Web Letters | The Nation

Web Letter

Poor Alberta, always getting picked on with its booming economy and unprecedented wealth. How anyone dare criticize the destruction and exploitation of a pristine part of the boreal forest and the destruction of the climate in the name of money and greed? As for Ms. Klein visiting Fort McMurray, I would advise against it. Ms. Klein, the main highway in is a death trap. Avoid Thursday and Sunday nights when thousands of workers seeking some R&R head south to Edmonton in their ¾-ton pickup trucks, tired and heavy-footed, and than there's the normal flow of tanker trucks, semi trailers, logging trucks, SUVs and wide loads that you have to look out for--and, oh yeah, than there's the epidemic drug problem among the thousands of workers who have all this money with nowhere to go, so look out for those guys, they are bad news.

If you do end up going, check out the extensive reclamation. Companies such as Suncrude and Syncore claim to have reclaimed 22 percent and 9 percent respectively of mined area after forty years of tar sands development, although no land has been approved as reclaimed by the Alberta government, so you may want to look into that. You can stop by the neighboring native communities downriver who are experiencing increased cancer rates, including extremely rare cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer).

If you get hungry, try sampling some of the local wildlife. It has extra special ingredients: one study found that moose meat in the region contain 453 times acceptable levels of arsenic, and the Alberta government produced its own study showing arsenic to be "only" seventeen to thirty-three times the acceptable levels. So tainted are fish in the area that some First Nations have reported that "fish frying in a pan smell like burning plastic." Let's all be honest, everyone agrees the expansion of the oil sands is occurring at a pace that's not sustainable and the oil sands alone is nearly singlehandedly keeping Canada from keeping its commitment under the internationally accepted Kyoto Protocol. Adopting an attitude of "Well, if you don't, why should I?" when it comes to reducing GHG emissions is a pathetic copout. There are more important things than money.

Web Letter

As one-sided as the article is, it is clear that the author did not do enough research to get her facts right. Oil sands are not "beneath the Earth's crust." In fact they are "within" the Earth's crust. In recorded history of humankind, no oil or gas has been found "beneath" the crust of the Earth. If the author can't get the simplest of facts right, I don't know if I can trust her take on other more pressing issues.

As harsh as it may seem, articles must be factually correct.

Web Letter

Did Ms. Klein actually visit Alberta or Fort McMurray? It doesn't appear that she had, the article clearly was one-sided in saying that Albert is destroying the climate. If she had visited our province and done more research she would have found out a few things.

Yes, extracting the oil does have serious consequences to the environment, but these oil companies have to contribute back to the environment as well. All the land that is stripped for mining has to be reclaimed after, which includes replacing the forest, grasslands and even importing buffalo back to their native land--where they haven't been seen for ages.

Did Ms. Klein compare our greenhouse gas emissions to other countries? China, India and the US produce much higher percentages than Alberta. This is currently being addressed by Canada's federal government, which is are attempting to address and limit the amount of gases that the oil companies produce--which could greatly affect the ten of thousands of jobs that it currently produces. I'm always surprised how much criticism Canada gets for their oil industry yet no one ever criticizes China for their contribution of greenhouse gases.

The world at this point cannot go without oil, so instead of pointing fingers of blame and trying to foster an attitude of environmental facism we should work together to develop better ways of addressing both the need for oil and to preserve our enviroment.