The Environmental Movement in Alberta

- William Walter Kay, Ecofascism.com The environmental movement arose not in Alberta nor is it centered there. Albertan environmentalism is a colonial outpost with minimal local support.

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Environmentalism is the confluence of several global forces. Firstly, there is the effort by metropoles to undermine hinterland development. From Europe's perspective, most of the Earth is hinterland. The main North American metropole is the US Northeast. In Canada, the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor suppresses the West and North. Secondly, environmentalism is a campaign by regions poorly endowed with oil and coal to pry humanity away from these economical energy sources. Perpetrating this campaign are the metropoles (Europe, US Northeast, and central Canada). The main victim is the North American Midwest, Alberta in particular. Thirdly, environmentalism is the arch-conservative landed interest's asphyxiation of economic liberalism, especially its smothering of open markets in land. Alberta is inhospitable terrain for environmentalism. Alberta's exports read like an environmentalist's hit list. Alberta is not just oil country but home to the controversial oilsands: one of the world's largest hydrocarbon reserves. Alberta also possesses some of the planet's largest deposits of coal and natural gas. Other important sectors of Alberta's economy are industrial forestry, feedlot beef, and irrigated agriculture. Whereas Germany and Britain have a combined population of 144 million on a combined land base of 600,631 sq km; Alberta has a land base 661,190 sq km and a population of 3.6 million. Several large rivers flow through Alberta and 90% of this water is unused. Over half the province is forest and lake. Two-thirds of Alberta's land base is government-owned and has never been permanently inhabited by anyone. There is room to grow. Nevertheless, Alberta is occupied by an environmentalist army. Many features of the environmental movement in Alberta are not unique. In Alberta, as elsewhere, the movement deploys a capillary system of small activist groups commanded by professional non-government organizations. As elsewhere, a veneer of grassroots volunteerism cloaks a movement reliant on paid staff funded by large foundations and big businesses. As everywhere, a key role is played by activist university professors and a lead role is played by the landed interest. As everywhere, the environmental movement in Alberta is embedded into the state; it appropriates state resources and influences state policy.

(Editor's Note: Due to the indepth work done, each chapter will be printed in a separate linked post.)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Alberta’s Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs)--Part I Philanthropic Foundations and Albertan Environmentalism--Part II In Land They Trust--Part III Major Corporations and Alberta’s Environmentalism Part IV Environmentalism in Alberta’s Universities Part V Environmentalism in Federal Government Operations in Alberta The Environmental Movement inside the Government of Alberta Conclusion

Alberta’s Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs)

About 300 environmentalist groups are active in Alberta. Many are informal, hence not technically 'NGOs'. Most have no paid staff. These fringe groups circle around a few dozen well-funded ENGOs that are so united as to appear more like a political party than a social movement. The exact number of ENGO employees in Alberta is indeterminable. A tally from websites yields the figure 206 but this probably counts fewer than half. The boundary between ENGOs and green businesses is blurred as are the boundaries between ENGOs and academia and ENGOs and government. ECO Canada ventured a guess as to the size of Canada's "environmental sector." (A product of the federal government's 1990s Sectoral Council Initiative, ECO Canada, is an employment agency for environmentalists.) They estimate there are 530,414 environmental professionals in Canada working in 100,000 environmental organizations. Their "environmental sector" encompasses waste management; land reclamation; health and safety; environmental protection; parks maintenance; plus much activity in agriculture, forestry, and education. They count every garbage truck driver; bottle recycler; and every legal, engineering, and public relations firm doing environmental work. Their "environmental sector" employs 3% of the national workforce. (1) Many organizations ECO Canada counts as "green" are merely business adaptations to a changing regulatory regime brought on by environmental activism. While activists working in ENGOS are merely a subset of the overall environmental sector, they constitute the "social movement proper" -- the drivers of the social change -- and thus warrant exclusive treatment.

Alberta Environment Network (AEN) has 85 ENGO members. Twenty-nine are located in Edmonton, 10 in Calgary, and the rest in smaller centres. Sixty have websites. Not all Alberta ENGOs have joined AEN. One lure to joining AEN is automatic membership in the 800-ENGO Canadian Environmental Network. AEN also attracts members with conferences and bulletin boards. (2) A similar unifying function is performed by the Federation of Alberta Naturalists (FAN, a.k.a. Nature Alberta). Each FAN director represents a different naturalist club. FAN claims 42 member clubs with a combined following of 5,000. (3) Few FAN clubs are AEN members. FAN's five-member staff perform services such as providing websites for small clubs like the Lac la Biche Birding Society. Living by Water Society is run by FAN. (This Society lectures lakeshore property owners on the virtues of "doing nothing" with their property.) Land Stewardship Centre Canada (LSCC) received funding from Alberta's Environment Ministry in 2005 to prepare a directory of Alberta's "watershed stewardship organizations". LSCC could only assemble a "snapshot in time" because "newgroups are always starting and other groups disbanding." They also found it difficult to distinguish advocates from stewards. The result was a directory of 125 stewardship groups, 10 aboriginal-stewardship groups, 42 ENGOs, 96 government agencies and 13 industry associations. (The directory was co-produced by the 40-member Alberta Stewardship Network.) (4) LSCC, a national organization focused on Alberta, was founded in 1996 to develop partnerships among ENGOs, government agencies, native councils, and industry associations. LSCC founders were: Environment Canada, five provincial government entities, Ducks Unlimited Canada, North American Waterfowl Management Plan, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, Wildlife Habitat Council, and Al-Pac Forest Products. LSCC is in the Canada Stewardship Communities Network -- an informal partnership of watershed stewards and biodiversity activists dating to the 2003 Leading Edge Stewardship Conference in Victoria, which also gave rise to the National Watershed Stewardship Coalition whose contact, Ernie Ewaschuk, authored the Alberta directory. (5) A major movement centralizer, Alberta Conservation Association (ACA), receives funds from governments and from WWF-Canada and Ducks Unlimited Canada. ACA disburses $10 million a year to conservation projects. ACA's Grant Eligible Conservation Fund hands out another $1 million a year to habitat projects administered by ENGOs able to tap other funding sources. Since 2002 this Fund has leveraged $50 million. (6) ACA works closely with Alberta Fish and Game Association. Movement centralization comes from above. In 1990 Environment Canada (EC) established the North American Wetlands Conservation Council (NAWCC) to implement the North America Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), which welcomes US government funding of Canadian conservation projects. NAWCC's offices are inside EC's Edmonton office. The board directing the Alberta branch of NAWMP has reps from provincial and federal government agencies and from Ducks Unlimited Canada and Nature Conservancy Canada. This branch works with local watershed groups and landowners to promote individual acts of conservation and to lobby governments. There are many lesser movement centralizers. Prairie Conservation Forum is a coalition of 40 ENGOs, farmers' groups, land management agencies, and academics. The Forum promotes tree planting on private land and initiated the Save the Suffield National Wildlife Area campaign. Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, founded in 1991 by Pembina Institute and Petro-Canada, has spread $5 million in grants over 400 projects. Synergy Alberta is small start-up network of ENGOs, local authorities, and industry reps. Environmental Services Association of Alberta is a business-orientated affair "dedicated to building a strong environmental industry." The ubiquitous, opaque Tides Foundation and Tides Canada Foundation are clearing houses for foundations wishing arm's-length relationships with the unwashed mass of ENGOs. Tides Canada owns assets worth $31 million. In Alberta they fund: Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Canadian Wilderness Federation, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Pembina Institute, Sierra Club Canada, Southern Alberta Land Trust, and Western Wilderness Committee. (7)

World Wild Fund for Nature

"Big Green" ENGOs dominate Alberta's enviro-movement. The world's most influential ENGO, World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), is headquartered in Switzerland but maintains outposts in Brussels and Washington, DC. WWF was founded by the British and Dutch royal families and continues to enjoy support from these and other royal houses. WWF-International's 2008 revenues were $150 million (US$). WWF-Network's 40 national WWFs had combined revenues of $500 million. WWF claims five million supporters but is financially dependent on about 100 government bureaucracies, multinational corporations, and philanthropic foundations. (8) On WWF-Canada's board one finds: Sonja Bata, Donald Sobey, Alexandra Weston, and Right Honourable John Turner. Its executive board consists of officials from major Toronto-based corporations. WWF-Canada's "over $1,000,000" donors include: Loblaw's, Coca-Cola, and Moore Foundation. $100,000-to-500,000 donors include: Tides Canada, Tides USA, WWF-Netherlands, Environment Canada, Canada Post, Canadian Wildlife Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Ivey Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Oak Foundation, Ontario Power, and four estates. Their current motto is "climate, water, people" (seemingly in order of preference). They played the lead role in passing Ontario's Green Energy Act. Their Alberta office runs on eco-friendly electricity from Bullfrog Power. (9)

Greenpeace International

Greenpeace International supervises 28 national Greenpeace orgs each "largely autonomous in carrying out jointly agreed upon strategies within the local context." Greenpeace Canada is responsible for "seeking the necessary financial support from donors to finance their work." Lacking the transparency they demand of others, Greenpeace's budget and funders are unknown. Globally they have 2,400 employees and annual revenues around $200 million. (10) Their presence in Alberta dates to the 1970s.

Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited (DU) was hatched by New York City oligarchs wishing to arrest North American farmland expansion. (Wetlands make great farms.) DU was founded in 1930 by Joseph Knapp Jr. and friends (like J.P. Morgan Jr.). Knapp owned Colliers Publishing Group. His father, also a publisher, was President of Metropolitan Life Insurance. DU has raised over $3 billion and "conserved" (suppressed the development of) 6.6 million acres in Canada, 4.1 million acres in the USA, and 1.8 million in Mexico. DU's current $203 million annual income is derived from easement leases (33%), government grants (28%), and private grants (16%). DU claims a US membership of 780,000 and a flat 100,000 in Canada. (11) Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) operations are identical to and overlap those of its parent organization. DUC does its own fundraising as evidenced by its recent launch of the Poole Conservation Fund with a goal of raising $5 million. Trout Unlimited (TU) was founded in 1959 ostensibly by anglers disdaining the "cookie cutter" trout produced by state hatcheries. They coveted natural trout only unmolested streams could yield. TU has 400 US chapters and annual revenues of $20 million, of which only 12% comes from dues. TU successfully campaigned to remove dams from rivers in Maine and Oregon. TU lawyers are blocking water withdrawals from aquifers in Montana, claiming this water may find its way to trout-bearing streams. TU Chairman is Oakleigh Thorne of New York. Harris Hyman IV of Illinois is Treasurer. (12)

Trout Unlimited Canada

Trout Unlimited Canada's (TUC) 2008 revenues were $2.4 million. TUC has 22 chapters -- seven in Alberta. Most of TUC's 14 employees work at its Calgary head office. TUC aims to eliminate non-native fish (such as the bull trout) and restore native fish. They oppose urban and agricultural expansion. TUC partners with provincial ministries, university departments, and with Alberta Conservation Association, Alberta Stewardship Network, and Alberta Environment Network. (13)

Defenders of Wildlife

Defenders of Wildlife dates to 1947. Many of their 150 employees work out of their Washington, DC office. 90% of their $30 million annual revenues come from grants and bequests. Many celebrities and big name enviros (Alan Pilkington, E.O. Wilson, Laura Turner Seydel) adorn their board. Their 2009 Annual Report notes, "We have established Canada's first coordinated program to reduce conflict between ranchers and carnivores." They claim to have "successfully opposed a move to re-open the grizzly bear hunt in Alberta." They have an office in Canmore. (14)

Nature Conservancy Canada

"Canada's leading land conservation organization," Nature Conservancy Canada (NCC) is modelled after the global Nature Conservancy but is independent. Founded by Federation of Ontario Naturalists in 1962, NCC has prospered with patronage from Westons, Pooles et al. A 2005 NCC fundraising blitz raised $200 million. Since 1962, NCC and partners have purchased and roped off two million acres. One of NCC's seven regional offices is in Alberta where they have partnered with a dozen ENGOs. (15) One NCC initiative, Natural Areas Conservation Program, has sequestered 256,150 acres. Trans Canada Pipeline (which has a rep on NCC's board) donated $2.4 million to this program. Said funds levered additional funding from the federal government and US Fish and Wildlife Service -- $11 million in total. Half this money will go toward a 1.2 million acre Red Deer River Natural Area. (The Area's productive soil is "threatened" by human population growth.) Other NCC conquests in Alberta include: OH Ranch (16,000 acres), Sandstone Ranch (4,117 acres), and 13,000 acres near Porcupine Hill. This latter conservancy, valued at $10 million, was the largest private land gift in Alberta history.

Sierra Club Canada

Sierra Club Canada (SCC) replicates its massive American namesake but is autonomous. SCC's board is integrated with Greenpeace Canada and WWF-Canada. SCC's executive director is a former Greenpeace employee. SCC's Prairie Chapter employs 12 at an office in Edmonton. (16)

Pembina Institute

The biggest Alberta-grown ENGO, Pembina Institute, is actually an ENGO cluster of Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development (PI), Pembina Foundation (PF), GAIA Foundation for Earth Education, and Green Learning. This cluster employs 50 people. Founder Rob Macintosh ("the visionary") rose to fame during the inquiries following the 1982 Lodgepole sour gas blowout. The province spent $2.5 million on these hearings and attendant intervener grants. Macintosh remains active in Pembina and ancillary businesses (Dejanira Enterprises and Green Planet Communications). PI's 2008 revenues were $5 million ($2.4 million in grants, $2 million in "fees for services", and the balance from sponsorships and merchandising). PF's 2008 revenues were $2.1 million of which $1.7 million came from foundations and corporations. PI and PF receive funds from 16 foundations. Green Learning is funded by Shell Canada et al. "Fees for services" arise from consultation contracts with Oxford Properties, TD Bank, David Suzuki Foundation, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, and government agencies. Consultancy work regarding carbon capture and storage was paid for by Suncor, Enbridge, and EPCOR. Pembina's main concerns are climate change, oilsands, and environmental education. (17)

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

Enviro-movement consolidation is aided by the common practice of staff migration between ENGOs. Most of the 12 employees at Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) South Alberta Chapter have over 10 years experience in the ENGO field. A few are former WWF-Canada employees while their conservation planner previously worked for Y2Y. Ecojustice's Edmonton-based staff lawyer, Karin Buss, is the Environmental Law Centre's former president. Green Calgary staffer, Heather Hendrie, formerly worked for Alberta Ecotrust Foundation. Co-worker Lynn Robb claims 20 years experience in environmental education and parks management. Many ENGO staffers are activists in their own right. CPAWS North Chapter's boreal campaign director, Helene Walsh, founded Albertans for a Wild Chinchaga and is involved with Forest Stewardship Council. Co-worker Kate Charuk ran the Climate Change Caravan and Sierra Youth Coalition. Kate is currently with City Farm Edmonton and Edmonton Community Gardens. Another CPAWS North employee co-founded Parks Watch and Alberta Important Bird Areas Program.

Interlocking directorships

Movement consolidation also results from interlocking directorships. The chairman of Alberta Council for Environmental Education (ACEE) is also with: Ecological Footprint Team, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, and Global Environmental and Outdoor Education Council (GEOEC). (GEOEC, an Alberta Teachers' Association subsidiary, pushes classroom lessons and kits designed by CPAWS, Pembina Institute, and Inside Education.) ACEE board member, Pat Worthington, is a GEOEC manager. Also on ACEE's board: John Kristensen -- former assistant deputy minister for Alberta Parks and a member of many boards and committees. Kathy Worobec -- 20 years in environmental education and currently with Green Learning. Lori Gammel -- formerly with Cross Conservancy and Nature Conservancy Canada and now with Suncor. Sue Haydek -- 18 years ENGO experience, now with Ecological Footprint Team. Carole Stark -- executive director of Chinook Institute for Common Stewardship. ACEE's executive director, Gareth Thomson, has 20 years experience in environmental education and formerly worked for CPAWS. He is involved with the Emerald Awards and Alberta Ecotrust Foundation and received a lifetime achievement award from GEOEC. Inside Education is a key ENGO inside Alberta's environmental education scene. Their board includes Kathy Worobec (above) and reps from Ducks Unlimited Canada and Canadian Wind Energy Association. CPAWS South Alberta's board is chaired by a Suncor executive. Around the table with him are: J. Kilcolm -- 15 years experience in climate change activism and involved in numerous non-profits. Jill Kirker -- involved in many ENGOs and a former grants coordinator for Alberta Ecotrust Foundation. Land Stewardship Centre Canada director David Westworth (Westworth Associates Environmental Ltd) conducted several environmental studies during his 35-year career as a wildlife biologist. He is a former adviser to the Natural Resources Conservation Board and helped draft Alberta's Forest Conservation Strategy. Joining Westworth on LSCC's board are: Pam Wright -- executive director of Edmonton Area Land Trust and a consultant to: WWF, UNEP, Conservation International, and International Ecotourism Strategy. Jason Unger - a biologist-come-lawyer now employed by Environmental Law Centre. Edmonton-based Environmental Law Centre (ELC) has made exemplary efforts integrating its board and seven staffers into Alberta's ENGO community. ELC people sit on the boards of Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, Water Matters, Alberta Water Council, and LSCC. ELC people sit on five Alberta Environmental Network committees and on the Natural Resources Conservation Board policy committee. On Alberta Ecotrust Foundation's board sit: Paul Goodman (Encana Environment Fund), Guy Greenaway (executive director of Miistakis Institute of the Rockies), Natalie Odd (Clean Calgary), and J. Pissot (Defenders of Wildlife). Communication manager, Bart Robinson, is executive director of Y2Y. Robinson co-founded Equinox magazine and won a Wilburforce Foundation Award. Both Pissot and Robinson are Yale Forestry alumni.

Project-specific partnerships

The movement centralizes through project-specific partnerships. Such combines are not new. Pack animals seldom prey alone. In 1971 Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (CARC) coalesced to successfully block the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, which would have made Alberta the hub for North American natural gas. CARC's leaders were from the Canadian Wildlife Federation, Anglican Church, and the federal Liberal Party. During the same years, Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA), CPAWS, WWF, and Sierra Club Canada (SCC) led dozens of ENGOs into a head-on confrontation with gas producers in the Foothills. (18) In the mid-1980s, Premier Getty's liberalization of access to public lands triggered years of environmentalist assaults organized by CPAWS, SCC, and AWA, often with local "grassroots" groups strategically placed in front. The 1980s campaign successfully thwarting the Old Man River dam was ostensibly led by Friends of the Old Man River. Unsuccessful, yet of the same model, were 1990s campaigns against the Cheviot coal mine outside Jasper Park and Al-Pac's pulp mill near Lake Athabasca. In both instances Big Green organized the campaign but kept the local start-ups, Jasper Environmental Association and Friends of Athabasca, in the spotlight. (19) Alberta Foothills Network is an ongoing alliance of AWA, CPAWS, SCC, Federation of Alberta Naturalists (FAN), and Athabasca Bioregional Society. Network members believe "a moratorium on new industrial development within the endangered forests is required until a network of legislated protected areas is established in the Foothills." Their "Foothills" is a vast area. Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) is an alliance of 800 American and Canadian ENGOs and foundations working together to convert a 1.3 million sq km area from Yellowstone, Wyoming to the Yukon Territory into wilderness. CPAWS launched Y2Y in 1993. Y2Y's staff of eight work out of offices in Canmore and Bozeman, Montana. Twenty-one Alberta ENGOs are Y2Yers. Twenty-five foundations fund Y2Y as does the provincial government. Castle Crown Wilderness Coalition is a 20-year-old alliance of SCC, WWF-Canada, AWA, FAN, and CPAWS. They aim to capture 1,000 sq km of public land north of Waterton Park. They have funding from several foundations and a written blessing from Prince Philip. Anti-nuclear activism conjured two conjoined coalitions: Grimshaw-based 11-ENGO Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta (CNFA) and Calgary-based Citizens Advocating Use of Sustainable Energy (CAUSE). The latter is listed as a member by the former. Intriguingly, CAUSE's list of CNFA members includes Council of Canadians and Sierra Club whereas CNFA's list does not. This is an effort to make CNFA appear grassroots. CAUSE quotes Pembina Institute and its website links to the David Suzuki Foundation and Parkland Institute. The 2009 Green Jobs Report called for reconstituting Alberta's economy around subsidized residential weatherproofing. This report was co-written by SCC, Greenpeace, and Alberta Federation of Labour's Environment Committee. Coterminously, three Alberta by Design reports were released to help environmentalists tackle the province's Land Use Framework. These three reports were written by Pembina Institute, CPAWS, and Water Matters with funding from the Ivey, Gordon, and Bell foundations. Such efforts pale compared to the Green Budget Coalition. Chaired by Nature Canada (NC), this Coalition of 20 ENGOs (with a combined membership of 500,000) lobbied governments, particularly in Ottawa and Toronto, to impose green subsidies and taxes. (Ottawa-based NC, founded as the Audubon Society of Canada in 1948, has 350 clubs, 40,000 supporters, and annual revenues of $2.5 million.) (20) Another NC initiative, the 360-ENGO Canadian Nature Network, received $1 million from Environment Canada and Parks Canada. This grant was announced at NC's 2006 AGM in Red Deer. A gracious NC President assured the assembled, "A stronger Canadian Nature Network means the collective voice of those who defend nature -- Canada's naturalist community -- will be heard by those who hold political power." NC used the money to hire more regional coordinators. (21) NC was a leader in the "Say No to Drilling in Suffield" campaign. (Suffield Armed Forces Base was an artillery and tank training ground for 60 years. When the base closed, Encana proposed drilling 1,300 gas wells on the site. Environmentalists pressured the federal government to deny permission.) International Boreal Conservation Campaign (IBCC) is a megaproject bankrolled by heavyweight US green philanthropists: Pew Charitable Trusts, Hewlett Foundation, and Lenfest Foundation. The philanthropists claim:

"Logging, agriculture, mining, oil and gas and hydro-electrical development are rapidly increasing in the Boreal Forest of Canada. Because of this development, forested land in some Boreal areas is being lost at rates similar to those in tropical forests." (22)

IBCC subsidiary Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI) employs a staff of 14 in Ottawa. CBI is an alliance of WWF-Canada, CPAWS, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Pembina Institute and Nature Conservancy Canada. Other ENGOs and foundations are involved. Ivey Foundation gave Ducks Unlimited's Edmonton office $147,000 to assist CBI. Canadian Nature Network mobilized 60,000 people to speak out in defence of the Boreal. In May 2010 CBI and Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) inked a deal. Signing on independently were Canopy (formerly Markets Initiative), David Suzuki Foundation, Forest Ethics, Greenpeace, Ivey Foundation, and IBCC. The deal covers 720,000 sq km of forest tenures held by FPAC members. 290,000 sq km will be subject to a logging and road-building ban. The remainder will be subject to a sustainable practice regime policed by ENGOs. The agreement requires Greenpeace, Canopy, and Forest Ethics to end their boycott campaign targeting Canadian forest products. 170,000 sq km of the forests subject to this agreement are in Alberta. (23) Neither federal nor provincial Environment Ministers were consulted prior to the announcement this agreement. A similar ENGO partnership targets oilsands development. SCC claims:

"...the tar sands is the linchpin climate change issue for Canada." (24)

WWF-Canada concurs:

"Climate change poses the greatest threat to our living planet. We're tackling the biggest culprit in Canada -- tar sands development and petroleum based transportation -- by highlighting investment risk in the tar sands and partnering to demonstrate smarter ways to move people and goods." (25)

WWF-Canada's Oil Sands and Water Don't Mix calls for a halt to additional water withdrawals needed to facilitate oil sands expansion. Council of Canada's 2008 AGM in Edmonton resolved to block development of "large swaths of the tar sands, which is destroying the boreal forest and water resources." The Council, CPAWS, Public Interest Alberta, and Greenpeace placed a full-page anti-oilsands ad in a Regina newspaper (the site of a Premiers' conference). Council director Dr. John O'Connor, a self-appointed advocate for Fort Chipewyan (near Athabasca), accuses oilsands producers of causing cancer and auto-immune disorders among natives; a claim dismissed by the Alberta Cancer Board and Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons. (26) Greenpeace Canada's anti-oilsands campaign began in July 2007 with acts of trespass, mischief, and sabotage. Their goons hung banners at high-visibility places and even disrupted a fund-raising dinner of the Alberta PC Party. Greenpeace Canada attended the AGM of Norway's Statoil to pressure the company into disinvesting from the oilsands. Accompanying Greenpeace was Dr. John O'Connor. Coterminously, Greenpeace goons desecrated a Norwegian flag at a public rally in Calgary. Other alliances include Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society -- a collaboration of ENGOs and agencies devoted to restricting development of river banks. Canadian Water Resource Association has an Alberta branch dedicated to partnering with local stewardship groups. Green Calgary grew out of the national 1980s Green Communities Initiative that spawned 40 ENGOs. A ten-ENGO partnership campaigns to save Alberta grizzlies. Every ENGO boasts numerous allies within the ENGO community. Moreover, every ENGO views forming such alliances to be part of their mandate. Alberta Native Plant Council works with Plant Watch Alberta, Alberta Natural Heritage Information Centre, Alberta Invasive Plants Council, and Alberta Centre for Boreal Studies. Canadian Wildlife Federation partners with 20 ENGOs. Nature Calgary partners with the Alberta Stewardship Network, Nature Conservancy Canada, Calgary Sagebrush Project, and Western Sky Land Trust. Western Wilderness Committee, with five offices in western Canada, lists 100 ENGOs and native groups as partners. "Links" sections of Alberta ENGO websites create a round robin of contacts. Finally, events like the Wild Gala and the Emerald Awards congregate hundreds of Alberta's professional environmentalists. AGMs of the Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Alberta Environment Network, and Alberta Stewardship Network provide similar fora. Tomorrow: Philanthropic Foundations and Albertan Environmentalism Full Report: The Environmental Movement in Alberta

Footnotes

1. eco.ca
2. aenweb.ca
3. naturealberta.ca
4. Alberta Environment; Watershed Stewardship Directory; 2005
5. landstewardship.org
6. ab-conservation.com
7. tidescanada.org
8. panda.org
9. wwf.ca
10. greenpeace.org and greenpeace.ca and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpeace
11. ducks.org and ducks.ca 
12. tu.org
13. tucanada.org
14. defenders.org
15. natureconservancy.ca
16. sierraclub.ca
17. pembina.org
18. Bunner, Paul (ed); Alberta in the 20th Century; History Book, Edmonton 2002-3; Vol. 11 p 28-31
19. Ibid Vol. 12 p 69-77
20. naturecanada.ca
21. naturecanada.ca
22. interboreal.org
23. CBC May 18, 2010 see also Edmonton Journal May 19, 2010
24. sierraclub.ca
25. wwf.ca
26. Calgary Herald June 30, 2010

William Walter Kay, Ecofascism.com William can be reached at: williamwkay@yahoo.ca