Travel Alberta To See These Unique Attractions!

TravellingAlberta.com offers one-of-a-kind oil sands vacation packages

Edmonton, Canada — As the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) embarks on a synchronized propaganda campaign aligned with the Province's "rebranding" of the tar sands, Greenpeace has launched its own website to counter the greenwashing.

TravellingAlberta.com is a tongue-in-cheek travel site that uses humour to communicate a very serious issue to Canadian and international audiences about the destructive nature of the world's largest industrial development. The website showcases showcases some of the unique attractions that await travelers to Alberta: Black sand beaches, toxic lakes and clearcut forests. Until now, this kind of vacation destination was merely the stuff of science fiction; but now, it can be experienced first-hand.

"We thought we'd help the province and CAPP with their "rebranding" campaign by bringing Alberta's newest tourist attractions to the world's doorstep. Any visitor to the Alberta tar sands can see the pollution, smell the sulfur, taste the toxins and hear the air cannons — we're saving them the trip," says Mike Hudema, a tar sands campaigner with Greenpeace.

"Premier Ed Stelmach and CAPP can spend 25 million dollars of tax payers' money trying to cleanup the image of the tar sands, but this development is still dirty, ugly and foul. That money would be much better spent cleaning up the tar sands themselves, rather than just the global image."

But while a real cleanup of the area is still a way off, the current state of northern Alberta offers a rare treat for the seasoned globetrotter who's craving something new. A seemingly endless expanse of bitumen-laden sands — coupled with the powerful scent of oil from refineries wafting through the hazy air — makes Northern Alberta a truly one-of-a-kind destination. As the long weekend approaches and families make their summer vacation plans, TravellingAlberta.com offers these adventure tips:

* Diversion surfing: Catch a wave, Alberta-style, and join Big Oil in taking advantage of the nearly 92 billion gallons of water diverted from provincial rivers each year!
* Animal sightings: Moose playing in tailings ponds, loons drenched in tar and ducks sinking in oil: it's not everywhere that you can see some of Canada's most prized wildlife in these unique settings. Hurry though! They're going fast!
* Tailings sailing: Come enjoy the vast lakes of toxic water, so big they're visible to the naked eye from space! Chase that horizon, but be careful not to capsize!
* Fun in the sun: Forget Cancun, Alberta is sizzling! Boasting more greenhouse gas emissions than Canada's three other most populous provinces combined, it's really heating up out here!

Greenpeace will promote the website internationally, calling on visitors to share the site with friends and to write Premier Ed Stelmach, Travel Minister Cindy Ady and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to demand they put the brakes on tar sand development.
TravellingAlberta.com

Release Our Activists

A Father Goose Tale

We live on a very rural, gravel road with dips and rises, a road cut through a forest and bisecting a stream that leads to one of the two lakes that can be seen from the roadside. The two lowest-lying areas are wet and marshy on either side of the road and have proven to be handy portages for Canada geese families traveling by foot from one lake to another. Why drag the goslings through the woods and underbrush when there is a clear path most of the way?

Yesterday I saw two pair of Canada geese, one pair at each portage site, both pair in the vegetation alongside the road. Well, today on my way to an appointment in town I encountered one pair of geese shepherding eight little goslings down the road. How sweet!


(Click images to enlarge)

When Father Goose began to feel threatened by my car he slowed down while Mother Goose continued walking with the babies, moving them toward the opposite side of the road, the side they would eventually exit on. I crept along, not wishing to alarm the geese yet needing to get into town. Father Goose slowed down even more and spread his beautiful tail feathers as a warning to me.



When I persisted in following him he stopped and bent his neck at me menacingly. His message was clear: Back off! His threat display was a treat to witness, and his valor in protecting his family was heartwarming. I know how aggressive Canada geese are when they have little ones so I kept a healthy distance away when I stepped out of the car for a couple of photos, didn't tarry long outside the car and even rolled my car windows up enough to prevent an attack from that angle.



We made a humorous procession, I'm sure--Mother Goose with six goslings by her side, Father Goose walking much more slowly several yards behind his family and stopping every few seconds to "gooseneck" and make threatening displays, and me in my car, creeping along slower than Father Goose, waiting for the family to reach their destination and get off the road.



Time passed. I needed to get going. What to do? I honked, hoping to speed up the geese a bit. Mother Goose nervously moved their brood to the side of the road, the goslings looked confused and Father Goose grew even more angry and menacing at the intruder on HIS road.



After the mother and babies left the road Father Goose refused to budge from his position in front of my car. For another quarter of a mile he walked ahead of me, crossing back and forth in front of my car, goose-stepping and making menacing displays while I trailed behind him, slightly embarrassed to be caught in such a position yet thrilled to witness, and be part of, this fierce display of bravado. It would have been so easy to have run over the valiant guy; another person may have done so, but not I. No, I let him lead me far away from his family, let him bully me into driving extremely s-l-o-w-l-y, let him fulfill his role of protector and maintain his dignity at the expense of my own.



When we reached the beginning of the downhill slope past our neighbors' driveway, the point at which the field of dreams comes into view, Father Goose finally decided to take wing. Off he flew, circling back to rejoin his family.





Coming home after an afternoon of errands I had forgotten about my encounter with Father Goose, but was quickly reminded when I came upon TWO pair of geese accompanied by their young: six with one set of parents and three with the other.



Once again a Father Goose slowed to force me to slow down and allow all the others to proceed safely. I was in no hurry and didn't mind creeping along at a goose's pace, but was amused at his goose-stepping and occasional goosenecking displays of protectiveness. Long after the other geese left the road at the entrance to the lake he continued to lead me up the road for at least an eighth of a mile before taking wing and allowing me to pass.

Goosenecking


Goose-stepping



Sights and encounters like this remind me of how wonderful it is to live where wildlife still make their home and raise their families. These geese, the mother fox with her three or four kits that we see occasionally near the entrance to their den in the field of dreams, the sandhill cranes that we look so forward to seeing each year in the field of dreams and in other fields as we drive along the back roads, the silly little partridges we see alongside the road, the woodcocks with their funny walk, the deer we see in the fields...all these and more (including the one black bear and two moose I've seen in our area) bring the my husband and I an enormous amount of joy.

No more deaths, please

Protect Seals

Top-grade seal pelts are fetching only $33 now. Hardly worth the risk to human life and limb, is it? Hopefully the price per pelt will continue to decline and the cruel, unnecessary seal hunts will finally come to an end.

No more deaths, sealers or seals, from seal hunts!

O Canada

It's been quite a while since I posted anything about the seal hunts in Canada, primarily due to frustration with the Canadian government's unwavering stance on the issue. My misanthropy is exacerbated by the callousness and barbaric maliciousness of people in general when it comes to the empathetic and ethical treatment of animals, including other humans. To be, and acutely feel, powerless to stop the cruelty causes me so much anxiety and depression that I can barely function. Combined with the seriousness of my husband's health problems for the past year and a half, and the uncertainty of how and where we will live from now on, my stress and distress levels have been excruciatingly high for some time now.

I do what I can to cope, and on occasion take the opportunity to sign a petition or send a letter pleading with officials to stop cruel acts over which they have jurisdiction or influence--not only for the beleaguered seals in Canada, but for wild and captive animals everywhere. It sucks that I can't do more than be an armchair activist. Life sucks much of the time. However, once in a while the stars are aligned such that a bit of enlightenment comes my way at a time when I feel up to writing a post that has at least some substance to it.

I am sick of excuses and rationalizations for animal cruelty. I don't understand the mentality of those who perpetrate and support the barbarism. I wish that I could stop them.

Do Canadians really want that pompous ass Loyola Hearn representing their views on the seal hunt?

Loyola Hearn has a lot of nerve threatening to take on the Belgians for banning seal products. What a pompous ass he is! He thinks being called or thought of as a "wuss" is an insult, but there is a huge difference between being a wuss who doesn't stand up to unwarranted bullying and being a wuss who gets his jollies by tormenting and slaughtering young seals unable to defend themselves. Loyola Hearn is this second type of wuss, who, now that his inhumanity is revealed, has decided to go on the offensive, with his right-wing government backing him. I am ashamed of Canada for supporting the hunts and I am ashamed of Canadians who do not support the seal hunts but still allow the likes of Loyola Hearn to represent his views as their views to the rest of the world.

I wonder, does Loyola "Wuss" Hearn take pride in the disgust ethical people worldwide feel when they consider the barbarism he defends so vigorously? I fear for the reputation of Canada when our country is labeled "inhumane" for the way we treat our wildlife and "wuss" for not standing up to the seal hunters and their unethical champion, Loyola Hearn.

Happy and free in Tennessee!... Dulary the Elephant

clipped from www.philly.com HOHENWALD, Tenn. - After teasing staffers and press for more than four hours, at 5:27 p.m. CDT yesterday, a former Philadelphian named Dulary became the latest pampered permanent pachyderm guest at the Elephant Sanctuary here. She left the Philadelphia Zoo at 8 a.m. Monday for the 900-mile drive to Hohenwald in a specially designed trailer she proved reluctant to leave, despite the encouraging welcome from Tarra, the first elephant at the 2,700-acre sanctuary, which opened in 1995. It was Dulary's first trip off the grounds of America's First Zoo, where she arrived 42 years ago from Thailand as a 1-year-old infant. In all the ensuing decades, she never got to commune with her own species - Asian elephants. Finally, at 5:27 p.m., Dulary stepped off the ramp, but in a final fuhgedaboudit moment, Dulary didn't enter the barn, but instead followed Tarra - her new friend - into the woods and out of sight. Dulary is in Tennessee, happy and free.

Heartwarming news in a too often bleak landscape: Dulary finally finds sanctuary, and a friend of her own species, in Tennessee.

If only all the lonely, mistreated elephants in zoos and circuses could find sanctuary...

Visit helpelephants.com for more information.