The Alberta Oil Sands

The Alberta Oil Sands By: Aidan Witvoet

What Is Social Justice? Social Justice is supporting or encouraging equality, human rights and other things that may benefit many people. Social Justice is also making a difference in the lives of people in a certain country or around the world (for the better).

What Are The Alberta Oil Sands? The Alberta Oil Sands are oil mining areas in Alberta that are supposed to be "not as harmful" to the environment as mining for oil. The Alberta Oil Sands project is a very controversial issue because there are HUGE environmental risks, but the oil sands benefit our economy greatly.

Good Things About The Alberta Oil Sands According to the government of Alberta, "About 71 square kilometers are under active reclamation". The government of Alberta also says that as they proceed with these oil sands, they are developing better reclamation techniques and technology.

These oil sands benefit our economy by creating jobs, creating more trading opportunities with other countries...etc. The government of Alberta closely monitors the emissions of these oil sands facilities, to make sure that the air remains within the provincial standards. These oil companies try their best not to disturb wildlife in the area, and to keep the animals out of these hazardous facilities.

Bad Things About The Alberta Oil Sands According to Desmogblog, "Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year". If the toxic liquid from a tailing pond in one of the facilities leaks into one of the many nearby rivers, this would wipe out much of the aquatic life connected to the rivers.

It is said that making one barrel of oil from the oil sands emits up to THREE TIMES more greenhouse gasses than a barrel of oil from your average oil. By 2020, it is estimated that the two "most active" oil companies will have made tailing ponds of toxic liquid that will be over one billion cubic meters big! The Alberta Oil Sands are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

My Action Plan Im going to take Action against The Alberta Oil Sands and their outrageous plan to turn much of the boreal forest into a toxic wasteland! We cannot let this happen, so I am going to try my best to use a mode of transportation that does not use fossil fuels. I will also encourage others to use modes of transportation that do not use fossil fuels as well.

Bibliography Alberta Geological Survey. Last revised: 7 April February Cenovus Energy. 14 February sands.html Desmogblog. 13 February alberta-oil-sands-information Forestethics. 14 February Text

One Blue Marble. 13 February sands2.html Government of Alberta. Last Revised: 31 December February Wikipedia. Last revised: 22 February February Wikipedia. Last revised: 8 February February Text

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