Scraping Bottom: The Canadian Oil Boom. "Once considered too expensive, as well as too damaging to the land, exploitation of Alberta's oil sands is now a gamble worth billions."
posted by homunculus on Feb 26, 2009 - 41 comments

Oil sands will pollute Great Lakes The environmental impacts of Alberta's oil sands will not be restricted to Western Canada, researchers say, but will extend thousands of kilometres away to the Great Lakes, threatening water and air quality around the world's largest body of fresh water. *****Report: How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin***** (pdf) Policy makers around the lakes, in both Canada and the U.S., are largely unaware that the tar sands will lead to massive industrial development in their region, and consequently have no strategy to minimize the environmental impacts. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu on Oct 8, 2008 - 33 comments

Ducks die a crude death. Alberta's oilsands (previously) (map) have a new emblem -- hundreds of ducks coated and killed in oily toxic sludge. About 500 birds landed and died in an oil sands pond. The pond full of toxic sludge sits along a major flight path for migrating waterfowl. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu on May 1, 2008 - 50 comments

Black Gold in Alberta. The tar sands located in northern Alberta, containing 85% of the worlds bitumen could provide for america's oil needs for the next century. The trillion barrell oil pit will continue to grow in importance as the price of oil continues to climb, and investors from around the world pour billions of dollars into the rich dirt.
posted by blue_beetle on Jun 26, 2006 - 44 comments