Ethicaloil.org Hook in

Image via Wikipedia

Ethicaloil.org

Have you been to their website?

It is worth a peak because those feisty folks that brought you the Tar Sands are fighting back.

And they are pure as the driven snow. 

Unlike monstrous Greenpeace which takes money from "giant foreign foundations" Ethical Oil depends on $5 and $10 donations from the little people like you and me.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic.

Maybe I do. 

Maybe I'm jaded.

Full of distrust.

Heaven knows they know how to reel people like me in.

Ethical Oil refers to its competition as Conflict Oil.

Conflict Oil is the oil we purchase from countries that treat women worse than cattle.

Places where women  and girls live in fear, can't vote, can't be educated, can't be seen or heard.

They ask if I wouldn't rather get my oil from, (big drum roll, wrapped in a maple leaf the size of Toronto), a DEMOCRACY like Canada,

especially when Canada is doing so much to minimize the impact the Tar Sands have on the environment and

after all wind farms kill thousands more birds than anything done at Fort McMurray...

Well yes, Ethicaloil.org, I would, when you put it that way.

I don't trust you,

but in spite of myself,

I'm listening.

Related articles

• Canada's Ethical Oil Tar Sands Campaign Really Says 'Stay Addicted To Oil' (treehugger.com)
• Campaign puts the spin on 'ethical oil' (guardian.co.uk)

Charlie Sheen and the Alberta Tar Sands

Image via Wikipedia

Two articles caught my eye this morning as I was wandering through twitter.


One was about the fight of an indigenous elder in B.C. to stop a massive new Enbridge pipeline that will transport Alberta Tar Sands oil/gas to the U.s. and Asia through two provinces and six states and the other was about Charlie Sheen.


Not connected one would think.


But Charlie Sheen's life seems to mirror what is happening in North America right now.

Money, power and evil versus ordinary people like you and me.



Charlie Sheen abuses anyone he deems less powerful than himself.

And yet many men and even women identify with him.

Support him. Cheer him on.

Give him their money by buying tickets to his show.



Enbridge abuses the environment.

The pipeline from the Tar Sands will end up in Texas and will put at risk some of the most fragile and important natural areas in Canada and the U.S.

But many men and women support this by voting in governments that support these corporations.

And the corporations, much like Charlie Sheen, seem too rich, too powerful and too above the law to stop.



But maybe the tide is turning.



As I scrolled farther down twitter I read that the audience in Detroit had booed Charlie Sheen and demanded their money back.

And the New York Times editorial was against the Tar Sands development.

In Canada the fight is on to hear the message of the Green Party in the Leaders' debate.


This particular tide can't turn soon enough.

Related articles

• "New York Times editorial says no to Keystone XL tar sands pipeline" and related posts (switchboard.nrdc.org)
• European Union Pushing Back on Canada's Taxpayer Funded Tar Sands Lobbying (desmogblog.com)
• This Ain't Winning: Detroit Finds Out The Hard Way That Charlie Sheen Is Not Funny... At All (bossip.com)