Things To Know

Alberta’s Tar Sands: The OTHER Oil Disaster

Does the Gulf Oil Spill make you angry? Wait until you learn about North America’s “other oil disaster.”

The Alberta Tar Sands have been described as “the most destructive energy project on earth.” See for yourself:

• Tar Sands oil is embedded in the soil and must be mined or melted.
• To extract this oil, a diverse boreal forest the size of England would be destroyed or seriously degraded.
• Huge amounts of water are required in the process, leaving toxic tailings ponds covering 170 square kilometers.
• Three million gallons of contaminated water is estimated to be leaking from these ponds into nearby rivers and environment every day.
• Downstream communities have seen an increase in rare cancers associated with Tar Sands compounds.
• The Alberta Government rubber stamps new Tar Sands operations without thorough environmental assessment.
• Millions of migratory birds will be lost in the next several decades because of Tar Sands operations.

Worst of all, the Tar Sands hold 170 billion proven barrels of recoverable oil, second largest reserve in the world. James Hansen, the eminent climatologist from NASA has said they if they are exploited fully, it’s essentially game over for global warming.

Want to make a difference? Take the pledge not to visit Alberta and to tell your friends to do the same.

To learn more go to dirtyoilsands.org/publications.