You Can See Tar Sands Activity From Space
By Michael Frank, Adventure Journal on December 29th, 2011
That isn’t very remarkable when you realize they cover an area of 50 square miles, twice the size of Manhattan. But this isn’t an ordinary clearcut: The open-pit mines result in a slurry toxic enough to kill any birds that land in the area. And a leaked Environment Canada memo recently cast doubt on the government’s claims at the Durbin, South Africa conference on climate change that tar sands development was “clean,” suggesting Canadian officials should shut their traps. The criticism comes as the Obama administration is being forced by the GOP to fast-track consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline — and Canadian officials appear to be looking to China as a bailout if the U.S. says no, since EU countries are saying they won’t take dirty oil from the Great White North.
