Alberta's great forests in danger: Crude Awakening

[Kernos]

Crude Awakening
Right here in North America could lie the answer to our energy needs. But at what cost? Mining the tar sands of Alberta threatens to strip the world’s largest intact forest of its ability to hold carbon and to wipe out the breeding grounds for millions of birds.

By Barry Yeoman/Photography by Jon Lowenstein

http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features1003/energy.html

Before- Notice the roadway, the 1st step in destroying the forest:


After - a picture is worth a book

[DJ Droood]

This is a mess....the oil sands are a major polluter, both in the immediate environmental impact and in the dirty process needed to extract the oil from the sands....

...but our Prime Minister is from Alberta, there are *plenty* of people up here who buy into the "global warming is a myth" camp...and really, when the worst that has happened so far is you haven't had to shovel your driveway as much, spring is 3 weeks early and the arctic is opening up for "new opportunities", it is hard to get people worried.

There is no way to stop it....jobs jobs jobs and plenty of folks in USA and China to buy our dirty oil....all the college kids in Toronto could waves signs and it would do nothing.

[Kernos]

Yes, it is almost impossible to fight economic inertia. I have wondered what will happen in the Northern half of Canada as the permafrost melts, releasing all that stored methane, and oil and mineral reserves are discovered.