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Last Sunday was a grim and painful anniversary for the people of Lac-Mégantic in Quebec. It was a year ago that a crude by rail train, which was carrying highly volatile crude from America’s Bakken fracking fields, derailed and exploded, effectively incinerating 47 people.

Later today, a scientific study which has examined the health impacts of the toxic tar sands on the health of Canada’s First Nations at Fort Chipewyan in Alberta, will be released.

The endorsement granted to Big Oil companies by preeminent arts institutions allows them to whitewash their image.

And so the battle lines have been drawn. On the one hand you have Canada’s federal government, ever eager to please Big Oil, which has just agreed to let Enbridge build its highly controversial $8 billion Northern Gateway pipeline from the toxic tar sands of Alberta to the rugged coast of British Colombia.

Many visitors to the iconic British Museum in London got more than they bargained for on Sunday, when hundreds of protestors descended on the Museum to protest against BP's sponsorship of a major exhibition on Vikings.

As war rages in Iraq, and oil and gasoline prices rise, the impotence of the US oil boom is exposed.

In contrast to claims made by Keystone XL proponents, tar sands crude is trickling into the Gulf Coast by rail.

It has all the ingredients for an international blockbuster novel: The stunning setting of Africa’s oldest National park, home to half of all the species on the African continent, including one if its most endangered and iconic animals, the Mountain Gorilla.

The clock is ticking. Within the next ten days, the Canadian federal government is expected to announce its final decision on the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, which will transport toxic tar sands from Alberta via British Colombia to the Pacific Coast.