Canada’s Highway to Hell
Canada’s Highway to Hell
The world’s last (and dirtiest) oil boom is under way in the boreal forests of Alberta. It’s destroying a wilderness the size of Florida.
OnEarth Magazine
Fall 2007
To capture just one barrel of oil from this geologic pudding requires brute force. Great machines mow down trees (and all their supporting creatures such as boreal songbirds and woodland caribou), roll up acres of muskeg, drain entire wetlands, and reroute rivers. Next, for each barrel, workers must scoop up two tons of sand and wash the stuff in hot water. Even then the bitumen requires substantial upgrading to remove engine-clogging impurities. It costs more than 10 times as much to produce a flowing barrel of oil in this way than it does to produce a barrel of Saudi light oil. The entire process is fueled by natural gas, and the energy consumed is awesome: Every 24 hours the industry burns enough natural gas to heat four million American homes in order to produce one million barrels of oil.
Also: Check out The Dominion’s special issue on the tar sands here: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/issue/48
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3 Comments on “Canada’s Highway to Hell”
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I keep hoping one of these mornings I will wake up and the wanton destruction of nature will have all been a bad dream. The photos posted at the dominion paper facebook link are very saddening. Thanks for posting this Brightfeather.
It’s so very disheartening. Likewise the carbon credit sham and the carbon tax sham are something that most folks just don’t seem to get – carbon credits and carbon taxes do not decrease the production of greenhouse gases. Aarrggghhh!
Yeah, the whole carbon credit/tax thing is just another game of three-card monte, a slight of hand pulled out of some bureaucrat’s err… hat, as a “feel good” for the sheeple. Few take the time to look into it and see that it’s just smoke and mirrors and nothing really changed.
My Giambotta is done so I’m going to go get a bowl and shread some pecorino on it and think happy thoughts.
Keep smiling Richard and send some happy thoughts my way too please. I have been down for days and struggling just to be able to produce a smile.