Alberta Tar Sands

As odd as it may seem, my isolated corner of the North woods is part to the largest excavation project in human history. You can see the pipeline from google maps.

Here's a close-up satellite photo of the project.

The pipeline

The pipeline is coming down from the Alberta oil sands, through Superior, down to Chicago, then branching out towards the rest of the US and parts of Canada. It will be carrying low-grade crude oil.

These pools are holding tanks of oily, tarry slurry. They are extremely toxic.

You can already see these holding pools from space.

This Alberta oil sands project is the last gasp of an industry that can no longer replenish its reserves. It is energy inefficient, heavily subsidized (through low taxes), and environmentally monstrous.

Here's a great video series on the Tar Sands, and its affect on the community.

The Alberta oil sands project is an attempt to, literally, 'boil the oil out of the soil'. Say that ten times fast! The process tears the land apart, and consumes a lot of energy and water. The landscape photographs of this extraction process are horrific. The energy return on investment (EROI) is somewhere around 2 to 1, which is quite low. The process boils away around 1 barrel of water for every barrel of oil extracted.

Despite a long history of failed investments to monetize the oily soil, investors are still being draw to this project due to high government subsidies and the relative safety of oil extraction in Canada. The amount of oil sands present in the Albera soil are simply huge, the 20% that is close enough to the surface to extract is on par with Middle Eastern oil reserves.

These oil sands, along with coal liquefication, are being marketed as replacements for Middle Eastern oil. Current plans are to expand this project, making an even larger impact on the environment in Alberta.

Click here for more photos.

The scale of this scar is simply monstrous, and threaten to turn the boreal forests of Northern Alberta into a chemical slurry.

This is the kind of "investment" we're making in our future.

To say that this is insane would be an insult to crazy people.