Whether or not the northern boreal forest strikes you or me as pretty has nothing to do with the issues. In its natural state it is a thriving ecosystem and beautiful all on its own, home to a large variety of plants and wildlife. Because of the oil sands activity, at least one of the rivers running through it is turning brown and the air is questionable. Syncrude has reclaimed some of the land, but from what I've read from other sources it will be a very long time until it resembles the original forest. I will look for some links in regards to this.

Aside from the ecological damage, the other issues are the amount of water and natural gas used in the process and the growing level of greenhouse gases produced. Syncrude is meeting government standards, but that isn't saying much as those standards are lacking. Tar sands projects are in the top few industries in Canada for the amounts of greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere. The huge area of forest that is gone further complicates matters because the forest isn't able to do what it actually does a very good job of, and that's take care of the excess C02.

The northern forest is not as classically beautiful or as majestic as Jasper National Park or the Kananaskis region, to be sure. But those areas are protected because they produce so much money through tourism.

I think everybody is on the same wavelength that it is imperative to restore the land when finsihed. And, yes, production of synthetic crude uses natural gas and its does emit lots of CO2. But the reality is that there is strong market for fuels right now. It has always been the nature of Canda to exploit its mineral wealth. Some people seem to think of this exploitation is evil. They think we should treat nature not as our servant, but rather sacrosanctly, almost as a deity.

But, I learned in school as a youngster that, according to the bible, God gave dominion over the earth to Adam, which evolved over time to the monarch and in turn she (Queen Victoria) gave the authority over this land to the Parliament of Canada and its provinces with the authority segmented according to the British North America Act. That was the origin of the term "Dominion of Canada".

Thus the earth and the animals are under our control, not the other way around. We must be intelligent about this, practicising conservation appropriately, not like what happened in the nickel belt a century ago, but these riches are for us (at least the people of Alberta) to use.

Dominion over the land? Holy jesus! What does that have to do with this.

Oil sands are a joke subsidized by relatively inexpensive petroleum. As long as Canada produces light sweet crude and believes in a subsidies this nonsence will continue. The entire project is subsidized by heavy equipment built when petroleum was cheaper than cool-aid. It is subsidized by natural gas and coal electric energy. This entire project is an energy-conversion scheme and not a source of primary energy.

Canada is sacrificing natural gas, clean water, clean air: in fact the planetary ecosystem that supports feeds and protects all humans. For short-term monetary gain. This is the most corrupt subsidy of them all.

LOL! Conservation! LOL. Yeah. Its energy for us! The problem there einstein is that we aint even gonna see that energy. Its a ponzi scam. Profits for a very few. Its really just kinda like just a thing to do just for the sake of doing. It will fill a few wealthy peoples pockets. We arent getting hardly any of this energy! How freakin stupid are people! IT IS PONZI! doeas any one have a clue? Imn afraid not.

I'm glad I joined this forum That is classic stuff. It takes a while to get into the swing of a new thread. I think I got it now.

A person's gasoline consumption should be monitored. Consumer drives down the street for a bag of natchos and warning picture (devastation of open-pit mine) flashes on the dashboard gameboy. If driver persists hypodermic needle injects person's fat butt with NYC wino solution.

I'm with you there... but if I were that 'outside force,' I'd be shaking my head and saying "Screw you guys" right about now...

Oh the hubris. Is that all you and they think 'restoration' consists of?

'Restoration' of a destroyed complex system is dicey at best, is usually screwed up completely, and to succeed at all requires an incredibly high level of knowledge, familiarity, patience and delicacy. It certainly won't be accomplished by planting a few weed-trees into decimated and raped soil. Might as well slash the Mona Lisa with a chainsaw, then give a toddler some tape and crayons to 'restore' it.

Actually, never mind. The toddler would do a better job.

This thread was hilarious. Especially about the part about 20 provinces in Canada ruined by oil sands extraction when the operations multiply by 20... lol (hint: there are 10 provinces in Canada).

Pollution is local... 99% of the population in Alberta would not even be affected by tar sands operations if the oil companies DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to repair the damage being done. BUT THEY ARE REQUIRED TO CLEAN UP ANYWAY.

The profits are not for a "very few". Most of the companies operating in the oils ands are public companies. You can buy shares in them. The private ones often have an income trust associated to support their capital needs, which pay out some healthy distributions. (Well, at least to 2010, but that is another issue.)

All kinds of pension funds, including yours, assuming you're in the CPP or QPP, are invested in these energy companies.

what some of you don't seem to realize is that it isn't " THEM " doing this. It's US. WE are addicted. If we own a car, heat our homes, and consume large amounts of plastic, it's us.

Im not addressing companies or corporations. There is NO other option left. Thats apparent. Im bitching at the HUMAN RACE in general. Weve grown way toomuch and have become a nasty bloated parasite. We are winding our way to the last drops now. So now we are in disgusting pathetic mode now. We are cannibals now. Its really fun to watch us consume the last parts of our external bodies. Eventually we will begin to conume actual human bodies becuase their wont be nothing left to consume except humans. Restoration? LOL. That region will never produce anyhting again for us. shes all Dwindling down now. On to the next! The problem is running out of "next". Im saying nothing about corporations! Humans need to reduce breeding. I understand whos driving the death march. The ones that continue to go BAU! Obviously.

This is the kind of thread we need on this forum. I find it amazing how quickly we ignore the major environmental problems we are facing with regard to energy expolitation.

Here is a recent article by Dan Woynillowicz (Pembina Institute, Alberta). I found it to be an excellent summary of the environmental effects of tar sands production, probably the most thorough I've read to date.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/62325/?page=1

While hiking along the Athabasca River this past weekend in the Hinton and Jasper Park areas, I was again reminded of the issues concerning the river and the northern Alberta forests in general. However, as is noted in this article, some of the effects of oil sands production, especially as they relate to the projected increases in this activity, are global.