A land region has no value unless money can be made from it?

How much of the boreal forest can Alberta lose before its value becomes known? We should be able to learn something about this from the example of the southern hemisphere's rainforest destruction.

One of the last best places on earth. Slated to be wasted by homo fuckus everythingupus.

In other news, Canada unveils the redesign of their flag:

A suggestion for an addition -

Large, soft focus busts of GW and Stephen Harper on either side of the truck, smiling and waving. Oh, wait, that could be the design for the new currency.

Anyone know how to fix what I just screwed up? (the flag graphic)

Sorry, Seldom Seen!

Let's be more specific here. The Peace-Athabasca Delta is approximately 80 km north of the tar sands, contained within Wood Buffalo National Park.



And, when it comes to boreal forest, there is just so much of it in Canada, that its no more unique to us than sand is to Egyptians.

Denny,

"no more unique than sand is to the Egyptians"??!

There are endangered species living in those forests.

And, as you can see from the yellow areas in the map you posted, it's a large part of Alberta's boreal forest (close to one-half) that is under development, and the scope of the tar sands mining operations will likely put more forest area at risk.

Can you appreciate that the disappearance of that much forest (which, in its natural state, consumes excess C02) will affect the climate?

Or, barring that, for entirely practical purposes, if there comes a time when moose and deer and other game are needed for people to survive, that there won't be any left to hunt?

Where do you think the water comes from for the tar sands operations Einstein? It doesn't come from the Nile river.

We humans are nothing more than the shit, grease and cum smeared underwear of a NYC wino. Nothing more.

Oh its all contained Seldom! The EPA says so! The striktest environmental regs! Nothing more than addicted black gold crack whores. Hey we get to see more bloated nasty overbred human cyborgs now! The new and ONLY "wildlife" that will be left! yay!

I believe Syncrude has won awards form Alberta for its environmental practices. It has to file plans with that government body for meeting environmental regualations. This is its website, dealing with sustainable production and land renewal, Link

"Syncrude is committed to ensuring that the land disturbed by our operation is returned to a stable, safe condition capable of supporting biologically self-sustaining communities of plants and animals. Our long-term vision is to create a landscape that sustains an integrated mosaic of land uses that meet stakeholder expectations.

Toward this, Syncrude has plans in place for closure and reclamation of its Mildred Lake and Aurora mine sites that meet the conditions and expectations contained in our operating approvals.

Field execution of these plans starts with design and construction of stable landforms, including surface drainage features that in the future will be valleys and streams. During 2003, Syncrude applied its internal design tools to the development of such features at both the Mildred Lake and Aurora sites, and constructed water-ways comparable to those found naturally in the region.

At the end of 2003, total land disturbance on Syncrude’s sites was 18,335 hectares. This represents an increase from 2002, and is due to the ongoing removal of overburden from the mine sites in preparation for ore mining, and the placement of the overburden near the mine pit.

The net area achieving the “permanently reclaimed” standard for reporting to the Alberta government was 187 hectares in 2003, bringing to 3,402 hectares the total net land reclaimed since 1978. Syncrude also completed considerable preparatory work in support of our 2004 target of placing reclamation material on 300 hectares.

Reforestation during 2003 included the planting of 315,000 tree and shrub seedlings on 240 hectares, bringing to 2,835,000 the total of trees and shrubs planted since 1978. Direct 2003 expenditures on reforestation and other reclamation programs was about $10 million."

If I had one image to sum up peak oil, I think this would be it.

I have to say that picture is beautiful in a disturbing way.

That picture looks about the same as if it were taken at most open pit mining operations. I have been to a few, the largest being in northern Minnesota at the Mesabi range iron mines. They aren't pretty, that is for sure. As somebody else pointed out, that area of boreal forest in Alberta is none too pretty to begin with.

To be fair to Syncrude, one should get a picture of a renewed area. And, don't forget that among their "stakeholders" are not just the shareholders looking for money, but the Alberta government and the Indian bands who want the land restored.

I have seen reclaimed land at the Syncrude site and it looks fine. There was a small herd of bison grazing there. Obviously the money and apparently the will exist to do effective cosmetic surgery when the work is done. That won't bring back the water or natural gas though.