Worldwide progress toward curbing the growing climate crisis is being threatened by a single, massive project taking place in the Canadian wilderness. Major oil companies, banks and investors are pouring billions of dollars into the development of the Canadian Tar Sands, the dirtiest and most desperate attempt yet to profit from and prolong humanity’s crippling addiction to oil.
Extracting oil from these sludgy deposits in the heart of Canada’s Boreal forest results in three times more global warming-causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than conventional oil. Tar sands development is turning once pristine stretches of forest into desolate, post-apocalyptic landscapes and producing toxic pollution that is harmful to the health and quality of life of the region’s First Nations and other frontline communities.
What are the Tar Sands?
Centered in the Canadian Boreal forest just downstream of the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains are the Canadian Tar Sands, a massive oil development venture that has been dubbed “the most destructive project on Earth.” Despite being the dirtiest, most GHG-intensive source of crude oil in the world, the tar sands have been touted as an alternative to U.S. dependence on oil from conflict regions such as the Middle East and Nigeria.
Nearly 65 percent of the oil produced in the tar sands – which contain some 2 trillion barrels of oil – comes to the United States. A surge in tar sands production in recent years has made Canada the number one source of crude oil for our country. But extracting all this oil is a dirty undertaking that will mean destroying an area larger than the state of Florida.
Tar sands are a mixture of heavy crude oil, sand, clay and bitumen—an “unconventional” oil which requires an energy-intensive process of burning natural gas to generate enough heat and steam to melt the oil out of the sand. As many as five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of tar sands oil.
Health and Environmental Impacts of the Tar Sands
Across the United States, oil refineries are seeking permits to expand their facilities to process heavy crude oil from the tar sands. Many local communities oppose the expansions based on the increased pollution that comes from dirtier oil. Processing tar sands oil will mean more asthma and respiratory diseases, more cancer, and more cardiovascular problems.
In Canada, the toxic burden on communities near the tar sands is already enormous. In addition to direct human exposure, oil contamination in the local watershed has led to arsenic in moose meat—a dietary staple for First Nations peoples—up to 33 times acceptable levels. Deformed fish have been found in nearby Lake Athabasca; drinking water has been contaminated; and a huge swath of the vibrant Boreal forest is being transformed into a toxic moonscape. One of the largest dams in the world is restraining a giant reservoir filled with toxic sludge from processing tar sands into oil.
Invest in the Future
Extending our dependence on fossil fuels with projects like the tar sands is a bad idea. In the next decade, the U.S. is set to invest $70-100 billion dollars in new oil infrastructure like pipelines and refineries to process tar sands oil.
The alternative is simple: We need to break our addiction to oil and fossil fuels. We could be on the road to a new energy future if we simply redirected those billions of dollars away from tar sands and toward sustainable alternatives. Heightened investments in clean energy also mean the creation of new green jobs. We need to stop investing in dirty fossil fuels and start funding the future.
