Book excerpt: Tar Wars offers a critical, inside look at how leading image-makers negotiate the escalating tensions between the need for continuous economic growth mandated by a globalized economic system and its unsustainable environmental costs. As representations of a place and its identity assume paramount importance in a globalized, visual, and increasingly ecologically conscious society, a rising, international battle unfolds over Alberta's bituminous sands, pitting independent documentary filmmakers against professional communicators employed by the oil industry and government. Tar Wars will engage scholars and students in communications, film, environmental studies, social psychology, and petrocultures. It also reaches out to decision-makers, activists, and those who wish to explore the intersections of energy, environment, culture, politics, economy, media, and power in the world today.