Canadian Tar Sands
I first heard about the Tar Sands when I was attending my MSc in Sustainable Design at the Welsh school of Architecture. It was between lectures in the fall of 2008 and we were sitting in groups talking. This was a very international course and I was carrying on a conversation with people from South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Taiwan. They started to persecute me for my countries Tar Sands. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed and bullied.
Then I did my research and was not happy! The problem with the tar sands is that the oil is all mixed in with the sand and is energy intensive. It takes 5 barrels of oil to make 13 barrels of tar sands oil. First they have to rip down all the trees and then they start strip mining. They then need to separate the oil and sand using water. The leftover water is left in “Tailing ponds” and is VERY TOXIC! Some are a big as lakes! How can this not be bad for nature? In 2010 hundreds of ducks landed on a pond and died. You can see the technical processes they use to protect the wildlife! (Scarecrows)
I think everyone who is making decisions on pipelines needs to understand the process. With the go ahead of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines it means that the tars sands is going to grow rapidly!There is an AMAZING photo article on the Business Insider website which gives a very realistic view of what is actually involved in oils sands extraction. Please have a look and become informed!
