'Secret' Environment Canada presentation warns of oilsands' impact on habitat
Environment Canada and the Canadian government are at a standoff. A 'secret' presentation released last spring describing the danger of water used and released by the tar sand mines.
Harper and Peter Kent recently said that communities and wildlife downstream are not at great risk to the pollutants but this study says otherwise.
Not only is the water being polluted but so it the air causing acid rain across nearby provinces. The mine has also destroyed enormous amounts of native caribou homes. All for the sake of money.
The tar sands account for more than "100,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada, and will contribute more than $1.7 trillion to the country's economy over the next 25 years." The numbers of jobs are only expected to grow in the next few years as the mine expands.
This is the main reason our economy is not crashing right now, but it clearly comes at a price. A price Harper and especially Kent the minister of environment (roll eyes) cannot ignore. It is a price that will be paid not by the mines but by tax payers, the quality of life of nearby communities, and our country's environment and species.
"It's clear that there's nothing ethical about this level of environmental destruction and greenhouse gas pollution," said Graham Saul, execuative director of Climate Action Network. "The government seems to know the level of destruction associated with the tarsands and yet they're presenting a very different face to the public and in reality, there seems to be a massive gap between what they know to be an extremely destructive project and a policy agenda that is essentially seeking to promote the rapid expansion of the tarsands."
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