Since 1967 the industrial process of extracting oil from the so-called Tar Sands (bitumen desposits) in the Canadian region of Alberta has caused massive disturbances to the surrounding wetlands, forests, streams. and lakes. Forests are cleared to win the sands and the digging creates immense open-pit mining. The refining methods are complex and energy-intensive, and produce one and a half barrels of pollutants for every barrel of oil recovered. Groundwater contamination and the pollution of the Athabasca River are additional consequences, and toxins turn farmland into wasteland. The need for ever-expanding pipelines causes further environmental destruction. This environmental degradation also generates enormous social and health costs: communities in and around the tar sands increasingly report cases of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Contributed by James Trudell
Course: Modern Global Environmental History
Instructor: Dr. Wilko Graf von Hardenberg
University of Wisconsin–Madison, US
- Schindler, David. "Tar Sands Need Solid Science." Nature 468 (2010): 499-501.
- Black, Toban, Stephen D'Arcy, and Tony Weis, eds. A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice. Oakland: PM Press, 2014.