Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
will we realise we cannot eat money.
-Cree Indian Proverb-
Covering 60% of the land area, the boreal region of Canada
includes eight eco-zones.
There are wetlands, temperate rainforest and deciduous woodlands, each with its
own flora and fauna. It is the largest intact
forest in the world. Consider the myriad life forms there: 85 species of mammals, 400 of birds, 160 of
fish, 3200 of plants.
Why should you care about all that nature?
Because of its remoteness and intactness, 80% of Canada’s First Nations peoples have been able to maintain their traditional way of life for thousands of years. Through treaties signed with the Canadian government, over one million aboriginal people live literally off the land with fishing, hunting and land rights protected. They have been healthy and self-sufficient.
Until now.
Underneath the boreal forest, is the largest oil reserve outside of Saudi Arabia. Canada and oil companies want this oil from under land allocated to First Nations peoples.
We know a holocaust or genocide is executed and based on reasonably identifiable social, political and/or economic conditions. We also know how governments honor treaties when there’s profit to be had.
Why else might you care?
Other than it’s beautiful, it is our best defense
against climate change:
The boreal forest is the planet’s greatest terrestrial carbon storehouse. So, as the expansion of the tar sands consumes more boreal forest and wetlands, it is releasing to the atmosphere all the carbon stored in this ecosystem. At the same time, we also lose the long term future carbon sequestration of these forests and wetlands. In turn, they are replaced by an industrial operation which produces almost twice as much carbon as conventional oil production. Garth Lenz
To understand what’s happening to the boreal region, its inhabitants, including First Nations peoples, you need to understand the oil.
Bitumen is a thick mixture of hydrocarbons referred to as tar sands because of its viscosity. Tar sands is the dirtiest, most carbon intensive and destructive oil to extract and burn.
Then it is strip-mined to uncover the bitumen.
Remember. This is where flora and fauna call home. It is home to First Nations peoples.
As earlier
mentioned, bitumen is thick. It can’t be pumped from the ground like
conventional crude oil so steam from fracking natural gas, a water intensive
process, is injected into the ground to turn it into a peanut butter consistency.
100 billion gallons of water are drained daily from the Athabasca river because it takes four gallons of fresh water to process one gallon of tar sands into oil.
It is further diluted with a mixture of proprietary chemicals euphemistically
called diluents. Among them are these known carcinogens: mercury, lead, ammonia, benzene, cyanide, phenols, toluene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, copper, sulphate, and chloride.
Wastewater and the leftover chemical cocktail used to create
diluted bitumen or dilbit, is stored in tailing ponds. These open, unlined
pools of poison are erected near the Athabasca river, the world's largest freshwater delta, and routinely seep out into the ground water.
The mines and tailing ponds are so large, by the way, they can be seen from outer space.
Remember. The Athabasca is where First Nations peoples fish and
recreate. It’s home to various flora and fauna. Do I need mention it’s a source
of drinking water for communities along its 750 miles?
Large swaths of the boreal region are being turned from this:
To this:
The world burns through 85
million barrels a day.
There are 176
billion barrels of oil in the boreal region.
That’s only 5.6 years’ worth.
This is just the extraction process. We haven't even touched on how dilbit is transported, criss-crossing North America, pipelining toxins in its wake.
What long-term holocaust are we consenting to for short-term social, political and economic gain?
No comments:
Post a Comment