There are also health impacts: local aboriginal groups have experienced a 30 percent greater risk of cancer over expected cancer rates since 1998 (Droitsch and Simieritsch 2010). Environmental critics of the tar sands development note that the process of bitumen extraction requires vast amounts of energy, fresh water, and land, while producing significant environmental impacts in the form of greenhouse gases, reduction in air quality, destruction of peat bogs and wetlands, and accumulation of toxic waste in tailings ponds (Grant, Angen, and Dyer 2013). Environmental sustainability is the degree to which a human activity can be sustained without damaging or undermining basic ecological support systems. The controversy over developing the tar sands sets two competing logics against one another: environmental sustainability versus capital accumulation. Industry projects that eventually 9 million barrels of bitumen will be produced per day (Gosselin et al. Today at prices that sometimes exceed $100 a barrel, production is projected to double from the present 1.9 million barrels/day to 3.8 million barrels/day by 2023. In 1967, Suncor was producing 15,000 barrels/day. In 1967, when Suncor began the first intensive commercial development of the tar sands, oil was just over $3 a barrel and the high cost of production limited the rate at which the resource was developed. Extracting bitumen and heavy oils from the tar sands requires pit mining or surface mining processing the ore with water, steam, and caustic soda and storing the toxic by-products in tailings ponds. The petroleum is in the form of crude bitumen, which is a dense, tar-like substance mixed with sand and clay. They cover about 140,000 square kilometres of boreal forest and muskeg, largely in the Athabasca River basin. The Alberta tar sands (or bituminous sands) in the northeast of the province have been recognized as an important petroleum resource since the 19th century when the first extensive surveys were made. Its population grew by 29% between 20, and by 23% between 20. Fort McMurray, Alberta, is the hub that services the Athabasca Tar Sands. Introduction to Population, Urbanization, and the Environment Figure 20.2.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |