The biggest deposit of oil outside of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela is predicted to be in Northern Canada buried beneath a Florida-sized or 57000 square mile section of the boreal forest (Robbins). Canada’s tar sands are only second in size to those of Saudi Arabia (Engle). The tar sands of Canada produce 1.9 million barrels of oil per day making it the largest energy project ever in the world (“What are tar sands?”). Canada is the only country that produces tar sands oil commercially on a large scale.  The oil can be extracted from the earth via in situ mining or open pit mining. In situ methods are used on tar sands too deep in the ground to be mined economically. In situ methods include solvent injection, steam injection, and firefloods. Steam injection is most common. On the other hand, open pit mining involves large hydraulic and electric shovels for digging up tar sands and trucks that transport a maximum of 320 tons of tar sands oil at a time. The bitumen, which is also called dilbit, also has to be separated from clay, water, and sand. Furthermore, bitumen needs more upgrading to be refined, and it needs to be diluted with lighter hydrocarbons to be transported via pipeline. Around two tons of tar sands are needed to make one barrel of oil. About 75% of the dilbit in tar sands can be extracted (“About Tar Sands”). The governments of Canada and Alberta are not limiting the development of the tar sands, and this project is said to be “one of the most environmentally destructive industrial developments in the world” (“The Truth About Tar Sands”). Canadian tar sands must be stopped in order to prevent global warming, destruction of the environment, high rates of cancer, and violations of indigenous rights and treaties.

Problems
The tar sands region of Alberta and Saskatchewan covers an area the size of New York state in Canada’s boreal forest, a coniferous forest known as “the lungs of the planet”. The boreal is second to the Amazon Rainforest as the world’s largest carbon storehouse (“The Truth About Tar Sands”). In the boreal, there are many wetlands, ecosystems that remove greenhouse gases from the air. The boreal forest takes out more greenhouse gases per acre than anywhere else in the world, but it would be replaced by a project releasing more greenhouse gasses than any other (Lenz 00:42-1:13, 9:58-10:50). The extraction of millions of barrels of Canadian tar sands has produced three to four times more greenhouse gas emissions than the extraction of conventional oil and has used a quantity of natural gas that would heat three million Canadian homes each day of production. Moreover according to the US Department of Energy, the production and transportation of tar sands unleashes twenty-two percent more carbon to the atmosphere than those of conventional crude oil. Plus in the last few years, climate pollution per barrel has increased by twenty-one percent. Tar sand climate pollution has doubled in the last decade and may do more than that in the coming decade (“What are tar sands?”). If the tar sands are completely exploited, more pollution than either the US and China or the EU and China have ever released could be released (“The Truth About Tar Sands”). Scientists feel that climate change will not be reversible after there are three-hundred fifty parts per billion of atmospheric carbon. However, the level is already moving above four-hundred parts per million (Robbins). James Hansen, a leading climate scientist, says that “runaway climate change will be inevitable if tar sands extraction is allowed to continue as planned” (“What are tar sands?”). Additionally, tar sands go against reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Engle). The Keystone XL pipeline, a projected pipeline that would transport more tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast than the Keystone pipeline, would travel through America and provide a large disincentive for clean energy in the US (Lenz 12:20-12:59; “Keystone XL pipeline”).

“Environment Canada says it has found industry chemicals seeping into ground water  and the Athabasca River”, as stated in “Keystone XL pipeline: Why is it so disputed?”. The Cowboy-Indian Alliance states that local environments are being destroyed (“Keystone XL pipeline”). For instance, if trains carrying oil become derailed, towns can be burned and water ecosystems can be polluted (Robbins). Additionally, pipelines, including world-class pipelines, can undetectedly spill oil for weeks. When oil leaks into water ecosystems, people have to clean up the messes by hand. Since dilbit sinks in water, removing it from water ecosystems causes other environmental problems. Much of the dilbit at the bottom of water ecosystems cannot be accessed (Robbins). What is more, chemicals used in the production of tar sands oil are deposited in tailings ponds. Visible from space, the toxic waste of tailings ponds could cover Lake Erie one foot deep; tailings ponds are the largest toxic impoundment in the history of the world. They are unlined and near the Athabasca River (Lenz 6:44-8:45). In addition, butadiene, benzene, and other carcinogens pollute the air around Canada’s tar sands facilities in higher concentration than in some of the world’s more polluted cities. Consequently, thirty percent more cases of a rare cancer known as bile duct cancer are reported by communities downstream of the tar sands mines than by communities not near the tar sands (“The Truth About Tar Sands”). Aborigines who live by the Athabasca River have cancer rates ten times higher than anywhere else in Canada. Compounding the problem, indigenes have a job shortage, and delivering food to these remote communities would be extremely costly (Lenz 8:36-9:57).

The traditional territories of Cree, Dene, and Métis indigenes and the wetland homes of a wide variety of animal and plant species are located in the boreal, which as the world’s largest and most intact forest stretches from Labrador to the coastal mountains of British Columbia and from the Great Lakes to the tundra (Lenz 00:15-3:06;“The Truth About Tar Sands”). Because the majority of tar sands are more than two hundred feet beneath the surface of the ground, parts of the boreal forest have to be removed in order to access these deposits (Robbins). As the tar sands project is causing mass deforestation, “Tar sands developments scar sacred territories, disturb traditional cultural practices and undermine constitutionally-enshrined treaty rights” (“What are tar sands?”). For fifteen years, First Nations groups have been suffering restrictions on treaty-guaranteed rights to hunt, trap, and fish on traditional lands. First Nations were not consulted on these decisions (“Keystone XL pipeline”). To the Beaver Lake Cree, the tar sands industry has committed twenty thousand treaty rights violations. Eighty percent of the Mikisew Cree First Nation and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation’s traditional territories are blocked off at different times during the year for the expansion of tar sands. Wild caribou, a major food source for some First Nations, are expected to go extinct if tar sands expansion goes as planned (“The Truth About Tar Sands”).

Solutions
One way to combat the tar sands is to move towards clean energy (“The Truth About Tar Sands”). People can reduce the consumption of nonrenewable energy. People can also walk or ride bicycles for relatively short travel and carpool or use public transportation for longer trips. Planting trees is another option. People may also try to use more solar, wind, hydro, or geothermal energy. According to climate activist leader McKibben, the cost of solar panels is decreasing each month by one to two percent, and the world is coming to understand the severity of climate change (Robbins). By reducing the necessity for tar sands oil, oil prices will decrease, and the tar sands industry will have more difficulty acquiring a profit.
US citizens can tell Canada to say “no” to tar sands (“The Truth About Tar Sands”). About one hundred leading scientists have called for tar sands expansion to be stopped. Additionally, when Pope Francis made a strong statement about climate change in June of 2015, a moral conflict around the tar sands was sparked (Robbins). Many US politicians are resistant to Canada’s plan of exporting oil to the US (Engle). However, Canada’s Prime Minister Harper will not allow scientists to speak of climate change, and he calls tar sands “ethical oil” for the reason that they are produced under a democracy instead of a dictatorship (Robbins). The EPA advised US President Obama to not approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and Mr. Obama vetoed Congress’s pro-pipeline legislation. Also, if a US president approves the Keystone XL pipeline, litigators can still use EPA to halt construction (“Keystone XL pipeline”). When people speak up against the tar sands, others may become inspired to act against this bitumen project.

Climate advocates, who feel that the carbon should be kept in the ground, try to block or delay rail and pipeline development. Success at these actions makes transport of fossil fuels financially painful. In addition, some of a British Columbian First Nation prepared an armed encampment for preventing TransCanada’s Coastal Gas Link, a liquid natural gas pipeline. This group expelled surveyors from their land, and the group has promised a shooting war if construction continues (Robbins). According to Robbins, “McKibben… believes delaying the pipeline for even a few years would be a significant victory, as it would derail tar sands expansion long enough for political and economic forces to align against new fossil fuel projects” (Robbins). There are groups that protest the tar sands both in the US and in Canada (Robbins). Groups of people working together have more influence than a single person working to change the status quo.

Conclusion
By speaking against tar sands, blocking production and supporting clean energy, the tar sands may be stopped. The combination of all three solutions allows for other people to join the cause. This combination would slow down carbon emissions and increase the tar sands industry’s financial pain. It would also increase pressure on Alberta and Canada’s governments to end Canada’s tar sands industry. Slowing down carbon emissions would help counter the carbon emitted by the production and use of the tar sands. This combination of solutions limits or ends the tar sands production which would cut down on the related pollution, deforestation, species endangerment, and indigenous right and treaty infringements. By attempting all three solutions, there is an increased likelihood of improvement of the situation. McKibben felt that there was hope for improvement because society was beginning to understand the implications of climate change. The decreasing inconvenience of using clean energy and environmentalists’ success at delaying or blocking tar sands expansion increased McKibben’s hope (Robbins). The photographer Lenz also agrees with this plan:
I hope that you will all, if you’ve been moved by this presentation, join with the growing
international community to get Canada to step up to its responsibilities, to convince Canada to go back to being a climate change champion instead of a climate change villain, and to say no to the tar sands and yes to a clean energy future for all (17:06-17:25).

If tar sands production ends in Canada, species and cultures may be saved from extinction (Lenz 00:15-03:50, 5:59-6:43, 11:32-12:19, 13:30-14:31, 16:20-17:05).

Works Cited
“About Tar Sands.” 2012 Oil Shale & Tar Sands Programmatic EIS. EIS, 2012. Web. 19 Feb.
2016.
Engle, Jonah. “Canada faces fight over oil sands.” BBC News. BBC, 1 May 2011. Web. 17 Feb.
2016.
“Keystone XL pipeline: Why is it so disputed?” BBC News. BBC, 6 Nov. 2015. Web. 19 Feb.
2016.
Lenz, Garth. “The true cost of oil.” Online video. TED. TED Conferences. Nov. 2011. Web.
18 Feb. 2016.
Robbins, Jim. “The Dilbit Hits the Fan.” Places Journal. Places Journal, Oct. 2015. Web. 17
Feb. 2016.
“The Truth About Tar Sands: The Dirtiest Oil on Earth.” Sierra Club. Sierra Club, 2016. Web.
18 Feb. 2016.
“What are tar sands?” UK Tar Sands Network. No Tar Sands, 2016. Web. 18 Feb. 2016.