As a kid, I remember how Alberta tar sands pioneers were ridiculed. Sure, Canada had the world’s largest known reserves of crude oil locked in its soil, but it would consume more in energy to recover than it was worth. Then came fifty dollar a barrel oil and the world changed. In spite of the huge amounts of natural gas needed to separate oil from sand and the colossal volumes of carbon dioxide generated by the process, the environmental destruction on a massive scale this recovery causes is profitable - very profitable. As long, that is, if you don’t factor in the true cost of the process.

For example, those eastern Canadians who have warmed their homes with natural gas during the formerly long, cold northern winters now have to compete with the tar sands industry for their energy supply. Notice your gas bills going up recently? Get accustomed to it. In a market-driven energy environment it is more righteous to burn clean natural gas to recover dirty, second-rate oil than it is to preserve a scarce, irreplaceable commodity for the national good. Is that environmental short-sitedness sustainable? You’re kidding me if you need an answer to that question.

Take a look at the above satellite photo of the tar sands recovery site outside of Fort McMurray. The process requires vast amounts of water which is used and then released into the environment. The Wikipedia explains the process this way:

After excavation, hot water and caustic soda (NaOH) is added to the sand, and the resulting slurry is piped to the extraction plant where it is agitated and the oil skimmed from the top. Oil Sands Discovery Centre Provided that the water chemistry is appropriate to allow bitumen to separate from sand and clay, the combination of hot water and agitation releases bitumen from the oil sand, and allows small air bubbles to attach to the bitumen droplets. The bitumen froth floats to the top of separation vessels, and is further treated to remove residual water and fine solids.

Vast quantities of fresh water are used then discarded onto the landscape as part of this process. The environmental impact? I’ll leave the last words to the Wikipedia:

Oil sands development has a direct impact on local and planetary ecosystems. In Alberta, the strip mining form of oil extraction destroys the boreal forest, the bogs, the rivers as well as the natural landscape. The mining industry believes that the boreal forest will eventually colonize the reclaimed lands, yet 30 years after the opening of the first open pit mine near Fort McMurray, Alberta, no land is considered by the Alberta Government as having been reclaimed.
For every barrel of synthetic oil produced in Alberta, 80 kg of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. About 5-10% of the two to four barrels of water used for processing is considered as wastewater. The forecast growth in synthetic oil production in Alberta threatens Canada’s international commitments. In ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, Canada agreed to reduce, by 2012, its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% with respect to the reference year (1990). In 2002, Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions had increased by 24% since 1990. However, it is widely reported that many other countries in the world will not meet their commitments either. Also, many countries, such as China, India, USA and Australia are not subject to the Kyoto Protocol.