Quote:
Originally Posted by Francois Cellier
But while attractive from a geopolitical perspective, extracting Canadian tar sands is environmentally destructive. It takes vast quantities of energy to recover the bitumen and convert it into a usable liquid, releasing three times as much greenhouse gases as conventional oil production; the resulting process leaves toxic water supplies and empty moonscapes in its wake. Although rarely covered in the US press, opposition in Canada to the environmental damage wreaked by these mammoth operations is growing.
|
Great article, thanks Francois. This part struck me as odd though. I mean, isn't the water flowing naturally through the tar sands already toxic? Aren't the tar sands areas already an uninhabitable moonscape? And don't tar sands give off CO2 naturally when heated by the sun?
As for the US buying up the tar sands - China beat us to that punch.