A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice

Tar sands “development” comes with an enormous environmental and human cost. In the tar sands of Alberta, the oil industry is using vast quantities of water and natural gas to produce synthetic crude oil, creating drastically high levels of greenhouse gas emissions and air and water pollution. But tar sands opponents—fighting a powerful international industry—are likened to terrorists, government environmental scientists are muzzled, and public hearings are concealed and rushed.

Yet, despite the formidable political and economic power behind the tar sands, many opponents are actively building international networks of resistance, challenging pipeline plans while resisting threats to Indigenous sovereignty and democratic participation. Including leading voices involved in the struggle against the tar sands, A Line in the Tar Sands offers a critical analysis of the impact of the tar sands and the challenges opponents face in their efforts to organize effective resistance.

Contributors include: Greg Albo, Sâkihitowin Awâsis, Toban Black, Rae Breaux, Jeremy Brecher, Linda Capato, Jesse Cardinal, Angela V. Carter, Emily Coats, Stephen D’Arcy, Yves Engler, Cherri Foytlin, Sonia Grant, Harjap Grewal, Randolph Haluza-DeLay, Ryan Katz-Rosene, Naomi Klein, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Winona LaDuke, Crystal Lameman, Christine Leclerc, Kerry Lemon, Matt Leonard, Martin Lukacs, Tyler McCreary, Bill McKibben, Yudith Nieto, Joshua Kahn Russell, Macdonald Stainsby, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Brian Tokar, Dave Vasey, Harsha Walia, Tony Weis, Rex Weyler, Will Wooten, Jess Worth, and Lilian Yap.

The editors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to frontline grassroots environmental justice groups and campaigns.

Joshua Kahn is the U.S. actions coordinator and trainings program manager for 350.org, a trainer with the Ruckus Society, and coauthor of Organizing Cools the Planet (PM Press).

Stephen D’Arcy is an associate professor and chair in the Department of Philosophy at Huron University College. He is the author of Languages of the Unheard: The Ethics of Militant Protest (Between the Lines). He is also a climate justice and economic democracy activist.

Tony Weis is an associate professor in Geography at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of The Global Food Economy: The Battle for the Future of Farming and The Ecological Hoofprint: The Global Burden of Industrial Livestock (both with Zed Books).

Toban Black is a community organizer and a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Western Ontario, with research focused on environmental justice, the political economy of energy systems, and theories of social change.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist, and author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Her first book, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, was also an international bestseller, translated into nearly thirty languages with more than a million copies in print.