Canadian oil sands

I was watching a documentry last night called H2Oil about the Canadian oil sands. Oil companies have figured out that beneath the pristine forests of western Canada there is money to be made from the extraction of oil from the ground. Vast amounts of forests are cut down and the sand deep beneath the top layer is excavated and the oil is extracted. Not only does the extraction process produce huge amounts of green house gases it causes vast amounts of chemical pollution to the surrounding ecosystems water. The chemicals leak into a river which i located next to one of many huge toxic ponds which store the harmful by-products such as arsenic, mercury, cyanide, zinc and lots of naphthenic acids. What is also sad is that wild life such as birds come to these gigantic toxic baths thinking they are lakes. The consequences for the birds mistaking the toxic baths as a lakes are horrific.

People in Fort Chipewyan live down stream and have seen a huge rise in deaths from cancer related diseases. People drink the water; eat the fish and other animals which also depend on the water supply. This means that all the toxic minerals and chemicals that end up in the river also end up in the food chain.

Watching this documentary really got me thinking about where eventually all these toxins end up? Well the answer is very simple into the Ocean. It has been proven that cancer rates across the world are rising, these rises arent in line with rising populations but down to some other factors. Also mercury levels are increasing within fish stocks. There has to be a correlation here between what industries like the Canadian Oil Sand put back into our water supply, the rates of cancers and levels of mercury in fish. Once naphthenic acids are put into a water supply it is impossible to degrade them. So in effect thousands of litres of this poison enter our food chain from the Canadian Oil sands every year. The toxins dont just disappear they build up in our water supply.

As a surfer i have great concern that the effects of such reckless industry could have a really adverse effect on marine and human life. The human race is living far out of balance with Mother Nature and i fear one day instead of surfing in waters which are teaming with life, the oceans will be dead! In this day and age we dont need to use such out dated and toxic methods for energy.

http://h2oildoc.com/home/about-the-film