A survey released this week states that most Canadians support oil sands developments if the environmental impact is limited.Survey here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/majority-back-oil-sands-development-if-environmental-impact-limited-poll/article4603926/
The oil sands are such a big topic that they could make up an entire course.
What are oil sands? Why are the oil sands so controversial? What are the environmental impacts of extracting oil sands? Who bears the brunt of the environmental impacts?
In regards to the Canadian oil sands I am a little torn.Part of me feels that we should not support the oil sands, because even if the environmental impact is limited, there still is a little bit of an impact. Our air, water and animals have been effected by enough pollution, do we really need to do anymore harm? Fort Chipewyan, which a community downstream from the oil sands swear that the oil sands has put toxins into their water, bodies and into their fish(2). Part of me feels that if these oil sands are doing any harm at all, they should be stopped. Our environment is bad enough as it is.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand though, our oil sands bring in a lot of income (1). With the bad economy right now, would we really want to make it worse? Would we really want to put more people out of jobs? New research shows that lakes near the oil sands are cleaner than they were decades and centuries ago. This showed that the oil sands have less environmental impact now, then they have in the past (2). For these reasons a part of me feels okay with the development of the oil sands.
(1) http://www.clearpolitics.ca/clear-politics-blog/87-news/3216-The%20Debate%20Over%20Alberta%20Oil%20Sands%20Continues
(2) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/study-finds-little-environmental-impact-from-oil-sands/article4597707/
This is my weekly post.
ReplyDeleteOil sands are large deposits that consist of a mixture of sand, clay or other minerals, water and bitumen (1) and are not the prettiest sight to see (2). The oil sands are so controversial because of the harm they've not only caused to the environment, but the people living downstream as well. (3) Death rates at the Fort Chipewyan reservation's 1,200 people 400 miles northeast of Edmonton were on the rise; a reserve just downstream from the Athabasca Tar Sands. Mike Mercredi claims that the government knows the impacts the oil sands have on his people, but they deny it's even happening. "We're facing another form of biological warfare and it's killing us off."
Instead of limiting the environmental impacts, I would vote for environmental impacts to be reduced to zero. Limiting environmental impacts will only prolong the ultimate doom of the environment nearby at this rate, rather than solve the problem. The only way to solve the environmental issues the oil sands cause is to completely discontinue it altogether or find a cleaner way. I do not support the development of the sands and I refuse to support it until it can be done without any harm to the environment or to the people.
(1) http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/OilSands/793.asp
(2) http://pigsquash.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/tarsands3-garth-lenz.jpg
(3) http://oilsandstruth.org/quotindians-tar-sands-development-039genocide039quot
This is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteOil sands are sand and rock which contain crude bitumen. Bitumen is a heavy form of crude oil. These oil sands are primarily found in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta. This Bitumen can be extracted in two methods. They can be mined which uses large areas of land which will be cleared of the trees and wildlife found upon them and then the top soil and clay are then removed to expose the oil sand. This method needs to use large trucks and shovels to remove the sands and other materials which contain the bitumen. The second method of extraction is in situ. This new method is mainly used to get the bitumen in oil sands that is buried too deep within the earth's surface to be found using trucks and shovels. The in situ technology first injects steam very deep beneath the surface of the earth to separate the bitumen from the sand and then it gets pumped up into the surface.
One reason why the oil sands are so controversial is because this mining method is considered to be damaging to the environment. It involves ridding hundreds of square miles of land, trees and the wildlife found there. When there are accidents within the oil sand business such as that of the Enbridge pipeline accident, billions of additional tonnes of carbon can be released into our atmosphere. As we produce more of these toxins into our atmosphere, scientists around the world are coming to the conclusion that it will lead to extreme weather. The people that must endure all of these environmental problems are all of us. We are all living on this one planet. There is only one of them and there's no way to get it back. Those who are polluting it think that they're doing it for the betterment of our economy. However, what will happen when we cannot bear to breathe anymore because we will all have asthma and other health problems. There is no solution to these environmental issues unless they are reduced to none. No matter how much these companies try to "clean up" the mess that they leave behind, it can never truly be restored to what it was before. Our main priority as a planet now should no longer be how to make things better and better, it should be how to get back to reality and make sure that we will still be inhabiting this world in a hundred years.
1.http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/oilsand.asp#axzz29J4oqFVC
2.http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/2012/01/23/over-100-billion-economic-damages-possible-enbridge-northern
3.http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jschmidt/more_signs_that_tar_sands_is_a.html
The oil sands are good and bad for Canada, I am on the fence about this issue, but my brother is in Alberta right now working out there but he's not extracting crude oil. See the oil companies need things done before, during and after they get the oil. They need construction workers which is what my brother is doing. The oil sands benefit Canada in some ways like creating jobs for Canadians, before he went to Alberta my brother got laid off his other construction job in Newfoundland and found work in the sands. It isn't just him either it is like that for the thousands of people he works with now. The oil sands have created jobs and not just people extracting oil or construction workers. Not everyone out there is from Alberta, they have homes and families all over Canada so to work with this the construction workers work on a 30 - 34 day cycle where you work 20 - 24 days and have 10 days off. The people working there need basic amenities so they also employ people to cook, clean and serve the workers thus creating more jobs. I do see the harm it does to the environment but when the apocalypse comes and we are wiped out the planet will slowly resort back to its natural form :)
ReplyDeleteSorry did I say thousands of people he works with? More like tens of thousand people. Oh and the money you make out there is unbelievable.
DeleteThis is my weekly post: The Canadian Oil sands, are tar sands really far in the ground, they are really really crude(very raw) which means it will take even more energy to refine that oil that comes out of the oil sands in Alberta.The oil sands are so controversial because they provide so many jobs for Canadians from Yukon and B.C to the edge of Newfoundland. If we were to cancel the oil sand campaign then like Benji said tens of thousands of Canadians would be out of jobs and the economy would drop dramatically. There is a huge impact on the environment with development of the oil sands. There are many environmental issues such as; the sky rocketing rate of air pollution in the province of Alberta, increased water pollution found in the city of Fort McMurray's Water Treatment Plants, increased deforestation(which leads to more carbon in the air) and the destruction of soil which leads to increased erosion of the land.The thongs that suffer most from this environmental impact are the animals and plants first,as well as the First Nation and people who call northern Alberta home, but another thing that are so precious to are hearts are new born babies,growing up in polluted air and having a chance to ingest contaminated water because of the oil sands. If I were to make a decision on this, it would take me a long time to decide because on one hand these oil sands provide so many families to put food on the table and survive,but on the other hand it causes increasing damage to the environment. Maybe we could continue this development if ,like David Suzuki said "live in harmony with nature".
ReplyDelete1)www.mapleleafweb.com
2)oilsandstruth.org/
3)www.pembina.org/oil-sands
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ReplyDeleteThis is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteOil sands, which are also known as tar sands, are petroleum deposits mixed with sand, clay, and water. Its only recently been considered an option for the worlds oil reserves because new technologies have allowed for profitable processing. Despite all this new technology though, the oil sands continue to be a subject of environmental concern. The extraction process itself destroys the land, while chemicals are pumped into the air, and seep into the surrounding land. Excess also goes into rivers and streams further polluting the environment. (1)
The environmental concerns from oil sands are endless. One major concern is the Athabasca tar sands, which produce a low-grade asphalt-like petroleum product, called bitumen. It must be melted out of the ground; a process that environmental groups say produces three times more carbon dioxide than traditional oil drilling. (2)
Not only are the effects environmental, but they are also hurting the lives of many locals. The natives of the area, Chipewyan, Cree, and Metís people, who lived along the Athabasca River long before the arrival of the oil industry, are forced out of their homes to live in trailer parks. (3) It’s obvious that the industry is reaping the benefits, while the people who actually live there are forced to live in poverty.
The survey that was mentioned in the above article does not seem very accurate to me. It says in the article, “When presented with a list of oil industry arguments for the environmentally friendly aspects of oil sands production, 71 per cent of people surveyed in an online poll said “significant” efforts have been made to limit oil-sands’ environmental impact, according to Léger Marketing.” This to me seems like an extremely biased survey. The oil industry got to present their arguments that only show how much the oil sand extraction has been improved, and it really has become a much better system, but they never showed the other side. When you compare what is being done to help the environment and problems caused by the oil sands to the vast number of problems still occurring you can see an obvious difference.
While a lot has been done to improve extraction, and reduce the impact on the environment, its clear that there’s still so much more to do. Not only should we be concerned with the effects on the environment, but also on the people. Just because they’ve fixed minor concerns does not mean it doesn’t still have a huge environmental impact.
(1) http://www.pembina.org/oil-sands/os101/air-pollution
(2) http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/12/energy-in-america-controversy-over-oil-sands-pipeline-project-approval/
(3) http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/alberta_oil_extraction_hurts_native_people/