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Oil-soaked ducks may return to wild

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Latest comment posted at 2:03 PM EST 05/05/08

Animals recovered from an oil sands tailings pond in northern Alberta may be released if they meet strict standards ...Read the full article

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  1. George Duncan from Canada writes: Greenpeace dropped the ball and should be accountable. Greenpeace should have put up NO SWIMMING signs but did not!
  2. Woody Forrest from Out in the Sticks, Canada writes: From the article: "... About 500 birds died after landing on a toxic wastewater pond near Fort McMurray, Alta., last week."

    I've been around toxic things. You know, like benzine, chlorine or H2S. Those things are toxic.

    I've also been around a broken tailings pipeline. You can spot the break by looking for the pile of beach sand. You can stand next to it and even put your hands in the sand and they won't fall off - ever.

    Recall the damage done when an oil tanker sinks. Sea birds die when they get coated with oil. It's not nice, but I don't recall the spills being called toxic. The coating ruins the bird's feathers and they die - bad news.

    Well Syncrude has the rough equivalent of a tanker spill floating on their tailings pond. Keep the noise cannons running and the birds will stay away.

    It would be nicer to see them keeping the water clean. Maybe someday in the future they will. There's a gap between what the industry wants to keep doing and what some in the public want. It might be a good thing to meet in the middle somewhere.
  3. Roop Misir from Toronto, Canada writes:
    So involuntary oil-treatment is not that bad for ducks (and presumably other wildlife) in the Ft. McMurray tar sands region after all!
  4. R. M. from Regina, Canada writes: I would send the ducks to the CWF and Greenpeace and ask them to put them under their care as mascots and to provide daily health reports.
  5. mike sty - from Canada writes:
    What ?????cut and paste martha not here yet?????

    for the 67th time since friday..........echo..echo..echo..echo

    martha stewart from Canada writes: From: The Washington Post, December 24, 2003.

    LOS ANGELES -- The freezers at the U.S............blah.....blah.....blah......blah
    -------------------------------
  6. al goguen from victoria, Canada writes: When are we going to learn with our mistakes? Every day we hear of some disasters of some kind. We are very slow learners as human beings. We don`t see further our nose. When we hear, "so what? they're only birds...or polar bears etc." Our government elected should take control and educate their people. They are supposed to know more about the environment than the masses, but how wrong...this is the major reason we are in such a mess on this planet. We still haven't learned how to get rid our waste, our garbage. Our recycle program is not working as it should. No one to enforce it and humans do not care. How sad!
  7. Atlantica party- Maritimers in 308 ridings from Canada writes:

    Guess this 500 duck thing wasn't so serious after all.

    Lot's of headlines and outrage but nothing a Canadian Tire pressure washer couldn't fix.

    What's Jack Layton think about sending these poor ducks south of the border for some private healthcare not available in Canada?

    Guess he's nervously waiting for Elizabeth May 's statement on this national disaster.

    Silence is golden
  8. Duncan Munro from Canada writes:
    The toxic pond those ducks somehow managed to land on, only covers 15 square miles...so I'm sure this was a once in a lifetime event...at least for 495 out of 500 ducks. Of course no ducks or geese have ever attempted a landing at any of the other toxic lakes that dot the tar sands, and if they did, the tar sands operators would be sure to tell us.
  9. Always Right from Canada writes:

    Probably $10K per duck just so they can become target practice for hunters. What a waste of money.
  10. M M from West Coast, Canada writes: Enough with the fricking ducks!!! More birds are killed and mangled from those overpriced and ineffective wind turbines.
  11. Vern McPherson from writes:
    Walmart has the answer.

    Get plastic ducks - made in China at low cost ..................

    Keep those costs down ........................
  12. Another Canadian from Calgary, Canada writes: Hunters in North American kill 14 million ducks during hunting season each year, why doesn't greenpeace go after them?
  13. Gail C from Toronto, Canada writes: Here is a quote from Kevin Annett, author of "Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust", which I feel is pertinent in this case.

    "There is no beauty left in our culture because of its idolatrous embracing of the false god of corporatism. All reality has been reduced to crass self-seeking and commercialism, and there is no separate, sacred sanctuary left to us anymore. The market has overwhelmed us, and destroyed our roots in God and the land; roots which alone give us life."
  14. Gail C from Toronto, Canada writes: As Robert Kennedy Jr. has pointed out, corporations are designed to plunder. They cannot legally do good things for our communities or our country. If they do, they can be sued by any one of their shareholders for wasting corporate assets.

    When we allow corporations to rule us, when our politicians become beholden to them instead of the citizens, then we are the ones who will ultimately be plundered.

    If we still doubt that corporations plunder, we have only to look at the tarsands. Today the land and the Indigenous people who lived off it, tomorrow... ?
  15. Harper-approved lies are scripted talking points from Canada writes: The ducks should be honoured to be smeared with precious Alberta oil. That's the true Midas touch.
  16. George Parsons from Fort McMurray, Canada writes: Syncrude used to hire clean-up crews in the summer to skim the oil off the tailing ponds. They would fly in workers from Fort Chipywan on a two week rotation. I don't think they do this anymore. It might be wise for them to restart this program.
  17. Gail C from Toronto, Canada writes: To Harper-approved lies, etc.: I've heard of these scripted talking points. Can you access them through the internet, or are they just available to supporters by e-mail? I understand the purpose is to flood these discussions with pro-Conservative arguments and viewpoints - propaganda all done for free.
  18. Always Right from Canada writes:

    Gail C. - you should be ashamed of owning a computer or having access to the Internet. Is that what your God intended you to do?

    Shouldn't you be out in the meadow tending to your oats or worshiping earthworms?
  19. Scott MacDonald from Canada writes: Wow. 4 ducks is now news. Don't release them. I have no desire to eat tailings pond marinated duck when the season starts up in September.
  20. martha stewart from Canada writes: For mike sty... perspective again...

    From: The Washington Post, December 24, 2003.

    LOS ANGELES -- The freezers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department in the Sacramento Valley are overflowing with the decapitated and mangled bodies of golden eagles, kestrels and red-tailed hawks, victims of the whirling blades of wind turbines... as many as 44,000 birds have been killed over the past two decades by these towering machines in the Altamont Pass, east of San Francisco.

    Although [they]... make Alameda County less dependent on fossil fuel, they are also the end of the line for many predatory birds whose annual migration route includes the pass. The area is also home to the largest resident population of golden eagles in the lower 48 states. Concentrating on their prey on the ground, the birds fly into the blur of the windmill blades.

    [This has]... led some environmental groups... to oppose permits for the Altamont site... an average of 50 golden eagles are killed each year'
  21. martha stewart from Canada writes: For mike sty... from www.currykerlinger.com/birds.htm

    This source describes themselves as "Consultants to the Wind Power Industry on birds and other wildlife issues."

    Bird deaths per year:

    Glass Windows: (per year) 100 to 900 million - "more birds than any other human related factor."

    House Cats: 100 Million

    Automobiles / Trucks: 50-100 Million

    Electric Transmission Line Collisions: up to 174 million

    Agriculture: 67 million

    Communication Towers: 4-10 million

    Oil and Gas Extraction: 1-2 million - "up to 2 million birds died landing in oil pits to bathe and drink in 1997"

    Electrocutions: Raptor Deaths: "more than 1,000... hawks, eagles, falcons and owls are electrocuted on transmission lines and poles each year."

    Hunting: 100 million

    Wind Power - NO FIGURE PROVIDED! Gee, I wonder why? Note that electrocution and transmission lines also apply to wind powered electricity.

    And 500 mallards killed in this incident.

    Perspective matters.
  22. Harper-approved lies are scripted talking points from Canada writes: Gail C, it's on the CON-party website. Read about it:
    http://www.macleans.ca/canada/wire/article.jsp?content=n032557A

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