Bitumen, the sticky stuff that ancients used to glue the tower of babel together, is the worlds most expensive hydrocarbon. Alternatively, if your system does not use gnu tar, but nonetheless does have gzip, you can still create a compressed tar file, via the following command. The sands contain naturally occurring mixtures of sand, clay, water, and a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen or colloquially tar due to its similar appearance, odour, and colour. Dirty oil and the future of a continent by andrew nikiforuk.
Bituminous sands, colloquially known as oil sands or tar sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. The alberta tar sands and jacques elluls theory of technology article pdf available in environmental ethics 371. Tar sands critically examines the frenzied development in the canadian tar sands and the farreaching implications for all of north america. Andrew nikiforuk is a canadian journalist who has won multiple national magazine awards. In 2002, the athabasca tar sands in alberta were reclassified as recoverable. Dirty oil and the future of the continent an important book. His work has appeared in a variety of canadian publications including the walrus, macleans, canadian business, report on business, chatelaine, georgia straight, equinox and harrowsmith.
Hydraulic fracturing, a highly disruptive technology, has been presented as a novel innovation and economic boom. Dirty oil and the future of a continent lays bare the idiocy of this malignant neglect. In this new edition of his provocative bestseller, andrew nikiforuk assesses recent developments, refutes industrys claim that steam plants are a greener way to extract bitumen, and argues more convincingly than ever. Calgary based journalist and author andrew nikiforuk delivers a powerful and revealing presentation based on his book of the same name on what is really going on with the alberta tar sands. Comparison of emissions of tar sands and select eu countries, in mt co2eq.
Andrew nikiforuks tar sands and emily carrs klee wyck, and beyond, 40 years. We draw on a range of recent published and unpublished sources. The tar sands issue, from a wide boundary perspective isnt really about whether we can affordably in energy or environmental terms get 35 million barrels per day of oil, but that we have used up the lions share of the easily available liquid hydrocarbons, and the juice that grew. Nikiforuk and chris turner, two leading albertan environmental writ ers with distinct approaches to. Dirty oil and the future of a continent a couple of years ago, while most canadians were out shovelling the sidewalk or sipping a coffee at tim. Dirty oil and the future of a continent, revised and updated edition. In this hardhitting book, awardwinning journalist andrew nikiforuk exposes the disastrous environmental, social, and political costs of the tar sands and argues forcefully for change. By understanding tar sands and tar sands pipelines, we. The unregulated, poorly monitored royalty rates dropped so low that in 20012004 the alberta government actually made more money from video lottery terminals than the tar sands nikiforuk 159. Early responses to conflict expansion in the oil sands policy subsystem volume 44 issue 3 george hoberg, jeffrey phillips skip to main content accessibility help we use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. In the long thaw, david archer predicts that if we continue to emit carbon dioxide we may eventually cancel the next ice age and raise the oceans by 50 meters. From wade daviss a light at the edge of the world to david suzukis the sacred balance. Given that nikiforuks paper has the capability of persuasion, the article has a considerable impact on many individuals who are concerned about the effects of the tar sands. Available research suggests that indigenous communities feel resigned to.
Andrew nikiforuk tar sands critically examines the frenzied development in the canadian tar sands and the farreaching implications for all of north america. Tar sands need solid science tar sands need solid science schindler, david 20101124 00. Dirty oil and the future of a continent by andrew nikiforuk pp. The sierra club estimated, between 2010 and 2012, northern midwestern pipelines transporting the greatest volumes of tar sands crude spilled 3. Overview of the tar sands of alberta how bitumen is processed. Canada now produces more oil than texas or saudi arabia.
The athabasca oil sands, also known as the athabasca tar sands, are large deposits of bitumen or extremely heavy crude oil, located in northeastern alberta, canada roughly centred on the boomtown of fort mcmurray. Portable document format pdf is a document file format originally from adobe, based on postscript. Tar sands and tar sands pipelines can have a major impact on our economy, health and environment. Hooked on energy dollars, the canadian and alberta governments only make decisions that favor growth of the energy industry, nikiforuk says. Here, the z option tells tar to zip the archive as it is created. Now it is a common storage method for bundling and transporting sets of files. Dirty oil and the future of a continent ts by andrew nikiforuk. The book is, in essence, a revolting, blushmaking case for canada to develop integrated energy and environmental regulation suitable for the postcarbon age.
The unrestrained release of greenhouse gases ghgs from the burning of fossil fuels now threatens the political stability of human civilization. New business councillor volkow page 4 councillor volkow recommended to the committee members a book by andrew nikiforuk entitled tar sands. Ercb letter and tar sands download this response as a pdf the ercb has accused andrew nikiforuk of making a number of factual errors in his book tar sands and has posted a long letter enumerating them on its web site. The central issue for the haisla nation is their sovereignty over their territory and their right to be properly consulted. The potency of the toxins in these ponds was revealed to the world when, in the spring of 2008, five hundred ducks landed on a tailings pond maintained by the canadian oil company syncrude, and all five hundred died.
Yet this outofcontrol megaproject is polluting the air, poisoning the water, and destroying boreal forest at a rate almost too rapid to be imagined. These oil sands, hosted primarily in the mcmurray formation, consist of a mixture of crude bitumen a semisolid rocklike form of crude oil, silica sand, clay. Fresh from his provincial election landslide, alberta premier ed stelmach has snagged a more international and dubious title as runnerup fossil fool of the year, beating out several of north americas top. Applying rock physics tools to reduce interpretation risk. Geotechnical and geophysical site characterization 4. It is a key question that both the harper government and enbridge have preferred to ignore in the hopes. Bitumen, the sticky stuff that ancients used to glue the tower of babel together, is the worldocos most expensive hydrocarbon. Nikiforuk a 2010 tar sands dirty oil and the future of a continent vancouver bc. Inevitable extraction, colonial security, and the making.
Andrew nikiforuk and chris turner prism university of calgary. I begin by tracing out how postcold war imaginaries of the tar sands presented the resource as crucial to the future viability of north american democratic. Strategic encounters the petrostate relies on oil as its fiscal foundation, rather than on the taxes paid by the citizens 2009, andrew nikiforuk, tar sands. In addition tar sands production exerts negative externalities on the region afflicted with construction and operation of tar sands. Book exposes the messy conditions of canadas tar sands grist. In the lush, sweeping boreal forest in the athabasca valley northeast of edmonton, tension is. In theory the pdf file format is specified in detail and is very precise. In 1990 the toronto star newspaper awarded him an atkinson fellowship in public. However, pdf or portable document format file is one of the highly used file. Bitumen, a difficult and dirty hydrocarbon, requires more water for its production and upgrading than conventional light oil. His work has appeared in saturday night, macleans, canadian business, report on business, chatelaine, alberta views, equinox, alternatives journal and canadian family, and in both national newspapers. Tips to resolve the problem encountered with your pdf file. As reported on northwest coast energy news, the haisla nation has filed a legal document outlining their opposition to enbridges northern gateway pipeline.
In addition, tarmageddon is written with a wellput together structure, including information written in order from lesser importance to most important ideas. How the tar sands are fueling the global climate crisis. This difficulttofind resource has made canada the numberone supplier of oil to the united states, and every. In the service of growing the tar sands, the canadian government gives tax breaks to the worst polluters. Collapse and revival in a singleindustry community tells of the northern ontario city of elliot lake, once the uranium capital of the world, which was devastated by the closing of the uranium mines operated by denison and rio algom. We find that social science research on oil sands extraction has been inadequate, even as the region has undergone transformation. The publisher of tar sands, greystone books, believes in the books social importance enough to offer it as a free pdf download through friday. Andrew nikiforuk is a leading investigative journalist who has written about education, economics, and the environment for the past two decades. The ercb has accused andrew nikiforuk of making a number of factual errors in his book tar sands and has posted a long letter enumerating them on its web site. Environmental impacts of oil sands development in alberta.
A humandriven, planetwide thaw has already begun, and will continue to impact earths climate and sea level for hundreds of thousands of years. Tar sands bitumen is extracted in canada and is transported by pipeline through minnesota and wisconsin and points further south. The book is a critical expose of the worlds largest energy project the. This will also reflect negatively on the writing giving. A proposal for the political economy of green criminology. From earthquakes to jessica ernst based on his recent book slick water, a stunning examination of fossil fuel industry and government abuse. Dirty oil and the future of a continent, revised and updated edition andrew nikiforuk on. Canadian tar sand oil is dirtier and more environmentally destructive than conventional oil. Andrew nikiforuk s nova scotia tour join awardwinning journalist and author andrew nikiforuk for a presentation the legacy of fracking. Tar tape archive is a unix utility program to read or write multiple files fromto a single file. The oil sands can be either a blessing or a curse to alberta, depending on how they are developed. Andrew nikiforuk is an awardwinning canadian journalist who has been writing about the oil and gas industry for more than two decades.
Cambridge core natural resource and environmental economics climate change, capitalism, and corporations by christopher wright. Albertas lack of public investment of oil revenue is essentially the opposite of norways planning for the future. To me the environmental, energy, economic trifecta is an extremely tangled web. Reading data pa driver manual pdf from a pdf file using java. Community economic development simon fraser university. This recovery required, and requires, a vision of the region that is long in the making.
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