts are not simply downstream or in our atmosphere. The expansion of the tar sands hurts all Canadians. The relationship between our government and the oil industry has created a deep democratic deficiency where our government prioritizes the well-being of big polluting corporations over the well being of people. Right now, Canada gives over one billion dollars in subsidies to the oil industry while student debt continues to rise year after year.
We oppose the use of our campuses to facilitate the expansion of the tar sands. We oppose the investment of our tuition dollars into companies and funds active in tar sands operations. We further oppose the public relations efforts of the fossil fuel industry on our campuses, through industry funding for events, conferences, and through the purchase of indulgences at our campus; lecture halls, research centers and other forms of industry specific research.
That’s why the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition is launching a new initiative this year. Clean Energy Campuses will root out these industries on our nations campuses and work to shift our schools away from supporting dirty energy, and towards supporting the clean, just, energy future we need. We’re launching a Dirty Energy Free campus pledge to get things started.
What You Can Do
Get your school on board. Download and print the how-to-guide and pledge, then ask your student government to endorse our
Suncor Upgrader, www.dirtyoilsands.org
call to make Canada’s schools into Clean Energy Campuses by going Dirty Energy Free. We also have materials to launch petitions, prepare you to write op-eds for your school paper, hold tabling days and much more. If you’re interested, email us at info@ourclimate.ca
Resources
- Dirty Energy Free Campus Pledge
- Students Boycott RBS Over Links to Tar Sands Projects
- Report: Big Oil Goes to College