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Date: 24 August 2012
The Alberta Tar Sands project could be the largest industrial project ever undertaken on this planet. Canadians are assured by both government and private entities that the project is safe and will create jobs and bring prosperity, not only to the region, but to Canada at large.
Unfortunately, the oil that can be extracted from the tar sands is the dirtiest type of oil known, and the mining procedure releases at least three times as much CO2 as other methods of oil extraction. It may be safe in terms of workers not being killed, but an alarming number of cases of leukemia and other cancers cluster around oil production sites. Not only that, but for each barrel of oil brought out of the earth, up to five barrels of water are used. Add in the fact that, in order to get to the oil, huge swathes of pristine boreal forest will be cut, and the Tar Sands Project is likely to become the single largest contributor to climate change in North America. It will devastate much of Alberta. When the planet begins to die – and it will if climate change is not reversed – jobs and prosperity will be immaterial.