Post on social misledia
“If you don’t like reading articles, read this short clip and just look at the 20+ pictures of reclaimed oil-sands land.
“Oil sands development is subject to some of the strictest environmental regulatory standards in the world. Full 100% reclamation is required, meaning that the land used by industry is returned to a “self-sustaining ecosystem with local vegetation and wildlife.”” 👍. Well done Alberta – leaders in developing Clean Energy AND in post extraction cleanup.”
https://www.canadaaction.ca/alberta_oil_sands_reclamation_photos
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When we share info to help inform others it is important to not mislead. I agree there is some good being done in the Alberta Tarsands. I have heard lots about it from my brother who worked as a welder there for several years. Unfortunately most of it was not good.
It has all supported a lot of jobs plus economic growth. It is important to look at the bad as well so corrections can be made and meaningful consequences for wrong doing.
If extraction can be done with reasonable environment impact and cleanup while still being competative we should do this while we finish the transition to more sustainable fuel sources. Refining the oil in Canada would create more jobs but these facilities are very costly to build and maintain. Is it too late to do this with the time left and with lots of divesting in this industry? If it feasable it better than importing refined oil from countries with major human rights issues etc…
Many examples of the industry run regulator allowing nearly spent wells to be sold by large corporations for very low cost but with hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup liabilities to small and questionable corporations that then file for bankrupcy which is approved in most cases by the judges presiding. The fund setup for this was far too inadequate and was easily exhausted yet the corporations combined have had tens or hundreds of billions in profits.
So now current and future taxpayers stuck with more government debt plus interest to do the cleanup which in many cases just gets defered.
Currently there is far more area destroyed than reclaimed and the toxic tailing ponds go farther than the eye can see in many places. Much more toxins have been getting into rivers and lakes than was occuring naturally which has increased rates of rare diseases in humans and wild life.
For some idea to compare the info available of reclaimed land I suggest watching
Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands
video only short documentary
Info and trailer https://g.co/kgs/zspJwy
43 min video avail to rent for $2.99
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/petropolis
More info on this and related.
