Canadian Tar Sands Look Like Tolkein’s Mordor Says UN Water Advisor
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 11. 4.08
photo: WWF-UK, from the report Unconventional Oil: Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel?
Environmental Defense has called Alberta’s tar sands ‘the most destructive project on earth’, but perhaps the UN’s senior advisor on water, Maude Barlow, says it best. After a recent bus and helicopter tour of a tar sands operation in Fort McMurray she had one word to describe what she saw: Mordor.
For those not up on the geography of Tolkein’s Middle-earth, or even Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of Lord of the Rings, Mordor refers to the nearly barren, devastated, stinking land wherein, beyond the Black Gate, lies Sauron’s fortress of Barad-dûr and the fires of Mount Doom...
Whoa, geeking out there... This is how Maude Barlow described what she saw in real life:
Steam Rises From the Ground, No Birds Dare Fly Above
Upon returning from the tar sands tour, Barlow said she saw stream rising from the ground, with no birds in the sky or animals below, adding that she wasn’t being cute in describing the project in Tolkein-esque terms.
We were devastated by what we saw and smelled and experienced. The air is foul, the water is being drained and poisoned and giant tailing ponds line the Athabasca River.What stunned me from the air is how close they are to the Athabasca River and what might happen if there was a spill.
Reclamation Efforts Touted
For their part, a spokesman tar sands producer Syncrude, one of whose sites Barlow toured, said that people don’t often know the reclamation efforts that go on, citing more than 45 square kilometers of land which has been reclaimed post-tar sands production.
Tar Sands Environmental Destruction Not Worth It
At the risk of sounding flippant, sounds like too little too late: I’ll stand by the WWF’s assessment that the economic and environmental costs of continuing to develop tar sands and oil shales—in energy speak ‘unconventional fuels’—are simply unthinkable.
via: The Star, Calgary Herald and EcoGeek
Tar Sands
Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth
Economic, Environmental Costs of Developing Tar Sands & Oil Shale ‘Unthinkable’: WWF-UK
A Picture is Worth... The Alberta Tar Sands
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What was that area like before the oil companies took it over?
After reading something like this, I'm not sure whether to hope for high oil prices (to encourage conservation and non-fossil fuel energy) or low oil prices (to make tar sands financially untenable.
I guess I still lean toward the former, though.
In answer to James J.'s question, "what was the area like before the oil companies took over"[sic] --
I've spent most of my life near Fort Mac, and let me tell you, before Suncor showed up, it was a happy place. We had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles.
Thank heavens progressive author/activist Maude Barlow has brought this to the attention of sophisticated urban liberals, and is helping to one day save us northern Albertans from employment.
Is ANYONE trying to stop this? It seems like 101 for any rookie politician, or citizen's action group!Fat-ass companies like this will be the ruin of our planet and we must all work to stop them, even if it means be-heading them all.
Maude Barlow and her council of Canadians have been trying to save Canadians in general not just the plucky Northern Albertans from employment for years.Until the critics of the present day energy industry either,come up with some true and practical alternatives or are ready to give up the modern lifestyle they are so accustomed to,and live without the products and services we all take for granted.Remember, Canada and the majority of the developed world is located in the northern hemisphere,and as I recall it starts to get unpleasant,weatherwise at this time of year.Just remember and think as you turn up your thermostat or even hop on the bus some very cold day very soon,The energy companies you so dislike are responsible for a lot of what you take for granted and the majority of you would not or absolutely could not live in a world with out these things.