Canada tar sands threaten millions of birds

There is something I heard and I'll never forget it: You don't pay attention to something until you lose it. After finding out about the consequences from burning oil we would do something about it. Maybe we have to lose the oil to finally convince everyone that alternative energy is a lot better (and no I'm not talking about coal and natural gas). I hope we don't get that far and something is done before this happens.

Hey i'm not saying green technology is bad. It just cannot create as many jobs as the tar sands. Alberta is going to build nuclear power, that is very clean. Candu reactors don't run the same as U.S. ones. They don't even need Uranium to run. You can use Iron if you felt like it. The steam from the reactors will be used to refine the sands, without using natural gas; like is done now. What would you say if you were told that an area the size of Germany in your country is off limits? That is essentially what environmentalist want to be done in Alberta.
Alberta is the economy driver in Canada now. Ontario and Quebec's manufacturing is dieing. If it were not for the tar sands, Canada would be in a massive recession. In fact Calgary's unemployment rate went down last month to 3.4%.

The economy is doing little to prevent Global warming and there more reasons to save the species of birds than to keep your little industry, greed is what supplying your industry(dank800)....The only way and the best to take care of such hazards to this environment to take it in your own hands....for the economy, green jobs shall take it from there..The most valued in this society should be the environment first, not the economy..

What a crock, dank800.

Birds and Wind Turbines

Birds often collide with high voltage overhead lines, masts, poles, and windows of buildings. They are also killed by cars in the traffic.

Birds are seldom bothered by wind turbines, however. Radar studies from Tjaereborg in the western part of Denmark, where a 2 megawatt wind turbine with 60 metre rotor diameter is installed, show that birds - by day or night - tend to change their flight route some 100-200 metres before the turbine and pass above the turbine at a safe distance.
In Denmark there are several examples of birds (falcons) nesting in cages mounted on wind turbine towers.

The only known site with bird collision problems is located in the Altamont Pass in California. Even there, collisions are not common, but they are of extra concern because the species involved are protected by law.

A study from the Danish Ministry of the Environment says that power lines, including power lines leading to wind farms, are a much greater danger to birds than the wind turbines themselves.

Some birds get accustomed to wind turbines very quickly, others take a somewhat longer time. The possibilities of erecting wind farms next to bird sanctuaries therefore depend on the species in question. Migratory routes of birds will usually be taken into account when siting wind farms, although bird studies from Yukon, Canada, show that migratory birds do not collide with wind turbines (Canadian Wind Energy Association Conference, 1997).

http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/env/birds.htm

What a crock. So you were all unemployed before the tar sands came? It is obvious you don't understand what part those "freaking birds" play in the ecology of the planet and keeping the Boreal Forest the biogem it once was. But hey, if you want to live in a hellhole be my guest. Just don't think the rest of us on this planet won't hold you responsible for the consequences of your moral ineptitude and selfishness.

What i think a lot of people who have never been to the Athabasca tar sands don't realize: They have rivers of oil. Literally the land is soaked in oil. The animals up there have coexisted with this environment for thousands of years. The tailings ponds however can be dangerous, although they have strict standards. Encana was even fined for failing to upkeep one of them. I'm Calgary born and raised and most Calgarians never get up there. Its like driving from Dallas to Sandpoint Idaho. It is pretty far and there is nothing to do there. The tar sands do need to be checked on and better standards approved. But ripping on Alberta's main industry will get no where. It has brought prosperity to a province and we will not get rid of our jobs to save a bunch of freaking birds. More birds die every year from wind power than the tar sands kill. The number is only 500 so far in the Encana accident.

Cont.

I think people need to see the truth behind the environmental degradation being caused by this that will not in the longrun sustain our planet, but is only an addiction that is costing people their planet. Many will get rich off of this process, but it will not be the people. The cost in continuing to contribute to the climate crisis we face will be immense if the people (particularly in Canada) do not speak out regarding the methods employed by the same status quo to continue this addiction by looking for any way to get their fix.

The boreal forest of Alberta, Canada has remained a wilderness since it's creation from the receding glacial tundras that bore it, but has recently seen rapid resource development, mainly in oil sand extraction which has led to the land being stripped, rivers such as the Athabasca being polluted and diverted, and a true biogem being systematically destroyed for profit in order to sustain an addiction that will only continue to harm the environment and contribute to the climate crisis we face in this world.

Just as we should be reflecting upon our moral obligation to save our world from our behavior, the Albertan government seeks to only add to that immoral behavior by contradicting the Kyoto pledge of its government to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions at the expense of this magnificent and necessary link in the biosphere chain.

The boreal forest region covers 48% of Alberta, Canada and endangered species such as the whooping crane and woodland caribou make this wonderland their home and look to it for their survival. It is also a beautiful place of rolling landscapes, huge rivers, and heavily forrested bogs that account for 25% of the Earth's remaining forests, and covers 1.4 billion acres. Forty percent of North America's water fowl and 300 different bird species also depend on this magnificent land for their survival.

Making crude oil from tar sands is a dirty wasteful business. It takes two tons of oil sands ore to yield ONE barrel of oil. Put that into perpsective of these people wanting two MILLION barrels a day, and then it is not hard to see the environmental degradation this process is causing. The oil sand is composed of silt, sand, clay, water, and bitumen. On average, bitumen contains 83.2% carbon. At two million or more barrels a day burning, you figure out the environmental impact of that.

Tar sands development has a direct impact on local and planetary ecosystems. In Alberta, the strip mining form of oil extraction completely destroys the boreal forest, the bogs, the rivers as well as the natural landscape. The mining industry believes that the boreal forest will eventually colonize the reclaimed lands, yet 30 years after the opening of the first open pit mine near Fort McMurray, Alberta, no land is considered by the Alberta Government as having been "restored."

Furthermore, for every barrel of synthetic oil produced in Alberta, more than 80 kg of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere and between 2 and 4 barrels of waste water are dumped into tailing ponds that have flooded about 50 km² of forest and bogs. The forecast growth in synthetic oil production in Alberta also threatens Canada's international commitments. In ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, Canada agreed to reduce, by 2012, its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% with respect to the reference year (1990). In 2002, Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions had increased by 24% since 1990.

Qwatsinas , Nuxalk Nation:

"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees."

Ancient Indian Proverb:

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."

What happened?

From a previous blog entry I wrote on this topic;

An article I read stated that yet another pipeline, proposed to traverse the Midwest from Canada’s Athabascan Oil Sands, has been given preliminary approval by the U.S. State Department. With destinations to southern Illinois and Oklahoma, TransCanada Corp. of Calgary, Alberta is hoping to add the $2 billion Keystone Pipeline to the Great Lakes Pipeline and the MinnCan Pipeline projects already under way. And according to that same piece, the State Dept. claims no groups are standing up to it.

I simply cannot believe this. They are talking about building another pipeline that will bring in oil from TAR SANDS in Alberta. We are talking more pollution, more environmental devastation, and an exacerbation of climate change with us continuing to be on the tit of oil companies. And as Al Gore so aptly stated, even drug addicts will find veins in their toes in order to get their fix.

Probably threatens millions of EVERY species.

I have a friend who has been to one of these sites and he said the pollution level was horrible (and the surprising thing is he is the type that usually doesn't care).

From other news sources I have read/heard, it seems the majority of the Canadian people are pretty apathetic and not willing to to take much of a stand on environmental issues.
Which is very unfortunate, as they too, have as many issues, as we do here in the US.

Isn't there a new technology using microwaves to heat the sands to liquid fuel that can be pumped out of the ground which is suppose to come on board in March that would reduce or eliminate the major pollution and natural resources destruction?

This needs to be addresses as there was talk of opening up government land in western states to take advantage of oil sands for US production.

Even my father who works in the petroleum industry and has worked in Alberta has said that the oil sands is inefficient and a waste of time.

You cannot have a project of this size and think it will not have any impact...

Sad photo. It is obvious many do not understand how the web of life works. From the smallest krill and algae in our oceans to the largest mammal we are linked in an interdependent biodiverse world. And we are tearing it down. Insanity is truly the only word to describe it.

this extraction of oil from the sands is not the answer to oil problems. I honestly feel like it should NOT be done. There are SO MANY ecological problems this is going to create. But for the big, only money matters...

we have to learn to stop being dependent on oil. finding another source isn't going to cut it. It's like going from cigarettes to heroin.

What the hell are they doing?