Looming Ecological Disaster of Alberta Tar Sands
Local Toxic Legacy and Global Environmental Impacts of Oil Sands
Nov 11, 2009
Second only to Saudi Arabia in proven oil reserves, the Alberta tar sands are a looming ecological disaster. Commercial exploitation of Canada’s oil sands is hugely carbon intensive, with global environmental impacts due to high greenhouse gas emissions, wasteful of local water resources, a threat to Alberta’s boreal forest ecosystem, threatening acid rain on Western Canada and a blot on the local landscape, with toxic tailing lakes so large they are visible from space.
What are the Alberta Tar Sands?
Alberta’s Oil Sands 2008, published by the Alberta Department of Energy in June 2009 lists 3 major areas of tar sands in Alberta, covering approximately 150,000 square kilometers of north-eastern boreal forest, or nearly 25% of the province.
- The Peace River area is the smallest with approximately 1.3 billion barrels of bitumen, equal to about 130 million barrels of oil.
- The Cold Lake area contains 200 billion barrels of bitumen and could yield over 200 million barrels of oil.
- Athabasca is the largest tar oil repository on the globe, with over 1.4 trillion barrels of bitumen, a potential oil reserve of 1.3 billion barrels of oil.
Climate Change Consequences of Tar Sands
Unlike conventional oil drilling, getting oil from tar sands is very carbon intensive, with global environmental impacts.
- Crude: The Story of Oil by Sonia Shah and published by Allen & Unwin in 2007 states that, “Producing a single barrel of oil from tar sands emits no less than six times more carbon dioxide than producing a barrel of conventional oil.”
- The Future of North America 2025 edited by Armand B. Peschard-Sverdrup and published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2008 argues that Alberta, ‘is now the world's second largest proven oil reserve – only Saudi Arabia has more. Current production of the tar sands is about 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd), but there are plans to increase production to 5 million bpd by 2030.”
- Dirty Oil by Andrew Nikiforuk and published by Greenpeace in September 2009 argues that, “If tar sands production grows from 1.3 million barrels a day to three or five million by 2030, the project will emit more CO2 on an annual basis than all the world’s volcanoes (130 MT).”
- Freedom from Dirty Oil, by Mat Price, published by Environmental Defence and Forest Ethics in 2009 claims that, “Tar sands are Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Damage to the boreal ecosystem, reduced water resources, lakes of industrial mining waste, increased damage from acid rain and loss of biodiversity are just some of the environmental impacts of oil sands.
- Troubled Water, Troubling Trends, by Mary Griffiths and published by the Penbina Institute in 2006 states, “Approved oil sands mining operations are currently licensed to divert 359 million m3 from the Athabasca River,or more than twice the volume of water required to meet the annual municipal needs of the City of Calgary. Less than 10% of this water returns to the river.”
- Andrew Nikiforuk, author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, published by Greystone Books in 2008 says, “Astronauts can see the ponds from space, and there is no denying that the world's biggest energy project has spawned one of the world's most fantastic concentrations of toxic waste, producing enough sludge every day (400 million gallons) to fill 720 Olympic pools.”
- Christopher Hatch and Matt Price, authors of The Most Destructive Project on Earth, published by Environmental Defence in 2008 claims, “Everything about the Tar Sands happens on a massive scale. The enormous toxics problems go hand-in-hand with massive global warming pollution and the impending destruction of a boreal forest the size of Florida.”
The ecological effect of the exploitation of tar sands has more in common with the environmental legacy of coal than it has with oil drilling. Canada, one of the first countries to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol, is correctly perceived to be a country with a very responsible environmental record. It would be a shame to allow the looming ecological disaster of the Alberta tar sands to tarnish such a well deserved reputation.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
