XPost: can.politics, ab.politics, bc.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   Posted on March 7, 2009   
   The Facts About the Alberta Tar Sands   
      
      
   In Canada, both the governing Conservatives and the opposition Liberals   
   are trying to shrug off National Geographic magazine’s recent   
   photographic expose of the massive devastation caused by mining the   
   Alberta Tar Sands. Facts just don’t matter if they might undermine profits.   
      
   Both of Canada’s major party leaders are defending the continuance and   
   further development of the Alberta Tar Sands by saying that carbon   
   capture and storage (CCS) will collect carbon dioxide emissions from Tar   
   Sands operations and make them environmentally and socially sustainable.   
   Both leaders know that this technology is currently not available and   
   that, if successfully developed, it will be very costly and “the first   
   commercial CCS plant won’t be on stream until 2030 at the earliest” [MIT].   
      
   Also not addressed is the vast technological difference between CCS for   
   coal and CCS for Tar Sands, the latter being so much more complex   
   because of the number and diversity of emission sources and locations.   
      
   As well, when speaking about the Tar Sands, our leaders do not address   
   the loss of more of our boreal forest and its biodiversity and carbon   
   sequestration values, which is already providing extensive natural   
   carbon capture and storage. Our leaders also play only minor homage to   
   the development of renewable energy, which does not require any carbon   
   capture and storage.   
      
   Greenhouse gas emissions:   
      
     -   The Alberta Tar Sands are the fastest growing source of greenhouse   
   gas emissions in Canada and stand as the single greatest obstacle to   
   Canada meeting its global climate change responsibilities.   
      
   -    Producing a barrel of Tars Sand oil emits three times more   
   greenhouse gases than producing a barrel of conventional oil, making Tar   
   Sands oil some of the dirtiest on the planet.   
      
   -    If current development plans proceed, by 2020 the Tar Sands will   
   release twice as many greenhouse gases as are currently produced by all   
   the cars and trucks in Canada.   
      
   -    As one of the largest, most intact old-growth forests left on   
   Earth, containing more carbon per hectare than any other ecosystem, the   
   boreal forest provides ecosystem services that are globally important in   
   mitigating climate change. The more forest disturbed for the Tar Sands,   
   the more stored carbon released.   
      
   -    In order to prevent catastrophic consequences from global warming,   
   developed countries are required to reduce their carbon dioxide   
   emissions to 25%-40% below 1990 levels by 2020.   The Conservative   
   federal government’s emissions plan calls for a reduction of 20% below   
   2006 levels by 2020, which is equivalent to an increase of 2% over 1990   
   levels.   
      
   Resource usage:   
      
   -    Two tons of oil sands are needed to produce one barrel of oil   
   (roughly 1/8 of a ton). Just one of the four operating mines in Alberta   
   has excavated more soil than the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the Great Wall   
   of China, the Suez Canal and the world’s 10 biggest dams combined.   
      
   -    Tar Sands extraction utilizes enough natural gas to heat over 3   
   million homes in Canada. Its rapid depletion of natural gas is not only   
   hastening the return to coal for domestic heating and power generation,   
   but it is also driving Canada’s so-called nuclear renaissance. Canada   
   may well become the first nation to use nuclear energy not to retire   
   fossil fuels, but to accelerate their exploitation.   
      
   -   2 to 4.5 barrels of water are used to produce each barrel of oil.   
   Every day, Canada exports one million barrels of bitumen to the United   
   States and three million barrels of virtual water.   
      
   -  Tar Sands operations are currently allowed to draw 349 million cubic   
   metres of water per year, twice that utilized by the city of Calgary. An   
   estimated 82 % of this water comes from the Athabasca River, which is   
   already facing loss of glacial water from the Colombia Ice Fields due to   
   global warming.   
      
      
   Environmental concerns:   
      
   -    Industrial development of the scale of the Alberta Tar Sands could   
   push the boreal ecosystem over its tipping point and lead to   
   irreversible ecological damage and loss of biodiversity.   
      
   -   About 90% of the water used to process the Tar Sands ends up in   
   acutely toxic tailing ponds that line the Athabaska River and threaten   
   the health of the whole river basin. For every barrel of oil extracted,   
   six barrels of tailings are produced.   
      
   -   According to a recent Environmental Defense report, the ponds are   
   already leaking over 11 million litres a day of contaminated water into   
   the environment.   
   Should proposed projects proceed on schedule, 2012 would see a five-fold   
   increase, to over 25 billion litres a year.   
      
   -    Tailing ‘ponds’ cover more than 50 sq km and can be seen from   
   space. One tailings pond at Syncrude’s mining operation is held in check   
   by the third-largest dam in the world.   
      
   -    Tailing ‘ponds’ are so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep   
   ducks from landing on them. Regardless, they result in over 8,000 oiled   
   and drowned birds annually and in one incident last April, 500 ducks   
   died after landing on one of Syncrude’s ponds, which did not have   
   noisemakers set up.   
      
   -   A recent report estimated that, because the Tar Sands belt is on the   
   migratory route of North American ducks and other waterfowl, over the   
   next 30 to 50 years, as many as 166 million birds could be lost, due to   
   loss of breeding areas and from birds landing in tailing ponds of waste   
   that look like real bodies of water.   
      
   -   Canada has no national water policy and one of the worst records of   
   pollution enforcement of any industrial nation.   
      
   -   Because of the effects of global warming, intact northern forest   
   ecosystems will become very important to the forest birds and wildlife   
   that will need to migrate northward in order to survive.   
      
   -   Addition to the already massive pipeline network that exists, Tar   
   Sands development plans include pipeline expansions and additions from   
   northern Alberta into the U.S., and to B.C. The latter could see the   
   building of a supertanker port in Kitimat and oil tankers exporting oil   
   via the Inside Passage of northern B.C. waters.   
      
   -   A recent recommendation from the Cumulative Environment Management   
   Association (CEMA) asking for a freeze until 2011 on sales of mineral   
   rights in an area marked for conservation was rejected by the Alberta   
   government. CEMA’s members represent government agencies, environmental   
   groups, aboriginal communities and around 30 oil companies. Millions of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)