Take a stand against the sands
Canada’s disaster
By Graeme Bousada
In 1956, Manley Natland, a geologist for Richfield Oil based out of California was seated upon his rump, under the heavy rays of a hot Saudi Arabian sun. In an act of greatness, not witnessed since Archimedes himself triumphantly proclaimed “eureka” through the streets, Natland realized he had the answer to unlock one of the greatest energy stores the world has ever known. His plan was this: dig a nine kiloton atomic bomb deep into the ground in North Eastern Alberta, detonating it thus facilitating the access to the immense oil stores that the Alberta tar sands held. His master plan, declared by many in the oil industry to be genius (and by many others to be PSYCHOTIC!), was never undertaken, though serves well to metaphorically demonstrate the absurdity of Canada’s largest industrial project, the Alberta tar sands.
Many people are well aware that Alberta has “oil.” First discovered by Imperial Oil in Leduc, Alberta does (soon to be did) have oil in the sense that most envision with the word. The reality is though that the “oil” that now feeds Alberta’s bolstering economy is not in fact the crude that was first discovered by Imperial many decades ago. Instead, it is powered by the tar sands, one of the largest energy stores in the world.
Covering an area of approximately 148,000 km/sq (14,000 km/sq larger than the Maritime provinces combined), the tar sands are vast stores of bitumen buried under the boreal forest in north eastern Alberta. With estimates from Shell Canada projecting between 1.5 to 2.5 trillion barrels of oil total, the enormity of this deposit has gotten many oil giants salivating around the borders of Fort McMurray, the location of the richest stores that the tar sands have to offer. To put things into perspective, ultimate global oil supply is estimated to be approximately 1.8 trillion barrels of oil, meaning that if all of the energy trapped in the sand could be accessed, global oil supplies would increase by two fold. The problem though, recognized by Natland in the 1950s, is that these sands cannot be treated as the oil in Saudi Arabia, as refining this “oil” to a form that is accessible is a great challenge. Currently, estimates suggest that the oil sands house approximately 175 billion barrels of oil, though the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) predicts that this number will inflate to between 300 and 315 billion barrels as demand increases and technology improves. With current reserves, Canada has been endowed with the second largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia’s 260 billion. Should CAPPs prediction become reality, Canada (and more specifically Alberta) will be endowed with the largest supply of oil in the world.
So what’s the big deal? The deal is actually incredibly big. The problem with the tar sands is that it requires inputs, inputs and more inputs. Inputs from:
Natural Gas: in 2007, Fort McMurray burned the equivalent natural gas that is consumed by 3,000,000 homes in a year. Natural gas is the cleanest burning hydrocarbon we have, oil is one of the dirtiest. Gold into crap.
Water: Fort MacMurray consumed twice the amount of freshwater consumed by the city of Calgary. Between two and six barrels of fresh water must be consumed for one barrel of oil. Ninety per cent of this water has ended up in one of many tar ponds, currently stretching 80 km/sq. The biggest tar pond, created by the most active company there is SynCrude, who has in fact had to build the largest dam by mass in the world to hold back the incredibly toxic sludge left over from the difficult process that refining offers. This dam, trumped only by the Three Gorges Dam when it is finished, holds back this incredibly toxic sludge from Canada’s largest and the world’s third largest water shed, the Mackenzie River Delta, housing many aboriginal populations already experiencing the effects of what some call Industrial Genocide.
Carbon Emissions: In 2007, the tar sands alone emitted 40 million tones of CO2 into the air, eight million more tones than New Zealand emitted in the same year.
Boreal Forest: In order to gain access to the tar sands under the ground, the Boreal Forest, the largest storehouse of carbon in the world, must be clear cut, and mined in open pits.
The largest capital project in the world, the tar sands house approximately $200 billion, 60 per cent of which is foreign direct investment from the largest and most powerful companies in the world, the oil giants. Unfortunately for Canadians, particularly aboriginal populations downstream from Fort McMurray, too much is invested in this to cease production now and Canadians will continue to be raped of our most valuable resources in ensuring that US oil interests are met for several years to come. With enough proven reserves to power North America for the next 47 years (that includes Mexico don’t forget), the US Energy Policy Act of 2005 explicitly stated its intention on forging an alliance with Alberta, side-stepping the rest of Canada in ensuring that the tar sands become the cornerstone in their plan to ensure that North America is an energy sovereign entity by 2025.
Canada is powering the US military machine, allowing it to continue its 6 decades of hegemonic activities around the world. Canada is allowing for North America to continue our economy built on the wheel of a SUV axle. Canada is undermining international interests to put a stop to climate change because we know we will not be able to reduce GHG emissions and develop the tar sands simultaneously. Canada is streamlining environmental, social, and even economic interests (billions of dollars in tax cuts for oil companies in the last several years) in ensuring that companies maintain their access to the tar sands. Canada is not looking after Canada first, but in fact thrusting a middle finger high into the air, declaring loudly and proudly that the world can go fuck itself as we receive the slight benefits that we do from this crazy endeavor.
Perhaps Natland should have just detonated the bomb. Perhaps he did not even need to.
