The Alberta Tar Sands Development

The Athabasca Delta is a breeding ground for species of birds, which was destroyed to clear the land for oil development. These development practices are a leading factor towards increases in pollution. A scientific panel stated on Tuesday that pollution must be corrected, as there are major debates against the oil sands development. Proponents argue that business through the Oil Sands has made Canada a major player in foreign supplement. Unemployment rates have decreased across Canada and companies generate huge profits. The Alberta Oil Sands provide Canada with a secure source of energy. Throughout the world, Canadian oil reserves are the second largest in the world. Oil mining operations in Canada also help create more trading partnerships with different countries. This is a great way Canada can strengthen relationships and ties with various nation-states. The Oil Sands is a stabilizing force for Canada’s economy, yet it has a tremendous effect on the environment. Corporations are held responsible for their actions, and environmental protection should be their main concern. The procedures that the Oil Sands has taken are not effective, to an extent, where the pace of investment and development in the oil sands

The oil production in Canada has several significant issues that depict the destruction nature of the industry. These issues can be categorized as environmental, political, economic, and social. The environmental issues lead the pack; in that the environmental destruction associated with the industry is extensive. The environmental problems are climatic, land, water and air related (Best & Hoberg, 2015). Under climatic effect, studies indicate that the development of the tar sides has resulted to three times more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than in production of conventional oil. These environmental issues are caused by the composition of the tar sands. Unlike the convention oil, tar sands are a mixture of bitumen and sand. The process of separating the two results triples GHGs emissions when compared to conventional oil production (Koring, 2013).

The Alberta tar sands, is currently the largest construction project taking place in the world, and as such is a very important

This essay discusses the many similarities and differences between Avatar and Alberta oil sands. We can explore this through social sustainability, meaning that development should increase people's control over their own lives, cultural sustainability, a development that takes into account the values and beliefs affected by it, and ecological sustainability, the development that considers the maintenance of environmental resources, biological diversity, and ecological process.

Countries having the bituminous sand but the wide range of this sand are finding in Canada. The research show that this company is important for economy and showing robust future in the future because in 2004, the processing of engineered unrefined petroleum (SCO) and natural rough bitumen spoke to 41 percent of aggregate Canadian oil generation. At an accepted WTI cost of $32 for every barrel, the oil sands generation is relied upon to expand three fold by 2017, helping considerably more than 50% of Alberta's oil supply. The normal elevated amount of oil action ought to prompt gigantic budgetary development in the district and in addition in the area. The number of inhabitants in the locale (i.e., Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake Economic Region7) has expanded by 8 percent between 2000 and 2004. This contrasts and a development of 7 percent for the region, and 5 percent for the country over the same period. The development and improvement in the oil sands industry at the provincial level affects the common, national

The other adverse effect of the Canadian oil sands is that pipelines and massive processes of refining oil sands in Canada are a source of pollution that pose a great threat to air, water, and land as well as human health. Additionally, the use of its products like natural gas that is used to run medium-sized turbines that produce electricity releases greenhouse gases. These emissions are mostly produced when steam is injected to reduce the viscosity of the crude and during refining. These further increases to the global warming effect that is already out of hand and it also negates the gains made by society by exposing them to the adverse negative

The Canadian province of Alberta is home to one of the world’s largest unconventional oil reserves — a roughly 140,000 km² area covered by a combination of boreal forest and peatland. Bitumen, the substance comprising these reserves, is a particularly resource intensive and environmentally destructive fuel source to extract, requiring significant amounts of water and often strip-mined land (Huseman & Short, 2012). Now referred to by many as the Athabasca oil sands, the area has traditionally inhabited by a number of Canada’s First Nations (FN) groups. These rich hunting, fishing, and gathering grounds in northern Alberta have sustained FN groups for

Oil has become extremely vital in our society, so vital that it has affected developed and developing countries. It is a massive contributor to economic growth as well as environmental destruction. The Alberta Oil Sands has destroyed acres of local ecosystems, but has also achieved and ensured that Canada stays as an economic power. The economical, cultural, and political benefits the oil sands give to Canada makes it an asset they can not function without.

The damage caused by extraction of these oil sands is not a theoretical problem. Over the past sixteen years more than two million acres of the Canadian boreal forest has been cleared to extract these sands (Nikiforuk). Not only does the extraction process cut down trees it also produces more greenhouse gasses than the extraction of crude oil, and leaves polluted residue across the extraction sight. These contaminants then spread to surrounding bodies of water. Once these contaminants have reached these water supplies they have an immediate effect on wildlife. Fish have been found with cancerous growths in rivers near extraction sites (Forrest). From this we should infer that not only has this oil mining had a negative on wildlife, but it could also pose health risks to local residents near the extraction sites. Though there is little Americans can do to prevent Canada’s current extraction. By not installing the

One of the major contributors to both our economy and the environment is the tar sand industry, and yet there are not that many Canadians who are aware of the problems and benefits that this industry brings to our country. Every day we are destroying our nature and environment because of the economy benefits that the oil sands bring to our country. Canada is the parent of one of the major oil sands operations in the whole World. To be more specific, its located mainly in the province of Alberta, and it is started in 1967. Alberta has the third largest oil sand reserves in the world, and there is approximately around 168 billion barrels of oil located under the lands of Alberta (Alberta Energy). Oil sand is a type of dense oil that is mixed

Our insatiable need for oil has lead us down an unsavory pathway looking for it. The Alberta Tar Sands, an economic boom and an environmental disaster, is just one of those places. Once thought of as too intrusive and destructive on the land, has made way for one of the largest tar sands reserves of this century. Harvesting the tar sands will fuel our thirst for oil for many years. Canada and America will both reap the benefits and the consequences of that oil.

Strip mining completely decimates an ecosystem, leaving behind only a barren landscape. However, the biggest concern about using tar sands is the amount of energy used and greenhouse gasses produced during the refining process (Harrigan 220). After extraction, the tar sands are blended with other toxins into a substance which is known as heavy crude. This allows it to be pumped through a pipeline to refineries where it is converted into crude oil (Harrigan 220). The process of refining tar sands involves upgrading the hydrocarbon in bitumen into a synthetic crude oil. This process causes approximately 6% to 22% more greenhouse gas emissions than any other oil extraction method used today (Harrigan 220). If completed, the Keystone XL Pipeline will pump over 830,000 barrels of tar sands to refineries in the United States every single day. This increase in production will inevitably lead to an increase in consumption due to the decrease in oil prices. Studies have shown that “for every barrel of increased production, global oil consumption would increase by 0.6 barrels” (Erickson and Lazarus 778). The Environmental Protection Agency has predicted that 147 million to 168 million metric tons of carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere each year (Environmental Analysis 5) and over its expected lifetime of 50 years, the Keystone XL Pipeline “could yield an extra 1.15 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions” (Harrigan 220) into the atmosphere. With global warming already a reality, the planet simply cannot sustain this increase in greenhouse gas emissions that will come with the Keystone XL

CNRL’s reserves seem to be well-diversified, both in terms of the countries they are operating in, as well as the type of resources they are

Oil supply is decreasing and with the great number of oil dependence in this country, some of the American people’s hope that the new bill called the Keystone XL project is pass in order to help Americans resupply their oil. According to Valerie Volcovici of the Chicago Tribune, the Keystone XL project will pipeline Canada to the United States and be able to bring down oil shale or oil sand down to our refineries for processing, oil shale is basically oil stuck between the pores of sand and rock (Volcovici). This project will not only be expensive, it will also be bad for the environment, In order to get the oil shale, one must strip the land of its entire soil foundation which causes mass environment and land change. This bill would also be hypocritical of president Barack Obama. In the president’s inaugural address, he stated that America’s growing price on gas, its dependence, as well as the issue of global climate change. His plans on passing this bill, all that he stated would be implausible. With many people supporting and opposing the president 's bill, “this is the one of the most scrutinized infrastructure project in our nation’s history,” according to the president of building and construction, Sean McGarvey (qtd. In Valerie Volcovici).

“In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources, and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy, and peace (Nobel Peace Prize Medalist Maathai 2004).” TransCanada, a Canadian company, has high hopes of beginning to build an oil pipeline that would stretch close to 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. With the approval of construction, the pipeline, known as the Keystone XL, would carry one of the world’s filthiest fuels; tar sand oil. Tar sands oil alone has levels of carbon dioxide emissions that are three to four times higher than those of conventional oil, due to more energy-intensive removal and refining processes (Friends of the