Yesterday we toured the great black hope for US oil independence from the Middle East: the Athabasca Tar sands in Alberta Canada. The trip was organized by Tom Abraham who started “Destinations at Risk.” The name says it all. With oil prices causing an epidemic of “For Sale” signs on SUVs and guzzlers in the US, and escalating concerns about reliance on foreign oil, oil consumers are turning to Canada for supply. One MILLION barrels a day are squeezed out of the sharp sand particles with steam or hot water. This dirty extraction process uses clean water, natural gas and gobs of electricity.
Ed Burtynsky, the Ansel Adams of our time, sounding like he’s been sent by God as our Tour Guide, told us that the process uses one barrel FOR EVERY FIVE it creates.
The outcome is hurting us all, and most of all it is a serious issue for the First Nation people who fish and hunt downstream, who live in a place so remote that roads don’t reach them. They are concerned about feeding fish with two heads caught to their kids and letting their families dink the water. Why do people need to care? –This sounds like an awful thing to say, but here’s why we ALL need to care: we are all First Nation people now. Even if everyone in Alberta gets cancer from mine tailings, and wildlife evaporates at alarming rates, and this mining continues without any regard to health and reclamation planning, the CO2 cost is going to hurt us all.
C’mon Suncor—why are you so proud of ONE POND in the process of reclamation after 30 years of mining? Can’t you do better? The government of Canada is selling off one of the largest carbon sponges in the world faster than we can say “Fort Chipewyan Cree.”
A newly-discovered hero turns out to be someone close to home. Planetwalker John Francis who decided not to use petroleum-based vehicles and walk instead for the past 20 years after seeing the impact an oil spill had near the golden gate bridge. 
