Canadian Environmental issues tar sands

In this presentation I will be talking about Athabasca tar sands and its effects on the environment.

Animal habitats and health are affected by tar sands production

Canada’s boreal forest is a crucial habitat for some of the world’s largest populations of wildlife including wolves, grizzly bear, lynx and moose, it is also a vital habitat to endangered species such as the woodland caribou and whooping cranes. Poisoning waterways, the food supply and the air in the surroundings has led to drops and even disappearances of species near pipelines, platforms and other infrastructure of the tarsands.

Habitats Destroyed

Animal habitats are affected by tar sands production. Nearly 50 per cent of the 700 bird species that regularly occur in the U.S. and Canada rely on the boreal for their survival. More than 300 species of birds regularly breed there each spring. The estimates of the number of birds that will be lost from mining and in situ operations over the next 30 to 50 years range from six million to 166 million.

Fish in the last five to six years have been found with lumps on them, humpbacks, and crooked tails Walleye exhibiting external tumors, bulging eyes, and abnormal fins, Lake Athabasca AB, near Ft.Chipewyan . Caused by water pollution from the oil sands.

Fish deformities

Water diversion and contamination

Approximately one million cubic metres of water is diverted from the Athabasca River to tar sands operations each day. Only 8 percent of the water removed from the river is returned. Ninety two percent ends up in the tailings ponds. The Athabasca watershed downstream is threatened, as the River is already under increasing stress from dropping water levels as the glaciers that feed into the Rocky mountains gradually retreat and sources diminish.

Water pollution causes cancer

PAHs These are cancer-causing chemicals that are released when things are burned but burning petroleum in the production of the oilsands leaves a particular fingerprint, so the scientists were able to trace where the PAHs in the core samples came from. PAHs in all six lakes 90 kilometres from the massive oil sands operations had increased anywhere from 2½ times to 23 times background levels in the early 1960s, before the start of oilsands mining in the region. The PAHs fall into the water from air pollution.

First Nations furious with governments weak response to massive contaminant spill in Athabasca River

Oil spill that occurred on October 31st resulting in close to a billion litres of contaminant entering tributaries of the Athabasca River and eventually the Athabasca River itself. Water quality data from the first days of the spill indicate many contaminants of concern to be above CCME guidelines, some 70 times above the guidelines. This includes PAHs, cadmium, arsenic, lead, selenium, silver, thallium, and even uranium. These numbers and contaminants represent real danger to human health and associated drinking water.

Air pollution

The tar sands are by far the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in Canada, producing as much as three times the amount of greenhouse gases as conventional oil production. In addition, production and refining operations produce huge emissions of toxins, from nitrogen oxides that acidify hundreds of square kilometres.

Air pollution from tar sands

Between 2002 and 2008, tar sands facilities reported a near doubling of volatile organic compounds and particulate matter; a 50 per cent increase in nitrogen oxides; and a 14 fold increase in hydrogen sulphide emissions. Tar sands constitute one of our planets greatest threats.

Cost to human health

Oil sands development is having severe negative effects on the health of communities downstream from the tar sands are experiencing cancer rates far higher than can be explained by change. Leukemia, lymphoma, lupus and rare forms of cancer have all increasing in recent years in the population that is for the most part made up of Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations.

Stop the tar sands

We should stop the tar sands because Canada’s boreal forest is being cut down and poisoned. It is a crucial habitat for some of the world’s largest populations of wildlife Nearly 50 per cent of the 700 bird species in the U.S and Canada rely on the boreal for their survival. Fish in the last five to six years have been found deformed caused by water pollution from the oil sands. The tar sands are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas and produce huge emissions of toxins that acidify hundreds of square kilometres by rain. The tar sands are having severe negative effects on the health of communities downstream from the tar sands are experiencing cancer rates higher than can be explained by change.

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Nature Canada. (2014) How do the Tar Sands Affect Wildlife Habitat? Retrieved March 12, 2014.http://www.naturecanada.ca/tarsands_habitat.asp

Roik, A.(January 28, 2013) The Tar Sands are dumping cancer-causing pollution in lakes. Retrieved March 12, 2014. http://www.socialist.ca/node/1555

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and tar sands. (n/d). Updates and info on ACFN's case against Shell Oil. Retrieved March 12, 2014. http://acfnchallenge.wordpress.com

Environmental defence inspiring change. (2014)Reality Check: Air Pollution and the Tar Sands.

Retrieved March 13, 2014. http://environmentaldefence.ca/realitycheckair

Lenz, G.(Friday, 21 February 2014). The true cost of oil shocking photographs reveal the unmatched devastation caused by Albertas tar sands. Retrieved March 13, 2014.http://piecefit.com/index.php/en/environment-all/ecological-crisis/item/379-the-true-cost-of-oil-shocking-photographs-reveal-the-unmatched-devastation-caused-by-alberta-s-tar-sands