Boarding a helicopter to get an aerial view of the Athabasca Oil Sands project, refineries, upgraders and open pit mines. Then visiting the Oil Sands Discovery Centre for a general overview of the processes involved in extracting oil from sands. Afterwards, a tour of the Suncor upgrading plant.

The oil sands, located outside Calgary, CAN, are believed to hold 60% of the world's remaining oil – including 175 billion barrels in proven reserves. The bitumen process of extracting oil from sand requires large amounts of energy (equivalent to heating 4 million homes a day) and many question its usefulness because of the high cost of the operation. The trip is led by George Butterfield and Edward Burtynsky, a world-renowned photographer. We hope to be participating in more trips like this, that provide a rare insight into “destinations at risk”.