Tar Sands

Tar sands, oil sands or, more technically, bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Tar sands are found mainly in Canada, but also in parts of Utah, Russia, and Venezuela. Mining, processing, transporting, refining and burning of tar sands has massive impacts to ecosystems, air and water quality, indigenous and marginalized communities, the global climate, and requires significant energy to break it down and ship it to the world. The movement of multinational oil companies toward this thick, heavy unconventional and hard to refine crude signals desperation, and with its significant impact on global greenhouse gas levels, presents a major threat to the stability of the world climate. WilderUtopia has partnered with Tar Sands Action Southern California to stop this deadly product from reaching global oil markets and heating the climate beyond tipping points.

White Canyon, Natural Bridges National Monument - Tar Sands
Climate, Tar Sands

Utah Tar Sands: In the US, Good Guys Go To Jail

Last month, twenty-one people were arrested engaging in peaceful civil disobedience in protest of a proposed tar sands mine in northeastern Utah, which would threaten local land and water, as well as contributing to the global climate crisis. As the wheel of justice turn, national environmental organizations expressed their solidarity with the protesters who stood for our freedom from dirty fossil fuels and devastating climate impacts.

Hands Across the Harbor, Los Angeles, Keystone XL, hands Across the Sand
Politics and Advocacy, Tar Sands

Hands Across the Harbor: LA Residents Protest Dirty Fossil Fuels in Port and Beyond

On May 17, over 100 residents from across Los Angeles joined hands at Hands Across the Harbor in the Port of LA as part of the National Day of Action Against the Keystone XL Pipeline and Hands Across the Sand/Land. It was one of hundreds of synchronized events to raise awareness about the dangers of dirty fuels including tar sands and hydraulic fracturing or fracking, active threats to Harbor area residents.

tar sands, activism, Los Angeles
Tar Sands

XL Dissent: Activists Speak Out for Clean Energy, Mother Earth

While activists in Los Angeles and across the US spoke out against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, Dave Pruett writes on its threatened environmental triple-whammy, poorly documented in the latest State Department environmental report heading toward the President’s desk. Protests are planned March 1-2 in Washington DC as part of “XL Dissent” and March 1 in Los Angeles with the Great March for Climate Action.