[All] January 27 8 pm Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands

[Carole Clinch]

*Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands**Thursday January 27 at 8 pm on
CBC-TV, repeating Saturday February 5 at 7 pm ET on CBC News Network

Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands* is a two-hour visual *tour de force
*, taking viewers inside the David and Goliath struggle playing out within
one of the most compelling environmental issues of our time.

In an oil-scarce world, we know there are sacrifices to be made in the
pursuit of energy.  What no one expected was that a tiny Native community
downriver from Canada’s oil sands would reach out to the world, and be
heard.

Highway 63 north of Fort McMurray, Syncrude base plant in background

Directed by Edmonton filmmakers Tom Radford and Niobe Thompson of Clearwater
Media<http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2011/tippingpoint/www.clearwatermedia.com>,
and hosted by Dr. David Suzuki, this special presentation of *The* *Nature*
*of Things* goes behind the headlines to reveal how a groundbreaking new
research project triggered a tipping point* *for the* *Alberta oil sands.

For years, residents of the northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan,
down the Athabasca River from the oil sands, have been plagued by rare forms
of cancer. They were concerned that toxins from oil sands production might
be to blame.  Industry and government, meanwhile, claimed production in the
oil sands contributed zero pollution to the Athabasca River.

Dr. David Schindler holding a fish from the river.

But in 2010, new and independent research measured pollution in waters
flowing through the oil sands and discovered higher-than-expected levels of
toxins, including arsenic, lead and mercury, coming from industrial plants.
Leading the research was renowned freshwater scientist Dr. David
Schindler (read more about David
Schindler<http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/10/15/f-david-schindler.html>).
At the same time, the leaders of tiny Fort Chipewyan took their battle to
the boardrooms of global oil companies, demanding change.

Leading the campaign was Dene Elder Francois Paulette, whose battles with
Ottawa a generation ago launched the era of modern land claims.  From New
York, to Copenhagen, to Oslo, to the oil sands themselves, our camera
followed Paulette on his relentless search for allies.  When he finally
enlisted the support of *Avatar* director James Cameron, Paulette created a
storm of controversy for the Alberta’s oil sands industry.

Hauling truck and tailing pond, Syncrude.

By the end of 2010, Schindler’s alarming discovery of toxic pollution and
the media attention Cameron’s visit had raised was putting federal and
provincial environmental policy under serious pressure.  Separate reports by
Canada’s Auditor General, the Royal Society of Canada, and a panel of
experts appointed by then Environment Minister Jim Prentice revealed a
decade of incompetent pollution monitoring, paid for by industry, in
Alberta’s oil sands.

The documentary’s climax shows how Professor Schindler's research findings,
and the determination of Fort Chipewyan residents, led to change.  In
December 2010, the  special scientific review by the high-level federal
panel declared environmental monitoring standards in the oil sands seriously
flawed. In a dramatic reversal of their previous position, both the Federal
and Alberta governments announced steps to improve their pollution
monitoring.  The age of innocence for the oil sands is over.

Tipping Point was directed by Niobe Thompson and Tom Radford for Clearwater
Media <http://www.clearwatermedia.com/> in association with CBC-TV.

-- 
Carole
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