Crisis in the Tar Sands: Fossil Capitalism and the Future of the Alberta Hydrocarbon Economy

Using a case study of Alberta, Canada, this paper demonstrates how a geographic critique of fossil capitalism helps elucidate the tensions shaping tar sands development. Conflicts over pipelines and Indigenous territorial claims are challenging development trajectories, as tar sands companies need to expand access to markets in order to expand production. While these conflicts are now well recognised, there are also broader dynamics shaping development. States face a rentier’s dilemma, relying on capital investments to realise resource value. Political responses to the emerging climate crisis undercut the profitability of hydrocarbon extraction. The automation of production undermines the industrial compromise between hydrocarbon labour and capital. Ultimately, the crises of fossil capitalism require a radical transformation within or beyond capital relations. To mobilise against the tar sands, organisers must recognise the tensions underpinning it, developing strategies that address ecological concerns and the economic plight of those dispossessed and abandoned by carbon extraction.

The colonialism of carbon capture and storage in Alberta's Tar Sands

This essay considers carbon capture and storage (CCS) in relation to struggles over value and territorial jurisdiction in the Alberta Tar Sands. Critical engagements with CCS have pointed to the legitimising function of the technology and highlight its role normalising extraction in the tar sands. We suggest that neither the significance of CCS nor the legitimation function it performs can be fully understood absent an analysis of settler colonialism. CCS we argue is a colonial flanking mechanism directly centred on the governance of harm that construes harm in ways that reproduce settler colonial entitlements to Indigenous lands, bodies and ecosystems and helps to consolidate state jurisdiction and power in the tar sands. This construal of harm also productively intersects other colonial strategies of harm reduction relative to the tar sands, including the criminalisation of Indigenous jurisdiction, and is part of a broader relational context that prioritises settler colonial futurity.

Beyond Greenwash: Environmental Discourses of Appropriation and Resistance

<p>A multimodal, critical approach to Discourse allows us to understand contemporary environmental debates in a nuanced way. Fossil fuel mining has become especially controversial due to the environmental, health, and social impacts, as well as the substantial economic dependence on such development. Wider discussions surrounding mining projects tend to diverge into two major oppositions: that of the industry itself, and that of local activists protesting development on their lands. Research in these areas has leaned towards a focus on the use of environmental language by polluting industries, termed ‘greenwash’, missing to some degree the ways in which these and other Discourses are articulated multimodally through interaction. This thesis brings a critical, multimodal analysis to controversial mining debates which go ‘beyond greenwash’, in order to track how Discourses are appropriated, resisted, and re-entextualised. In this thesis I adopt overlapping critical, multimodal, and ethnographic theoretical lenses to view interaction surrounding two controversial mining case studies: the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta, Canada and a lignite coal mine expansion in Southland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Drawing upon an understanding of human communication as inherently multimodal, I include video-recorded interviews with both activists and industry representatives, as well as relevant artefacts (such as pamphlets, photographs, signs, etc) in my dataset. Using mediated action as the unit of analysis, I employ Multimodal Interaction Analysis to examine interview interaction, coupled with methods from Social Semiotics to interrogate designed artefacts. These analytical frameworks, viewed through combined theoretical lenses, provide a unique perspective on the way Discourses are appropriated and creatively resisted in debates about resource development. In both case studies, Discourses of the environment and the economy are appropriated by activists and industry actors, forming the basic ‘Environment v. Economy’ Discourse. This dichotomy is expanded through the appropriation of additional Discourses, such as regional identity in both Southland and Alberta. Activist groups subsequently resist and re-appropriate these regional Discourses by multimodally re-contextualising them. In Alberta, additional Discourses of Indigenous and LGBTQ+ identities are appropriated by industry actors in attempts to legitimise mining expansion. While some of these appropriations draw upon ideas of intersecting oppressions, mining industries fail to adequately address the ways in which resource extraction contributes to those oppressions. However, these actions are both recognised and resisted by local anti-tar sands activists, who use public events and designed artefacts to display their opposition and reappropriate Discourses. Although both case studies are concerned with similar types of fossil fuel extraction, there are notable differences. Whereas Discourses of the environment, the economy, and regional identity are both appropriated and resisted in Southland and Alberta, it appears that in Alberta, industry actors draw upon a wider variety of Discourses. This may be due, in part, to the fact that the Athabasca tar sands controversy has had a longer development period and more international resistance, meaning there is more pressure to legitimise new and ongoing projects. This has led to a type of ‘discursive arms race’, where wider Discourses are appropriated as other, more directly-linked, Discourses are exhausted (e.g. the environment). In response, activists in both Southland and Alberta make use of creativity and humour in mundane performances to enact satirical representations of powerful industry actors. While these performances occur regularly in many of my interviews, activists in Alberta also tend to stage elaborate and humorous theatrics in order to criticise government and industry approaches to fossil fuel development. The unique framework employed in this thesis has resulted in a number of research implications. These include the combination of Critical Discourse Analysis with a multimodal, ethnographic approach, and the coupling of Multimodal Interaction Analysis with Social Semiotics to expand my analytical reach. Additionally, I have made use of a variety of modes in this thesis’ presentation, in order to exploit each mode’s affordances and better represent the complexity of my dataset. Finally, from a critical perspective, this research offers an agenda of empowerment for environmental justice activist groups struggling to protect their lands.</p>

Beyond Greenwash: Environmental Discourses of Appropriation and Resistance

<p>A multimodal, critical approach to Discourse allows us to understand contemporary environmental debates in a nuanced way. Fossil fuel mining has become especially controversial due to the environmental, health, and social impacts, as well as the substantial economic dependence on such development. Wider discussions surrounding mining projects tend to diverge into two major oppositions: that of the industry itself, and that of local activists protesting development on their lands. Research in these areas has leaned towards a focus on the use of environmental language by polluting industries, termed ‘greenwash’, missing to some degree the ways in which these and other Discourses are articulated multimodally through interaction. This thesis brings a critical, multimodal analysis to controversial mining debates which go ‘beyond greenwash’, in order to track how Discourses are appropriated, resisted, and re-entextualised. In this thesis I adopt overlapping critical, multimodal, and ethnographic theoretical lenses to view interaction surrounding two controversial mining case studies: the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta, Canada and a lignite coal mine expansion in Southland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Drawing upon an understanding of human communication as inherently multimodal, I include video-recorded interviews with both activists and industry representatives, as well as relevant artefacts (such as pamphlets, photographs, signs, etc) in my dataset. Using mediated action as the unit of analysis, I employ Multimodal Interaction Analysis to examine interview interaction, coupled with methods from Social Semiotics to interrogate designed artefacts. These analytical frameworks, viewed through combined theoretical lenses, provide a unique perspective on the way Discourses are appropriated and creatively resisted in debates about resource development. In both case studies, Discourses of the environment and the economy are appropriated by activists and industry actors, forming the basic ‘Environment v. Economy’ Discourse. This dichotomy is expanded through the appropriation of additional Discourses, such as regional identity in both Southland and Alberta. Activist groups subsequently resist and re-appropriate these regional Discourses by multimodally re-contextualising them. In Alberta, additional Discourses of Indigenous and LGBTQ+ identities are appropriated by industry actors in attempts to legitimise mining expansion. While some of these appropriations draw upon ideas of intersecting oppressions, mining industries fail to adequately address the ways in which resource extraction contributes to those oppressions. However, these actions are both recognised and resisted by local anti-tar sands activists, who use public events and designed artefacts to display their opposition and reappropriate Discourses. Although both case studies are concerned with similar types of fossil fuel extraction, there are notable differences. Whereas Discourses of the environment, the economy, and regional identity are both appropriated and resisted in Southland and Alberta, it appears that in Alberta, industry actors draw upon a wider variety of Discourses. This may be due, in part, to the fact that the Athabasca tar sands controversy has had a longer development period and more international resistance, meaning there is more pressure to legitimise new and ongoing projects. This has led to a type of ‘discursive arms race’, where wider Discourses are appropriated as other, more directly-linked, Discourses are exhausted (e.g. the environment). In response, activists in both Southland and Alberta make use of creativity and humour in mundane performances to enact satirical representations of powerful industry actors. While these performances occur regularly in many of my interviews, activists in Alberta also tend to stage elaborate and humorous theatrics in order to criticise government and industry approaches to fossil fuel development. The unique framework employed in this thesis has resulted in a number of research implications. These include the combination of Critical Discourse Analysis with a multimodal, ethnographic approach, and the coupling of Multimodal Interaction Analysis with Social Semiotics to expand my analytical reach. Additionally, I have made use of a variety of modes in this thesis’ presentation, in order to exploit each mode’s affordances and better represent the complexity of my dataset. Finally, from a critical perspective, this research offers an agenda of empowerment for environmental justice activist groups struggling to protect their lands.</p>

RESULTS OF RESEARCH ON THE USE OF MAGNETIC FLUIDS IN THE PROCESS OF OIL REFINING FROM TAR SANDS

Despite extensive theoretical research, scientific-practical and various engineering works in the field of separation of residual oil in bituminous sands, the problem remains relevant. For this purpose, the article considers the issue of improving the process of separation of oil from bituminous sands under the influence of physical fields. Keywords: Bituminous sands, ferromagnetic based fluids, magnetic and electric fields, oil yield factor.

Hyperspectral fluorescence imaging: robust detection of petroleum in porous sedimentary rock formations

Examining hand samples can be a necessary step for geological studies, and effective mapping of such samples can be achieved through the high spectral and spatial resolutions of ground-based hyperspectral imaging (HSI) at the millimeter to centimeter scale. We present a simple approach to crude oil identification and characterization—feasible in 16 hours—based on hyperspectral data collected under ultraviolet lighting and normalized with respect to the fluorescence patterns of Spectralon diffuse reflectance material. The samples under consideration were extracted from a core acquired from an Early Cretaceous bituminous sandstone formation in the Athabasca basin located near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. This basin contains the largest natural bitumen deposit in the world, where surface mining operations currently are viable only for approximately 20% of the estimated 164 billion barrels of total recoverable oil reserves. This deposit is unique in that its tar sands are water-wet, which facilitates the separation of bitumen from the sandstone via water-based gravity separation. However, large amounts of water are still required for oil recovery, so a fast and reliable way to mark portions of the deposit where ample petroleum has accumulated and assess its extractability based on its physical characteristics prior to mining can be helpful for optimizing resource usage. For this reason, we test and visually evaluate the ability of three classification methods—Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Supervised Neural Network (SNN)—to distinguish between bitumen, Spectralon, and a non-fluorescent slate background based on the emission of visible light in response to absorbing ultraviolet light of different wavelengths. We also propose spectral indices useful for indicating concentrated bitumen in tar sands. Errors inherent to the methodology are discussed along with ways to mitigate them. After accounting for these, HSI can be a valuable asset alongside other techniques used for production economics evaluation.

‘Authorizing the Peril’: Mythologies of (Settler) Law at the End of Time

The promised paradises of colonial capitalism and neoliberalism are set in a perpetually elusive future (Fitzpatrick 1992). This future is not a set destination, but an endless linear journey set to the thrum of ‘progress’ and ‘development’. This paper considers, in the context of recent cases relating to development in the Athabasca tar sands region, what the law of the Canadian settler state does when it is faced with interruptions and ruptures in its timescape. Drawing on Fitzpatrick’s seminal work, The Mythology of Modern Law, I argue that a conceptualisation of law’s behaviour in these contexts as functionally mythological highlights some of the elusive ways that settler law maintains a stranglehold over legal imaginaries of oil and gas developments: by distorting and flattening the pasts and presents of Indigenous societies that pre-dated (and continue to co-exist with) the settler state on ‘Canadian’ land, by mediating between the ‘origin’ of the settler state and the daily rhythms of colonial time through ‘Eternal Objects’ such as property and economic development, and by asserting a general ‘objectivity’ of law to evade any direct grappling with the stark possibilities of the ‘end of the world’ created by the climate crisis. I conclude, drawing on Indigenous scholarship and the work of de Goede and Randalls, that a meaningful response to the climate crisis requires re-enchanted attachments to life that necessitate a departure from the one-dimensional temporality of the mythologies of settler law.