In the fall of 2011, a Canadian organization called EthicalOil.org started a public-relations campaign aimed at countering criticism of commercial development of Canadas oil sands. Extracting oil from these sands does immense environmental damage. EthicalOil.org seeks to counter such criticism by pointing out the alternative: choosing not to buy oil harvested from Canada is effectively choosing oil produced by non-democratic Middle-Eastern countries with very bad records of human rights abuses.

1. You are also a consumer and have the choice between buying gas for your car that comes from a country where oil extraction does vast environmental damage, and buying gas from a country where the profits from that oil help support a dictatorship with a history of human rights abuses. Which gas will you buy? Why?